Business Referral Network Blog

Attendance:

• Bill Robbins, William Robbins Insurance
• Darenna Rainsdon, Free Range Services
• Bill Barchilon, Accountant
• Charles B. Wennerlund, Fuller Asset Management LLC an Independant Money Management Firm
• Lydia Weitsma, Keller Williams Integrity First Real Estate
• Michael D’Elena, Reckless Tees
• Andrew Peterson, A-Team Construction
• Gary Miljour, Cherry Creek Mortgage

Referrals:

3 Referrals were passed. 1 Dance Card.

Guests:

• Julia Norton, All State Insurance

Announcements:

• We will be unable to use our usual space at the Karsten Golf Course club house for the Aug. 27, 2008 meeting. Instead it will be held at Gary’s office, 1630 South Stapley Drive Suite 100, Mesa, Arizona 85204. Map.
• Mixer: The next mixer will be Wednesday, Sept. 17, at 5:30 at D’Arcy McGee’s Irish Pub in Tempe Market Place. Map. Andrew and Darenna will work on the fliers for the event. Andrew’s flier will be available to handout, both at the mixer and other times. Darenna’as flier will be uploaded to the web site; a link will be provided to it for the email. Gary reminded the group that we all made a committment to each call and invite 2 people on our lists personally.

Group Discussion/MasterMind:

• Gary started a lively discussion about Web 2.0, as it pertains to business. It must be treated as any other kind of advertising. We may never book business from Facebook but it may help get us in front of clients. But not every person of a certain age is comfortable with the time it take.

Moderator:

• Mike, Aug. 27
• Bill Robbins, Sept. 3
• Andrew Sept. 10.
• Gary, Sept. 17
• Bill Barchilon, Sept. 24
• Terry, Oct. 1
• Darenna, Oct. 8

Attendance:

• Darenna Rainsdon, Free Range Services
• Andrew Peterson, A-Team Construction
• Bill Barchilon, Accountant
• Anna Garcia, Sunrise Bank
• John Burke, Sharp Painting
• Michael D’Elena, Reckless Tees
• Gary Miljour, Cherry Creek Mortgage
• Bill Robbins, William Robbins Insurance
• Charles B. Wennerlund, Fuller Asset Management LLC an Independant Money Management Firm

Referrals:

8 Referrals were passed.

Announcements:

• We will be unable to use our usual space at the Karsten Golf Course club house for the Aug. 27, 2008 meeting. Instead it will be held at Gary’s office, 1630 South Stapley Drive Suite 100, Mesa, Arizona 85204. Map.
• Mixer: The next mixer will be Wednesday, Sept. 17, at 5:30 at D’Arcy McGee’s Irish Pub in Tempe Market Place. Map. Andrew and Darenna will work on the fliers for the event. Andrew’s flier will be available to handout, both at the mixer and other times. Darenna’as flier will be uploaded to the web site; a link will be provided to it for the email. Gary reminded the group that we all made a committment to each call and invite 2 people on our lists personally.

Moderator:

The following is the order for moderators.

• Darenna, Aug. 13
• Chuck, Aug. 20
• Mike, Aug. 27
• Bill Robbins, Sept. 3
• Andrew Sept. 13
• Gary, Sept. 20
• Bill Barchilon, Sept. 20
• Terry, Sept. 27

We will recycle this list, starting in October.

Group Discussion:

Should we replace our insurance referral partner. Andrew and Gary both have extended invitations to a property & casualty insurance broker to see who fits in with the group.

What are we all doing to serve our customers? Anna’s bank is increasing personal service like flagging their calendars for client birthdays. Gary is using Plaxo.com to help organize better and be less reactionary. The system sends reminders, etc., electronically. It reminds him to call 5 people per day and allows him to touch his entire list 3x/year.

Is customer service free?
For the client it is. And it most likely is if you’ve got an employee who can make it part of their day anyway. And maybe it’s not free if you don’t have employees but it’s low enough cost (and there are software options to help) that it’s worth it.

Right now we’re all working for tips because the commissions are not there. When the market was hot it seemed easier to step away from their business. Now we’re taking more calls on weekends and putting up with after hours stuff because we’re chasing tips.

So when do we let calls go to voice mail? It’s dependent on the client. Some will ask if you need to get the call. Some will be offended, as if they are not important.