Looking to grow your business? The more traditional route is to hire new salespeople so they can get new customers. A more innovative, less costly answer is to improve the service you provide to customers. If you can do something better than your competition, customers will want what you have to offer. You won’t have to sell them on your product or service at all.Here’s why. Customers today are very particular. If they get what they want, when they want it, at a fair price, they’ll do business with you. If you don’t deliver, they will simply go elsewhere.One way to meet this new customer focus is to use better technology. Dell Computers, for example, does a whopping seven million dollars a day in sales over the Internet, by delivering exactly the product a customer needs, at a competitive price, in 48 hours.Most of us, however, don’t use the Internet in such a way. We still rely on good old face-to-face contact. For us, customer interaction skills make all the difference in the world. Just repeating the mantra “The customer is king” doesn’t work anymore. Today, everyone in your business has to deliver on that promise.Take a look at Travel One, the eighth-largest business travel management company in America. With $1 billion in revenues, 1,300 employees, and offices in 50 states and 44 countries, Travel One has an enormous service challenge. To meet it, they have developed their own set of 10 Commandments all employees are expected to live by. Here are three I find particularly helpful:1. Do things right every time.
Each time a mistake is made with a customer, the customer’s business is affected. Most customers are tolerant of a mistake, especially if you’ve built up a bank account of goodwill with them and the mistake was unforeseeable. All you need to do is apologize, make it right, and move forward. If this mistake is part of a pattern of carelessness, be careful. Today’s customers will leave you in a heartbeat, and rightly so.If you’re not dedicated to doing things right every time, you really aren’t caring for your customer’s business. Service is providing what your customers want and doing it right every time.2. Be a service legend.
At Travel One, customer “problems” are opportunities to provide legendary service and build lifetime partners. It never ceases to amaze me that so many businesses blame customers when they present a problem to them. The message is clear: We’ll serve you as long as you give us no problems.Smart companies see customer problems as opportunities to demonstrate how much they care. A customer’s perception is your reality. Travel One’s President Jeff Harrow makes it clear to employees that if a customer thinks you blew it, you blew it. Travel One offers an unconditional service guarantee: “If it’s not right, we’ll apologize, fix it, pay for it, and prevent it from happening again. To date, no one has ever asked for their fees refunded.” With service like this, their customers enthusiastically become patrons (giving them all or most of their business), and then advocates (telling colleagues about the great service they get).3. Be proud, but strive to do better.
This is the mechanism that makes good service providers great. They are proud of what they do but are driven, even obsessed, to do better.They realize that whatever extraordinary service they introduce into the marketplace, if it catches on, will soon become ordinary – everyone will be doing it. The competitive advantage will be lost.Companies like Travel One ask their customers and ask them often: How can we improve to help you improve? They realize that no one ever complains about being treated too nicely, so they constantly come up with new and innovative ways to make customers feel special.There you have it: three ways to help your business climb into the service stratosphere, where companies like Travel One operate. Their last commandment puts all this service talk where it counts – on the level of each individual employee. Travel One’s 10th Commandment is: “To the customer, you are the company.” Small wonder customers love doing business with companies like this.
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Expediency of Mobile Phones
The need to carry your own mobile phone is as natural as having your wallet on your pocket. It a gadget you can’t live without if you are a “techie person”. It is like bringing your secretary anywhere you go. It is no longer just a plain device made for calls. With the speed of the latest innovations in mobile technology, one can already make their mobile phones as their personal computer.Today, mobile phone trends change so fast. Even before the new one comes out in the market, another latest discovery out do the previous innovation. Blueberry for example is a mobile platform that has the same role as the personal computer. With it, users can store messages and important data, browse the internet, and access the emails. Mobile phones also have the same storage capacity as the first released computer hard disks.CommunicationCommunication is one fundamental job of a mobile phone. It makes people to be available anytime when there is a need for them to reach each other. One can connect with others through text messages, phone calls or even through mobile email. It is now much easier to be in touch with anyone, anywhere in the globe. It also quickens business transactions, information dissemination, updates, and all that. This results to a more effective and efficient decisions and accurate details.EntertainmentMobiles are not just for business related applications. They have different features that suit any types of users. Mobile companies tailored numerous types of mobile phones according to the people’s preferences. There are mobile phones for coach potatoes. For people who do not want to miss their favorite television series, handsets that offer feature of a television are available.For those who can’t live without music in their life, there is a bulk of mobile models to choose from. These models can store long play lists of audio and video that can be played over and over again. While mobile games are as addictive as computer games, you can be present anywhere and still enjoy your favorite games. What’s more, you can always bear a long line up waiting for your turn with your mobile games.Personal Assistance
Forgetting vital information, occasions, meetings, or other minute details can be stressful. Everyone is guilty of this and having someone to remind you of these things can be valuable. However, no one can always keep track of everything unless you have a personal secretary. Basic tools such as calculator, stop watch, and alarm clock are not very practical to bring along with you. But having your handset on your side is a relief if need to use any of these tools come up. Moreover, keeping a list of contacts is so crucial and having it saved on your mobile’s phonebook can keep you from much trouble. All these, your mobile phone can virtually be and do for you.Accessibility to technologyYour handy phone can have you access to diverse technologies obtainable. You can transact with your bank by using your phone. This is called mobile banking. Mobile banking is processed by sending a coded message to a designated number. This message is sent to the bank’s system to process. A confirmation will be sent to a subscriber if the transaction is processed successfully or not.Through mobile banking one can:1. Inquire bank balances
2. Transfer Money
3. Purchase
4. Pay billsWith all these conveniences brought about by mobile phones, they are no longer a luxury but a necessity in a highly urbanized world.
To Start A Small Business You Need To Hire A Business Attorney
Starting a small business of your own can be a real challenge as much as it is a satisfaction. On the one hand, any business, however small, demands time and hard work on your part as its proprietor. On the other hand, running such a business will give you the satisfaction that derives from knowing that you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur in your own right. As it is, a business enterprise can give you the financial freedom that is otherwise impossible to gain if you are just an ordinary employee or professional. One’s own business is therefore considered as an indicator of achievement, and even prestige.Before starting your business enterprise, however, you should make sure that you understand all matters related to it. It is a fact that some investors who have the capital to initiate a start-up business gets confused over many things such as the pertinent laws and legal requirements that must be met before starting to operate the business itself.It is one of the most important factors to consider hiring a business attorney, then, in starting a small business. First and foremost, a business attorney can assist you in dealing with complex legal requirements in operating your small business. They are also in the best position to offer sound advice that relates to legal matters attendant to the operation of your business.In choosing your business attorney, you should consider the following points: retainer cost, references and recommendations, as well as personality. Hiring an attorney should not cost you a substantial amount of money. In the first place, you are just starting off as a small business owner and theoretically speaking, you still don’t have enough cash revenues to put on paying an expensive lawyer. References and recommendations, on the other hand, will serve you well in looking for a good business attorney.If you personally know of other entrepreneurs in the area, you might as well ask them about the attorney whom they have worked with before. If they have had a successful working relationship with a particular lawyer, there is a good chance that they will recommend such a lawyer to you, giving you the peace of mind that comes from knowing that you have a professional lawyer to take care of your business’ legal matters. Finally, you should also take note of the lawyer’s personality. It is a given, of course, that you would naturally want an attorney that you are comfortable working working with.Tha factors as outlined above are just some of the reasons why a small business enterprise needs the services of a business attorney. It would do well for any small business to have an attorney deal with the legal aspects of operation, especially so at the outset when the business is just about to be established.