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Casual Articles - Customer Service Is Key
When you are on the hunt for a wonderful job, there are steps you can take personally to overcome the lethargy and 'comfort-zone' mentality that bogs people down in work they don't really like.It's time to grasp the nettle and get on with it and prepare for action.Here are five starters for you to think about, right away, today!1. Ask A Previous BossRemember that place you worked where there was a great culture and everyone seemed to get on really well. Only external circumstances took you away. And you've missed it ever since. The management team were supportive and encouraging and offered help anytime you needed it.Well, now is the time to call that
4. Answer all emails/enquiries within 24 hours. That said, I actually think that 24 hours is too long to wait for a reply from an online business. I have always stated on my sites that I will respond within 24 hours but most emails are answered within 8 hours absolute maximum. If an online business can't/won't respond to me within 24 hours, then I won't deal with them.
I am afraid that I have little time for anyone running a business that says that they can't answer emails within 24 hours. Even when I had a full-time job, I checked my emails first thing in the morning and then again in the evening so that customers weren't left waiting. I even check m
To create a powerful brochure, you need to think about your potential clients. How can you compose the brochure to attract your targeted market in the best way possible?1. PersonalizeColors, fonts, tones and pictures will all affect how well your brochure catches the readers' attention. Even if we don't think or want to admit it, the look is important and you want to give a good first impression. This doesn't mean you should put together a brochure with showy colors and an eye-catching picture just to get people to notice. Black and white might work better because less is sometimes more. It's all about giving a face to your content.2. ContentYou need attenti
I don't care what you are selling, who you are selling it to, what service you provide or who your target market is, if you don't make the effort to provide top quality customer service, you will definitely be losing sales somewhere along the line.
This subject is fresh in my mind at the moment because I have had cause to make several online purchases over the past week or so and the levels of service I have received have varied considerably. At one end of the scale I have had some excellent service and in contrast, some companies have totally ignored my requests for assistance!
This is to be expected I guess (though there is no excuse for ignoring paying customers) but the businesses that really stand out for me are the ones that made the effort to communicate on a 'personal' level. By that I mean taking the time to reply to my emails rather than just ignoring them in the hope that their standard automatically generated emails would do the trick. These businesses that went the extra mile to make me feel like a valued customer are the ones that will reap the rewards in the future because I will go back to them to purchase again. It really is so simple that it amazes me when companies/individuals don't bother to make the effort.
So what can you do to ensure that your online business is offering the right level of customer service? Well here are a few ideas to get you started....
1. Ensure that your website has a 'Frequently Asked Questions' (FAQ) page. This will help your customers to find the answers to their own questions immediately without the need to send an email/make a telephone call. As many of you know, I set up a Support Centre earlier this year which includes a Knowledgebase of commonly asked questions. Not only does this help customers but it also reduced my inbound emails considerably.
2. Make sure that your contact details are easily located. Online businesses can generally get away with not publishing a telephone number (though if you want to do so, even better) but it is vital that a working email address is available for customers. Note that I say 'working' email address - if your ISP is filtering your emails for spam and junk, then this doesn't really count as it is very easy for a genuine email to get sent to the trash bin in error.
3. You should set your sales site up so that when a purchase is made, a confirmation email is automatically sent to the buyer. This lets them know that their order has been received and confirms that it is being processed. I can't stand it when I spend money online and don't even get an email confirmation!
4. Answer all emails/enquiries within 24 hours. That said, I actually think that 24 hours is too long to wait for a reply from an online business. I have always stated on my sites that I will respond within 24 hours but most emails are answered within 8 hours absolute maximum. If an online business can't/won't respond to me within 24 hours, then I won't deal with them.
I am afraid that I have little time for anyone running a business that says that they can't answer emails within 24 hours. Even when I had a full-time job, I checked my emails first thing in the morning and then again in the evening so that customers weren't left waiting. I even check m
“Who is that hot babe in the picture?” isn’t the type of reply an interviewer expects to hear when he or she invites you to ask questions near the end of an interview. In fact, the way you approach the Q&A session will have a direct impact on the interviewer’s perception of you. Based on the questions you ask, a judgment will be made in regard to how interested you seem to be in working for the company.For this reason, when you are forming questions ask yourself, What do I need to know about the company in order to determine if this is the workplace for me? How you answer this question depends on the career values that are important to you, and therefore, there isn’t a right or
This is to be expected I guess (though there is no excuse for ignoring paying customers) but the businesses that really stand out for me are the ones that made the effort to communicate on a 'personal' level. By that I mean taking the time to reply to my emails rather than just ignoring them in the hope that their standard automatically generated emails would do the trick. These businesses that went the extra mile to make me feel like a valued customer are the ones that will reap the rewards in the future because I will go back to them to purchase again. It really is so simple that it amazes me when companies/individuals don't bother to make the effort.
So what can you do to ensure that your online business is offering the right level of customer service? Well here are a few ideas to get you started....
1. Ensure that your website has a 'Frequently Asked Questions' (FAQ) page. This will help your customers to find the answers to their own questions immediately without the need to send an email/make a telephone call. As many of you know, I set up a Support Centre earlier this year which includes a Knowledgebase of commonly asked questions. Not only does this help customers but it also reduced my inbound emails considerably.
2. Make sure that your contact details are easily located. Online businesses can generally get away with not publishing a telephone number (though if you want to do so, even better) but it is vital that a working email address is available for customers. Note that I say 'working' email address - if your ISP is filtering your emails for spam and junk, then this doesn't really count as it is very easy for a genuine email to get sent to the trash bin in error.
3. You should set your sales site up so that when a purchase is made, a confirmation email is automatically sent to the buyer. This lets them know that their order has been received and confirms that it is being processed. I can't stand it when I spend money online and don't even get an email confirmation!
4. Answer all emails/enquiries within 24 hours. That said, I actually think that 24 hours is too long to wait for a reply from an online business. I have always stated on my sites that I will respond within 24 hours but most emails are answered within 8 hours absolute maximum. If an online business can't/won't respond to me within 24 hours, then I won't deal with them.
I am afraid that I have little time for anyone running a business that says that they can't answer emails within 24 hours. Even when I had a full-time job, I checked my emails first thing in the morning and then again in the evening so that customers weren't left waiting. I even check m
I don't usually eat dairy and rarely have it at home. I really enjoy ice cream, however, and occasionally will go to a good ice cream store for their high quality treats. In the western suburbs of Chicago there is a dairy run by a family that has several stores, and more recently they've expanded into other suburbs and into Chicago. When I stopped at one of their stores recently, I asked for a sundae with a little chocolate sauce, a little caramel sauce, and a little marshmallow topping.The girl behind the counter looked at the cash register/computer with a furrowed brow as she tried to figure out how to take my order. Next, she conferred with two other teena
So what can you do to ensure that your online business is offering the right level of customer service? Well here are a few ideas to get you started....
1. Ensure that your website has a 'Frequently Asked Questions' (FAQ) page. This will help your customers to find the answers to their own questions immediately without the need to send an email/make a telephone call. As many of you know, I set up a Support Centre earlier this year which includes a Knowledgebase of commonly asked questions. Not only does this help customers but it also reduced my inbound emails considerably.
2. Make sure that your contact details are easily located. Online businesses can generally get away with not publishing a telephone number (though if you want to do so, even better) but it is vital that a working email address is available for customers. Note that I say 'working' email address - if your ISP is filtering your emails for spam and junk, then this doesn't really count as it is very easy for a genuine email to get sent to the trash bin in error.
3. You should set your sales site up so that when a purchase is made, a confirmation email is automatically sent to the buyer. This lets them know that their order has been received and confirms that it is being processed. I can't stand it when I spend money online and don't even get an email confirmation!
4. Answer all emails/enquiries within 24 hours. That said, I actually think that 24 hours is too long to wait for a reply from an online business. I have always stated on my sites that I will respond within 24 hours but most emails are answered within 8 hours absolute maximum. If an online business can't/won't respond to me within 24 hours, then I won't deal with them.
I am afraid that I have little time for anyone running a business that says that they can't answer emails within 24 hours. Even when I had a full-time job, I checked my emails first thing in the morning and then again in the evening so that customers weren't left waiting. I even check m
The biggest challenges that many import companies have is finding a way to pay suppliers when a customer places a large order. As is common in import transactions, you must pay your suppliers using a letter of credit and then wait until the goods are delivered to your customer before your customer pays you. This creates a window of time, sometimes as long as 90 days, between the time that you pay your suppliers and the time that your customers pay you.But what happens if you don’t have the funds to obtain a letter of credit? Or, if you can’t wait for a long time to get paid? Do you pass on the order? Well, you don’t have to. Not if you decide to use purchase order finance.
3. You should set your sales site up so that when a purchase is made, a confirmation email is automatically sent to the buyer. This lets them know that their order has been received and confirms that it is being processed. I can't stand it when I spend money online and don't even get an email confirmation!
4. Answer all emails/enquiries within 24 hours. That said, I actually think that 24 hours is too long to wait for a reply from an online business. I have always stated on my sites that I will respond within 24 hours but most emails are answered within 8 hours absolute maximum. If an online business can't/won't respond to me within 24 hours, then I won't deal with them.
I am afraid that I have little time for anyone running a business that says that they can't answer emails within 24 hours. Even when I had a full-time job, I checked my emails first thing in the morning and then again in the evening so that customers weren't left waiting. I even check m
Making a living out of selling Logo Designs can be fraught with danger. Cuthroats willing to slash your throat on street corners, drug crazed thugs and conniving conmen are just some of the things to avoid. Its a jungle out there so make sure your logo design is bulletproof.Buy Low - Sell high In terms of outlay the resources you'll need to produce your logo designs are pretty minimal and the returns can be huge. What you'll need is either a pen and paper or in todays modern fangled world a mouse and computer to produce your designs. Pop along to your local electrical retailer and see what offers they've got on for computers. Alternatively make one yourself out of an old ra
4. Answer all emails/enquiries within 24 hours. That said, I actually think that 24 hours is too long to wait for a reply from an online business. I have always stated on my sites that I will respond within 24 hours but most emails are answered within 8 hours absolute maximum. If an online business can't/won't respond to me within 24 hours, then I won't deal with them.
I am afraid that I have little time for anyone running a business that says that they can't answer emails within 24 hours. Even when I had a full-time job, I checked my emails first thing in the morning and then again in the evening so that customers weren't left waiting. I even check my emails daily when I am on holiday so if I can do this, why can't other people? Ok, you might want to have time off over the weekend - that's fair enough but make sure your website tells your customers that your office is only manned Monday to Friday.
Mind you, any online business owner that doesn't check their emails at the weekend is missing a trick. I make a fair few sales on Saturday/Sunday and I know that sometimes this is because I bothered to reply to an email sent on one of these days within a few hours. If I had left it until Monday, chances are that one of my competitors would have got the sale.
I have come across some business owners that have gone on holiday for two or three weeks and just left their emails to pile up. I find it hard to believe that anyone that takes their business seriously would do this but I have seen it happen. If you want to take a holiday and don't want to check your emails, fine but make sure you get someone else to do it while you are away. Sending an autoresponder message that says 'We will answer your email in two weeks time...' just isn't good enough. If you want to be able to clear off for a break and forget about your work, then you need a job not your own business.
5. Finally, deal with complaints quickly and fairly. Whatever type of business you run, you will get complaints from time to time - it just isn't possible to please everyone all of the time. A lot of the time you will probably feel that the complaint isn't justified and in many cases, it won't be - people can be a strange breed! However, just handle it and move on - it isn't worth getting hung up on.
Spending time on customer service is time very well spent - it gets sales and more importantly, it brings customers back again and again. To quote an old saying, it is much easier/cheaper to retain an existing customer than it is to find a new one.
Copyright 2005 Richard Grady
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