Rick Harris
(14)
(14)
Hi! I'm Rick and I have two jobs.
For larger companies, I work as a researcher and proposition developer for the research-led consultancy, Customer Faithful.
And as a side hustle, I work as a sole trader here on Bark - specifically to help small businesses and startups to set up, grow and market their companies.
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14 customer reviews
Evita Innes
Business & Career Coaching
I chose Customer Faithful to help me build the foundations of my business, starting from scratch. Rick has been fantastic to work with, he is an excellent advisor with a great ability to make you look at your ideas from a different perspective.
This has been really helpful, especially as I felt quite dubious on how push forward with my business idea.
I thoroughly enjoyed each session with Rick, he is very generous in sharing his extensive knowledge and experience, which has been extremely valuable.
First class service and highly recommended. Thanks Rick!
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zac
Market Analysis
Customer Faithful was beneficial to our client. We look forward to working with him again.
Kate
I first worked with Rick when my organisation commissioned Customer Faithful to design an innovative health research project. Not having a research background myself, but passionate and willing to learn, I found Rick highly responsive to work with, especially when it came to troubleshooting the different approaches and solutions to the many operational hurdles and governance requirements internally. Rick helped me navigate and work with these internal business constraints and also played a critical role in giving me the confidence to challenge the business where needed, so that the integrity and value of the research project could be maintained. I benefited greatly from his extensive experience in the research business and appreciated his patience and guidance throughout. Although it was a client/researcher relationship, Rick was never less than supportive, empowering and respectful to me and the objectives we were working to achieve together. Since leaving my company, Rick has been most helpful in helping me to explore and think through how best plan my own career change into research, which I am now embarking upon. More...
Rachel O’Sullivan
I have worked and partnered with Customer Faithful for the past 20 years. Their sector expertise, particularly in Health and Retail, is second to none. Their commitment to exploring new ways to evaluate the customer experience is impressive. Most importantly, Rick and the team are diligent, knowledgeable, super professional, dependable, approachable and engaging to work with. I have no hesitation in recommending Customer Faithful for business leaders and marketers seeking a trusted and brilliant customer experience and insights partner. More...
Dan Kerkel
Rick is the 'go to' guy when you have an imminent business issue looking for a creative solution or a need to rethink your overall approach to business for long term change.
Rick's grasp of customer relationships and business strategies will help you to quickly and efficiently clarify your issues, keep them in context and shift into a creative mode to generate relevant attainable solutions.
Rick helped our organization undergo a strategic re-think of our entire business over the course of a few months and later helped many department leaders and functional teams to generate laser-like focus on specific improvements in as little as a single day.
His breadth of knowledge, facilitation skills, personal integrity and flexible approach are perfect for everything from a start up to a conglomerate.
Whether you need to get your ideas unstuck or accelerate progress on complex issues, you will be pleased with the results.
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Ariele
Rick’s ability to observe and listen improves the clarity of your thinking, making him an extremely valuable addition to any team. He will help you develop your ideas and support you in making big decisions. He definitely helped me to achieve my goals by bringing clarity into a very complex subject matter. More...
Marc
Rick has become a valued advisor and has helped me make many decisions in my business. He is generous with his advice, making the complex simple and bringing me tools, processes and structures to help me formulate the growth plans to take my business to the next level. When I come to him with a challenging problem, he is able to draw on his years of experience to motivate me with fresh perspectives and suggests practical actions to keep us moving in the right direction. More...
Amanda
I've worked with Rick for several years and will continue to do so.
He is a trusted confidant, objective advisor and challenging counterpoint who can add value to any business.
He shares his wealth of skills, expertise and experience so that you can tackle challenges and make important decisions for your business with clarity and structure, knowing that you’re heading in the right direction.
He brings a smart, thought provoking and challenging style which is rarely found in a business advisor and which is personally extremely motivating and enjoyable.
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Natalie Smith
Rick is great to work with. He brings real insight and structure to the work that he does with his clients. This helped us solve the issues that we were working on and built credibility with the team and wider business stakeholders. Rick has a perfect mix of deep technical knowledge and experience alongside great interpersonal skills. I really enjoy working with Rick and trust and value his advice and guidance. Would definitely recommend! More...
Ben Freeborn
Rick has a super mix of commercial thinking and an amazing talent to drive business improvement for its customers. Honest, to the point, and with a super approach to ideate future thinking for the business. Rick's great to work with: super talented, pragmatic & creative. More...
Kath
Rick has been running workshops and mentoring sessions for startups and SMEs for many years and I've always been hugely impressed with the value that he delivers to his clients. He has a rare ability to work across many different sectors and disciplines and to pinpoint exactly what his clients need in order to move forward with confidence and success. Rick is proactive, precise and incredibly detailed in his deliverables. Working with Rick enables brands and businesses of any size to pinpoint what's special and marketable about their offer, understand how to describe what they do consistently, and feel empowered by being properly prepared as they go to market. More...
Gillian Stevens
Rick has been great to work with as a mentor. Whilst I’ve been in business for a while, I decided to look at how to refocus the business in line with market and client needs.
It felt like being a ‘start-up’ all over again, however, Rick was able to provide some much-needed support and challenge to my ideas for moving the business forward and he has helped me to gain clarity about what is realistic in the short and longer term. He openly shares his knowledge and wealth of experience which I find refreshing and inspiring.
Also, he is good fun to work with. Highly recommended!
Dr Gill Stevens
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Carrie Bedingfield
Rick Harris at Customer Faithful has supported many of the start ups in our purpose-led business accelerator. Feedback is universally positive. Rick is very supportive and astute, always with something fresh to add. For many companies, working with Rick was a real turning point in their success story. I have no hesitation in recommending Rick to any start up or small business looking to grow. More...
Ionut
Market Analysis
Great conversation with Rick. He understood my needs, where I was coming from. Before establishing a price he already has done some digging to make sure he has enough information to provide.
Top business. Recommend!
What do you love most about your job?
I am very committed to helping people start and grow their own business - it's something that I've done myself, and over the 11 years of my own journey, I know all too well the ups and downs, and growing pains of developing a small company.
So it's great to be able to learn about what new entrepreneurs and business owners are inspiring to achieve, and be able to help them get there more quickly, more clearly and with more satisfaction for what they're building.
What inspired you to start your own business?
I worked for big corporate companies for 10 years - great training, opportunities to work in different countries - but I felt like a small cog in a huge machine.
When I started my own business, I wanted to be able to personally drive the direction of my company - to seize opportunities, to take responsibility for the whole firm - and all that goes with it. I've learned so much about that in 11 years, and looking back, I wish I had started my company earlier.
At least now, I can share what I've learned to help guide those just starting out now.
Why should our clients choose you?
I understand first-hand what it's like to try and build, run and grow a small business.
My promise to all my clients is to offer a COMPLETELY personalised service - all the advice and support materials I provide you with will be built exclusively for you. There is no cookie cutter solution being offered to you here - it's customised advice and mentoring, including exercises and tools that I tailor specifically for your business.
It's not your job to have to adapt generic startup and growth advice to your own situation - if you hire me, I will research around your market sector, learn from you about your aspiration, and provide appropriate, personalised and relevant guidance.
Can you provide your services online or remotely? If so, please add details.
The majority of my services are delivered remotely via Zoom calls, which I set up for you.
This has been necessary of course during Covid.
Going forward, I hope to be able to offer more face-to-face options where requested, and if appropriate.
What changes have you made to keep your customers safe from Covid-19?
One of my skill sets is market research and I am a member of the Market Research Society. As such, I am bound by their code of conduct regarding safe working during Covid-19. This is part of the reason why so much of what I do for client now is remote working. In addition, I am registered with the ICO as a data protection officer, so I take GDPR and data privacy very seriously. I provide privacy policies and other data security policies to all my clients on request.
Proposition Development
I help startups and existing companies to define exactly what it is they will be offering as products/services.
Check out my services page to read my startup Foundation Programme - just £295 for a 3-session programme with a 4th session free!
https://www.customerfaithful.com/small-business-support
Scale Up Mentoring
Many small business owners get stuck unable to grow bigger - because they effectively ARE the business, the only way for them to grow is by adding more hours to their day! Sooner or later they run out of time....and energy!
I mentor small business owners, to help them find their way through this problem - we look at their operational model, how to take some time out of the delivery phase, how to systemise and simplify what they do, and set plans and processes to keep them focused and positive.
Adding and Growing Your Client Base
I guide businesses to help them identify and find their IDEAL clients - not just the first ones that come along!
This includes ways to define your target market, how to uncover their needs, and how to incorporate them into your sales pitches. FORGET your elevator pitch - instead, I'll teach you a 5-part formula to talk about what you and your business does that build a client relationship and gets results.
