Tips for Curing Bad Customer Service
Bad customer service is everywhere these days — unmanned front desks, surly servers, clueless staff, employees talking on the phone, and managers who refuse to acknowledge a customer. It’s no longer an exception ... poor service has become the norm.In an all-too-typical scene, a customer walks into a retail store with a question about where to find a product. The employee, who is busy and doesn’t want to be bothered, gives the customer a curt answer and continues what she is doing without even looking the customer in the eye. The customer persists, so, with obvious annoyance, the employee begrudgingly turns around and points the customer in the general direction of the product’s location. Instead of buying the product, the customer leaves the store, frustrated, vowing to never return.Most business owners and employees recognize this as a classic example of bad customer service. And yet, this scene is repeated endlessly in modern society. Negativity breeds negativity, and eventually, nobody is happy.“Never, never, never ignore a customer,” says Art Waller, Regional Department Head for Utah State University. Waller provides tips on how to improve customer relations, a vital segment of any business.“It’s important to be accessible,” Waller said. “Everything is an interruption. A phone rings, someone comes into an office, that’s an interruption. But if a customer is right there, do that first. That’s why you’re there.One of the single most important aspects of a successful business is good customer service. Waller cited recent findings in customer service. A typical business only hears from 4 percent of its dissatisfied customers. The other 96 percent quietly go away. Of this 96 percent, 68 percent never reveal their dissatisfaction because they perceive an attitude of indifference in the owner, manager or employee.Waller said this statistic is particularly dangerous for businesses because if

Entrepreneurs Have A 'Never, Ever Give Up' Attitude
One thing entrepreneurs have in common is the ability not to be stopped by problems, but to turn their problems into opportunities. Where other people get stuck in problems, entrepreneurs bounce back with new answers seeing a different way forward.I once read an article on entrepreneurs in a South African magazine. The author explained some of the characteristics of an entrepreneur and then he relates a story told to him by an entrepreneur who was asked, “What makes entrepreneurs different than the rest of us?”“Well,” the entrepreneur said, “when I think of entrepreneurs I think of a spider. I once saw a spider spinning his web. He would take a thread - stick it to one side and then walk with it to the other side of where he would like to make his web.When he came to the other side the thread broke and the spider had to walk back to the place where he first stuck his thread. He then stuck his thread to the place where it broke off and started walking back to where he wanted to stick the thread. And then, the same thing happened again. The thread broke. The spider went back to the same spot and stuck his thread back again from where it broke, just to start his journey all over again.This happened about eight times before the first thread was stuck from one side to the other. This, my friend,” the entrepreneur said, “is the hallmark of a successful entrepreneur. He is too stupid to give up. He doesn't know any better but to persevere and ‘hang in’ there until it succeeds. He is not demotivated by early failures, but he learns from them.”Entrepreneurs have a ‘no die’ attitude. They simply don’t give up when they start to encounter opposition, difficulties or closed doors. They know they have a race to run, until it is finished. I once heard a man said, “It is finished”, only after he has completed his whole mission. Now that is a true entrepreneurial spirit. To understand that you will encounter diffi

Franchisors, Lawyers and State Regulators
Most people think that lawyers are crooks and some people think that franchising companies or franchisors are out to make a killing on poor unsuspecting franchisees. State regulators think that Franchisors are not good and lawyers are wonderful. But why? Well because they are lawyers of course. Yet in reality lets look at the situation here.You see, Franchisors duties and responsibilites are to their team, their franchisees customers, extending brand. If the franchisor neglects such duties and responsibilities then they are short lived and they will go out of business. It is for this reason that the franchise system is inherently stable, viable and ethical. Whereas with lawyers and regulators are not and do not have the same inherent checks and balances.When it comes to Franchisors, Lawyers and State Regulators it should be noted that Franchisors are entrepreneurial companies and therefore are the best of breed in economic commerce. Lawyers scrape the cream of wealth from the nation without any real worthy productivity. State Regulators put up roadblocks, barriers to entry and stifle free enterprise? So tell me, who are the good guys, who are the bad guys and why is calling Caesar to take care of these problems such a great idea? Consider this in 2006.

Know Your Customer, Increase Your Business
Your business may be making you a profit, but are there things you can do to make it better? Do you offer your customer the best possible transactions? Taking the time to get to know your customers can increase your business. That doesn’t necessarily mean getting to know each of them on a personal basis, rather knowing their needs, their wants, predicting the goods or services they will purchase, and being prepared to keep up with changes in the market.Figuring out the needs of your customers can be tricky. Not only are the needs of the market continually changing, but different demographic classes of the market will want different things at the same time. To find out what your customers need, pay attention to overall business trends. This will help you keep up with what is going on it the business world. It is also important to keep an eye on the competition.It is very important to know what your customer wants. This varies significantly from knowing what they need. The needs are the things they can’t live without including a quality product or service. Wants are added perks that the consumer is looking for. Often, it is the want that is offered that will help a consumer choose between your business and another.Survey your customersTo find out what customers want, ask them. Customer surveys are a great source of information. You will find out exactly what your customers like and don’t like. It is better to offer a short survey with open questions that allows them to express their opinion than pre-formatted boxes that they check off. A want just about every customer out there wants is quality customer service. Nothing is more frustrating to a customer than making a purchase, then not getting any support when it doesn’t work properly or you have questions about the product or service.Forecast customer habitsOften, it is quite easy to predict the products or s

How To Groom Your Customers For Bigger Profit
One day last week, I decided to work from the house since I had to head over to Rotary at noon. A little bit ago, a lady from the place where my wife gets her hair cut called to see if she was here. I told her she had left to go get her hair cut, then laughed and commented that my wife had indeed remembered the appointment this time.You see, the last few times she had a hair appointment there, something happened and she forgot to show up at the right time. Rather than continue to tolerate that behavior, the hair place invested 2 minutes of their time to call an hour before the appointment to remind her.Should they have to do that? Not really.Is it smart business? Absolutely.Why? Its your job as the business owners to groom your customers, train them and adjust their behavior as necessary.How? Make them an offer that makes them want to be on time, or set things up so that missing that appointment is something they simply cant tolerate, or wouldnt dream of.Any business that is paid for work done in appointment slots (like a hair salon or spa) has to do whatever they can to decrease the number of no-shows, or late arrivals because they cant get that time back. Sure, they can rebook that person, but the original slot still sat there unoccupied and that time was not purchased. Photography studios (a niche I used to work in) struggled with this for years until it was suggested that they could get their customers to pre-pay for the sitting fee in order to hold an appointment. The sitting fee is not refundable if you miss your appointment, but it sometimes is credited against portrait print purchases.Once people started paying for sitting fees (some call them reservation fees), they suddenly started showing up on time because they didnt want to lose the money they paid in advance. Now all of a sudden you have a more predictable income, because you know how much on average each family will spe

Attract Renters With Technological Appeal
We all know that curb appeal is important to attract prospective buyers and renters to your property. But what one typically thinks of as being effective curb appeal may no longer be as valuable.Traditionally, in order to create the most marketable curb appeal was to have the landscaping and interior of the property as clean as possible without any clutter. The more space a property had the better.While those things still hold water in many markets, the newer generations of renters in college or beginning their first try at the real world, desire technology and technological accessibility.The article, “Wanted To Rent: Technology-Friendly Apartments,” written by Broderick Perkins and published February 28, 2007 in Realty Times, explains how Internet hookups and good cell phone reception are become a more important quality for today’s renter than a cascading water fountain in the front of the property.“More and more often renters want a wireless community just as much as they want a garden community, according to the National Multi Housing Council (NMHC) survey of 1,000 renters.’” “‘In the future, apartment properties may be ‘branded’ as much for the quality of their Internet services as they are today for their curb appeal,’ said David Cardwell, NMHC's vice president of capital Markets and technology.”Other than reliable Internet connection, renters desire good cell phone reception. The landline is becoming a thing of the past but many older apartments are surrounded by concrete or other materials that are not conducive to good cell phone reception. “Emergency planners suggest having one (landline) in case of an emergency that could render cell phones inoperable, but only 58 percent of apartment homes have a landline and only 38 percent consider it their primary phone, the NMHC survey said.”More renters live a transient lifestyle, moving one place to another a couple times a year. They are