Many businesses like to advertise that they have excellent customer service or top service records, but what does this really mean? More importantly what does this mean for customers? With so many businesses promising to be the best and have excellent service levels, customers are a little wary. They don’t just want to hear about how wonderful your company is; they want to see actual service delivery. So how do you go about implementing a customer service plan that really works? Here are some tips to help guide you through the process.
Have a Customer-Oriented Outlook
Many business owners have good intentions, striving to maintain high standards in their business. This is a good thing but unless your efforts are focused on how they will benefit your customers, it won’t translate into top customer service. Too often businesses are focused on what they are doing and what they have to offer. They don’t take the time to find out if this is what customers want or need. In order to be able to deliver a service that is of value to your customers, you need to put yourselves in their shoes. Ask how your product or service will benefit them. What tangible reasons do they have to buy from you and not someone else? When you demonstrate real value and benefits to your customers, this automatically translates into top-quality customer service. Customers will see that your efforts aren’t forced and are indeed genuine. The result is customers that leave happy and appreciated; as a result, they are more likely to return and purchase from you again in the future.
Develop Relationships with your Customers
Marketing studies show that it is far more cost effective to retain existing customers than to constantly have to prospect for new customers.
There are two types of home based businesses. One is the traditional one with an office at your home and the other is a virtual office – your website. Both require customers to keep it going and both require you to do an initial research to see which type of business you should open. Without researching both, the traditional and online, businesses are destined to fail. Let us first look at the traditional home based business.
Traditional Home Based Business
These include all kinds of small cottage industries that can be run with a few people usually family members. Professional services (e.g. photography, print & design, ladies accessories, maintenance & repair services, etc), network marketing (MLM) and food & bakery contribute to the majority of traditional home based business.
Some of these had go on to become local brands and they survive well with regular streams of customers. Therefore, a traditional home based business cannot be booted out for good…. at least not now or any near future. They serve a niche market of their own.
Although many traditional home based businesses have been successful, these ventures are quite risky to begin with. Here are some of their cons:
1) The delivery of a physical product or personal services can be very much limited by time and space.
2) Promotion and marketing of your product or services are also limited to a smaller local market.
3) When business is brisk, you struggle to meet production but when business is slow, you struggle to keep it going.
A traditional home based business require an office, you spend money on decorating that office, even if it is a home. You would require infrastructure like telephone, fax machine, printer and stationary supplies. A traditional home based business may take time to set up.
A point to remember, a traditional home based business requires higher recurring expense when compared to an online home based business.
With a traditional home based business, you need to think about hiring staff and worry about attrition. Then there is the fear of losing your traditional home based business to natural calamities like hurricanes, storms or floods. You would have keep inventory which could cause you losses.
All the above are points to ponder when you are thinking of starting a traditional home based business.
Online Home Based Business
When compared to a traditional home based business, starting an online home based business is much faster. Once you have your website running, you are in business. You do not need to wait for the stationary or the office to get ready.
This does not mean that running an online home business is a piece of cake. You need to invest time to do proper research, as which type of online home based business is suitable for you. The internet is an extremely good resource for research.
In an online home based business you set your own timings and your website announces to world what are your products or services. You do not need to spend as much on advertising as you would do with a traditional home based business. The internet gives you an edge. You reach a much large audience across the globe. This is not possible with a traditional home based business where you end up catering to the immediate community. And once your online home based business is automated, it practically runs by itself.
Examples of Successful Online Businesses
eBayeBay was one that did not go under when the dot com bubble burst. eBay transformed itself from a garage sale and flea market site into a genuine e-commerce site. Today, eBay has over 29 million registered users selling anything from antiques to jewelry. eBay is made online transaction safe and secure and it allows buyers and sellers to post their comments online. You can check these comments and then decide whether you want to do business with a person / company.
Amazon.comAmazon.com treats it customers like extremely. It tracks the customers’ tastes so that using Amazon.com becomes a truly rewarding experience. It has outstanding customer service with special discount services on books. Amazon.com excels in one-to-one marketing making each customer feel special.
In the next part of this series, I will talk to you about some good online opportunities that are there just waiting for you to encash them!
About the Author
MunSeen is an Online Business practitioner, where his team had generated over ,045 in sales within 24hrs without any list nor website. If you want to know how this is done, click on the following link to learn the “Secret” of earning money online — http://www.getqualitytime.com/
www.KristenDarkenwald.com Network Marketing Training- How To Build Your Home Business The RIGHT Way! Visit my site for more tips, training and cool stuff! Video Rating: 5 / 5
Dealing with health care public relations can be a tricky situation. How the public perceives your product can be vital to it’s sales, especially given the slew of drugs on the market. What separates you from the crowd? With Makovsky + Company, you gain access to a well-equipped health care public relations team, who will work to cut through the cloud of ambiguity and bring your message to the health care community and the public. As a firm, we have been around since 1979 and dealt with many clients and situations over the years. Our retention rate of 80% is one of the highest in the health care public relations industry. So what exactly do we do that separates us from the rest of the health care public relations firms?
When you partner with our team, our specialists will design a flexible plan for your company offering a range of options tailored to your specific goals. Our core objective, the Power of Specialized Thinking™ means that we will not confine ourselves to just the expected or standard methods. We will take your health care public relations beyond a vapid, generic campaign to a customized plan of attack. Targeting your audience through both traditional media sources, magazines, newspapers, and television, as well as through the social media sites, you can be assured your message will get out.
However, this is expected and our experience with the health care public relations means that we have the intricate knowledge, which one can only acquire over time. For instance, we have an intimate understanding of cardiology, endocrinology, genomics, oncology and pediatrics and the related federal laws and guidelines. We understand the process of research and development and the many phases a product or procedure may go through. And given the amount of energy invested in developing cutting edge medicine, it is best to have the most suited healthcare public relations firm handle it.
Even more critical than getting your product exposure, is giving your company the right public image. Mishaps and bad news can plague a product even if the news is minor or false. Damage control and properly dealing with bad publicity can be challenging, especially in the medical field. Once again, we can say with confidence that we are equipped to handle any hiccup or turn in events. Our creative, yet analytic process allows us to avoid needing to clarify your organization’s mission, but should something be unclear or taint your firm, we will work around the clock to get it resolved and minimize the impact by isolating the incident and putting it in perspective. That is juxtaposing the larger mission and good that has been done with the accident.
The bottom line is that when you need someone to deal with the public and make sure your company’s core beliefs are what is perceived by them, you need Makovsky + Company. When you work with them, you will get all 32 years of their health care public relations experience in your corner, making sure your organization is presented in a good manner, so that you can get back to what matters: helping people get well and saving lives.
Makovsky + Company is a public relations company that specializes in health care public relations. They have been in business since 1979. For more information please visit us at http://www.makovsky.com and for more specific information on our health care public relations services please visit us @ http://www.makovsky.com/health.
This video premiered at the PRSA-NCC Thoth Awards on September 24, 2009. Hear DC area public relations professionals share their views on the value of public relations. Appearing in this video are PRSA-NCC Board and Committee members Aaron Ellis, Brigitte Johnson, Robert Udowitz, Rebecca Andersen, Heathere Evans-Keenan, Suzanne Holroyd, Sylvia Aguilera, Jeff Ghannam, Amie Hornbaker, Fred Whiting, Michael Sheward, and Amy Robinson. To learn more about PRSA-NCC, please visit prsa-ncc.org. Video produced by Mary Fletcher Jones with the assistance of Susan Rink. Video Rating: 4 / 5
