Five ways to mental wellbeing.

You will have heard about eating your 5 fruit and veg a day for your physical health. Well now there are 5 things to do for your mental welbeing. At a recent conference in Norwich all was explained. The New Economics Foundation has distilled the report of the Foresight Project: 'Mental Capital & Wellbeing: Making the most of ourselves in the 21st century' into 5 key areas of action that you can take for your mental wellbeing. These are:

Connect …

Connect with the people around you. With family, friends, colleagues and neighbours. At home, work, school or in your local community. Think of these as the cornerstones of your life and invest time in developing them. Building these connections will support and enrich you every day.

Be Active …

Go for a walk or run. Step outside. Cycle. Play a game. Garden. Dance. Exercising makes you feel good. Most importantly, discover a physical activity you enjoy; one that suits your level of mobility and fitness.

Take Notice …

Be curious. Catch sight of the beautiful. Remark on the unusual. Notice the changing seasons. Savour the moment, whether you are walking to work, on a train, eating lunch or talking to friends. Be aware of the world around you and what you are feeling. Reflecting on your experiences will help you appreciate what matters to you.

Keep learning …

Try something new. Rediscover an old interest. Sign up for that course. Take on a different responsibility at work. Fix a bike. Learn to play an instrument or how to cook your favourite food. Set a challenge you will enjoy achieving. Learning new things will make you more confident, as well as being fun to do.

Give …

Do something nice for a friend, or a stranger. Thank someone. Smile. Volunteer your time. Join a community group. Look out, as well as in. Seeing yourself, and your happiness, linked to the wider community can be incredibly rewarding and will create connections with the people around you.

There is a recognition that there is a limit to what government and policy makers can do. Only you can eat your 5 fruit and veg a day, and you are the best person to decide how best to support and improve your mental wellbeing.

There is more information on the nef website: www.neweconomics.org

We are not on our own with this. We are part of families, communities where we live and the communities that we choose to connect with. In addition many people have work colleagues. Giving has to be to someone else even if it is smiling at someone in the street or a corridor.

So as a start here is your homework ;-) what are you going to give, to whom and when. There is space for you to tell us all what you did and how it went.

If anyone is interested in the full Foresight report please email us info@research-plus.co.uk and we can email all the pdf's to you.

For people in East Anglia, a date for your diary. On Sunday 4th October 2009, the Norfolk Mental Health Alliance will be holding its annual 'Fair @ the Forum' from 11.00 till 4.00 at the Forum in Norwich. The focus this year is '5 ways to wellbeing'. We look forward to seeing you there.

Enjoy your week. Until the next time...

Focus on Customer Service

Another set of articles came to my attention this week. Yet again they were concerned with customer service.

Curry's the electrical store has noticed that it is beneficial to promote its customer service rather than aiming at the cheapest price. People are willing to pay a little more if they are getting the added value of additional customer service.

An excellent way of getting some credibility for your customer service is to use a third party organisation to provide that for you.

The credibility has to come in an appropriate way that adds to your business in a powerful way. For instance, would it be a benefit for you to be able to say that over 90% of your customers would recommend you to a friend?

If the industry calls for it then, perhaps you too should think about going down the route of 'best buys'. The web site: www.services-plus.co.uk links to a company with many 'Which best buy' awards. For this company it works.

What would work for your company?

Would a local or a national external company providing third party credibility be of benefit to you?

What do you think?

National Customer Service Week

The issue of customer focus has come to my attention again this week.

In the news there was an article reporting that a McDonalds store has discovered the benefits of employing people over 60. The main benefits were that they were able to communicate well with customers and provide a good service.

B&Q has 8% of its workforce over the age of 65 with one apprentice being 70. Again improved customer service is one of the reasons for this.

Retail Week noted that in the retail sector older staff are an invaluable part of the workforce. Having older workers on the team can also help boost customer service. Many retailers have customers of all ages so having an equally diverse workforce can only be
a good thing.


This brings me on to National Customer Service Week.

What is National Customer Service Week? It is designed to raise awareness of customer service and the vital role it plays
within an organisation.
It is also an opportunity to say a big thank you to those who work in customer service for a job well done.
The week runs from the 5th to 11th of October.
http://www.nationalcustomerserviceweek.com/Content.aspx?ID=2 will give you more details of the week.


What do your customers think of your service?
Which members of your staff would your customers nominate for an award?
How would you find out?

Do you think a customer service week is a good idea?
Who would you nominate in your workplace?
Who would you nominate in the places where you purchase / shop?
Who would you nominate in your business network?

Let us know what do you think?

Research Plus in a blog

Research Plus met Gill & Mike from S3 Web Design recently. We all decided to have a bit of fun and marketing at the same time.

Hence the 'Bags Under My Eyes' Competition. For more information go to
http://tinyurl.com/mz8gjq

To get your bag you can go to
http://tinyurl.com/mjmu97

Customer Service

Two articles have been brought to my attention this week.

The first one, in Retail Week said that
"The recession has changed consumers’ shopping habits so much that three quarters of shoppers would leave a store without buying if they received poor levels of customer service."
and that
"Nearly half of shoppers said their expectations have risen as a result of the recession."

The second article in the Institute of Customer Service news said that:
"Employers are investing in training despite the recession, and that 8 our of 10 employers have maintained or increased their training in the last 6 months."
and that
"Organisations are working harder to satisfy customers. The recession seems to be having a positive effect on customer service. Organisations are paying more attention to customers' needs and trying harder to retain business by improving the quality of their service and the way they provide it."

So why, you may be thinking, is a research company rather than a training company bringing this to your attention? I am sure that the training companies that read this will put a link in their replies that they post so that you can find the best course for you and your staff.

Let us go back one step.

What do your customers want from you?
Where do your customers feel that you need to improve?

This is where research comes in. Customer surveys can help you to find out the answers to these and other questions specifically relevant to you and your customers.

Based on the findings, you may be able to take immediate action or you may identify some staff training needs. You can then plan your training based on fact not supposition, so you can get the highest return from your training budget/ investment.

As one of our clients said:
"Ignorance is not bliss, it can cost you money.


Research Plus+
info@research-plus.co.uk
01603 408289

SSRG on the wider web

Hi there
At the Executive Committee meeting of the SSRG (Social Services Research Group) today I volunteered to be the new Membership Secretary. I look forward to meeting the new members of the organisation.

I should like to thank my predecessor in the post, Poonam Jain for the sterling work that she has done for the last few years. Your lively enthusiasm will be missed.

To make the organisation even more accessible there is going to be an increased presence on the wider world wide web. SSRG Social Services Research Group is a registered group on Facebook, There is also a presence on LinkedIn.
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=2105838&trk=anet_ug_hm

Looking forward to any comments this or previous blog posts bring up preferably on the blog or via email on mark@research-plus.co.uk

Choosing A Care Home Article in Draft

We are putting together an article that came out of our experiences last year. Mark's mother had a stroke and we needed to find her a care home quickly. We already knew some information and being researchers we were able to find out a lot more e.g. from CSCI now the Care Quality Commission (www.cqc.org.uk). What lingers is the memory of how difficult this is to do when trying to do the best for a parent.

This got us thinking:
What information do you need?
Where do you go for information?
What are the most useful sources of information?
How do you assess what / where will be suitable for your parent?

The seeds of the idea were born and the article / guide will be the first result. We have several ideas but thought that it would be a good idea to include other people's experiences.

This is where you come in.

Have you had to find a care home or a nursing home for a member of your family?
What information did you find most useful?
What other information would have helped the process?
What would you suggest people consider when visiting a prospective home?
What else would you think would be helpful to people going through this process?

We look forward to hearing from you.
If you would prefer to email us rather than post on the blog then send your thoughts to mark@research-plus.co.uk

Customer satisfaction

How satisfied are your customers?

When did you last ask them?

Yes we all say we are going to do it - when we get round to it, or we are a small business and we know what they think but do you. Think about what you do best and ask your customers.

If you would like to bounce some ideas around of what you can ask, then do get in touch -
its free :-)

Great Holiday but...

Just had a great holiday in Scotland. Whilst we were there we did a bit of work regarding a bid. we were going to collaborate with another organisation in London but in the end the requirements were so daft that we all decided not to put the bid in. It is far more fun doing this whilst sitting looking out over the sea though.

Back in the office we have lost the wifi connection. Fortunately we have a new wireless router and modem on order from Utility Warehouse which should be with us by the end of the week. In the mean time we are left with just one machine to go on the internet and pick up emails.

This is a sobering thought that our business and social life is so reliant on tech and if one bit goes wrong then it all falls apart ! Some people thought that we were a bit strange by having a work computer that never went on the internet and so did not need virus protection or a firewall as it protected by not having a network connection :-)

Anyway back to interview transcripts and updating our website www.research-plus.co.uk

SSRG Exec Meeting

just been to London for the Executive meeting of the SSRG - Social Services Research Group. I was elected on this year at the AGM in April so this meeting was very much a find your feet and listen affair. There are a couple of issues that I think that I might get my teeth into such as how blogs, Twitter etc can help the running of the group and the organisation as a whole.

No doubt there will be further posts about this as I get more involved.

Local2you

We would like to wish Local2You best wishes for a successful launch event tomorrow.

The aventure starts here

Well this is the start of our blogging experience. Thanks to all of you who have sent us in this direction.