Archive for Business

5DC (Dalia Cracken) | June 17, 2010
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Next Day Blinds Customer Service

Customer service is a big part of what makes us shop at certain stores and utilize particular services. When we feel that our needs have been met, or exceeded, and our position as a customer has been valued, we feel inclined to not only return, but to spread the word about the phenomenal customer service we have received.

This was the case with Kristin. Having received a tip from an online blog site, she decided to purchase some custom blinds from Next Day Blinds. Everything went very smoothly through the ordering and installation process. All of the employees were very professional. A couple of days later she received an unexpected visit from someone from Next Day Blinds. They wanted to know if she was satisfied with the blinds and if they were installed and working properly. She explained that everything was exactly as she had ordered and that yes everything was installed and working properly; although the style didn’t fit quite as well as she planned, which she acknowledged was completely her own fault not Next Day Blinds. The following day she had another surprise. She received a call from her customer service rep who explained that the visitor the day before had been the Vice President of Next Day Blinds and that they would like to replace the blinds for her, even though the problem had not been their fault and had nothing to do with the quality or functionality of the blinds. Amazed by their customer service, Kristin not only decided to keep her blinds but became a loyal Next Day Blinds customer for life.

It is stories like this that should be passed along. Companies that go out of their way to make their customers feel valued and appreciated are the companies that will ultimately achieve success.

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5DC (Dalia Cracken) | May 23, 2010
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What Being a Parent Can Teach You When You Start a Business

When starting up your first business, there are a number of parallels between the relationship between the company and yourself, and the relationship between a child and its mother. You have to remember that in the early years the company is vulnerable and you will probably spend all of your time watching it, working on it, nurturing it, and even sometimes protecting it. Here are a few lessons that you might not get from any training programs in management that will help you manage and run your new business.

Remain patient. It could take a long time of working on your business to get it to grow and thrive. It won’t be able to eat on it’s own, or grow on it’s own without you around, and if you neglect it, it will die. If on the other hand you work with it, it will start to grow without you. There may be new people who help you out — think of these as your child’s friends and their parents. The company will need to be nurtured, but the goal of doing this is not to make you the only one who can run it, rather to make it so you can step down if need be and let it continue to move without you. You can not achieve this without patience.

Everything in time. When a baby is first conceived it takes nine months, give or take, to be born. When your idea is first conceived don’t be discouraged if it takes some time before you can bear it and bring it into this world. More than that, there is a time and a place for other events too. Mother’s wean their kids off breast milk at just the right time, sometime before it starts to rot their baby teeth, but after they can assuredly eat solid foods without a problem. This is not something that happens a couple months after the the baby is born. Set out a time schedule, try to stick to it, but also use your gut and don’t be surprised if the company is ready to move ahead at a slightly different scale. The problem with this analogy is that often times a mother will have intuitive sense about when it’s right to start a kid on new things, after all she can pick up very subtle features from the child that others might not. A company doesn’t get those feelings, so when in doubt, stick by a conservative time schedule.

Remember that while you can learn a lot of business techniques from things outside of the business culture, it is also good to get some business training under your belt if you don’t already have some. This will save you a lot of time trying to figure out the who, what, why, where, when and how in a lot of situations.

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5DC (Dalia Cracken) | May 13, 2010
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Landing the Sale with Effective Presentations

In the world of sales, some things are always changing, and some things will always stay the same. In terms of the latter, what will always stay around are the old-fashioned values that have worked for our forbears, having stood the test of time. These have to do with earning a potential client’s trust, and have more to do with honesty and an open, friendly approach than tricks of the trade. However, when it comes to the tricks of the trade, these are changing all the time, and with a population that is becoming increasingly more savvy with media , this includes the tricks for making an effective presentation.

Presentations training can open up a number of doors for one’s employees, and help to create the perfect dream team, where everyone is performing up to their potential. Because there are so many ways of making effective presentations these days, it’s becoming increasingly important to marry presentation skills with old-fashioned values . Even the most remarkable, even stunning presentations, can be undermined if there is nothing solid at the base to back it up. This means having the confidence in the process necessary to deliver a solid presentation, and that comes from having a solid understanding of the value of the goods being sold.

The goods can be material objects, but they can also be something more intangible, such as an idea, an attitude, or an outlook. This is the point where presentation skills can be further enhanced with customer service training seminars . These offer skills that can reach into many different areas of sales, but can also speak to an organization’s vision in general. Knowing the customer, and knowing how to gain their trust can be further understood in terms of how an audience responds to a presentation. Taken together, they can offer some solid material to build splendid success, and even separately they can offer meaningful and valuable skills toward an efficient and effective company.

Category: Business | Tags: , , ,
5DC (Dalia Cracken) | May 3, 2010
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Transglobe REIT: Making the Most of the Economy

You don’t have to be a financial guru to know that many companies have struggled on the Stock Market in the last couple of years. Although, things are turning around for some, especially the larger companies, others have decided to take matters into their own hands and create their own opportunities. In the past month, Transglobe REIT announced that have take their company public. Transglobe, a real estate investment company that specializes in commercial and residential property in Canada, is ready to take action and seek new opportunities for their company.

Now that they have gone public with their stocks, they will have a greater and more diverse pool of investors that will help them increase their capital. In return this will help them not only with the costs of operating but also taking on new investments and acquisitions. The increased capital will also help ensure that they don’t have to take on any new debt and increase their net worth. This is something that the shareholders can also appreciate because it will help increase the value of their stocks.

For now stocks are only available on the Toronto Stock Exchange, as outlined in their initial prospectus; however, that may change in the future. Canadian investors will be pleased at the reasonable price of the stocks, only $10 a share. But at that price they are sure to go quickly.

One sign of a good company is that they are able to take any situation and turn it into a positive. Transglobe has taken advantage of the unstable market and made the most of it. They are providing new opportunities not only for themselves and their company, but new opportunities for investors as well. This is a company that is worth not only watching but investing in, as there are surely great things to come.

Category: Business |
5DC (Dalia Cracken) | March 30, 2010
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Listening is the Key Element When Handling Customer Complaints

Customer complaints are never fun, but they do not have to be the end of any business relationship especially customer service.  One of the key elements in handling customer complaints, is to ensure that the customer knows that they are being heard.  Great customer service teams will have highly cultivated listening skills.  In some instances, customers will leave frustrated, not voicing their opinions nor their concerns.  But when they do complain, this is actually a good thing, as it gives the team the chance to “make it right”.  This is an opportunity, and when it is thought of in a positive manner such as this, the outcome will too, be a positive one.

So, how does one listen to a customer who may be irate and disgruntled?  The answer is to quite simply, listen and listen well.  In the first few sentences, a customer will often times reveal just how to resolve the issue.  They will say what they want, or what they had wanted but felt they did not receive…be it in the form of a service or in the form of a product.  By quietly listening to what they have to say, you will also be giving them the time to vent.  Angry people, need to vent.  Once they have done that, and once you have listened to them, you can begin to formulate a solution that will leave them satisfied.

There are five simple ways to ensure that a customer is aware that you are listening to them.  One is to not interrupt them.  Let them say what they have to say.  The second tip, is to control your own emotions, and do not let yourself get pulled into arguing with them.  Take notes as you are listening, this third tip will help to keep you focused on finding a solution.  In line with not becoming emotionally involved, stay positive.  In this way, although the customers main complaint may not be something that can be “fixed”, you may find other ways to provide a positive outcome by addressing some of their other concerns.  And in the end, the fifth tip is perhaps the most important, and that is to simply remain honest with the customer.   In the end, complaints are just opportunities, and when they are considered as such, a positive outcome is just about guaranteed.  For more information on finding a customer complaint system…..

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5DC (Dalia Cracken) | February 23, 2010
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Do Lawyers Automatically Make a Lot of Money?

There is a funny misconception these days that going to law school means that you will automatically make a lot of money. This could not be farther from the truth. If someone becomes a small time lawyer, taking on cases in a small town settling civil disputes you may never even see $60,000 a year. This is for several reasons. How much a lawyer gets paid is generally determined by how much he can charge per hour on a case. If the case is mostly civil disputes you can not charge very much money. If the case is a high profile celebrity murder case and you are a team of Orange County lawyers, you have to charge a lot more money, as well as deliver at a higher rate. This is because of what is expected out of you. These expectations come from a number of things including what law school you went to, how well you did, and what cases you have won in the last few years. Location plays a small role, but it can be a noticeable one. Although Phoenix is a larger city it does not compare with New York city. Top notch lawyers in New York make a lot more money than top notch Phoenix lawyers .

Lawyers do generally get paid more with time and this is partially due to the fact that they have more connections with time as well as having a better record. These connections can often be used to settle a case out of court before it becomes embarrassing for the client. Private sector jobs also pay a lot more than public sector jobs. A public defender will make a lot less money per year than a private one. This is partially due to the fact that public defenders are paid out of the tax dollars, but also because bonuses are a large part of how a private sector lawyer gets paid while bonuses are mostly not an option for a public defender. The thing to know when looking at how much a lawyer gets paid if you are thinking of becoming one, is to remember that your salary all starts with how well you do in school, and what sort of job you take. Playing your cards right you can make a lot of money, but there is no guarantee.

Category: Business, Education | Tags: , , ,
5DC (Dalia Cracken) | December 30, 2009
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What is Search Engine Optimization? And How Can it Help You?

It is an Internet world now. Businesses rely on consumers being able to find them online. I, myself, have a Yellow Pages phonebook. I think that it must be about ten years old, and I have not taken it from the cabinet…in about ten years. Information now, is available at the touch of your fingertips. But what if your business is not coming up on the first page of a search? You hire a company that specializes in Search Engine Optimization services . What does this mean? Well, these companies will help to ensure that the traffic and the quality of that traffic to your site, will improve drastically.

The higher up your company’s site appears on a search will greatly affect the number of consumers who will have access to you, who will be able to find you on the vast Web. This is a new form of marketing that reflects our ever-changing and ever-advancing times. The people working for the SEO ( Search Engine Optimization ) firms, take into consideration just how the search engines operate and function, and they keep track of what it is that consumers are searching for on a regular basis.

They keep track of the web crawlers, or the indexing, of the information that is found by browsing the Web. A “web crawler” is a term that is also commonly referred to as a Web spider, a bot, a worm and and ant. Sounds a bit like Mission Impossible , robotic insects and all. Well, these robotic insects provide up to the minute data, and they have a huge effect on the number of people that hit your site. Taken into account is the text and the key words that will increase your site”s relevance to the “bots”.

Those in the SEO industry, know how to optimize the search engines to your company”s and your site”s benefit. This will guarantee the exposure that you need in order to compete for the attention of the robotic insects, and the attention of the consumers, of whom you are wanting to attract. As stated, the phone books have pretty much gone out the window, and a Search Engine Optimization firm will make certain that your company stays in the forefront.

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