Whakaako “Educate”

What if you could experience your business through the eyes of your customers?

Our Mystery Shopper Campaign includes 13 visits throughout the year, with each visit focusing on 6 different areas of your customer journey.

It’s powerful because it gives you genuine insight into what your customers experience when they interact with your business. It helps you recognise what your team is doing well, identify opportunities for improvement and create greater consistency across your customer service.

This isn’t about catching your team doing something wrong. It’s about catching them doing things RIGHT, recognising great performance and giving them the support and tools to become even better.

Throughout the campaign, we’ll help you:

• Recognise and reward exceptional service
• Measure and track your Customer Excellence score
• Identify gaps and opportunities
• Improve consistency across your team
• Strengthen customer loyalty and satisfaction
• Reduce complaints
• Improve sales and upselling opportunities
• Deliver targeted staff training based on the results

The real power comes from combining genuine customer insights with practical staff training. Rather than guessing what your team needs, we can tailor the training around the opportunities identified during the mystery shopper visits.

Call us today to discuss how our 13-visit Mystery Shopper Campaign can help move your business from Customer Service to Customer Excellence. 🚀

📧 [email protected]
📞 0800 900 236

Is Running Your Business Starting to Feel Like a Battle?

Running a business can be bloody tough.

The pressure, the constant decisions, staff, sales, cash flow, marketing, customers, and the never-ending challenges can leave even the most experienced business owner feeling drained.

And right now, business certainly isn’t getting any easier.

But it doesn’t have to stay that way.

We’re kicking off the next round of our Mentors Group, designed for business owners who want to stop simply surviving and start making real progress.

Here’s what makes this group different.

Everyone in the room is a mentor.

You, me, and eight other business owners all bring different experiences, industries, challenges, successes and ideas to the table.

Whether you’ve been in business for a month, 12 months or 20 years, there’s something incredibly powerful about getting the right people around a table, sharing what works, challenging each other and helping each other move forward.

That’s where the gold is.

We meet one day a month for six months.

One day where you step away from the phones, emails, staff and day-to-day noise and actually spend time working ON your business, rather than constantly working IN it.

From day one, we’ll build your vision and your 90-day action plan, then each month we’ll work through it together, reviewing where you’re at, what’s working, what isn’t and what needs to happen next.

The goal is simple:

Less overwhelm. More direction. More action. Better results.

Over the six months, we’ll focus on areas that can genuinely move your business forward, including:

• Sales
• Marketing
• Profitability
• Systems and efficiencies
• Leadership
• Customer excellence
• AI and new technology
• Goal setting and accountability
• Building a stronger, more sustainable business

We’ll also bring in guest speakers who are leaders in their fields, giving you access to practical knowledge, fresh thinking and tools you can actually take back and use in your business.

This isn’t a sit-back-and-watch programme.

You need to show up, contribute, challenge yourself and be prepared to take action.

But if you’re prepared to make that commitment, imagine where your business could be six months from now.

One day a month.
Six months.
Ten business owners.
One clear focus, moving forward.

If you’re ready to level up your business and be part of a group that genuinely wants to see each other succeed, register your interest.

📧 [email protected]

Limited spaces. Maximum impact.

Super proud to be a sponsor of Manawatū Business Chamber💫

We are a huge advocate for both the Chamber and Palmy BID who do an incredible amount infront and behind the scenes to support our local businesses and wider community.

It’s great to be able to back organisations that are genuinely out there supporting, connecting and championing businesses across our region.

Proud to play a small part in supporting those who support others. ❤️

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/19Sc2hbdb7/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Caught up with Craig a few weeks ago, what an amazing and seriously smart guy.

The coffee was average 😂, but wow, what a story!

Such a forward thinker with some incredible ideas. Absolutely loved the chat and could have sat there for hours listening and bouncing ideas 💡

Four times a year, I head over to Sydney University to educate myself alongside 400+ business leaders through Business Blueprint.

I’m over there for a week at a time, and it’s all about thinking bigger, challenging yourself, learning, and most importantly, making things happen.

To be fair, the trip is long, the days are even longer 😂, but what I bring home from it is absolutely priceless.

I often hear people say, “Geez, that $$$$$ is a huge cost.”

But I look at it completely differently.

It’s not a cost, it’s an investment.

I’m investing in myself, building my knowledge bank, bringing new ideas and strategies back into my own businesses, and then being able to share that knowledge to help other businesses grow as well.

Here’s a little challenge…

Start looking at things as an investment rather than a cost.

Invest in yourself. Invest in your people. Invest in your knowledge. Invest in your business.

The return might not always be immediate, but the outcome can be priceless. 🚀

AI won’t replace great people or great businesses, but knowing how to use it could give you a real advantage.

At Educate Whakaako, we have a selection of practical, hands-on workshops designed to help you save time, improve your marketing, create better content, reduce repetitive tasks, generate ideas and work smarter.

💻 Bring your laptop and work alongside us, step by step. You won’t just watch, you’ll actually learn how to use the tools yourself.

Our workshops are open to anyone who wants to learn, whether it’s for business, work, a new idea or personal growth.

📅 Different workshops running fortnightly (half day workshops)

👉 Check out our workshop selection and choose the one that could be most valuable to your growth.

Spaces are already in demand and seats are limited, so get in early.

Comment WORKSHOPS below and we’ll flick you through what workshops coming up. 😊

Email: [email protected]

0800 900 236

Just thought I would share my experience with a scammer yesterday, cheers Jason

🚨 SCAM ALERT: They picked the wrong person! But I could see how easy some would follow their requests🚨

Over the last couple of days I received three calls and two going to voicemail from someone claiming to be from Westpac.

They told me there had been a suspicious $989.99 "eBay" purchase that had been that they safe and declined.

The caller sounded professional, confident and convincing, so I decided to see where the conversation would go.

Early in the call he told me he had locked my card for security purposes.

Naturally, I thanked him! 🤣🤣🤣🤣

I then asked,

“Which card have you locked? I’ve got several different accounts and multiple cards.”

He couldn’t tell me.

He couldn’t provide the last four digits of the card, couldn’t identify which account it belonged to and simply kept referring to it as “your main account.”

I replied,

“I’m not sure what my main account is. I’ve got several accounts including cheque and savings accounts.”

He then changed his story and said it was my cheque account.

🚩 Red Flag #1

If your bank has genuinely locked one of your cards, they’ll know exactly which card they’re talking about.

The next question was my date of birth.

I deliberately gave him the wrong date of birth.

He accepted it immediately without question.

🚩 Red Flag #2

To see how closely he was actually following my banking information, I then gave him completely fictitious balances.

💰 Cheque Account: $424,368.23🤣
💰 Savings Account: $16,826.35 😂

Again… accepted without hesitation.

He asked me for the overall westpac account balance from all the accounts, I said I was only on my phone so couldn't see them all.

A genuine bank representative would have known instantly that those details didn’t match my accounts.

The conversation then changed direction.

He asked if I’d connected to public Wi-Fi recently, perhaps at a café, hotel, airport or while travelling. According to him, someone had hacked my computer through a public internet connection.

His solution?

A malware check on my computer.

To do that, he wanted me to move the conversation onto WhatsApp.

🚩 Red Flag #3

No legitimate bank is going to ask you to install software, perform a malware check, move the conversation onto WhatsApp, or give them remote access to your computer or phone.

The ending was probably my favourite part.

He asked,

“Can we call you back when you’re sitting in front of your computer?”

I replied,

“No, I’m all good. Let’s get it sorted now.” as this is very serious and I would prefer to get it sorted straight away.

He then asked me to hold the line for around 20 seconds while he transferred me to a senior manager.

So I waited…

And waited…

Nothing.

Being as patient as I am… 🤣 …I hung up.

The frustrating part was I’d already planned an entire storyline for the next person! 🤣🤣🤣🔥🔥🔥

Maybe they realised they’d picked the wrong person and I was taking them on an adventure 🤣 great news is my bank account is still empty as it was previously. No ebay purchase and my cards not locked.

Perhaps they should have watched the movie The Beekeeper first! 🤣🐝

Here’s what I learnt…

If you ever receive one of these calls, don’t panic.

Instead, start asking them questions.

Ask them:

✅ Which account are you referring to?
✅ Which card have you supposedly locked?
✅ What are the last four digits of that card?
✅ Which transaction are you talking about?
✅ What is your staff ID?
✅ Which branch or department are you calling from?

A genuine bank employee will be able to answer those questions or explain why they can’t.

A scammer will often become vague, change their story, avoid the question or try to move you back onto their script.

Better yet…

Simply tell them you’ll hang up and ring the bank back using the official number on the back of your card.

If they’re genuine, they’ll completely understand.

If they try to stop you hanging up…

🚩 That’s probably all the answer you need.

One positive that came from this is that I use an AI phone assistant that automatically records and transcribes my calls. I now have a complete transcript of the entire conversation, along with the phone number they called from (+226 456598), which I’ll be forwarding to New Zealand Police to assist with their investigations.

Scammers are becoming incredibly sophisticated, and it’s easy to see how people get caught out.

Please share this post with your family and friends, especially parents and grandparents.

It might just save someone from losing their life savings.

Stay safe, trust your instincts, and remember… I will report it today

Just thought I would share. Cheers Jason