Archive for Better Commerce
January 2, 2009 at 10:39 am · Filed under Better Commerce
Are you observing the market place trying to pin point the very best foreign currency exchange rates? The world of the internet is a fantastic place to have a look at what is on offer & pick up the finest offering. Then again, it’s not all about looking the optimum exchange rate - fees, commission and transfer costs might often all make an enticing exchange rate abruptly bad value.
In this sad period of world-wide financial fluctuation you really need to work with a firm that you can completely trust - to not only get you the very best exchange rate attainable at the sad time but additionally to furnish you with assistance and helpful advice. Foreign Currency Direct has been recognised in such well thought of news-papers as The Sunday sad era and The Observer as a leading brand with whom to do business with when you are purchasing foreign currency. Hence, you know you will be working with a honest, professional & greatly thought of company.
Trading in foreign currency will often be a hard area of business - the rates regularly change, hence, if you do not appreciate up-to-date access to the most recently updated info and expert knowledge you will often wind up forfeiting a whole lot of currency. Foreign Currency Direct are experts when it comes to working with exchange rates - in business ever since the year two thousand Foreign Currency Direct has moved from strength to strength.
Foreign Currency Directs exchange rates are calculated on live, second by second interbank’ prices (the price at which one particular bank sells to the other) that are quoted in real time, meaning that they are more competitive than those offered by less specialised banks and building societies. Foreign Currency Direct are a great resource if you’re looking to trade in foreign currencies.
The only thing you really should do is register your account at Foreign Currency Direct and you can start trading currency - you will get exchange rate quotations by telephone, if you accept the offer you shall receive an email, fax or postal conformation of the contract.
June 16, 2008 at 2:34 am · Filed under Better Commerce
Many organizations tackle to the issue of customer service by exhorting their employees to speak with a smile. Be polite. Never lose your cool. But isn’t that a little like closing the barn door after the horses have gotten out? Good customer service should be about a good customer experience with your product. This begins with the relationship your company cultivates with a customer.
This relationship will be tested by the entire process of the buyer seller relationship.
1. The images and promises of the marketing campaign
People begin to form opinions of your company and products from the messages they receive before they even purchase your product. Often, they receive these images before they have even thought of buying. Will your images match the experience?
2. The ease of ordering/purchasing the product
Once someone has decided to purchase your products or services, how easy do you make it for them to do so. Is there someone to answer the phones or will they get a voice mail message? Actually, many companies lose sales in this way. Some people, who want to act now, will simply hang up and go on to the next company that will answer their call. Also, many leads are not followed up A message is left but no one gets back.
When the buyer does reach you, are your systems in place to make the purchasing process as simple as possible? Buyers want to feel that they’ve made the right decision in choosing your product. By creating an easy process for ordering, you help them feel confident in their decision.
3. How well does the product live up to the expectations of the marketing?
Your customer now has your product in his possession. Will it live up to any hype used in the marketing campaign? Or will there be a letdown when the actual product does not match the expectations? Marketing is a powerful force. It will create expectations that must be fulfilled by the product. When it doesn’t, it can create customer satisfaction problems. Make sure your product matches expectations.
4. How well will the product live up to the expectations of the customer?
In addition to the marketing message, a customer usually forms his own expectations based on past experiences with similar products, observations and conversations with others. Will this add to the experience or create a letdown? Product must match expectations or exceed them. Anything less will create a potential customer service problem.
5. When something goes wrong, how is it fixed?
Do you acknowledge that problems can happen? Have you decided how to satisfy customers? Have you looked at the financial ramifications of your solutions? Better yet, look at the product itself. If you find many customers with similar products, perhaps it is most appropriate to address weaknesses in the product itself.
6. What are the procedures?
Even with the best of products, problems can occur. It’s best to address these issues beforehand. Decide what processes will be used to satisfy your customers. Think about replacement - and its cost, discounts, etc. If you are going to replace a product, how quickly can you get it to someone? As a replacement, it must take precedence over new orders. Customers will tell more people when they’ve had a bad experience then when they’ve had a good experience. Solving customer problems not only affects that specific customer but many other people as well.
7. Can your organization be easily reached or is the process frustration to most?
Everyone has frustrating stories to tell about voice prompts that go nowhere. They don’t cover your problem and they continually loop back into the system without a way to speak to a live operator. Make it easy for people to speak with someone. Test your systems thoroughly. Automation can be a great help and a cost saver for organizations but it must be used judiciously.
8. Can the customer service rep actually help?
Customer services reps must be empowered to solve problems. They must be able to do more than empathize and smile. Nothing is more frustration than a nice customer service rep that is unable to resolve your problem. Give your staff the appropriate information and training. Let them have responsibility and accountability for their actions. Employees tend to rise to the level that is expected of them.
Good customer service requires an ongoing examination of methods. The questions discussed above will start the thought process necessary to truly deliver world class service.
Jo Ann Kirby is president of KRG Communications Group. She has 20 years experience in sales, cusotmer service, telephone sales, management with an extensive background in training and development. Her background also includes extensive b2b telesales management experience. Jo Ann has been published in The Toastmaster, NAPPS Network and Commerce magazines. More can be found at http://www.krgcommunications.com
May 13, 2008 at 1:10 pm · Filed under Better Commerce
Have you ever talked to a service provider and thought they were wrong for you? Then you talked to your colleague and they raved about them. So you went down the path of hiring them and found them to be the “service provider from hell”. This is not an unfamiliar scenario.
Business styles vary from company to company and within the company, from person to person. We tend to check out our friends before we let them into our circle. However, we rarely spend time on checking out our service providers to that degree. This is especially true of entrepreneurs. They rely heavily on referrals. In fact, referrals from trusted colleagues are often taken as gospel truth. Most entrepreneurs learn their lessons the hard way.
So how do we check out our service providers so there are no problems down the road? Let’s analyse this with a case study. Recently, Vintage Company (not its real name) was considered to do a website for an entrepreneur. Initial calls to the company were met with no calls back. Therefore, the company was eliminated as a possibility for business. This was a great move. However, as time passed, a respected source referred the company in glowing terms. Considering the opinion of the source to be highly reliable, the company was hired to design the website
Initial discussions went well and the company was hired with a deposit. From then on the attitude of the designer went sour and there were second thoughts with firing the designer in mind. However, this must have been sensed because the designer changed her tone in phone conversations to be more amiable and eager to work to satisfy. As time passed, however, the designer was unfortunately consistently argumentative and defensive. How does a customer communicate difficulties if all they are met with are “I know more than you on this and that’s the way it goes”? The job was finished up and account settled if only to get rid of this hellish nightmare from the world of the entrepreneur struggling with other issues at the time. The website was completed in Flash so no search engine could find it. When queried about this, the designer did not respond.
How do we not repeat such an episode? Intuition must be listened to at all times. It supersedes referrals. Don’t allow the cerebral part of you to get in the way. It is true that business decisions have to be based on data. If your intuition tells you something, then feel it out and go with it. It is making you aware of data that you are forgetting.
Get to know your service provider at different times of the day and be relentless. Talk to at least 5 people they have recently served. Do not stop at one customer. Make time to contact many more.
Don’t try to get even with unfortunate circumstances. This is bad for you. The yoga of business dictates detachment and takes the event as a learning experience. We are here to learn, even through our business decisions. We must take the lessons learnt and move on to spending our energy on more positive activities. If your personality is different from your service provider and you need to work closely with them, you are in for a bad surprise. Try to talk about business philosophies when you are interviewing them. Different business styles are what usually ruin the experience. Perhaps this is true for both parties, however, it is the one that is paying that hurts more because of the monetary loss.
Yoga is not just for the body. It is a body-mind-spirit experience. Learn to make decisions with your whole being. Try to understand that, even in a business world, it is ultimately the personalities that get together. For more information on yoga and its relevance to everyday life, look at: www.getshanti.com
Listed in Who’s Who in the World, a yoga instructor and expert in East Indian Philosophy, Siva has spent the past 20 years evolving as a yoga instructor and personal trainer with a keen interest in training the complete being, rather than just the physical body. She is a Can-Fit-Pro certified personal trainer and holds advanced degrees in engineering. Siva is an accomplished athlete who has run the Toronto Marathon as she balanced a busy life in the corporate engineering world.
April 23, 2008 at 6:53 pm · Filed under Better Commerce
If you were a customer on the telephone with a question or complaint and were ready to make big purchase, which of the following phrases by this employee would make you feel welcome and want to complete your transaction? Which would drive you away?
* I’m sorry. I didn’t get that.
* I can’t understand what you’re trying to say.
* Yes, Mr. Jones, I’ll be happy to do that for you.
* All right. I’ll see what I can do about it.
* It will take a few minutes. Would you like me to call you back?
* Hold on. I’ll be right with ya.
* Thank you for waiting. I have that information now.
* You’re out of luck. We don’t sell that any more.
* Would you spell your name, please?
* What did you say your name was?
* Thank you. I’ll check for you.
* Okay. Let me see if I can find out about it from someone.
* I’m sorry. Mr. Smith is away from his desk. May I help you?
* He’s still out to lunch. I don’t know when he’ll be back.
By now you can certainly see and feel the advantage that using positive phrases creates for your organization, your customer, your organization, and yourself. Positive phrases cause positive outcomes for everyone involved.
When you’re positive with your customers, they’ll be positive with you. After all, isn’t that what doing business is all about?
Be courteous and professional with others and watch the benefits fall into your lag. It’s guaranteed.
Remember: When you maximize your potential, everyone wins. When you don’t, we all lose.
© Etienne A. Gibbs, MSW
PERMISSION TO REPUBLISH: This article may be republished in ezines, newsletters, and on web sites provided attribution is provided to the author, and it appears with the included copyright, resource box, and live web site link. Although advance permission is not required, please notify us at execandgroup-consulting@yahoo.com when you use this article.
Etienne A. Gibbs, MSW, Management Consultant and Trainer, conducts lectures, seminars, webinar, and writes articles on his theme: … helping you maximize your potential. He offers management, marketing, and parenting resources at his Maximizing Your Potential blog.
April 21, 2008 at 7:12 pm · Filed under Better Commerce
First, let’s define what a CRM is: The term Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software is a system that connects different parts of a company through the thread of customer relationships. Sales, Marketing, Accounting and Customer Service can all be tied together with a powerful, centralized CRM software made to retain customer loyalty, increase revenue, deliver consistent and efficient customer service, and finally, evaluate which customers to focus on.
Basically, every company has customers, and every company should maintain some basic information about those customers such as names, addresses, purchases, contracts, invoices, etc. Therefore every company should have at least some basic “CRM Technology” to track and serve their customers. Even small businesses use Outlook, Quicken or other applications for this purpose. If you use Microsoft Outlook for your daily communications, calendaring, tasks and appointments and need a way to track sales leads and opportunities, to share data across sales representatives, to improve the understanding of your sales process, to communicate with a broad groups of people on a one to one basis, to improve your business process in the most important area - sales, and need a reporting system that beats multiple excel spreadsheets, then you need a complete CRM solution.
Why ? Because a CRM software can increase profitability for your business by reducing current operating costs, usually in the call center or distribution system, and by increasing customer value through smarter marketing using customer data to increase customer profitability.
Can you do it without a CRM ? Probably, but not as efficiently because only a CRM is built to take care of Customer personal needs “centrally”, meaning that by using a single software, all the employees of the same company can access an organised database via Internet, where sales, customer service and management have access to the same customer data using tools such as “Sales Force Automation” (provides Lead Management, Opportunity Management, Account and Contact Management, Reports and Dashboards specifically useful for your organization’s sales team), “Customer Support and Services” (provides Ticket Management, Knowledge Base, E-mail Notifications specifically useful for your organization’s customer support team.), “Marketing Automation” (provides Lead Management, Mailing Lists, E-mail/Mail Merge templates, Product Management, specifically useful for your organization’s marketing team.), “Inventory Management” (provides Products, Price Books, Vendors, Quotes, Purchase Orders, Sales Orders, and Invoices specifically useful for integrating your organization’s sales, inventory, and accounting processes and enhance the sales effectiveness.) , providing a complete integration between pre-sales, post-sales, procurement, fulfillment, and other business processes within your organization.
In other words, a good CRM software will help you build customer relationships by setting mutually satisfying goals between organization and customers, establishing and maintaining customer rapport and producing positive feelings in your organization and for the customers.
Organizations that implement CRM and turn their business into e-businesses will find their competitors’ customers ready to welcome them with a “smile”. According to a study by IT Consulting firm Aberdeen - “The winners in this new economy will be those companies that can effectively leverage the Internet to redesign, automate and integrate all business operations”.
Take the plunge!
Either jump on board with CRM and invest, knowing you need it, or get out the calculator and pencil and start adding up what you’re going to lose!
One thing is for certain - a few short months after implementing your CRM solution, you’ll wonder how on earth you ever got by without it!
http://www.momentustech.ca
Dr. Sylvain Desforges is the director of Research and development for Momentus Technologies.
April 3, 2008 at 12:25 am · Filed under Better Commerce
It almost goes without saying that good customer service is essential to sustaining any business. No matter how wonderful a job you do of attracting new customers, you won’t be profitable for long unless you have a solid customer retention strategy in place - and in action. It’s the actions that count - not what you say you’ll do, or what the policy says. People will remember what you or your employees have done - or not done.
One of the key components of an effective retention strategy is exceptional customer service. Not just good service, but memorable service. Today, consumers’ expectations are higher than ever and companies that fail to deliver, risk losing market share.
10 Tips for Delivering Good Customer Service
1) Treat me like a somebody. It’s been years since that Midas muffler commercial aired, but the “I’m a somebody” phrase can still be heard from time to time. Why? Because regular customers expect (and deserve) to be remembered. As one woman summed it up, “You don’t need to remember my name, or what I order, but do acknowledge that I’ve been there before.”
One of the best examples I’ve ever seen of this is at my local coffee shop. One day I noticed that the young man behind the counter greeted some people by name and, even if he didn’t know their name, he knew what they usually ordered. As I waited for my tea (he’d already placed my ‘two milk on the side’ on the counter without me having said a word), I asked him why he said, “See you later” to some customers, “See you tomorrow” to others, yet always said, “Have a good week” to me. The smiling, friendly reply? “Because you only come in on Mondays and Fridays”. As I thanked him, I thought to myself, “Wow. He won’t be here long”. Unfortunately, I was right.
2) Be polite! Too frequently company representatives ask customers for file information without saying “Please” or even being polite. It is not acceptable for a service rep to simply bark out, “Account number?” And it is never acceptable for a service rep to insult a client.
Six weeks ago there was a problem with my home internet account - which is with a phone carrier I have used my entire life (and, as you know, this kind of loyalty to a phone company is almost unheard of these days). In all that time, I have never been late with a bill payment to them. There is a long and ugly story here, but the short version is that a) the problem was on their end and b) before they realized where things had gone wrong, their rep was extremely rude. When I asked him to please change the way in which he was addressing me, he snarled, “Well whadya expect? If you’d pay your bills on time you wouldn’t have this problem.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. In fact, if I’d just read this account (instead of being on the receiving end), I wouldn’t have believed the story. What’s worse is that although the company later apologized, their senior management seemed to feel that this was not an isolated incident.
A 2005 survey conducted by Schulich School of Business MBAs suggests that this kind of problem exists in over 30% of companies, and costs them hundreds of millions of dollars in lost customers (and revenues) each and every year. Don’t let your company end up one of these statistics.
3) Thank your customers - like you mean it. When your employees conclude a transaction, they should thank the customer with a smile and a sincere “thank you for … completed by whatever is appropriate for your business”. Too often, customers received a rushed and barely civil “Thanks-Have-a-nice-day-Next”. With large purchases, the verbal greeting should be followed up with a hand-written card - not just because it leads to increased referrals (which is does), but because it is the correct thing to do.
Oh, and by the way, the word “Sure” is no way to respond when a customer thanks you. To many people in many parts of the world, this is dismissive and suggests you don’t care. The correct phrase is “You’re welcome”.
4) Appearances do count! According got two independent pieces or research, nearly 90% of customers form an impression about how competent and reputable your company is based on what they see when they walk trough your doors.
5) Preserve me from auto-attendant hell. Customers are becoming increasingly annoyed and frustrated with having to sift through a multitude of options and press numerous buttons - only to be told that the desired service can only be obtained through the company’s website. Worse is when the auto-attendant uses voice recognition - but doesn’t ‘recognize’ your voice. People want to connect with human beings; they don’t want to listen to a long list of prompts. For hints on how to use auto-attendants effectively, please read “The top 5 new things people expect for good customer service” (on the www.ReallyGreatInfo.com website).
6) Do what you say you will… when you say you will. The expression “Under promise, over deliver” may have become somewhat hackneyed through over use, but is still germane. One of the quickest ways to lose customer confidence is to not follow-through, or to be late delivering a service or product, without notifying the customer in advance, determining whether or not the delay will impact the customer and providing an alternate solution in the interim if necessary.
One of the best examples I ever experienced of a company doing it well happened with Toyota. There was a problem with my RAV4 and Toyota couldn’t repair it easily. I was driving a loaner, but had planned to go camping with my kids. It was our summer holiday and it had been planned for months. When Toyota couldn’t repair my vehicle in time, they rented an SUV for us to use - without me having to ask. I have since purchased another vehicle from this dealership and recommended it to 6 others who have purchased from them. Coincidence? I think not.
7) Surprise the customer from the time to time. When it is possible to provide an extra level of service, do so. Whether it’s an unexpected complimentary dessert in a restaurant, or an upgrade that has not been requested, these special gestures go a long way towards engendering customer loyalty and to winning you new customers. It has long been known that on average, a dissatisfied customer will tell 10 - 16 others, but people who have had an unexpectedly good experience also recount their stories.
Provide “full” service. When Successories sends out its framed prints, it includes the hooks and a small levelling device. There’s a remote control toy vendor near me who includes the batteries. “My” gas station dispenses free coffee with gas on weekday mornings. A drive-through drycleaner in northern Ontario opens early and hands you the morning paper with your order. Small things, yes. Greatly appreciated? No question.
I spoke to each of my local retailers and learned that in each case, their sales - and profits - have enjoyed double digits increases since they introduced more comprehensive service. Think about what you can add to help make things easier for your customers. In some cases, by looking at what else it makes sense to sell, you can even add a new revenue stream while improving the perceived level of customer service provided.
9) Mea Culpa. When you have made a mistake, admit it and set things straight. When customers have a complaint - listen, truly listen. Then apologize and take corrective action. In many instances, the very act of listening (without interrupting) can be enough to diffuse the situation and make the person feel worthy as a customer. Then ask the customer how they would like you to resolve the situation. In most instances, your client will come up with something reasonable - and often less costly than a solution you might have proposed.
10) Listen to your customers. Conduct your own surveys and get feedback on what they like and don’t like - and take corrective action as required. Let customers know that their business is appreciated and that their opinions are important to you.
None of these suggestions takes a lot of time or money to implement, yet they can pay dividends in increased customer satisfaction and retention. The key, though, is to ensuring that employees understand the importance of their front-line role and get good training and supervision.
Jane-Michle Clark is president of The Q Group (http://www.theQgroup.com), a strategic positioning and marketing communications firm that has worked with many blue chip companies over the past 30 years. Jane-Michle also teaches MBA level marketing at the Schulich School of Business, is a corporate trainer and speaker, business coach and 4-time nominee for the Canadian Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award. Jane-Michle can be reached at jmc@reallygreatinfo.com or by calling 416-424-4233.
