Keeping more clients with better customer service
Keeping more clients with better customer service One thing we have to keep in the forefront of our minds as our business begins to grow is the power of customer service. After all, we are all in the business of fixing problems. Every client you have right now is your client because he or she had a problem and you fixed it, simply put. Never thought of it that way, this fact is true, and the reason you are reading this right now is, there is something you want to do better, or want to begin doing so in essence you are looking for a solution as all your clients are, when they call you. If we can remember this from the company level then we will look at customer complaints from a different perspective. When a customer complains, about a service or product, he/she does not really care about your product or service, what they care about is the problem they were, having in the first place that is as of yet unresolved. Your client has made a purchase from you, for you to fix there particular problem and your solution has come up short. The only thing that the client is looking for is to have his original problem fixed. Below is and example of customer service explained and how it has saved one client and created an onslaught of referrals from this client. Let us assume one of our clients calls in and begins to complain about how long it took our company to repair his pc. He also tells us there is another company online that does remote support and they have a 24×7 30 sec response time. In addition, it took us 1 hour to respond and 15 minutes for repair. So what do we do, the product he purchased (DirectTek core) clearly states response time to calls are 2-4 hours and our (DirectTek pro) has a 30 second response time and repairs average 8 minutes. Clearly, our client has purchased the wrong product and what he is upset about is the solution we presented does not fit his needs. The biggest mistake we could make at this point is putting the blame on the client. We could tell him that when we presented our solution to you, it was your company that chose the core product; furthermore, our response times are clearly indicated. We would be right in telling him that but we would probably be with one less client. Instead, we choose to use the opportunity as an up sell versus a loss of a client. we would tell the client in this example, “Sir we are sorry we did not live up to your expectations, but we do have a product that is better suited to you needs and at this time we would like to offer you our DirectTek pro. This solution will resolve your downtime issues and due to you being unsatisfied with our other product we will offer it to you at a 10% discount rate with one month free”. For us to do this our profit margin on that sale will be less then usual. We also have to give him a month free (more loss) but remember the client has already purchased the first product(profit) now he purchases a second product (profit) and he will tell his colleagues about how great our company is, (word of mouth) all in all I think the customer service went a long way. Good customer service does not have to be performed only in the face of problems though. One of the most profitable forms of customer service comes in the form of cross selling. Let’s use our insurance broker as an example. One of our clients (Associated Management) implemented a cross sale, customer service plan here’s how it works. They specialize in worker’s compensation they also carry automobile, fleet, and life insurance. They implemented a customer service call center which would call there existing customer to make sure they were happy with there current insurance solutions. They then began the up sell process of explaining to them the discount they would receive by converting there fleet, life and automobile insurance over to them. As well as making it more convenient to the client by having to only, keep track of one company instead of dealing with multiple companies. It lead to an 11.3% increase in revenue (recently implemented give us some time) Conclusion: Stay in the business of fixing problems and you will stand a better chance of staying in business.12 Years as an I.T. professional, jobs involve but not limited to Help Desk manager,Jr Admin, Sr.Admin,MIS Director,MIS Account Manager/purchaser,Technical Outsource Coordinator,Software Trainer,Network Design. Currently I.T. Consultant
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The Best Absolute Shopping Cart How To Exactly Get One
Not all shopping cart software is worth buying or suitable for your business Here are some things to consider before you make a purchase . .In general, a shopping cart program can help your business one way or the other But whether you like it or not, some of them are much better than the others for a lot of reasons Since you’re trying to make an investment, you want one that will give you the best kinds of returns: . . .How do you look for the most appropriate shopping cart program? Make use of the following tips: . .1 Make sure it has all the features you need Different businesses require different needs Thus, no matter how comprehensive a shopping cart software is, if it doesn’t have one fundamental thing that you’re looking for, it’s still not the one for you It will help you a lot if you can identify first what the goal of your business is, the nature of it, and the key elements that comprise it . .2 Know how it’s going to receive payments form customers You need to understand the process of how your shopping cart programs accept payments Does it immediately debit the account from your customer’s credit card, or does it take few days before you can receive the amount? Is there a third-party who’s going to help you out in processing the payment, or will your shopping cart program be a stand-alone processor? . .You should not miss out on this one as sales are the main source of profits of your business If you can’t get your payments on time, you will delay paying your suppliers, and there will be some out-of-stock items that you can no longer purchase . .3 Identify the marketing strategies that you can do with it There are a number of shopping cart software that will allow you to hit two birds in one stone This means that not only can you process payments and build your Products page, but you can also market your business, particularly online This could be through newsletters and mailing lists Moreover, some e-commerce software are friendly to search engines, making it easier for you to optimise them . .4 Make sure you can make the necessary adjustments such as tax Goods need to be taxed not for your gain but in compliance of government laws A shopping cart software can permit you to do that, but it should not be pegged in a fixed percentage alone Otherwise, you will be shouldering a portion of it once the tax rate increases . .5 Ensure that you can generate reports and keep track of statistics You need reports, such as on sales and shipping costs, so you can plan your business more properly To be able to maximise the use of the shopping cart program, find one that will allow you to do so It could be e-mailed to your inbox, printed in hard copy, or stored in your database This way, you will be able to create different backup copies of them . .Remember that the best doesn’t necessarily mean the most ideal one Stick to what is essential and can generate huge profits for your business .
Source: www.rsstnx.com

A few Tips on Buying on Ebay from http://www.ScamPain.com
Ebay gives good documentation on how to bid etc. but obviously it wants you to pay the maximum amount for the item since it’s charges (to the seller) relate directly to the final selling price. What I want to do here is to give you a few tips on buying that Ebay doesn’t tell you and that I have learnt the from my seven years of dealing on Ebay. Safety First. Always check the sellers feedback. Do not just go by the numerical rating for that user. Look at the dates when the feedback was entered. This is especially true if you are buying an expensive item since one scam used is to sell/buy many trivial items over a short period to build up a good feedback rating prior to selling a bogus expensive item. When checking the sellers feedback check to see if he has sold any like items and read what others have said. Also be wary if the buyer repeatedly bought lots of separate items but of course this could be a good thing so use your common sense. Paying. Never pay until you have received an invoice. Never send cash. Only send postal orders if that your only possible payment method. Credit cards do offer some protection but I am always hesitant about telling a stranger my card details. Although I do not like it probably the safest method is PayPal. It does offer protection but be sure you read the smallprint. Paypal have lots of getout causes such as ‘is the seller paypal verified?’, ‘how long has he been on Ebay?’. what is his feedback rating?’. Basically this means Paypal will only protect you against legitimate sellers and not bogus ones! So ensure you check Paypals terms and conditions if you have doubts. . Postage. Check those items that appear ridiculously cheap. You see a lot of things from Hong Kong for 99p. Yet when you check the postage it’s 12.99. If you wish to buy antiques be careful with the sites from China; I have seen items with a bid price of 3.99 but with postage of 199! If you are buying from the UK always check with the seller regarding other methods of postage he may offer, even if they are not in his listing. For example the ‘Next Day’ delivery offered. Do you really want the item that urgently that it needs to be with you next day or could you wait till the day after and half your postage costs? Electrical goods. Obvious really but ensure that any goods are designed to run on our voltage! VAT. Be very wary when buying from abroad outside the E.U. You may find that you need to pay an extra 17.5% when your goods arrive. This is especially enforced when buying from the States. A friend of mine, who intended to buy and sell on Ebay as a business, recently bought 25 top of the range Ipods from the States estimating that he could make a fair profit. However on arrival he was hit with a 17.5% extra charge which as you can imagine seriously reduced his profit margin. Ebay Shop. Okay so you have seen an item for auction that you want to bid on. The first thing to do is check to see if the seller has an Ebay Shop. If he does than check it out you may often find that an identical item is in his shop with a ‘Buy it Now’ price less than the current auction price of the auctioned item. Other Listings. Always check the sellers other listings. It is surprising how often inexperienced sellers will list an identicle item with a complete time only a few minutes after the first and of course depending how many items there are the second item appears on subsequent pages. Inevitably the second item is always cheaper often by a mile! I used this technique last month to by a Dyson vacuum cleaner. The leading auction price finished at around 60 but I managed to buy an identical model from the sane seller for 17 that finished 4 minutes later! When to Bid. Always bid at the last possible moment. This is for 2 reasons. Articles for auction that have bids attract more bidders, this is the reason sellers start at a low price. Secondly you are less likely to be out bidded. There are ’snipe engines’ you can purchase that automatically bid for you up to a set limit in the final moments of the auction but as to whether are worth it or indeed work I shall leave up to you. I personally have never had the need for one. What Days to bid on. Traditionally Sunday evening is when most activity takes place on Ebay so if possible try to find items that do not finish then. I have found that weekday lunchtimes (Not Friday) are also very busy times as office workers go on the site during their lunch break so again avoid items finishing at this time. How Much to Bid. Novice buyers will say I will pay say a maximum of 5 for this item and enter this as their maximum bid. Do not do this but put a maximum bid of 5.03p. For the sake of the extra 3p you increase your chances of winning the auction ten fold. You could try 5.01p but I have found 5.03p is the optimum. Bad Spelling. Believe it or not sellers do make silly mistakes in the listings so check phonetic sounding words when you search for an item as obviously these items gain far less exposure. For instance I recently purchased some lead soldiers however they were listed as led soldiers which I managed to purchase for 8.99 the starting price as I was the only bidder. I resold them on Ebay a week later for 59.00. This idea of getting bargains is so prolific on Ebay that you can purchase software that actually generates a search string of incorrectly spelt words. Fortunately, or not, my spelling is bad enough that I have never had the need for such soft ware! Other On-line Auction Sites. Believe it or not there are other on-line auction sites that are not as popular as Ebay but because of this you can often pick up a bargain. The tips above equally apply to those sites. One good site I frequently use is Ebid it’s far cheaper to sell here and you can find some real bargains.Hi, I am trying to set up sites to protect users who are starting internet businesses from internet bandits! Vist me at http;//www.scampain.com
Source: www.ArticlePros.com