Customer Service

Customer Satisfaction Survey: Get To Know Your Customer Base

2009-01-21T08:13:00.000-08:00

Obtaining and keeping new clients is an important aspect in any business. However, many business owners put all their focus on attracting new clientele, and forget to reward and appreciate their current client base. A reward based incentive plan is an excellent way to attract new customers and keep your established clientele coming back. Customer approval should be your main prerogative to keep business. Reward programs turn new customers into repeat customers. Shoppers are more likely to return to business's that offer special deals or promotions for repeat business. A great way to establish your customer's current needs is to ask them. Many companies have a short customer satisfaction survey that helps determine customer needs, buying trends, and so much more!

An effective strategy in building your business starts with understanding your customer base. Who is your repeat patron, do you offer services or products that people cannot get anywhere else, and does your trade have a specific niche? For example, if you have a garden store do you specialize in assisting customers with garden planning and design. Is your store the only one in town that carries a specific plant or flower? Establishing a niche for your business will separate you from your competitors.

As an entrepreneur, it's important to keep up with the spending trends. Research the spending habits of your potential patron and make sure your product is within their budget. If your product is priced beyond your prospective customer's budget, they will shop elsewhere.

Marketing and advertising is essential to the success of any business. Unfortunately, not all companies have the budget for big advertising campaigns. A great way to market your company in the local community is to volunteer. Actively engaging in community events helps establish your role as a business owner. Customers like to see local owners participating in community events. Community gatherings are also a great place to wear your companies t-shirt for visibility. Check your local newspaper for upcoming events and volunteer opportunities. Or start a community outreach program with your employees and staff. Another great idea is offering free seminars through your office. A quick one hour seminar will bring customers and attention to your products and services.

Your employees are an excellent source for new marketing ideas. Teamwork allows the employees to feel involved in the growth and expansion of the business. Have your employees submit ideas about improving customer satisfaction or implementing a customer rewards program. Exceptional personal service keeps customers coming back, make sure your employees have the tools to provide this. In the business world, bad news travels fast, if a customer is not satisfied with your service they will not recommend you to their friends.

A great way to keep in touch with customers is through email. Sending an occasional email to your clientele keeps your business on their radar. A short email about new services, products or special promotions keeps them informed. Many send out special email only coupons. Email coupons are quick to print out and fun to redeem. Coupons are a great incentive to get customers thinking about your product. A customer satisfaction survey attached with a coupon or reward incentive will receive a lot more interest, and offer insight to customers understanding of your business and services.

Keeping your trade visible on the web and in the community will help sales continue to climb. One of the most important aspects of growing a business is offering exceptional customer service with the use of a customer satisfaction survey. Finding a niche for your product in the local community involves research and commitment. Be creative in your marketing techniques and see how your business blossoms.

Andy West writes for NBRI, a reputable company helping business owners explore venues to implement a customer satisfaction survey. Please visit http://www.nbrii.com/Customer_Surveys/Satisfaction.html for more information.

Customer Service Software For All Your Customer Support Needs

2009-01-12T17:42:00.000-08:00

Customer service software solutions have made it easier for online businesses to provide efficient and quick customer service to their customers all over the world. An online business without proper customer service can't survive for long, and a customer service software offers unlimited support. It offers quality solutions, faster solutions, reliable solutions and more accessible customer service.

It offers a centralized way to manage problems and issues relating to the management of your online business. If you have an online or an e-commerce business, you know that you're going to be facing technical issues sooner or later. You have to be prepared for any unexpected problems.

How It Works

Let's discuss briefly how it can help you. If you have an online business, you probably have a customer support person who answers customers queries. The software effectively manages all these queries, by directing them to the appropriate department. For example, all technical queries will be sent directly to the technical department. If someone calls with an inquiry relating to payments, that person will be directed to the billing department. With the aid of this software, businesses are able to improve the way any and all queries are handled, and offer solutions much faster.

Where To Get One

There's a huge variety of this software available in the market. Whether you have a small online business or a large e-commerce business, you can always find the type of software that matches your needs and budget. You can search the Internet for customer service software. Most of the sites selling this kind of software, will offer technical assistance to help you set up the system. Their technical teams will also train your staff on how to operate it correctly. They'll give you reports on how your customer service, as well as your other products and services are performing. You can then use these reports to make any necessary changes. Installing the software is easy. Furthermore, it only requires a little bit of training to run it properly, and almost anyone can operate it. You can have it up and running in no time.

Some Features

It's is multi-tasked. It doesn't just manage the calls; it also records all the transactions. Furthermore, it also maintains reports. These reports can then be pulled up in future for reference. These are just some of the many features the software has. In the future you'll see even more features added to it.

As you can see, this software can and will vastly improve the efficiency of your customer service tasks. In no time at all, you'll see an increase in sales. It'll also improve the overall performance of your business. Furthermore, it'll save you thousands of dollars every year. In the growing competitive market we live in today, one simply can't do without owning this customer service software.

Charles McDuffie is an author and entrepreneur for ASB Enterprises. Visit: http://xrl.us/oxmus to learn about the various features of customer service software.

Holding On to Customers During Tough Times

2008-12-26T08:57:00.000-08:00

In the current economy, there is a very real and growing concern about how to gain and to keep customers. This was apparent at the 2008 North American Conference on Customer Management (NACCM) this year, with attendance lower than it has been in some time. The irony is that much of what was presented provided insight on how to reach out and hold on to customers during tough times.

In stressful times such as these, many companies tend to pull away from their customers, and may even cut back on satisfaction and loyalty programs to try and improve their bottom line. This, unfortunately, is a mistake because it cuts at the very heart of what we all need to be doing during this time engaging customers to the point that they are willing to ride out tough economic times with us, rather than viewing us as yet another business that really doesn't care about its customers and is willing to drop them or cut out the programs and products they care about most as soon as times get tough.

This was part of the overarching message at NACCM, including a conference speech I gave on engagement-that it's important to continue to invest in improving customer engagement. However, one must be smart about how one goes about it. And the five most important take aways from this years conference were:

Engaging your customers (moving beyond 'satisfaction' and 'loyalty') will create a relationship between your customers and your company and/or its product that will help you weather the economic storm or even any mistakes your company may make engaged customers really do stick with you and spend more money!

Use tools that are as effective as possible with the least expense (web-based tools are ideal for this) tools that will not only provide you with data, but will help point you toward what is really going on with your customers

Don't just 'survey' your customers use tools that will provide you with leading indicators that will allow you to predict how a much larger group of customers will react based on the responses of a smaller group.

Don't forget your employees! Engaged employees have a positive effect (a 'spillover effect') on the engagement of your customers.

Engaging your customers means taking action. Even small improvements can mean an increase in your customer's share of wallet, positive word of mouth and referrals and increased retention and productivity from employees

The key in all of this is to overcome the reactionary fear that comes with a downturn in the economy and to look beyond. By spending smarter and in the right areas (what area is more important than those people who allow us all to be paid?) we can do more than survive-we can continue to thrive.

Terence Fugazzi is the VP of Demand Marketing at Allegiance (http://www.allegiance.com). His company provides solutions that help organizations grow and increase profitability through improved customer and employee loyalty and engagement.

What Is Customer Service?

2008-12-19T23:45:00.000-08:00

Most of the company loses there many customers every year but they really doesnt know why? Don t allows your customer base to decay while letting your competition gain market share.

Always engage with the customers to know what they want and what are they suggesting for you and ask them how you could be do better be more relevant to them. If you realize that what your customer thinks about you, their needs and what they want your business will be than perfect. Here are the few things that you can do.

1. Discover what your customers think about you and the competition
2. Get insights on new products or services
3. Understand what drives their loyalty
4. Learn where you stand in comparison with competitors
5. Demonstrate a commitment to listening to your customers

Engaging with customers drives improved customer loyalty and satisfaction. Quickly respond to customer concerns, promote the best answers, and point customers to the most up-to-date information, this will help you to improve and make a successful business. Always understand customer needs, prioritize their ideas, and turn them into product improvements. Get Satisfaction provides real-time, dynamic customer support content that leverages the wisdom of crowds.

Your customer service should transform from a cost center into an opportunity for authenticity and responsiveness. Your customers will love you for it. These days, customer service means more than good manners reinforced with a smile. You should manage and track customer service requests from an initial contact through resolution. The service workers and salespeople should have the more information about their product and company and with a quick than, it will possible to respond more quickly to client concerns than in the past. This boosts both customer satisfaction and, ultimately, employee morale. No longer do employees find themselves conducting hit-or-miss searches for the information they need to satisfy customers.

Helping, meeting people s needs create a good image to the company s future. You can cultivate or corrodes your relationship with the customers by a single contact with your organization. That includes every letter you send, every ad you run, and every phone call you make. This includes every employee contact, from the CEO to technicians, sales force, support staff, and maintenance crews. You must always see yourself through your customers eyes.

The employees should be trained to see situations through the eyes of the customers. One of the goals of customer service training is to instill in all your employees the sense that it is their business, too. You should build the sense of ownership by encouraging employees to see situations from the owner s point of view. In other words, your business is only as good as your employee is it is a sobering thought, isnt it? How well are you training your employees to cultivate your customers? Is anyone too high or too low to count? This is the all you should do to upgrade your business.

This article is distributed by MDofPC LLC http://www.mdofpc.com

consumer lawyer

Good Customer Service Is The Livelihood

2008-12-19T23:44:00.000-08:00

Why is Good Customer Service So Important? It s simply because customers are turning their backs to businesses that do not deliver value. And great customer support adds value! There s no way around it. No shortcuts. Customers demand value for money, or they are out of the door.

Good customer service is the livelihood for any company. You can propose promotions and cut prices to bring in as many new clients as you want, but unless you can get some of those clients to come back, your business won t be money-making for long.

Good customer service is all about getting customers back. And about sending them away happy enough to pass affirmative feedback about your company along to others, who may then try the product or service you, propose for themselves and in their turn become repeat customers.

If you re a good seller, you can sell anything to anyone once. But it will be your approach to customer service that decides whether or not you ll ever be able to sell that person anything else. The spirit of good customer service is structuring a relationship with customers a relationship that individual customer feels that he would like to pursue.

How do you go about structuring such a relationship? By remembering the one true top secret of good customer service and acting accordingly; you will be judged by what you do, not what you say.

Some key points about the good customer service are as below.

1. Keep in mind there is no system that the class of customer service can exceed the class of the people who offer it.
2. Understand that your people will care for your customer the way they are cared.
3. Know your customers
4. Tell your customers who you are.
5. For superior customer service, go the extra mile.
6. Your customers should be addressed when they walk in.
7. Give customers the advantage of the hesitation.
8. If a customer makes a request for something special, do everything you can to say yes.
9. Train your customer service associates properly, in how to handle a customer complaint or an irate person?
10. Want to know what your customers think of your company? Ask them!
11. Always tell your customer what you CAN do for them. Don t begin your conversation by telling them what you CAN T do.
12. Diffuse anger by saying I m sorry or I apologize.
13. Use your customer s name at different points in the call.

This article is distributed by MDofPC LLC http://www.mdofpc.com

Customer Service Is A Power Tool

2008-12-19T16:14:00.000-08:00

To provide service to a needy is considered one of the prime in any culture or tradition. Today, in this era of Information Technology prime importance to the satisfaction of customer. Company s in any field attempts to fulfill the needs of customer, let it be the field of telecommunication, retail or even computers.

What is actually service? Service is a process carried out to satisfy the recipient of the same. In case of customer service the server attempts to satisfy the customer of a particular product. Customer service can be defined as is a process for providing competitive advantage and adding benefits in order to maximize the total value to the customer. As an example consider the customer care centre of a particular telephone service provider like Reliance. A customer with certain difficulty in the company s product approaches with the expectation of resolving it. The duty of the organization is to satisfy the simply by solving his problem. Thus Customer Service can be considered as any contact between a customer and a company that causes a negative or positive perception by a customer. Therefore in the above case depending on his satisfaction the customer will have negative or positive impression on the organization.

Customer product service is the ability to provide a service or product in the way that it has been promised. It depends on number of factors like time, approach of the service provider and most importantly the understanding of the customer need. Customer product service is about treating the product of customer as you would like to be treated with your product.

The commitment to providing value added services to external and internal customers, including attitude knowledge, technical support and quality of service in a timely manner is the aspect of customer product service. Here the pains undertaken by the service provider is not significant. What makes difference is the ultimate result. No customer has to wonder about the process of solving the problem. It is up to the service provider to deal with all the stages which he comes across in resolving the customer s product problem.

Why does a service provider take so much pain in satisfying his client? A company can only benefit if it has lots and lots of customers. Profit making is ultimate goal of any organization. Remember that it takes months to find a customer but seconds to lose one.

This article is distributed by MDofPC LLC http://www.mdofpc.com

Cultivate Relationships to Increase Margins

2008-12-16T19:43:00.000-08:00

A critical component of customer relationship management (CRM) - and yet often overlooked - is the cultivation of existing customers. We've seen it all too often; companies spend nearly all of their time and scarce resources trying to attract new customers - while existing customers are largely ignored. This practice can be costly in terms of lower profitability and higher customer turnover rates. Companies seeking to improve their CRM practices should look no further than cultivating existing customer relationships.

The Importance of Cultivation

All too often, businesses large and small become focused on one simple thing: attracting new customers. While this is an important dynamic for real business growth, it can become toxic if it is overemphasized and becomes the ONLY focal point for the business.

Customer acquisition is often the most costly and least profitable component of the overall customer experience. Companies throw promotions, price discounts, or free products and services at potential new customers - all of which can quickly hike up acquisition costs and squeeze profitability.

Don't Make a Loss Leader be a Total Loss

We see examples of high acquisition costs every day. Grocery stores and other retailers are famous for offering loss leaders - popular products or commodities at an unprofitable price - in order to get customers in the door. Mobile phone companies subsidize new phone sales - again unprofitably - in order to land more subscribers. Even car dealers often sell new cars at very narrow margins in an attempt to land longer-term service relationships.

High-cost acquisition programs can be effective in landing new customers. However, in order to make the practice profitable, companies must focus more attention on taking care of existing customers and building meaningful and lasting relationships. Simply put, incremental revenue generated from an existing customer can be achieved at nominal costs. As a result, the cultivation phase - or back end - of the customer experience process can often be the most profitable.

Customer cultivation is important for one very important reason; it can significantly improve the customer lifetime value for your company. Customer lifetime value - simply put - represents the total revenue collected from a customer less any costs to acquire, serve and support the customer over the life of their relationship with your company.

Cultivate Your Relationships to Improve Your Margins

For example, if we commit $140.00 to acquire a customer that buys a $150.00 MP3 music player, we have made a margin of only $10.00. However, if we can develop and nurture the customer relationship at a nominal cost of only $50.00, they may turn around and spend $300.00 dollars on music downloads, gifts for friends, and related products over the next year - a respectable margin of $250.00.

If a meaningful customer relationship was never established after the initial transaction, then the lifetime value of the customer is a measly $10.00. However, by cultivating the relationship and obtaining additional follow-on revenue in our example, we increase the customer lifetime value to $260.00 from $10.00 - a healthy increase of 2600%!

How to Cultivate

Every new customer transaction plants a seed. What your company does with that seed can make a significant impact on future profitability. Will the seed lay there and be forgotten? Or will it be fed, watered, and nourished into a lush asset that bears fruit on a regular basis?

In order to get the most out of your customer relationships, you need to cultivate what you sow:

* Relate: Relate with your customers through regular and meaningful contact, observations, and ongoing interactions.
* Retain: Retain your customers by creating barriers to switching to a competitor and create an atmosphere of exclusivity.
* Expand: Expand your relationship with your customers by offering complimentary products and services on an ongoing basis.
* Innovate: Keep your customers excited and engaged by surprising them with new product innovations or special bundles that are tailored just for them.
* Analyze: Analyze your customer behaviors and cultivation activities to predict and anticipate future wants and needs.

Very few companies get customer cultivation right the first time. Doing it effectively can take strong leadership, a clear vision, and an effective measurement system to continuously evaluate customer lifetime value. However, those companies that do it right can reap significant rewards.

Robert Howard is the Founder and Chief Executive of ClearBrick LLC, a leading provider of customer experience business solutions, research, and advice.

ClearBrick can be found online at http://www.ClearBrick.com.

Customer Service, How Good Are You?

2008-12-15T17:34:00.000-08:00

Are you running your own internet business or home based business? If yes, how well are you handling your customer service?

Customer services are one of the most important aspects when your internet business starts. Many forget that servicing customer must always become the top priority area that need to be concerned and given most efforts. Now, are you giving a proper customer service to your customers?

Speaking on getting things done in a proper way, why not get the customer needs met first and in a timely manner. We have been so concerned about starting an online business, we forgot about the buyer. They are the ones who supposed to get the focused, who help us get and maintain our business. We have to give honor to the customers. Once this is through, we as the business owner can then relax knowing that needs of the people have been met.

We all know that the customers are always right and they have more said so than we should give them credit for. Case and point, you go to the shop to buy things and you spend money on the things you want and other needs. The fact that you went to the shop to purchase items means that the shop will be in business a little bit longer. It is called Business to Consumer, when a business does the business for the sole purpose of providing for the customer. We all have done some sort of business. We know how we want to be treated. For the most part, we expect exceptional customer service, reliability and honesty. We just want to be treated properly, in nicely manners and with the proper approach.

Now I believe you run your own business or you might in the future, keep in mind that the customer could be you and someone else owns the business. You might become customer at certain point when you involves in buying some stuff. Basically you want to get the best customer service from the seller. The same things apply here, you want to treat the customer with respect and provide for them knowledgeable, friendly, energetic customer service. In any successful business, the customer service is what keeps them on top. The customer service that they provide is world class. So, the main key to keeping customers is being friendly, provide service that focus on reliability, make sure the staff is knowledgeable and provide genuine Customer Service.

These are special qualifications of a professional customer service representative. Just because you call someone on the phone and the help does not make them a good representative. It is when they go all out to help you. They are more than happy to help.

I believe you heard this before, they say that good help is hard to find. That holds some truth to it. No many businesses nowadays trying to give generous assistance to the customers. For them once sold nothing else need to be done. This is wrong and will make you out of business sooner or later.

The first thing you as the business owner need to is, employing the right people the first time means getting it right on the fly. When you get it right, the customers also have it right. When the order the product or receive the services, they want to feel like they are being taken care of and their needs are being met. When they happy, they will do the job which is marketing it for you and it is all happen because of your top class customer service.

Needless to say, if the customer feels that they are being treated like their concerns are being met, they will tell everyone what a wonderful company you have. On the other hand, if they feel like their concerns are not being met, they will call up and start to make complaints. Once a complaint is out regarding your company, it can have a negative impact on your business and it will get worse you will out of business.

The most important to get things right from the beginning is to train your employees and equip them with the tools that they will need to be successful when taking a call for a purchase, complaint, compliment or any other reason. Do it right the first time, complaints are less likely to happen and you can be rated number one customer service according to JD Power and Associates. When recognition is set in, you can be reputable company that cares for the employees as well as its customers. A successful internet business will always have a world class customer service.

If you are running your own home based business then you should also practice a top class customer service. Learn all the basic skills of treating and handling your customers. Your business will grow by itself when others are happy with your service.

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What Is a Customer?

2008-12-15T15:18:00.000-08:00

Do you know what a customer is? Did you know that the base of the word customer is actually custom? It actually is derived from the habits of people that make it a habit to make frequent visits to a store.

In my mind, there are two different kinds of customers - an internal customer and an external customer. Some alternative names for customers are clients, buyers, and purchasers. All businesses have customers; it's up to you whether or not you have loyal customers by the way you treat them.

Let's take a closer look at the differences between internal and external customers and then at some of the ways that you can increase customer loyalty. To begin with, an internal customer would be someone within your own company that might work in another department or even on another team. An external customer would be someone you sell products to or provide services to that is outside of your organization.

Now let's look at some of the ways that you can make sure that you keep existing customers, as well as gain new customers. One of the first things that I believe a company should realize is that a customer, contrary to a current shift in thinking, does really know what he or she wants. Way back when I was working in the telephone service center for a large credit card company, we received intensive training on how to treat a customer and make them happy. What are some ways that you can do that?

1) Listen to the customer - remember your mother telling you not to interrupt and that it is impolite? Most customers will definitely tell you that they would rather have you listen to what they are saying than having you take the bull by the horns and butting in and stopping what they are saying.

2) Provide virtual cues that you are listening by summarizing back to them what they have just told you. You don't have to repeat word for word, just enough to let them see if you understand will do the trick. This lets them know that you have been listening and paying attention and also lets them know that you care about their needs. If you are on the phone, you can also do virtual nods vocally by adding little tidbits of agreement like uh huh, yes, you bet, etc. This would work the same as if you were face to face and actually nodding your head.

3) Take a moment to be in their shoes. Think about how you would feel if you were in the same situation they are in when they are speaking with you. Would you be angry? That could explain why they seem angry. This is called being empathetic. What does that mean in more detail? It just means showing that you understand their situation and can feel their pain, sadness, or what have you.

4) When they are all done explaining what it is they want to say, do another summary in more detail covering the important points of the conversation and clarify with them any points that you are unclear on. They'll let you know if you don't quite have it right or you are right on target.

5) Let them know the action points that you are going to take to resolve any issues they might have. If possible, let them know a date when you will do this. Then be sure to meet those deadlines.

So what does all this mean? Why take all these steps? A satisfied client is one that you go out of your way to service. Especially with the economy the way it is, one lost customer can hurt your bottom line in a big way. Showing that you care will help seal a long-term relationship, which in turn will have your client talking about you and your excellent customer service. That's what it's all about - providing customized care, giving the client the service they expect, and doing it all with a positive attitude.

BORLOK Virtual Assistants has the global expert services with quality, on-time delivery that you require. Borlok VA is a small partnership that was formed in September, 1967. Come See Us at http://www.borloktranscription.com or at our blog http://borlokva.wordpress.com.

Survey Your Customers: Recession Proof Your Online Business

2008-12-15T06:30:00.000-08:00

It cant be denied that with the state of the economy many small online business owners are fretting over whether or not they will be able to withstand this economic storm and keep their business afloat in the coming months and years.

With consumers becoming not only stingier but also commercially aware it has gotten harder to use the same old selling tactics. As an online business owner its become even more important to stay on top of consumer trends and demands.

Now with the economy being in the shape its in, its crucial that your prospective customers feel that you know, and are willing to meet their needs. By giving your customers exactly what they want they are more likely to view you as the go to website and part with their hard earned cash.

The goal is to build trust so they will continue to use your services over and over again, or recommend you to others. This is the only way your business has any chance of surviving this economic state.

Before you can even consider providing the right products at the right price you have to find out what your customers expect from you. For years companies have been doing this through the use of surveying your customers through consumer surveys. With the advent of the internet it has become even easier to target groups of people and get their input, feedback and ratings on your product, service and overall online business performance.

By providing an incentive of some sort you can entice your visitors to take a few minutes to provide you with the answers you need to build a stronger online business. You can offer a free ebook that your visitors can download after they complete the survey or even a downloadable video.

In order for visitors to take the time to provide you with honest answers they have to feel they can trust you. Thus, its important to clearly state at the beginning of the survey that any personal information you receive will not be shared with others. Its also nice to let them know they are helping you to better serve them. Consumers enjoy knowing that they are role players in the development of online businesses.

Keep the survey to no more than 20 minutes. After that survey takers tend to get anxious and annoyed; therefore they may not read the questions carefully and provide inaccurate information.

If the survey deals with quantitative (numeric) data you want to be sure that you use the same rating scale throughout the survey. If you started with 1-10, dont switch to 1-7 somewhere else in the survey. You also want to breakdown each issue into single coherent, concrete concepts. Dont ask the visitor to rate both the speed of the checkout and the delivery in the same question, break it down so each item gets its own rating.

When dealing with a qualitative (text, non-numeric) survey try to encourage the user to provide more detailed responses. The trouble with simply using close ended yes or no questions is you wont get sufficient data to improve your online business with. Instead of asking, "Did you like the product?" Try "What did you like most about the product?" This allows the visitor to provide their personal opinion.

It also makes it easier for you when you are looking for trends and surprises when evaluating the survey responses.

After the survey is conducted, publish the results on your website or blog and invite comments and responses.

A successful surveying of your customers campaign will provide valuable insight into what your target market expects from you. With this information you can make necessary adjustments to your online business. You can offer products and services that better meet with the needs of your prospects as well as tweak and update your online business performance.

The online businesses that will ride out the economic storm are the ones that will be able to fully satisfy their customers and build long term loyalty. To do this, create a survey and analyze the results.

Jeff Casmer is a leading legitimate work at home expert and is a work from home business owner. His "Top Ranked" Work at Home Directory (http://www.24hourwealth.com) gives you all the information you need to Work From Home in the 21st century.

Turbulent Business Times? Focus On The Customer

2008-12-08T03:54:00.000-08:00

As technology marches on, you hear about all sorts of marketing: telemarketing, internet marketing, and so on. What you don't see businesses focused on anymore is the customer. Instead of asking for a name, most companies ask for your "customer ID number". Instead of saying "good morning, and thank you", you hear, "which department can I transfer you to". The customer has truly become lost in the shuffle of electronics and new age gadgets.

Customer service is all about focusing on the customer and on their needs. In the old days, back when we still traveled around by horse and buggy, a person could go into a store and could barter with a friendly clerk who knew their name, their occupation, how many children they had and if they'd had a good winter or not. Now, though, consumers are lucky if they find a pharmacy that prescribes the right medicine to the right person.

Good customer service focuses on building long term relationships with clients by supplying an ever-evolving line of products and excellent service. Businesses that believe in customer service are not focused on the profit from one sale, but rather making sure that the customer is happy with their purchase, so that they will think good thoughts about the company the next time they need a specific product. Customers want to feel appreciated and listened to. Great service is all about listening and caring about the customers, rather than planning their next ad campaign or sales deal.

Say that a consumer purchases a bed frame from a company. During that transaction, the salesman was rude and didn't listen to the consumer. When the consumer called a few days later to discuss a problem he had, he was hung up on. Now imagine this same customer purchasing the bed frame from a company that focuses on customer service. The consumer is listened to, and is helped. When he leaves, he feels as though the salesman really did care about him. The next time this consumer needs a piece of furniture, who do you think he is going to look to?

Good customer service can take take a good company and make it great! Assure your customers that you will be there for them and not only will you win repeat business, but unsolicited referrals. Some companies that have outsourced their customer service to the lowest bidder have realized this when their repeat business started to decline. Naturally, they ended up pulling this back in-house.

You can avoid this blunder by putting "great customer service" high on your mission statement. When you make you customer number one, your payoff will outshine any marketing campaign.

Almost every business can work with customer service, if they want to. The problem is that too many times, companies look to the future instead of to the present.

http://www.Greatpricedfurniture.com recognizes that every consumer is important, and strives to build a good relationship with all consumers, so that the next time they need a piece of furniture, they will know who to call.

Roadmap to a Customer - Centric Strategy

2008-11-25T06:15:00.000-08:00

Part of the appeal of customer-centricity is that it takes very little business acumen to grasp its core concept. Focus intensely on customers, align your products or services with their interests, and voila: a customer - centric culture is born. Simple, right? Not quite.

Becoming a truly customer-centric organization is perhaps one of the most difficult transitions an organization can make, fraught with hidden obstacles and unanticipated challenges. Here are three potential roadblocks on the path to a customer-centric strategy, and how to get around them.

Failing to understand your most valuable customer
A customer - centric strategy is only as good as its customers. You cant let the average customer dictate what you do, says Robert Duboff, CEO of Hawk Partners LLC and coauthor of the book Market Research Matters. Generally speaking, Duboff says, 20 percent of a company's customer base generates 80 percent of its profits. Given that split, its imperative to put your most valuable customers at the heart of your approach.

Identifying those customers need not take exhaustive research and complicated measures. It can be a fairly straightforward process, as it is with the Net Promoter Score, or NPS, a metric developed by Bain & Co.s Fred Reichheld. As set forth in The Ultimate Questionwritten by Reichheld and published by Harvard Business Pressthe NPS approach consists of one simple question: On a scale of one to 10, would you recommend us to your friends?

Based on the answer to that question, customers are segmented into three categories: promoters, who actively champion a particular product to their friends and colleagues; passives, who are lukewarm about the product; and detractors, the opposite of promoters. A given company's score is simply the difference between its number of promoters and its number of detractors.

NPS has proven to be a powerful tool for such companies as General Electric Capital Solutions, which has used it not only to identify customers that are already valuable promoters but to gain insights into how it can convert detractors. For a business like GE Capital Solutions, which serves more than 1 million very diverse customers in many different industries, NPS helps us better understand what our customers are feeling and how we can improve their experience with us, says Stephen White, a spokesperson for GE Capital.

Failing to support your external customer - centric strategy with an internal customer - centric strategy
Speaking of valuable customers, what about that most priceless customer of all your employee?

While most companies aren't in the habit of regarding their employees as customers, those seeking to instill a customer-centric culture should rethink their stance, argues Elaine Berke, president of Westport, MA based EBI Consulting, which specializes in helping organizations develop customer-centric strategies. Customer - centricity needs to come from the inside out, says Berke. Leadership must avoid a double standard that makes it OK for managers to argue with or demean staff while still being courteous and considerate to external customers.

Consider the case of the world-renowned Johns Hopkins University Hospital. In developing a comprehensive Service Excellence initiative aimed at boosting its level of patient care, the hospital included employee satisfaction as a core component of the program. The hospital conducted an extensive survey to gauge employee concerns that turned up such simple, actionable insights as making it a point to compliment co-workers and instituting criticism - free no negativity days.

Customer-centric organizations value and respect internal customers as much as external customers, says Berke. Like the old saying goes, If you're not serving a customer, you're serving someone who is.

Failure to identify the moment of truth
Companies spend considerable time and resources developing metrics for processes, execution and other day-to-day functions but often overlook defining their moments of truth those points at which a customer interacts with a company's product or service and forms an impression.

Companies are usually very good at creating metrics around [such procedures as] production deliverables but have a much harder time knowing how to create and measure standards relating to the quality of service being delivered, Keith Bailey of Sterling Consulting Group says.

In defining a company's moments of truth, Bailey suggests looking at three different angles quality of product, quality of procedures and quality of relationships. Taking a hotel as an example, the quality of the product would be the cleanliness and comfort of the rooms. The quality of procedures would be such factors as how it long it takes to check in or how long customers wait for room service. The quality of relationship would be the friendliness and helpfulness of the staff.

Considering each angle separately allows a company to isolate the negative moments of truth within each and develop a game plan for turning them into positive experiences. Procter & Gamble, for example, identified its moment of truth as that instant when a shopper picks up one of its products and decides whether or not to purchase its decision the customer makes in an average of six seconds. The company has overhauled its marketing with that insight in mind, creating a global First Moment of Truth business team designed to win over the customer in that moment.

There are as many different customer-centric approaches as there are customers, and each has its own unique challenges, but the road to a truly customer-centric strategy always begins with the same steps.

Management Career Training Centre provides professional development, motivational seminar, management and sales training, leadership and executive training and career training programs for HR professionals, supervisors and employers. http://www.cmctraining.org

Benefits Of Good Customer Service

2008-10-31T05:56:00.000-07:00

Customer service (also known as Client Service) is the provision of service to customers before, during and after a Purchase. According to Turban et al, 2002, Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation. Its importance varies by product, industry and customer. As an example, an expert customer might require less pre-purchase service (i.e., advice) than a novice. In many cases, customer service is more important if the purchase relates to a service as opposed to a product.

Customer service may be provided by a person (e.g., sales and service representative), or by automated means called self-service. Examples of self service are Internet sites.Customer service is normally an integral part of a company customer value proposition. Some argue that the quality and level of customer service has decreased in recent years, which can be attributed to a lack of support or understanding at the executive and middle management levels of a corporation and missing of a customer service policy. A service is the diametrically opposed non material counterpiece of a physical good.

A service provision comprises a sequence of activities that does not result in ownership of the outcome, and this is what fundamentally differentiates it from furnishing someone with physical goods. Service provision is a process that creates possessions predetermined benefits by effectuating either a change of service consumers, a change in their physical , [disambiguation needed] or a change in their (in)tangible assets. In the field of marketing, a customer value proposition consists of the sum total of benefits which a vendor promises that a customer will receive in return for the customer's associated payment (or other value-transfer). In simple words: value proposition = what the customer gets for what the customer pays.

Accordingly, a customer can evaluate a company's value-proposition on two broad dimensions with multiple subsets, relative performance: what the customer gets from the vendor relative to a competitor's offering, price: which consists of the payment the customer makes to acquire the product or service, plus the access cost. A customer service advisor, or CSA, (also customer service associate and customer service representative) is a generic job title in the service industry. It covers a variety of customer facing occupations, primarily in call centres and stores. he dichotomy between physical goods and intangible services should not be given too much credence. These are not discrete categories.

Most business theorists see a continuum with pure service on one terminal point and pure commodity good on the other terminal point [citation needed] Most products fall between these two extremes. For example, a restaurant provides a physical good (the food), but also provides services in the form of ambience, the setting and clearing of the table, etc. And although some utilities actually deliver physical goods like water utilities which actually deliver water utilities are usually treated as services.

http://www.ringindia.net/

Merchant Card Processing Services: Benefits For Your Business

2008-10-31T02:25:00.000-07:00

Running a business is never easy and it is important to make sure that you are doing everything you can to maximize your potential in the market place, and also that you are encouraging people to purchase products from you. Having a merchant card processing service is definitely something that can provide you with these elements.

Most small businesses may want to avoid accepting credit cards because they believe the fees to be too high for them to be able to afford. This may at one time have been the case where you were required to have a separate merchant account with each one of the companies that you were accepting cards from.

This is no longer the case and now you can use a merchant card processing service to handle all the credit cards you want to be able to take from a single account with a single fee. This simplifies the process and makes it significantly cheaper to be able to accept the types of payments that are going to encourage people to shop at your store.

If you have an internet based store or if you are completely based on the web, then you definitely need to consider a merchant card processing service. The majority of people purchase things on credit and it is convenient to be able to pay for purchases this way. They do not have to deal with check or have to deal with cash.

As a result, they are more likely to purchase from a business that offers the capability of taking credit card payments than they are going to be from a company that does not accept them. This is especially true now that hundreds of businesses are springing up on the web that is offering everything including services.

Merchant card processing services simplify things both for you and the customer. You have customer support, you have the ability to take cards and you have the ability to keep track of transactions and the added benefit of knowing that you are not going to have to wait for checks to clear and wait for bounced check payments.

You also have all the different cards you accept under one account, one bill, and one fee making it a streamlined and simplified process. You can also for web based stores use the merchant tools provided by most merchant card processing services that offer online support to help maximize your business by providing a secure place for people to make their payments and store their orders.

These are some benefits of using a merchant card processing service. You do need to find the right one for you so you may want to research and talk to the various processing companies out there and see which one best suit the needs of you and your business.

Running a business is never easy and being able to accept credit cards has always been something that was out of reach for most small businesses. However, thanks to the streamlined processes provided by these types of processing services, even the smallest of businesses have the ability to accept credit cards.

Alan Largo is the creator and administrator of Better Solutions and strives to assist others identify with an ever-expanding internet marketing presence through informative reviews. You are invited to visit http://www.squidoo.com/authorizenet to read his most recent article review.

Customer Service - A Lost Art?

2008-08-19T19:30:00.000-07:00

by Craig Binkley

Copyright 2006 Craig Binkley

Is customer service a lost art? Before you answer that question, take a moment and think about the last few times you have gone shopping or out to dinner. Okay, now that you have really thought about it, is your answer any different?

Why is it that when we actually DO receive excellent customer service that it makes such an impression on us that we usually choose to go back? Why - because the occurrences are so few and far between!!!

As a home business owner, it is imperative to my business that customer service is ALWAYS a top priority. Remember the saying: “If you don’t take care of your customer, somebody else will”. I’m sure you have read or heard it somewhere before.....and how true it is.

Here are a few ways to improve customer service at your business:

1) SMILE - Sounds too simple, right? As a customer, would you prefer to be serviced by a smiling face, or a scowl that would befit a guard dog?

2) LISTEN - Always be slow to speak and quick to listen. Let customers express themselves without you trying to do it for them. Nobody likes being interrupted.

3) DON’T BE TOO PUSHY - Yeah, I know - the bottom line is sales, right?

There is a fine line between suggesting products/services and pushing them down a customer’s throat. If you are too pushy, your customer will probably walk away and take their business elsewhere.

4) PHONE ETTIQUETTE - Whether you are answering or initiating a call, always remember who the customer is. Be polite. Try “Yes sir/ma’am” instead of “yeah” and “nope”. If you don’t have an answer for your customer - offer to do some research to find what they are inquiring about.

5) THANK YOU - ALWAYS thank your customers. Even if you could not help them or they decided not to purchase from you. Leave them with a positive impression of your business before they leave.

6) TRAINING - Train your employees. Don’t let an untrained employee ruin your track record of excellent customer service. Train your employees on-the-job for as long as necessary to teach them good customer service.

“And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise” Luke 6:31

In conclusion: Customer service may be THE most important aspect of your business plan. I know of many people who are willing to pay a little more for a product or service in order receive excellent customer care. Price, advertising, and location are all vital to a business---- but whatever you do, don’t overlook the all-important “Good Customer Service”.

Craig Binkley - husband, father and home business owner. Visit his Work From Home Directory at http://www.workfromhomehelper.com for legitimate work from home opportunities and ideas.

Article Source: http://www.upublish.info

Company Policy Does More Damage to Customer Service Than Anything Else

2008-08-14T23:47:00.001-07:00

by Alan Boyer

As a customer service consultant I see things across many companies that most companies don’t see while working inside the company.

o Company Policy
One of the biggest problems is “company policy.” Many company policies are structured to protect the company from the customer instead of helping the customer get what he wants and has paid for. Your success will explode when your company, and your employees are structured with the customers’ wants and needs in mind.

As a customer how many times have you been talking with a sales person, or a customer service rep and hear “sorry we can’t do that, company policy.” A barrier was thrown up between what you think is only reasonable and the company. For me, I’m out of there.

Is the problem “company policy” or is it the employee? It can go either way. Often employees are trying hard to do the job the way they understand it, which can often be that they are there to protect the company from the customer trying to take advantage. That isn’t saying that employee is a “bad” employee. Only that he doesn’t understand what he should be doing. That’s where proper employee training comes in.

o Employee Responsibility
It is the job of the people in your company that are in direct contact with the customers
To discover and understand what the customer really wants, and
Deliver what the customer really wants

When your employee says “can’t…company policy” he has put a barrier up between the customer and you. The customer can no longer get what he wants, at least not from your company.

o Executive or Owner View
I know…I know…I’m hearing the roar from the executive peanut gallery…You’ve got to make a profit. Well, let me make something clear hear…you aren’t going to make a profit, or at least not as much profit if you aren’t satisfying the customer. So, what I’m saying is to teach your people how to listen to the customer. Change their perspective from “protecting the company from the stupid customer” to one of ALWAYS finding a way to help the customer get what he wants.

o Employee Listening to Customer…Communicating Needs to Company
Your employee should be the conduit through the maze of company policies. He knows what the customer needs, he knows what the company policies are, and his job is to take that customer through those company policies to get the customer where he wants to be. He isn’t a policeman stopping the customer at the gate. That hampers the customer. The first helps the customer.

o When Company Policy IS the Barrier
What happens if the company policy truly is a barrier? Then the employee should be the conduit to the company policy setters to help them understand how the company as a whole can better serve the customer by changing company policy.

I am in no way saying, “don’t make a profit.” But when company policy is set up to protect the company from the customer instead of helping the customer your profits will decline. A customer usually only wants what is reasonable.

The solution to company policy barrier: Make sure that your employees are empowered

o To solve the customer problem
o To communicate to the company how the company policy can improve the customer satisfaction instead of impede it.

Come to http://www.leaders-perspective.com/Customer-Service-Training.aspx for Hints and Tips to Improve Customer Service.

Leader's Perspective
Helping People/Companies Reach Further ..FASTER

Article Source: http://www.upublish.info

Work From Home Customer Service

2008-08-06T22:28:00.001-07:00

by Daniel Blask

It has always been important to make sure that as you find a work from home job, you are finding one that truly matches your needs and is truly what you would like it to be. Your ideal work at home job should be a job that you are already good at, and one that you can easily do from home... The people who have the most success at work form home jobs are able to find jobs that they already know how to do, or jobs that they are already doing, and turn them into work at home jobs. Therefore, if you are interested in work from home customer service jobs, you already know that you are going to have a good shot at finding good work. There are plenty of reasons that you will be able to find good work from home customer service jobs, and these reasons include being able to finally find the type of work that you were looking for, as well as being able to make the most out of the situations that you are in...

If you are already good at customer service, you know that there are a few things that you like about the job, things that set the job apart from other jobs that you might have had. These are probably things that make you keep wanting to do these customer service jobs – even if you think that you've already found another job that you like. When you are doing work from home customer service jobs, you are going to be able to keep on doing these things that you love to do, and you will find that they are even better when you work from home. Most of the work from home customer service jobs are fairly easy to get into, and you can do them easily from home.

The reason that there are many work from home customer service jobs is that customer service is mainly a job that is done either on the phone or on the internet. This means that a company can hire you to do the same thing that you would do in an office from your home. The first thing that you have to do is learn how to run the program or learn how the company or service works, so that you know how to help people when they call. There are work from home customer service jobs for any type of industry. You might be hired as a phone manager to take phone calls and direct them to other places. Or, you might be hired as someone to help people when they are having problems with a product. No matter what, your job as a work from home customer service job will be to help people when they need it. This is probably what you like about customer service to begin with, and you will get to have even more experience with it as you are working through it in work from home customer service jobs and other situations.

Daniel Blask is a Home Business Guru and is owner of several websites. He writes on many subjects and recommends: http://www.bigmoneycentral.com/ &
http://www.bigmoneycentral.com/business/

Article Source: http://www.upublish.info

Quality of Customer Service is Most Important

2008-07-29T06:00:00.001-07:00

by James Hunt

For those of you who are working in a customer service industry, the quality of that customer service itself is the most important aspect of the job. People respond positively to good customer service. IF you are a business owner then you know how the saying goes, it’s easier to keep a customer, as it is to get a new customer. In order to keep your customers and build up some form of clientele that feels loyal to your company. Therefore you must put in the time and effort to keep your customers and your level of customer service up to where it should be.

In most areas of customer service there will be some time on the phone. If your job requires you to place and receive phone calls, you must ensure that you are always polite and customers. This is a great time to strengthen the relationship between the owner and the customer. Customer’s respond better to a business owner who is approachable and interested in their lives then someone who seems bothered and rushed. However, there are those that can become annoyed when the customer service representative becomes too personal. For those people who are in the customer service area, they should attempt to find a happy medium between being too friendly and not friendly at all.

At times in the customer service industry you will come into contact with less than satisfied customers. These people may become angry and they may yell. Sometimes it is hard to contain yourself and you might want to argue back. However, when you are working as a customer service representative then you must be able to control yourself. You should never interrupt an irate customer. If they are getting angry with you then you should just let them vent. Let them have their say and once they are done you can begin explaining what you can do to help solve the problem. The key to customer service is to always be obliging and polite.

James Hunt has spent 15 years as a professional writer and researcher covering stories that cover a whole spectrum of interest.
Read more at www.customer-service-central.info

Article Source: http://www.upublish.info

Construction contractors

2008-03-03T12:40:00.000-08:00

Construction contractor directory.

Three Steps to Success in Internet Marketing

2008-02-22T12:48:00.000-08:00

Online marketing is much more than putting your advertising online. Marketing online includes such areas as communicating with your customers, promoting your business or product online, and making sure that your website content is useful and up to date. The great thing about online marketing is that you don't need to have a huge budget to put together a marketing campaign that is effective. There are tools that you can use to make your marketing techniques easy and profitable such website templates, shopping cart templates, and online marketing templates.

But before you incorporate any of this, there are some important points to consider for creating a successful internet marketing business.

Step One: Communication - One of the most important aspects of online marketing is response to your customer's inquiries and needs. You don't want to lose potential customers after you've made the effort to have them visit your website and then contact you for more information or repeat customers who have purchased a product and need assistance. E-mail is a very effective and cost efficient way for you to generate more sales and communicate with your customers. But you must be prompt and consistent in your response and maintain a friendly yet professional tone. Efficient websites incorporate a personal touch with a fast response time to customers. Reasonable response time for a business day contact is 24-48 hours. If you wait any longer you risk losing the customer. So consider your work plan well. If you don't have the ability or the man power to return e-mail in two days you need to take another look at your setup and either reorganize your business or hire someone to help you.

Step Two: Products and Services - Before you start marketing online you need to be sure that you have a product or service that people want to buy. Customers need to find value in what you have to offer, whether it be your free report that sells your own product or your direct sales product or service you have to offer. There are two motivating factors when it comes to selling online: cost and convenience. Will your customer find it easier to buy online than finding the same product in a local store? Is it cheaper for your customer to buy this product from you online?

Step Three: Delivery - Is instant delivery a selling factor that can turn the tables for you in offering your product? Would your potential customer be more inclined to purchase from you if you offer your service within 24-48 hours? Convenience, instant access, and quick service are key selling points and can mean the difference in you getting a sale or losing a customer. Test your system. Make sure it is user-friendly, easy to understand, functioning as promised.

Online success starts with the building blocks of business design. Put yourself in your customers shoes. Communicate with your customers, offer them what they need at a great price and with quick, if not instant, delivery and you will have the three keys necessary to open the door to online business success.

Cynthia Mosher has been working online since 1998. She shares her advice on working at home and internet and affiliate marketing at her website http://www.wahmdaily.com

Dealing With Buyers Remorse - Returns and Refunds

2008-02-19T07:48:00.000-08:00

Requests for returns and refunds are one of the most damaging aspects in the profits of any direct marketing business. You waste a good deal of your time, efforts and funding on these two courtesies.

Keep in mind that all businesses endure some degree of this problem and many do nothing about it. Many businesses a simply accept returned merchandise and refund requests as a normal business cycle. It is as if they can think of nothing to solve this expensive scenario.

On the contrary, you can do plenty to reduce returns and refunds drastically. I am about to tell you how you can eliminate the majority of them. It is a simple and painless process.

To be able to understand what causes an excess of return and refund requests, you must first know what does not cause them to happen.

Returns and refunds are not the cause of rendering poor service or faulty good, since a little time, care and concern guarantee quality in the services and products you offer.

Dishonest consumers do not cause them, although you may come across a shady character from time to time. The majority of your consumers are those who are searching and satisfied with getting honest value for the price they pay.

Customers searching for a better price somewhere else does not cause them, although, pricing is an element in selecting merchandise for purchase. However, this is rarely the reasoning for a customers decision of returns or refunds.

If none of these aspects is the single, most reason for the largest number of return and refund request, then what is.

The reason is buyers remorse.

Yes, it is true; buyers remorse is the leading factor or returns and refunds. This is enough to send shivers up and down your spine. Buyers remorse is your powerful and rotten opposition.

The explanation for this is that all the reasons mentioned above are reasonable, matter-of-fact problem situations that have logical and practical solutions. They are much easier to overcome. On the other hand, buyers remorse is a more difficult problem with an even more complex solution. Buyers remorse is emotional in nature. Therefore, buyers remorse will not find a solution with any amount of logical and sensible problem solving.

To understand the strong influence of buyers remorse, you will need to understand when it occurs. Buyers remorse occurs the moment, of a completed transaction of purchase.

You will find this true when a customer makes a purchase on an explicit decision rather than that of an implicit decision. An explicit decision is, when outside sources influence your customer, while an implicit decision is one that the customer makes on their own.

Of course this is a completely other topic on its own and we shall now leave it at that, for the moment.

Buyers remorse causes fear in the customer as soon as they have completed their purchase, the moment that money changes hands.

However, the good news is that you can turn this type of scenario around quiet easily. However, you must use the right tools to accomplish this. I am sharing this tool with you now. It is a powerful fast moving tool.

This tool is post purchase reassurance.

Post Purchase Reassurance

Post purchase reassurance indicates you understand that customers will suffer from buyers remorse. It also indicates that you recognize this problem comes from their emotions. Once you understand this, you can take creative action to eliminate the unfortunate influence it has.

To achieve your post purchase reassurance goals, you will need to create and send a very personal follow up letter to your consumers, soon after they have made their purchase. You will also benefit by giving away special reports and bonus products in your letter to your consumers.

You can deal with buyers remorse, while eliminating the amount of returns and refunds you might incur. Do it now!

Kevin Sinclair is the publisher and editor of Be Successful News, a site that provides information and articles on how to succeed in your own home or small business. http://besuccessfulnews.com/

Design Your Offering to Be Friendlier to Do-It-Yourselfers

2008-02-17T10:48:00.000-08:00

The people who design offerings are often the worst people to design do-it-yourself directions for beneficiaries, customers, and users. Why? Designers know too much! They can help themselves very easily. But do-it-yourself features aren't going to do much good unless they are easy for everyone to use.

What's a good way to make offerings more do-it-yourself friendly? Prompt the person with what they need to do next.

If you've ever stood behind the lectern at a large event, you may have noticed that the two big sheets of glass at either side of the lectern are actually screens to run the text of a speech. To the audience, these look like slightly unattractive decorations.

To the speakers, there are prompters. If you lose your place in your speech or cannot remember enough to approximate the text, you can glance at the prompter and get back on track. In the same way, you can post prompts for using your offering from beginning to end.

If no one needs the prompts, the prompts will be ignored. If prompts are helpful, they will be eagerly sought out and appreciated when needed.

If possible, make your prompts simple. For example, "yes" or "no" choices help. A computer screen might ask, "Do you want to save the changes you made?" Or for our MP3 player, it might ask, "Do you want to save this recording on your computer?"

If we hit "yes" that would take us into a step-by-step demonstration of what to do next. Each screen would then give us the choice of whether to continue or not. A more advanced set of prompts might allow us the choice not to be asked a particular question again the next time we come through a screen.

A better approach is to make your offering self-sufficient for do-it-yourselfers by designing for simpler use. That may sound like an obvious point, but few organizations put any emphasis on simple use.

Why? Those who work on the project have different objectives. Designers frequently want the offering to appear to be "cool" while the engineers want an elegant design that other engineers will admire. The operating executives want an offering that's easy for them to provide. The accountants want the offering provider's costs to be low. Pursuing such objectives will normally lead to an offering that's unnecessarily complex and time-consuming for beneficiaries, customers, and users to employ.

What's the difference you should seek? Designed-in prompts can take you through a complex process. Make the process simpler to begin with, and you may not need to use any prompts.

For instance, those who want to make voice recordings as their primary use could be offered a different MP3 recorder designed solely for voice recordings that will be e-mailed. This recorder could have buttons resembling those on a tape recorder.

The player's software could then automatically segment the recordings into 15-minute sections for easier handling of the files as e-mail attachments. With the right design a beneficiary, customer, or user would be taking the right steps within a few seconds of popping in the battery. Few would miss going through hours of advance preparation for a recording.

Here's another idea: Have someone who wears reading glasses help design your offering. In the race to miniaturize almost everything, the symbols and words on some devices are becoming microscopic to those who wear reading glasses. All 16-year-olds will do well with the miniaturization, but few people over 50 will be able to make out what's being communicated.

Finally, make your offering more mistake-proof. Have you ever looked at those plug-in sockets at the back of your computer? If not, take a look.

Sometime when your system is off, take out the various wires and inspect how the sockets vary for different devices that are attached to your computer. It looks like someone with a weird taste for modern art has been at work. Actually, the reason is far more practical.

If you make the sockets unique enough, no one will plug a device into a socket that will cause harm to your computer. To speed finding that unique receptacle, you'll usually find that the plugs and sockets are color-coded to aid those who aren't color blind.

In other words, the computer makers realized that most people would be putting their computer systems together on their own. You need to make such a do-it-yourself step foolproof. Otherwise, manufacturers know that they will simply be receiving back a lot of computers that have been destroyed during the installation process.

How can you make using your offerings simpler, more fool-proof, and more fun?

Donald Mitchell is an author of seven books including Adventures of an Optimist and The 2,000 Percent Squared Solution. Read about creating breakthroughs through 2,000 percent solutions and receive tips by e-mail by registering for free at

http://www.2000percentsolution.com .

Make Doing-It-Yourself Faster Than Getting Help in the Usual Way

2008-02-14T22:55:00.000-08:00

What benefits can come from having beneficiaries, customers, and users doing more for themselves? In our harried lives, most people favor doing things themselves when that action saves their time.

That observation seems like a paradox. How can do-it-yourself be faster than having a service fully provided?

Part of the answer is that many offerings with full service are provided inefficiently. Here's an example: Half the gas stations and vehicle repair shops near our home prominently advertise low-priced oil changes.

Go for one of those oil changes, and you'll probably end up waiting two hours, even if you have an appointment. Be sure to bring a book or pick a location near where you can do some useful shopping.

Every 5 miles or so we drive, however, we'll pass another choice -- a quick oil-change emporium. If no one is waiting at the quick place, you can drive right into a bay designed to make oil changes fast. Unless you decide you want some other service, you'll drive out of the bay again in about 10 minutes and be on your way.

What are the do-it-yourself elements? First, the quick emporium makes the timing of oil changes an impulse buy through allowing passing drivers to see when fast service is available because no customers are waiting. That aspect of the business model is like being a mass merchandiser. The customer helps himself or herself to an offering based on noticing the offering, rather than having a prior intent to purchase.

Second, the drivers never leave their cars. In essence, it's like an improved version of a drive-through lane at a fast food restaurant.

We are often reminded of that comparison when we end up waiting in line longer for fast food in a drive-through lane than for an oil change. In part that's because quick change places usually have at least three bays while fast food drive-through lanes usually have only one line served by a single window.

For the customer whose time has an economic value to herself or himself, the quick oil change emporiums offer a good value. You save almost two hours over standard "full service" by spending an extra $10 to $15.

Do-it-yourself time savings can be even greater for accessing a physician to help you solve a medical problem. Let's look at an inefficient method first.

In the United States, seeking most such health solutions begins by visiting your primary care physician who is usually a general practitioner, an internist, or a pediatrician (for children). Primary care physicians are busy people, so you won't get to see them for at least two weeks unless you are experiencing a near-emergency. Once there, you are sent out for tests.

Depending on the test results, you either come back to the primary care physician or are sent on to a specialist. If it's still not a near-emergency, you will wait one to six months to see the specialist. The specialist will then examine you and order more tests.

Once the second round of tests is done, you'll have another chance to make an appointment and see the specialist again in one to six months. At this point, you've been pursuing this health issue for more than two months, and no one has started to treat what's wrong with you.

When you return for your second specialist visit, you can expect in some cases to be referred to one or two other specialists. Of course, unless it's a near emergency, you cannot get into see them either for another one to six months.

After those visits and tests are over, you make an appointment to see the first specialist again. Once again, you wait one to six months. Chances are, too, that each time you visit one of these physicians, you wait to be seen.

Between travel, tests, waiting time, and more travel, you may have invested four days of your time by now. Hopefully, your medical problem has gone away on its own. Otherwise, you're on a three-month to two-year treadmill that may or may not lead to a solution.

What's the alternative? One choice that many people favor is to visit one of the famous diagnostic clinics. You'll be poked and prodded continually for two to three days, and you'll pay quite a lot out of your own pocket for the visit.

But you won't leave until all of your physicians have received strict marching orders from the clinic for how to treat you. If you really need medical treatment, you're now way ahead of the game.

What's the problem? You may have to wait six months to a year to get an appointment at the diagnostic clinic. But that can be a big improvement over two years that may lead to inconclusive results. Some people gain an access advantage by simply scheduling annual checkups at such clinics.

What's a faster, less time-consuming alternative? Conjure up a scary symptom, and you can simply head for the emergency room of the best hospital in your area. If your problem is serious, you'll be admitted to the hospital within hours and you'll have specialists checking you out within 24 hours.

Tests will also be accelerated. Two years of waiting may be compressed into a few days in the hospital.

As you can imagine, this do-it-yourself approach to health care is increasingly popular in the United States. Emergency rooms are overwhelmed with people, most of whom don't need to be seen there. But the appeal of fast service brings patients in, much like the quick lube place with no lines.

Recently, more hospitals are getting smarter about this back door into accelerated care and now locate general-purpose outpatient clinics next to their emergency rooms. As you enter the emergency room area, a triage nurse figures out if you are well enough to go to the outpatient clinic and wait to be seen on a first-come, first-served basis.

This choice does speed things up for the patient by eliminating the need to wait to see your primary care physician when she or he next has an appointment opening. If such clinics can learn to affordably help people track down their health-care solutions faster and by spending less time, many patients will flock to these clinics.

Donald Mitchell is an author of seven books including Adventures of an Optimist and The 2,000 Percent Squared Solution. Read about creating breakthroughs through 2,000 percent solutions and receive tips by e-mail by registering for free at

http://www.2000percentsolution.com .

Add Desirable Do-It-Yourself Features to Lower Costs and Add Customers

2008-02-14T22:54:00.001-08:00

I acted and my action made me wise. --Thom Gunn

If beneficiaries, customers, and users can help themselves, costs can fall while satisfaction rises. For instance, some stores now offer the experience of being a potter. Everything you need to make and decorate a pot is there, and your artistic creation can be carried away to use after it has been fired and cooled by the store's staff.

Selling you a decorated pot simply wouldn't be the same. This experiential approach is also a lot cheaper and less time-consuming than taking a pottery course. With plenty of written directions at the work stations and people you can ask for help, customers find it easy and pleasant to create pots.

But many organizations start with the idea of people helping themselves to reduce costs and fail to execute well. Why? Setting up workable do-it-yourself conditions is hard to do.

Here's an example: Promises are sometimes easier made than kept. That's a lesson I learned the hard way when I founded The Billionaire Entrepreneurs' Master Mind.

Members were promised that they would receive recordings of all the group's teleconferences in MP3 format. Why did I promise that? Because the teleseminar-based courses I have taken provide replays in MP3 format. I liked listening to those replays and thought that such recordings must be the best way to go.

After touring more store shelves than I would have liked, I picked up a few boxes from a section that said "MP3 recorders" and bought the version that a wandering teenage clerk told us would serve this application. Since the first teleconference was now less than 14 hours away, I opened up the box and began to read the directions.

Good news! There was a separate owner's manual to make a "fast start" and I soon had the item charged up and running.

But after the fourth "fast start" step, I could never get the control screen to change to the one shown in the manual. Frustration was setting in. More buttons were pushed and different batteries were tried. A flashlight was used to inspect the minute buttons but revealed nothing helpful.

Then I eventually noticed that the "screen" was actually a piece of protective plastic with a printed imitation of a real screen on it. Peel off that plastic, and you could see that the actual screen was showing just what it was supposed to . . . as the owner's manual promised. But there was no mention anywhere of an opaque printed plastic strip pretending to be a real screen that needed to be removed. That item of missing information was strike one against that manual.

In baseball, a batter is out if three strikes are recorded against him or her. Americans often accept three failures from organizations and directions before concluding that there has been unacceptable performance.

Feeling more confident, I decided to test the player to be sure it was recording. I read the manual from cover to cover and learned how to record voices. I next did the "testing, 1, 2, 3" routine as a voice check.

But I could find no place where the operating manual told us how to play back and listen to voice recordings. I could see that something was happening when I recorded my voice, but without hearing a playback I could not figure out how the sound quality needed to be adjusted. That lack of information about voice playback was strike two against that manual.

Feeling less confident, I decided to also use a regular tape recorder for the teleconference in case the MP3 recorder wasn't working properly. With both recorders appearing to function, the first teleconference took place and was recorded. A great sense of relief set in. Now all I had to do was to send out the MP3 recording.

I reread the manual a few more times and couldn't find any description of how to send an MP3 voice recording to someone else over the Internet. Thinking that I had just reached strike three, which would mean pitching the recorder out or going back for a refund, I noticed a 5-inch by 5-inch piece of orange paper that said in large letters: "TOP! Having Trouble? Before you return it . . . Contact our Web site. We Can Help."

Okay, now perhaps I was getting somewhere. I visited the Web site and felt pretty good until I realized that all of the information there was a PDF version of the owner"s manual I had already read more often than the Bible. Strike three was clearly headed for the plate when I noticed in tiny type on the orange sheet a toll-free number to call.

Picking up the telephone with shaky fingers, I soon reached someone who calmly asked what the problem was. I told him, and without pausing he told me the eight required steps. He double checked to be sure the steps worked, and I was off the phone in less than two minutes.

Wow! I was about to score. The MP3 file was quickly loaded onto the computer and I could listen to its lovely quality. Ah! Relief was setting in.

Quickly opening an e-mail program, I began attaching the file to e-mail for the members. After grinding and grinding through the attachment loading process, nothing happened. After six false starts, I noticed that the file seemed to be too big for my service.

No problem. We would just compress the file.

After finding out how to do that, I tried to attach and send the file again. The same problem occurred. Feeling a little panicked, I bought the upgraded e-mail service that allows e-mailers to send huge files. You guessed it. The file was still too big.

Here's what I began to understand. The reason that MP3 files sound so good is because they record vast amounts of sound details. But within 15 minutes, you've got more data than most e-mail accounts will send or accept.

No wonder those course replay MP3 recordings we had been listening to always divided the material into 20 to 25 minute segments. Also, the courses never sent us the files by e-mail. The courses always directed us to sites where we could download the files.

Did the MP3 recorder manual mention this issue? No, of course not. So I had a file I couldn't share electronically unless I posted it to a Web site (not a very secure solution) or burned the file onto CDs and physically shipped those all over the world.

And so I needed a plan B for electronically sending this recording. Thank goodness for that tape recording. I played the recorded tape back in 15-minute segments and recorded each segment as a separate MP3 file.

Then I e-mailed five times to the members to send them all the segments as attachments. Naturally, I overloaded many of their accounts with data, too. One poor fellow had his segments sent to three different addresses before he received a complete set.

But I did succeed in keeping my promise. Fortunately, this story has a happy ending . . . if you overlook the nine hours dedicated to buying the player, learning how to make it work, and sending the eventual files to our members.

Thom Gunn was right. I acted and that action made me wise. But that wisdom came from an unexpected direction. Mainly myr actions made me wise about how to write this chapter to help you avoid the mistakes that many make in adding do-it-yourself features to their offerings.

Donald Mitchell is an author of seven books including Adventures of an Optimist and The 2,000 Percent Squared Solution. Read about creating breakthroughs through 2,000 percent solutions and receive tips by e-mail by registering for free at

http://www.2000percentsolution.com .

Follow the Rules of the Road for Helpful Do-It-Yourself Owners' Manuals

2008-02-14T22:54:00.000-08:00

Because of potential lawsuits related to harm caused by misusing an offering, few will decide to avoid providing directions. For elaborate offerings, owners' manuals will be required.

In addition, some of your beneficiaries, customers, and users will want to refer to these directions and manuals whether or not they need the help. Rather than providing directions and manuals that become the butt of comedians' jokes, how can you turn on people to using do-it-yourself features?

Many newer vehicles now have global positioning satellite (GPS) systems that provide driving directions. You input your destination and the system spells out a route for you and displays a map.

Those systems do something even more helpful. When you miss a turn, you can quickly get revised directions.

This capability can help overcome a problem that most people have experienced. With preset directions, you may find yourself driving extra miles simply to arrive back at where you missed a turn.

After not following a direction, a GPS system may locate a new route that will eliminate most of the looping back to where you made a mistake. That iterative quality of GPS directions relieves a lot of frustration as well as saving needless backtracking.

Directions and manuals can be designed to operate in a similar way. As soon as you're stuck or seem to have made a mistake, your directions could be quickly adjusted to tell you what to do next.

That interaction would be a great help. Many people don't realize they've made a mistake until after doing a lot of work that then needs to be undone. The best way to provide these error-recovery messages would be to have the directions or the manual actively monitor the offering and what you are doing with it.

Not everyone prefers the same format for directions and instructions. Naturally, some people will want to have a written manual. They are used to that approach.

What are the lessons? Make that manual's index as complete as possible. Few people other than your proofreaders will examine the manual from cover to cover.

Most people will have a question or a problem with your offering at some point. When that happens, people want to turn immediately to the most helpful page.

One nice feature of some manuals is to have more than one indexing system. For instance, sections may be color coded at the edge of the page for their subject matters. Die cuts may help you find the first page of a section like the ones you use to put your thumb into a physical dictionary to find the first page for a letter of the alphabet.

Other manuals also employ symbols to identify locations. These symbols often match icons on the offering itself such as a stylized image of windshield wipers. Of course, the page that most people latch onto is the index where all of the most common problems are listed along with a cross-reference to where the relevant do-it-yourself details can be found.

With more and more offerings, it's also possible to include an electronic directory inside the offering that can be queried in a manner similar to employing an online search engine. That approach is of great value when you are using the offering in a different location from where you normally keep your directions and manuals.

Many times, it's just not convenient to carry around all of the relevant information because it's so bulky. How many people, for instance, carry around telephone directories in their vehicles?

Think of how many times you've been traveling and needed to contact a certain type of local business for which you don't have any names or telephone numbers. If there's a classified directory near a pay phone, you're all set. But if someone has torn out the page you need or there's no directory in sight, you have a lot of potential frustration and wasted time ahead of you as you work with directory assistance and begin making calls.

Another advantage of electronic directories is that you can inexpensively update and bookmark them. When you become aware of new issues or locate better information for ordinary problems and tasks, you can adjust your directory. Make those updates automatic (such as anti-virus programs do) to bookmarked pages, and you're making do-it-yourself more and more desirable.

But there are times when reading just doesn't make sense. For instance, it's a good idea to stop your vehicle before you read anything other than a road sign.

But you may not be able to safely stop when you need immediate information. That's when voice-based information systems can be a great resource.

A helpful version of such a resource works just like an electronic directory except that you speak to the resource and listen to the answers. Many credit card information lines now have this technology.

General Motors provides this kind of help in another way through its OnStar services. At the push of a button, OnStar allows you to be in voice communication with operators who can assist you with a variety of driving needs. Operators can remotely unlock your vehicle when you've left the keys inside or provide emergency advice and assistance after you've had an accident.

However you provide your information, connect together everything the do-it-yourselfer will need. Switching back and forth among six different information sources or sections in a manual isn't going to do the trick when your vehicle is broken down after dark in a scary location while your eight children in the back noisily demand their dinners.

Here are questions to make it easier for people to succeed in helping themselves with your offerings:

-How can you help beneficiaries, customers, and users save time by doing things for themselves rather than getting help in the usual ways?

-What features will make do-it-yourself solutions easier and more engaging?

-Who can help you design do-it-yourself features for offerings that are very simple to use?

-How many simple ways can you provide helpful directions, manuals, and assistance that fit the needs of a do-it-yourself moment?

Donald Mitchell is an author of seven books including Adventures of an Optimist and The 2,000 Percent Squared Solution. Read about creating breakthroughs through 2,000 percent solutions and receive tips by e-mail by registering for free at

http://www.2000percentsolution.com .