I travel a lot. I also like to shop. I do not however care to repeat my first international travel experience where I had to pay $250 pounds (more than a fortune for me at the time) to get all of my luggage home after my first trip abroad.

One of my favourite bloggers Seth Godin talks about staying at a $300 a night hotel with the groovy addition of an etch-a-sketch to the room (http://sethgodin.typepad.com/all_marketers_are_liars/2005/06/the-9-story.html).  Now as much fun as that sounds, and as much as I applaud this hotel for having some fun, I’d trade the etch-a-sketch, the mini bar, the teeny tiny shampoo, the four extra pillows, the groovy lights all controlled by the one bedside panel for one set of hotel luggage scales.

I am yet to stay in a hotel that offers a luggage scale. Instead on a recent hotel stay I was confronted with a sign telling me not to weigh my luggage on the gym scales.

Now I’m thinking, If these hotels know I’m considering lugging my oversized luggage down 5 levels in an elevator, across a courtyard, along the pool and up 4 steps to use the gym scales – why couldn’t they simply have a conveniently located luggage scale near the lobby?

Talk about knowing a customer’s needs and then blatantly ignoring them!

Whatever your business may be, listen for signs that your customers are crying out for something. My advice: don’t try and change them, look inside and find the way to say yes to your customers, instead of no, don’t or can’t.

Kirsty Dunphey is one of Australia’s most publicised young entrepreneurs and is the founder of http://www.reallysold.com - the ultimate tool to help real estate agents write amazing advertisements. The youngest ever winner of the Australian Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year award, Kirsty started her first business at 15, her own real estate agency at 21, was a self-made millionaire at 23 and a self-made multi-millionaire at 25. For more information on Kirsty or either of her books – Advance to Go, Collect $1 Million and Retired at 27, If I can do it anyone can, or to sign up to her weekly newsletter head to: http://www.kirstydunphey.com

Kirsty Dunphey is one of Australia’s most publicised young entrepreneurs and is the founder of http://www.reallysold.com - the ultimate tool to help real estate agents write amazing advertisements. The youngest ever winner of the Australian Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year award, Kirsty started her first business at 15, her own real estate agency at 21, was a self-made millionaire at 23 and a self-made multi-millionaire at 25. For more information on Kirsty or either of her books – Advance to Go, Collect $1 Million and Retired at 27, If I can do it anyone can, or to sign up to her weekly newsletter head to: http://www.kirstydunphey.com

Kirsty Dunphey is one of Australia’s most publicised young entrepreneurs and is the founder of http://www.reallysold.com - the ultimate tool to help real estate agents write amazing advertisements. The youngest ever winner of the Australian Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year award, Kirsty started her first business at 15, her own real estate agency at 21, was a self-made millionaire at 23 and a self-made multi-millionaire at 25. For more information on Kirsty or either of her books – Advance to Go, Collect $1 Million and Retired at 27, If I can do it anyone can, or to sign up to her weekly newsletter head to: http://www.kirstydunphey.com

Take a major international credit card company I’ve recently reluctantly been communicating with.

They launched a new card in America – I thought it was cool, I went to their website to submit an enquiry to ask when / if it would be released in Australia. I wanted this card and I wanted to give them more business.

To follow was their response (which to read I had to click on a link in an email, log into a website and click twice more to read):

Dear :

Thank you for taking your valuable time to e-mail us. Your association with (XYZ) is highly appreciated.

I would be glad to assist you with your inquiry regarding (the new) card however, please be advised that you have reached the e-mail center in the United States. I am unable to assist you with your inquiry as your account is a Australia based account and we do not have access to your account records, nor we are trained to navigate your account. Therefore, for immediate assistance, please contact us at (insert American phone number) and a trained representative will provide you immediate assistance.

Please be informed that you are a Valued Cardmember, we are sensitive towards your concerns. Therefore, please be assured that we will do our best to most effectively understand your needs and more quickly handle your request.

I apologize for any inconvenience this matter has caused you and appreciate your patience and understanding in this matter.

We look forward to hearing from you so that we may effectively resolve your inquiry.

Sincerely,
XYZ staff member

This company’s lie? Saying I’m a valued or appreciated customer! If I actually was a valued cardmember:

• Perhaps their communication might have said “Dear Kirsty” instead of Dear blank
• Perhaps knowing I was in Australia they wouldn’t have sent me American phone numbers
• Perhaps they may not have sent me another equally useless communication after I responded to this one
• Perhaps instead of telling me how valued I was, they might have shown it by actually finding out the information I required and letting me know it

Tell your customers they’re valued all you like. But if your communications and your actions don’t scream it in every single way they’re not going to feel valued.

My gym makes me feel valued when I walk in and the check in counter is busy and they call me by name, wave me through and tell me they’ll fix up my sign in for me.

My post office makes me feel valued when they’re frantically upset that they don’t have my phone number on file to let me know about an express post parcel that arrived a few minutes after we collected our mail.

And yet neither my post office nor my gym have ever felt the need to sent me correspondence telling me I was “valued”. I feel it because of their actions, day in and day out.

Which would you prefer? Customers who can read that their valued or customers who feel valued?

Kirsty Dunphey is one of Australia’s most publicised young entrepreneurs and is the founder of http://www.reallysold.com - the ultimate tool to help real estate agents write amazing advertisements. The youngest ever winner of the Australian Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year award, Kirsty started her first business at 15, her own real estate agency at 21, was a self-made millionaire at 23 and a self-made multi-millionaire at 25. For more information on Kirsty or either of her books – Advance to Go, Collect $1 Million and Retired at 27, If I can do it anyone can, or to sign up to her weekly newsletter head to: http://www.kirstydunphey.com

After getting back from an amazing trip to South East Asia I took some artwork from Cambodia and Vietnam in to be framed at a local store.

I had been recommended to this particular store by not one but two of my friends and after seeing the work they performed I know why, it was total quality and very impressive.

What surprised me though was that as I was discussing my order with them – I mentioned these two friends who had so glowingly referred me to this business. The reply I got basically amounted to “that’s nice”.

Now what they could have done in this instance was ask me one simple question that I believe would have a lasting positive impact on their business and their bottom line. They could have asked me just who it was who had referred them.

They could have sent them a thank you card or called and thanked them personally or sent them a discount voucher for their next framing. Something… (anything) to let them know that they appreciated the referral.

When someone refers a friend to your business - that’s advertising dollars you haven’t had to spend, because you’ve just got yourself a walking talking billboard going around advertising your business! What you do to thank them for doing your marketing for you can act as a megaphone or a muffler – which would you prefer?

I got turned into a megaphone when a local airline newspaper published a list of my favourite restaurants in Launceston. The savvy owner of one – Sara from the divine Novaros - sent me a gorgeous bunch of orange roses to thank me for mentioning them (and I haven’t stopped mentioning them since!)

Kirsty Dunphey is one of Australia’s most publicised young entrepreneurs and is the founder of http://www.reallysold.com - the ultimate tool to help real estate agents write amazing advertisements. The youngest ever winner of the Australian Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year award, Kirsty started her first business at 15, her own real estate agency at 21, was a self-made millionaire at 23 and a self-made multi-millionaire at 25. For more information on Kirsty or either of her books – Advance to Go, Collect $1 Million and Retired at 27, If I can do it anyone can, or to sign up to her weekly newsletter head to: http://www.kirstydunphey.com

Its Christmas time and Homer Simpson realises all too late that he's (yet again) forgotten to get his loving wife Marge a present. Despite frantic and fervent attempts at the last minute, Homer is still empty handed at the all important present giving moment.

Feeling guilty and dejected, Homer opens his present from Marge only to find that below the wrapping paper is another round of wrapping paper, addressed with a card that says "To Marge".

You guessed it, Marge knew that Homer would forget her present and so she got him the best present she could possibly have given at that time, a present for him to give to her. Smiles all round… and fade out.

As the Christmas buying frenzy approaches, I like to take the lesson from The Simpsons into my business. How can I anticipate my customer's needs in a similar way to the way Marge anticipated Homer's so brilliantly?

Whether you're the hairdresser who calls a client a week after selling them a hair straightener (just to see how they're going with it), the real estate agent who forwards their clients a list of local services (when they move to a new area) or the doctor who calls a long term patient a week after placing them on a new medication (just to check on them), we all have the ability to anticipate needs and in doing so provide moments in our own businesses where there are smiles all round and… fade out.

Kirsty Dunphey is one of Australia's most publicised young entrepreneurs and is the founder of www.reallysold.com - the ultimate tool to help real estate agents write amazing advertisements. The youngest ever winner of the Australian Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year award, Kirsty started her first business at 15, her own real estate agency at 21, was a self-made millionaire at 23 and a self-made multi-millionaire at 25. For more information on Kirsty or either of her books - Advance to Go, Collect $1 Million and Retired at 27, If I can do it anyone can, or to sign up to her weekly newsletter head to: www.kirstydunphey.com

Ladies… prepare to get jealous. I'm married - to a fire fighter. And yes, he looks spunky in his uniform and yes, this morning he came home with video footage of a huge fire he was in last night and yes, sometimes I imagine him as Mr. August in a fire fighter's calendar (too much information?).

So I'm married to a fire fighter who is this amazing creature. He's very different to me and yet very similar all at the same time. We're similar in our values and beliefs and we're different in… nearly ever other way!

One striking difference is that he's more of the strong silent type whereas I'll often talk to the wall if that's my only option. After having been married now for almost two years, I'm starting to learn that when someone who doesn't speak much chooses to break their silence - I should choose to listen, it's usually important stuff.

One morning over breakfast my fire fighter looked me lovingly in the eyes and said "Kirsty…" I looked into his eyes and with anticipation said "yes honey". The romance in the air was palpable… until he said "Do you know where most people die in a house fire?"

The Mills and Boon moment was broken, but I was still interested in the question. I mean, surely most people know in a fire to get low and get out of the house! My fire fighter told me that yes, most people do know to get low. They do so and then crawl to their front door - and then when they reach their front door they… stand up to open the door. And that's sadly where many people die, right at their own front door because when they stand up, they're in the smoke and that's when they're in trouble.

Now this isn't just meant to be a fire safety lesson (although I'd love it if you could remember not to stand up in a fire!) It struck me when my fire fighter was recounting this gory fact that many businesses conduct our customer service in this same manner. We do the right thing up until the end and then BAM - we stand up (or stop doing the right thing) right when it's vital for us to persist.

A few days ago a good friend of mine told me of a real estate agent who did a remarkable job finding them a great property to buy. He serviced them exceptionally well the entire way through… until the contract was signed. Then she never heard from the agent again.

The agent, thinking his big pay day was secured, thought the relationship was over and didn't even contact my friend on the day her property settled.

What this agent needed to know was that with some ongoing service, his pay day may never have been over! I hope the agent wouldn't be surprised to know that his name wasn't mentioned when my friend was asked to refer a real estate professional earlier this week.

In stopping the service early this real estate agent's head hit the smoke right at their front door. Will you escape the fire by doing the right thing the entire way through or will your customer service be fire damaged?

I'm quite distraught. I was eating my personal trainer approved afternoon snack of 12 almonds (my suggestion of 12 Tim Tams: not approved) when I got a lovely crunchy surprise in my mashed up almond mix. Part of a rear tooth had dislodged and was busily working its way towards my small intestine.

Having my wisdom teeth stitches "accidentally" left in for about 2 weeks too long has left me with a justified fear of going in to see the man with the drill. Not to be deterred I picked up the phone and was told by the monotone receptionist: "you won't be getting in for at least 4 weeks".

Now note this was not "our next vacancy is in 4 weeks" or "I'm really sorry, barring dental emergencies we won't be able to fit you in for 4 weeks" this was simply "you won't be getting in for at least 4 weeks".

The front face of this business, the director of customer relations and the person I think is responsible for calming irrational odontophobics like me (yes, that's the word for those who fear the dentist) had actually somewhat alleviated my fear... by replacing it with indignation!

In your business or in your workplace does your front face realise the power of the word? Do you? Perhaps take a leaf out of my hair dressers book - they answer every phone call with "Thank you for calling Bladerunner. How can I make your day today?" It's a bit zany, it makes them laugh and it makes me smile.

The power of the word can invoke rage, or cultivate a fan - what do the words at your business do?

Kirsty Dunphey is one of Australia's most publicised young entrepreneurs. The youngest ever winner of the Australian Telstra Young Business Woman of the Year award, Kirsty started her first business at 15, her own real estate agency at 21, was a self-made millionaire at 23 and a self-made multi-millionaire at 25. For more information on Kirsty or either of her books - Advance to Go, Collect $1 Million and Retired at 27, If I can do it anyone can or to sign up to her weekly newsletter head to: www.kirstydunphey.com