Category: Business And Career

Tips For Good Customer Service For Strong Profits

Tips For Good Customer Service For Strong Profits

Customers all round the world who have engaged with various service providers will experience the following universal patterns of customer service:

Excellent

Excellent customer service staff go the extra mile, exceed expectations and they know their work well. They anticipate what their customers want or need, and provide service proactively. They are good listeners and are open to receiving feedback. The service is prompt and the customer service staff keep their promises, over-delivering more often than not.

Outstanding Customer Service TipsAverage

When the customer service is average, the provider delivers only the basics and routine transactions. The quality is inconsistent and the interaction is robot-like. The service provider may take a long time to resolve. When someone describes a service as “average”, this description tends to lean towards the negative, rather than being strictly neutral.

Poor

Service level is poor when it does not meet expectations. Worse, the staff may be rude and unprofessional, with low knowledge and the environment is chaotic and disorganised. Promises are never kept, problems are not resolved and the company is very difficult to access.

Good Tips On Customer Service

As you can see from the above, in order to build a huge loyal customer base and achieve a healthy year-on-year profit growth, an organisation has no choice but to provide excellent service. When it comes to delivering excellent service, common sense is not enough. Excellent service can only be achieved when it is conciously delivered and managed. One of the outstanding customer service tips is to put service excellence into your organisation’s goals and individual key result areas (KRAs) or key performance indicators (KPIs).

Results achieved should be constantly reviewed, monitored and tracked. Customer satisfaction should be a regular item on your operations meeting agenda. Managers should review processes and engineer them to deliver service excellence, as well as recognize and retain employees who demonstrate service excellence.

Do not shy away from customers who give mediocre ratings for your customer service. Instead, treat the mediocre ratings as constructive feedback and seek every opportunity to improve. Instead of just focusing on the obvious superficial reasons, find the root cause of the problem. Apart from asking frontline service staff for reasons behind poor service, immerse yourself in the role of a frontline service staff for a week or a month to experience and fully understand the issues.

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Oct 08, 2011 | 0 comments View Post

Referral Marketing – Ideas To Help You Get Endless Referrals

The mistake that many referral marketers make is asking for referrals too early. Meeting someone for the first time at a business function and being able to click during the business function does not mean you know the person well enough to ask him or her to do something that is usually reserved for close business associates.

With referral marketing, it is not necessarily “who you know” or even “what you know”. It’s more about how well you know the person before you can progress to the next step and include him or her as a powerful ally in your referral network.

This means that you not only must have a wide network of referral contacts but also a deep connection with the most important people within your referral network. First, you need to widen your network. Then you need to spend just the same amount of effort in developing deep communications with each of your potential or actual referral partners.

When the time comes to ask them to promote you or your products or services, you want to make sure you have a strong connection before they make the request. Be sure you are able to tell your contacts apart from your connections among the people in your referral network. A contact is defined as someone you know but you have not had a chance to establish a strong relationship.

A connection is someone who trusts you because you have taken the time to know him and establish your credibility with him. Taking the time to get to know your referral partners will earn you loyalty and support, rather than the person who rushes in and asks for assistance prematurely.

This person will likely recceive little or no support, as he is not yet in a relationship with his referral partner. To succeed in referral marketing, taking time to develop trust and strong relationships is imperative if you are hoping to grow your business successsfully.

The Top Three Referral Marketing Strategies For Any Referral Marketing Program

To make any referral marketing system work, here are three actions you should undertake in your referral marketing program:

  1. Build Strong Relationships

    Take the time to get to know people. Find out as much as you can about their business and their personal likes and dislikes. Ask what their goals, aspirations, interests and hobbies are. Discover what music and sport they follow. The more information you can gather and share, the better a relationship you will build.

  2. Network In The Right Places

    Don’t just join any networking group just because someone asks you to. What works for one person may not work for another. Do some research before you decide which network group to join. When you do join a group, turn up regularly to all the meetings, contribute and build relationships before you are tempted to ask for an opportunity to do business.

  3. Think Win-Win

    One of the most powerful tools in any networking group is to think about how you can help other people first. Before a person can be motivated to move your business further, he or she needs to know what’s in it for him or her to help you. Instead of just focussing on how the other person can help you, start thinking how you can help the other person first.

    Share relevant information with your potential referral partners. Invite them to other functions that might be of benefit to them and position them favourably with others they need to know. Keep in mind that you want to be in a position where you are always able to give other people something. Practise the law of abundance and you will ultimately discover that givers do gain, and they usually gain much more than they give.

For more tips on how to get endless referrals, click here .
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Sep 03, 2011 | 0 comments View Post
How To Be An Effective 21st Century Teacher

How To Be An Effective 21st Century Teacher

There has never been a better time to be a student than right now. Teaching tools in the modern classroom have transitioned from blackboards and overhead projectors to LCD screens and multi-sensory presentations. Besides attending lectures and reading textbooks, students can also access schools’ portals for additional material and online assignment submissions, as well as to interact with their teachers and classmates.

How To Be A Good TeacherHowever, teaching tools aside, if the teacher is second-best, the students will still suffer. Educational researcher William Sanders, found that all other factors, such as class size, ethnicity, location and poverty, all paled into triviality compared with teacher effectiveness. His research also showed that students who have had a succession of bad teachers lagged behind.

Knowing the subject and mastering the content is not good enough. A good teacher must also know how to teach the subject. He or she has to encourage, enable, guide and shape young minds. Lighting the fires and of learning and discovery is what a good teacher does.

Good teachers usually go the extra mile. They are able to quickly size up the backgrounds of their young charges and offer help in a manner that suits each individual student. Igniting the students’ love for learning and showing students that they care is key.

At the heart of the teacher’s work is the student. Every teacher must equip his or her students well to survive and succeed in the new global landscape. The teacher has to develop the child not only intellectually, but also socially, morally, physically and aesthetically.

Students no longer gather information from textbooks. They can get information from anywhere on the internet. This in turn raises the skills bar for the 21st-century teacher. The mastery of the core knowledge in a discipline is still important. However, with the “knowledge explosion”, an effective teacher also has to become expert curators of information. The teacher must now learn to guide his or her students on their learning, how to access, evaluate, organise and use information from a variety of sources.

Teaching a discipline well requires the teacher to balance how and what he or she teaches. The 21st-century teacher must be able to facilitate learning, stimulate students and control, moderate and manage communication and collaboration. Teachers now have to be digitally literate. They also must be able to use technology in ways that enhance their teaching and reach out to students.

Knowledge and skills passed on by teachers to students must be anchored by values. Students must be taught the right values to be able to make ethical decisions to guide the application of science and technology in society.

Cultural literacy is an important value teachers must nurture in their young charges to thrive in a wired-up and well travelled world which now has fewer barriers between nations. In a global economy, there is a greater necessity for knowing, understandng and appreciating other cultures. In order to teach values, the 21st century teachers must model behaviors that they expect from their students – tolerance, global awareness, sensitivity to the environment and the love for learning.

Good, effective teachers possess a combination of personal qualities that would predispose them to become good teachers. These qualities include the love for children, teenagers and learning, patience, and being good communicators. An effective 21st century teacher would also constantly look for more effective ways to teach and learn.

 

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Jul 03, 2011 | 0 comments View Post
Public Speaking Tactics To Improve Your Public Speaking Skills

Public Speaking Tactics To Improve Your Public Speaking Skills

Top Ten Presentation SkillsMost of us, at some point in our career, will be asked to address our peers, talk in front of colleagues at a company meeting or speak on behalf of an organization to bring clarity to proceedings on occasion.

If given the choice, most of us would rather not present in front of a group of people. Some of us may even suffer from stage fright or anxiety attacks. However, public speaking or presentation skills is something we have to learn and master, if we want to progress in our career.

Here are the top ten presentation tips to help improve your public speaking skills and build new confidence for a successful presentation.

1) Content

Careful planning for your presentation is pivotal in eliciting a favourable response from your audience. First of all, determine who your target audience is, what your message is, and what objective you hope to achieve.

Understand the demographics, cultures, issues, challenges or celebrations of your audience. If the content you develop is appropriately tailored to your audience, the effectiveness of your pitch will be exceptionally high.

2) Presentation Style

It is important to remember that your audience can only process so much information at one time. Do not overload your audience with long sentences and big words. Keep your sentences short with one main idea. Short sentences are easier to understand, comprehend and deliver.

Pause between important points. When you take the time to pause, you give your audience a chance to think about what you just said and this will allow them to better retain your information.

3) Body Language And Eye Contact

Watch your posture and do not slouch. Standing tall breeds confidence. While you are speaking, be sure to keep eye contact with your audience. Having direct eye contact with your audience helps build rapport with your audience. And don’t forget to smile!

4) Mindset

Before your presentation, have a mental rehearsal of your speech and visualize how you are going to present to your audience. Visualize the warm response and enthusiasm that you’ll be greeted with.

This way, not only will you be well prepared, you will also present with confidence. Being absolutely focused will also help to dispel any anxiety which you may be experiencing.

5) Emotional State And Tonality

You will need to balance IQ and EQ. Be observant on the response of your audience. Do not talk down, but rather talk to your audience. Pretend that you are engaging in a conversation with your audience. No one likes arrogance, but everyone will appreciate humility.

If you want to use humor in a presentation, do not use it at the expense of someone else. You could alienate your audience and your message will be totally lost. Instead, you could make fun of yourself to inject humor into your speech. Laughing at yourself without belittling yourself is a good way to endear yourself to the audience.

6) Passion And Experience

Your presentation will be far more compelling if you are passionate about the subject, and if you are able to include some form of storytelling and talk about your own experiences.

When you are speaking from your own experiences, chances are that you will rely less on your notes. This will help you maintain eye contact with your audience and continue to capture their attention.

7) Preparation

Even the best speakers will never skip this step. If you are going on stage to speak, walk around the stage and plan how you are going to use the stage to the fullest to bring the audience to you. When speaking, don’t just move for the sake of moving, move with a purpose.

If you are going to use flip charts and other presentation equipment, be sure to familiarize with the use of the equipment, and that they are placed at a position that is most comfortable for you.

8) Rest And Relaxation

Be sure to get adequate sleep the night before your presentation. A well rested body and sharp mind will increase your effectiveness as a speaker as you may be required to think on your feet.

Take in a few deep breaths a few minutes before your presentation to help reduce nervousness. It also helps slow your heart rate, enhance your voice and allows you to gain more control over your tempo.

9) Attire

Dress professionally. Proper attire and shoes can make a big impact and lift your confidence at the right moment. A proper suit, shirt, tie, belt and proper business shoes are most suitable for men.

For the ladies, a well tailored skirt and / or jacket, a blouse, appropriate accessories and closed up shoes work best for women. Avoid revealing clothing, loud and chunky jewelery.

10) Punctuality

Starting late creates a bad impression. It will mean you will need to work harder to win the audience back. If you are speaking at a venue you’ve never been to, be sure to arrive early so that you can get a sense and feel of the environment beforehand.

Be sure to end on time too. Your audience’s time is important to them. They will expect to leave on time unless they wish to stay behind to ask questions.

Recommended Resources:

  1. Online Public Speaking Course
  2. Public Speaking Secrets Revealed
  3. How to Develop Self-Confidence And Influence People By Public Speaking

Apr 05, 2011 | 0 comments View Post
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