As I kid I used to love watching Mary Poppins.
Ok, who am I kidding ... I STILL love watching Mary Poppins.
And I've got my kids into it too, much to my husband's chagrin.
One of my favourite scenes is of Dick Van Dyke singing his chimney sweep song with the kids:
It's one of the catchiest songs of the film ...
Chim chiminey
Chim chiminey
Chim chim cher-ee!
A sweep is as lucky
As lucky can be
Chim chiminey
Chim chiminey
Chim chim cher-oo!
A song that once you start singing is hard to dislodge from your head, so, apologies in advance.
But I'm reminded of this happy tune after another very positive chimney sweeping experience.
Last week we had someone come round and sweep our chimney.
Williams Chimney Services to be precise.
This will sound odd, but I've been looking forward to this for ages.
Getting a fire going in the evening and cosying up in front of the TV is one of my favourite things to do.
But after a couple of years the area surrounding the stove had gotten grubby, and the glass was quite blackened.
However, by the time they'd finished, the fireplace looked like we'd just fitted it.
The inside of the stove was gleaming.
And the glass was like new.
I had expected a bit of surrounding mess - perhaps not on the scale of Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins, but at least a little.
There was none.
Not a single fibre on the carpet was blackened.
And that night we got a fire going - it was glorious!
Such a fantastic and fuss less experience.
I will happily use them again ...
And will recommend them to my friends and family.
In fact, I would quite happily write a testimonial they can use for future business.
Which brings me to today's small business tip: ask your customers for testimonials.
Just a line or two. Something you can use on your website. Or perhaps a line you can quote in an email or other correspondence.
There is no better tool for winning new work than the word of mouth.
So, where you can, it's always worth extracting more value from the great work you're doing simply by asking for a testimonial.
Best, Sarah