Great Companies: Please tell me something about the business and how did you come up with such an idea?
Balraj Singh: No matter what we do in life, we will always need to engage with people. The value of human interaction is immense! As a lifelong Marketing professional, I was always making great connections, whether it be with customers or teams. I quickly realised that to do a good job, in any role, we must understand and value people. I started to connect with other professionals, in fields such as Marketing and People Development, who were identifying the same trends as I was – that there is typically a huge amount of potential within organisations and across customer pools, which is often ignored or undervalued. That was the light bulb moment – creating a business that can not only deliver excellent services but will take the time to understand people and their needs, focusing on the hidden potential, with a genuine passion for making a difference.
Our business, Circle Consultants Ltd, essentially helps businesses develop brilliant teams and maximise customer retention. Our team of consultants have vast industry experience, working with teams and customers all over the world.
Great Companies: What are the various services and products provided by your company?
Balraj Singh: Our consultants specialise in two key areas:
1. Customer
Our customer offering includes consultancy services in customer retention, customer lifecycle enhancement and commercial project management. We help commercial teams implement customer retention strategies. We develop customer lifecycles and communications to improve brand loyalty and reduce churn.
If you are business looking to make improvements with customers or facing issues such as high customer churn or large amounts of customer data with poor retention strategies, our consultants can support you with bespoke consulting services to keep customers engaged and satisfied. We can design campaigns, support with launches and rebranding and help to visualise and enhance customer lifecycles.
An exciting project we recently undertook for a FinTech company based in New York focused on developing a customer insights programme. This enabled our client to frequently report on customer engagement across various touch points and to make informed product and marketing strategy decisions.
2. Employee
Our employee offering includes consultancy services in people development, coaching and workshop facilitation. We advise leaders on ways to unlock potential and create a motivated, high performing workforce. We facilitate, train and coach to help individuals and teams achieve goals and be more productive.
If your business is struggling with high attrition and low loyalty, or an unhappy and underperforming workforce, our team of experts can work with you to deliver tailored coaching sessions, outcome focused workshops and people management programmes. We equip leaders and teams with the necessary skills to work well together and deliver exceptional results.
A recent project we undertook for a restaurant group based in London was to improve team dynamics and collaboration. Through a bespoke coaching programme and people development initiative focusing on leadership, ownership and relationships, our client was able to identify common issues and make positive changes, resulting in a significant improvement in team productivity, loyalty and satisfaction.
Great Companies: Why should one choose you over others in this field?
Balraj Singh: I believe that knowledge and skills are important, but so are personality, relationships and building strong connections. When you work with our team, you will see that we are always extremely professional but also personable, approachable, and friendly.
Working with consultants should not be a stressful or unaffordable process. We make things easy for our customers and have a flexible and versatile approach. We will always find a way to work with our clients, whether they are large corporates in Singapore or smaller family run businesses in London! No matter what the issue may be, we are confident that we will be able to work together on practical solutions.
We understand people and we will always go the extra mile to ensure our clients are happy. Our customers keep coming back to us because we build strong connections and memorable experiences. We are different because we genuinely care, and this always shows!
Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face?
Balraj Singh: The recent COVID-19 pandemic was one of the biggest challenges I have ever faced, personally and professionally. I had only recently set up the business but almost overnight, the world changed, with everything coming to a halt.
Despite this, I was determined to keep things moving and I decided to pour all my time and energy into supporting small businesses with our services, to give back and do something positive during a challenging time.
We had the opportunity to work with so many amazing businesses during this time and support them with marketing initiatives and people development programmes. We met (virtually!) so many people that we may not have had the opportunity to work with otherwise.
I think with all challenges in life, we need to always take a step back and think “How can I turn this around and make a positive change out of a negative situation” – and that’s exactly what we did do earlier this year when faced with a global pandemic! It was rewarding to utilise our time and skills for small businesses that needed urgent support.
Great Companies: What do you think are the few main things which are most important for a successful business?
Balraj Singh: Never give up and always pursue what you are passionate about. Life & business are full of challenges but the people who succeed are the ones who wake up ready to face the world and achieve. No obstacle is too big - anything is possible with the right mind set.
Be kind - there is always a place for kindness in business. Never underestimate any connection you make. You never know who you might meet and where, so every single conversation matters! True story – I met a client in a crowd of 700,000 football fans, cheering on Liverpool’s Champions League win! We still work together today on exciting projects.
And most importantly, never forget why you are doing what you do. As a husband and father, my family will always be the reason I push myself to grow the business and achieve my goals. Making them happy and proud is important to me and is what motivates me every day.
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