{"id":2114,"date":"2019-02-20T16:53:52","date_gmt":"2019-02-20T16:53:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/?p=2114"},"modified":"2019-02-20T16:53:52","modified_gmt":"2019-02-20T16:53:52","slug":"extra-help-maidenhead-windsor-goes-from-strength-to-strength","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/extra-help-maidenhead-windsor-goes-from-strength-to-strength\/","title":{"rendered":"Extra Help Maidenhead & Windsor Goes from Strength to Strength"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

Extra Help is a home-help and domestic services franchise network that has been in operation since 2010.<\/h3>\n

Five months ago, Nealem Stephens joined the company as the owner of the Maidenhead and Windsor franchise and here, she reveals how she has achieved her initial success.<\/p>\n

Off to a flying start<\/h4>\n

Although her business is undeniably still in its infancy, Nealem is already generating incredible, noteworthy results. Within the last few months, she has grown a substantial client base and leads a reliable team of home-helpers. She receives customer enquiries every day and has a high conversion rate, which she says is down to the time and effort she invests in really getting to know her customer and their needs. Nealem believes it’s all about exceeding the customer’s expectations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am ideally placed on Google and it’s even helped me to make my first, international sale of a gift\u00a0package of home-help hours, all the way from Santiago, Chile!\u201d <\/em>she says.<\/p>\n

Five-star customer reviews<\/h4>\n

According to Nealem, TRUSTist customer reviews are playing a vital role in building her reputation. She has already gained many five-star reviews, which provide potential clients with a real insight into her passion for providing a quality service. Always aiming to \u2018go the extra mile’, Nealem takes every opportunity to make her clients feel valued, including sending cards, as well as flowers and champagne on special occasions. She instils this sense of pride and attention to detail in her home-helpers too, ensuring that each one reflects her customer-centric approach.<\/p>\n

Proactive customer service<\/h4>\n

Nealem takes feedback extremely seriously and always speaks to clients after providing them with services, to check they are happy and ask for suggestions for improvement. And, if things do go wrong, which rarely happens, Nealem takes immediate action to put it right, as service recovery and reputation are equally important to her as finding new clients.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that the competition in this industry is fierce and the last thing I want is to be left behind!\u201d<\/em> she says. \u201cI have quickly realised that my success is down to me. The hard work and dedication I put in now will definitely pay off in the future.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Nealem actively works with her home-helpers and clients to ensure exceptionally high quality of service. One of the many highlights for Nealem, so far, was a lovely testimonial received from the daughter of one of her elderly clients, who unfortunately passed away. The help and kindness received from Extra Help was even mentioned in the eulogy at the funeral!<\/p>\n

\u201cMum’s eulogy included the large part her \u2018angels’ played. \u00a0I mentioned your long chats and Dorchester-style breakfast and posh afternoon teas. I will never forget the kindness you showed to mum and to me. \u00a0Thank you from my heart.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The flexibility of running your own business<\/h4>\n

Nealem has thoroughly embraced the concept of being her own boss and working from home. She loves the fact that she can now do the school run, and no longer has to commute, which has saved her an incredible fifteen hours per week. Her typical day is now filled with new client meetings, client and home-helper introduction meetings and quality assurance visits.<\/p>\n

As she only has school hours free, Nealem has to be extremely disciplined with diary management, ensuring she has enough time to cover her meetings, as well as social media, new enquiries and the day-to-day administration that comes with running your own business. However, Nealem loves the flexibility that being an Extra Help franchisee provides, as her work \/ life balance has improved and she is now able to cook dinner and spend more time with her husband and children.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love our family dinners, we\u00a0couldn’t do this when\u00a0I was working in London as\u00a0I would get home so late!\u201d <\/em>she says. \u201cMy evenings do contain downtime but\u00a0I always work in the evenings. I\u00a0answer client enquiries, check social\u00a0media and confirm appointments for the following day. It’s a very busy day but\u00a0I have definitely gained more hours. Once I have stabilised the business for steady growth, I expect my work \/ life balance will improve even more, but nobody starts a business for a rest!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Goal-setting to stay focused<\/h4>\n

Nealem finds the home-help industry exciting – every day is different and the satisfaction that comes from matching home-helpers to clients and then seeing improvement in their quality of life is priceless. She keeps herself motivated by careful planning, setting herself personal and professional goals, with milestone achievements towards these goals helping to track her progress.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf my performance is not hitting the targets I’ve set myself, I revisit my plan, analyse the specific issues and map out ways to rectify the situation,\u201d <\/em>Nealem says. \u201cI am my own worst critic and I tend to coach myself a lot. I love visuals such as white boards, trackers and dream boards; they’re great to reflect on each day and celebrate success.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

High standards are the key to success<\/h4>\n

Nealem’s advice for new franchisees is to concentrate on staying active on social media and building your profile in your community through networking. She believes that, if you do this well, there is no urgent need to spend money on expensive, glossy adverts or huge leaflet drops. She says the key is to ensure that all of your staff mirror your own high standards and ethics, and never sit back and expect everything to come to you.<\/p>\n

Extra Help is extremely proud of Nealem’s achievements to date, and look forward to celebrating her future success.<\/p>\n

More information<\/h4>\n

For more information on how Extra Help can offer you a rewarding and lucrative career in the home-help industry, please click the yellow button below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Extra Help is a home-help and domestic services franchise network that has been in operation since 2010. Five months ago, Nealem Stephens joined the company as the owner of the Maidenhead and Windsor franchise and here, she reveals how she has achieved her initial success. Off to a flying start Although her business is undeniably […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-extra-help","category-consultancy-franchises"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Nealem.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}