We are delighted to participate in a series of workshops organised by Ballina Chamber of Commerce aimed at helping our Ballina and Mayo businesses on the path to recovery. There is light – somewhere! – at the end of the Covid tunnel, and many businesses around Ireland are using this time to adapt and brush up on their sales, service and digital skills.
During this extraordinary time in business, Ballina Chamber of Commerce want to support and empower you with the skills, knowledge and expertise in activating your business now as well as helping you to prepare for a post-lockdown return to operation. Through a series of six workshops, they are aiming to share knowledge and highlight what you can be doing now for your business in preparation for when you can open your doors to your customers.
Workshops will take place via Zoom, and participants will be encouraged to participate and ask questions to get real value out of each workshop. The link will be forwarded to you upon registration.
Cost:
The series is exceptional value – there are are six workshops, and you can join from €5 + booking fee per workshop, or join all six for just €20 + booking fee!
Book now
About the Series
Session 1: The Customer Experience. Melissa Moore, The Retail Advisor
Thursday 18th March, 11am
In an increasingly competitive marketplace where the consumer has more choice than ever, companies must find ways to differentiate their business from their competitors. Great service is vital for all businesses as it impacts directly on the sales and profitability of the organisation.
The aim of this workshop is to provide participants with the necessary skills and attitudes necessary to deliver an exceptional customer experience.
Workshop Content:
- Your ideal customer, how they have changed and the impact on your business.
- The entire customer journey, making the experience easy and exciting both in-person and online.
- Making your business stand out from the crowd.
Session 2: Lasting Customer Relationships. Melissa Moore, The Retail Advisor
Thursday 25th March, 11am
One of the most challenging parts of running a business can be managing customer expectations and tricky situations. In order to maintain a good relationship and retain loyal customers, businesses need to be able to proactively manage, reduce and resolve customer issues.
The aim of this workshop is to provide participants with the necessary skills and attitudes necessary to build lasting customer relationships.
Workshop Content:
- Positive Communication.
- Managing customer complaints effectively.
- Handling a difficult situation in a confident manner.
- Retaining customers for the future.
Session 3: Selling Successfully. Melissa Moore, The Retail Advisor
Thursday 15th April, 11am
Delivering sales whilst maintaining exceptional levels of service is a balance that all businesses must strive for in this competitive marketplace. The aim of this workshop is to provide participants with the necessary skills to develop their selling skills and increase their rate of success.
Workshop Content:
- Developing a sales process to suit your business.
- Improving selling skills whilst engaging customers.
- Adding value.
- Top tips for increasing sales.
Session 4 & 5: the Online Customer Journey. Barbara O’Flaherty, Let’s Get Digital
April 13th & 20th at 11 am (two-day workshop)
Looking to increase your online revenue? We are experiencing a period of acceleration in digital transformation, as businesses were forced to speed up the adoption of digital technology and sell their products or service online.
In this workshop, you will be brought through the new online customer journey as we look at how to grow and retain your website customers.
Workshop Content:
- Look at how customer demands, and behaviour has changed online.
- Look at the customer journey starting with awareness and advertising bringing you right through to post purchase.
- Look at how to segment your target audience.
- Show you examples of how to implement your strategy.
Transform how you connect and engage with your customers and get results.
Session 6: Tourism – it’s everyone’s business! Anne Marie Flynn, Mayo North Tourism
Thursday, April 22nd, 11am
Tourism plays a key role in our local economy, but how confident do you and your staff feel talking to tourists in your business?
Do you have the information to hand to share with them on things to do and see in the area?
By the end of this workshop you should feel much more confident in talking about tourism locally, might be confident enough to participate more in the local tourism development process, and will not feel caught on the hop when a visitor asks a question.
This workshop is designed for anyone who’s likely to meet a tourist. So staff from retail, hospitality, hair and beauty, taxi drivers and more are all very welcome!
Workshop content
- The importance of tourism to all businesses and why we are working to develop it
- What tourists are looking for in 2021
- Things to see and do locally, and how to cross-promote
- The importance of local knowledge
- Mayo North’s role in tourism development
- How you can participate in developing Ballina and Mayo as a tourism destinations
About the presenters
Melissa Moore is a Retail Consultant, Mentor and Trainer.
She has over 20 years experience working with national and international retail brands including Brown Thomas, IKEA and Kilkenny Design.
Through her business, The Retail Advisor, she mentors established independent retail owners by analysing the needs of their business to empower them to reach their potential.Melissa provides solutions by implementing processes to improve standards across the store, whilst driving sales and ensuring a strong customer service ethos is maintained.
Melissa mentors on behalf of the Local Enterprise Office, Network Ireland and The Design and Crafts Council Ireland. Supporting start-up and emerging businesses, she works with a wide range of makers and creators from jewellers to skincare specialists.
In a training capacity, Melissa has worked across Ireland and UK delivering Customer Experience and Sales training to well-known high street brands, supermarket chains, healthcare providers, community groups and the hospitality sector. She also delivers training on behalf of Galway Executive Skillnet.
Having started in general marketing 16 years ago, Barbara O’Flaherty of Let’s Get Digital has vast experience in all elements of marketing from traditional marketing, social media to online advertising and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) Google ads and email marketing across many business sectors.
Through her work with a top Irish digital marketing agency working in the hospitality sector, with up to 25 Irish and UK clients on her books there was a great opportunity to try new and upcoming technology and run pay per click (PPC) ads on Google and to search engine optimise (SEO) sites to rank well online.
She learned that delving into site analytics was one of the best ways to identify opportunities and thus increase conversions and revenue for her clients. This strong foundation allowed her to go onto work with one of Ireland’s biggest furniture brands. A brand new website with approximately 2,000 products forced her to embrace the latest technologies and keep ahead of the curve on how the company presented products, optimised the website and how they approached the online buying funnel. They identified buyer habits and patterns and implemented remarketing strategies to target the already interested customers while attracting new good quality customer traffic to this popular website.
In November 2018 this drive for keeping ahead of the curve and passion for digital marketing encouraged her to take the leap to start up her own business, “Let’s Get Digital”.
In her own business, Barbara uses practical digital strategies combining Paid Search, Search Engine Optimisation, Paid Social, Display Advertising, Email Marketing, and Conversion Optimisation to receive the maximum value from her client’s budgets. Her aim is to demystify online marketing for her diverse clients by using smart tested techniques and maximise their online presence to achieve larger profit margins and a significant increase in overall revenue.
Anne-Marie Flynn is the manager at Mayo North Tourism, a community-led destination development and marketing organisation based in Ballina, which works collaboratively with stakeholders to sustainably develop and promote North Mayo and its hinterlands as a year-round tourism destination.
Prior to working in tourism, Anne-Marie worked with RED C Research, specialising in the retail, FMCG and tourism sectors, and has over six years’ experience in fashion retail management. She is currently pursing a Masters in Tourism Management and Destination Leadership in AIT.
Ballina Chamber of Commerce
Ballina Chamber of Commerce, Ballina, Co Mayo, Ireland exists to promote and support the economic well-being of local businesses, in particular that of its members in Ballina and county.
Its vision is to create a dynamic business climate in which entrepreneurial flair can flourish in the town of Ballina and its surrounds. Its aim is to achieve a consensus for the strategic development of the town as an attractive place to do business, live and visit.
