Is Customer Service Old Fashion?

No matter what company you work for or run, good customer service should be a number one priority. Customer service is essential to having a successful business. Without it a company will not be able to maintain the ability to keep customers coming and buying, or using the products or services the company provides.

If customers are treated poorly or have a very bad experience dealing with a company chances are they will not return to the company or even the company’s website. Because of the lack of returning customers business will not do well, since a large portion of the business companies get is from returning customers. The company will also lose potential customers because people who have been treated poorly will tell their friends, family, and acquaintances, making those people not want to buy anything from the company as well.

Obviously you cannot make every customer happy, but the goal for all companies should be to try. Treat customers with respect, and treat them how you would want to be treated. Try to help and assist them in any way possible, and if you do not know answers to their questions try to help them find an answer. This will make customers feel like they matter and that they can go to employees from the company for help if they need to, creating a more friendly and helpful environment.

Along with treating customers well and in a helpful manner be personable with them. Ask them how they are and if they need any help. Doing this will make the customer feel more welcome, and it will also make the employees seem friendlier to the customer, leading to the company getting more business. The company will be more successful when its employees are friendly because everyone likes going into a store or business and being treated well. If customers are treated poorly they will make judgments about the company and assume that they will always be treated in a disrespectful manner by the company’s employees. This would lead to possible financial disaster for a company. Due to this companies should always maintain superior customer service.

If you would like to read more about good vs. bad customer service visit http://www.ehow.com/about_5390433_good-vs-bad-customer-service.html.

-L. Moore

Image Seattle Municipal Archives

Why Your Business Needs a Social Media Policy

This is a reprint of an article written for Orange County Local News Network

On LinkedIn, the online business social network, there’s a lively debate raging with more than 800 comments. Someone posted the question “when hiring, is it ethical to check out a person’s social network activity?”
With that many opinions, it appears the rules of this road are murky. The truth is that prowling around a job candidate’s social media activity may place your company at risk.

Social media is everywhere. Recruiters are tapping sites like LinkedIn to locate the next business superstar. Marketers are pulling out the stops to ignite a viral buzz. Customers are publicly exchanging love stories and horror stories about products and services.

But these forms of “conversational media” like blogs, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube introduce new risks every businessperson must have on the radar.
An innocent misstep could cost real dollars in the form of brand reputation, regulatory fines or even a dreaded lawsuit.

Let’s circle back to that LinkedIn discussion. If your employee is checking out a job candidate’s social network activity and hiring based on the information found there, your company could be violating privacy laws, or laws governing background checks, such as the Fair Credit and Reporting Act, or perhaps the Equal Employment Opportunity Act. And, if the employee happens to go home and post something about the hiring on Facebook or Twitter, well, that could spell “discoverable” trouble—it could later be used as evidence.

Avoiding social media risk, like most other business risk, means crafting a sensible policy and educating your employees. A social media policy is simply good management.

There is no one-size-fits-all social media policy, but a few key things to consider in a policy are:

• Respectful Workplace

Update your existing policies. Your company likely has policies that cover appropriate workplace conduct. Update them to encompass social media conduct and connections. Online interactions can trigger harassment or discrimination charges, or privacy violations. In once instance, a manager fired an employee by commenting on the employee’s Facebook profile because she disliked something the employee posted. Make sure employees receive updated training about appropriate behavior extending into social networking with colleagues, and most importantly, subordinates.

• Brand Reputation

Employees should understand that the line between personal and professional identity is blurring online. Our inter-connected web means that personal profiles, opinions or social content likely will wind up in Google, or on other social networks and can easily be tracked to a professional affiliation. Sometimes people don’t consider the distributed “network effect” of comments made online to friends. Outsiders may view remarks and construe them to be the company’s, potentially impacting your brand’s reputation.

• Marketing

Marketers and agencies that work on behalf of your company should adhere to all social media website terms and conditions, including identity disclosures, age restrictions and rules regarding contests. Equally important, when they engage bloggers and others for word-of-mouth endorsements, they must follow new FTC rulings mandating endorsers to reveal any relationship with your company.

• Workplace Safety

Employees should not use private contact information or private social network profiles for company-sponsored online activity. Revealing private information may place the employee’s safety at risk, and tying a company activity into an employee’s personal profile means the employee “owns” it, not the company. Also, geo-location networking, where users publicly share their GPS locations, may jeopardize an employee’s privacy or safety. Be sure to review and address this increasingly popular tool.

• Compensation

Specifically address whether after-hours company-sponsored social media activity is compensated or considered volunteer time.
Don’t be tempted to simply adopt another company’s social media policy. But to get you thinking, Social Media Governance, a website by an author on the subject, has a database of more than 100 social media policies. Institute a policy that addresses your specific business culture and regulatory environment. Consult a digitally knowledgeable attorney, and if needed, bring your social media specialist into the conversation.

Photo by Rosaura Ochoa

Blogging in the business world: How blogging can advance your company

Blogging is becoming a large trend, especially for businesses. Writing online in an informal blog allows businesses to connect with their customers and get information out to them quicker.  Through this connection customers know more about products and feel more in touch with the company, and also know about what the company does for the community. Not only will this increase business, but it will also be an excellent way for customers to select the companies they buy products and get services from based on what the companies stand for.

Writing blogs also is helpful in businesses because it is a cheap way to promote products, and get everything out that the company members want to say. The company can get its message out and advertise on a blog, which is a whole lot cheaper than advertising on television or buying space for an advertisement in a newspaper. Along with this many people do not get their news from newspapers and search online, so it can be more profitable and sensible to have a blog and or a website promoting companies and products.

Now that you know the positive impacts of blogging you may be thinking what would I blog about. Blogging can be about anything you feel customers should know, but at the same time you still want to represent the company in a positive light.
Do not be too formal because you want to connect with your customers, but do not be too informal either. For instance do not include personal opinions, or slang terms. As well as this keep in mind your audience. If you are using acronyms make sure that your audience will know what they stand for if you do not write them out. Doing this will keep customers in tune and know what you are talking about. Of course getting the information to the customer is the main goal, so once you have done this blogging is a piece of cake.

If you are still having trouble coming up with ideas for topics consider what your company does for the community, brainstorm a list of things about your company and what you do, and think about the questions customers would ask. Once you have done this you will be amazed by all the blogging possibilities. Next write your blog, edit your blog, and consider the scan ability of the blog. People want their news fast and do not usually want to read lengthy amounts of text.  If your blog is not easy for readers to scan consider adding in charts, pictures, graphs, etc. to break up some of the text. The more easily readers can look at your blog and get information the more they will enjoy your blog, which goes along with how visually appealing your site and blog are.

Photo by nightthree

L.Moore
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