Monitoring Social Media: Where’s Your Focus?

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Establishing presence on social media is important, but monitoring your brand is crucial. Social media is not only used for customer service, it’s also a good way to see how your brand is performing; are you making the right impression? Social media is a platform where you can fish for opportunities for success.

The power of social media is great; you have everything to gain by leveraging it. There’s a lot of noise in this platform, and it takes effort to isolate and listen to what’s important. Many companies consider staff leasing service just to filter all the information. The goal of social media monitoring is to collect relevant data, also analyze how such data can be used to the brand’s or company’s advantage.

Here are two things to monitor online, especially on social media:

1. Monitor your Brand or Company

The first thing to monitor is your brand or your company. This is the easiest to verify, because a lot of information will be revealed with a simple keyword search. Consider user questions about your company, viral content about your brand, reviews of your products or services, or maybe even a community of your avid followers. All these information from common people will not only give you an idea of how popular your brand or company is, it also gives you the chance to connect with them. After all, the best customer service is when customers can feel your solid presence.

2. Monitor the Industry

After “stalking” your brand or company online, it’s now time to widen your perspective—monitor the industry. By doing so, you’re not just checking out the position of your company or brand in the market, you’re also keeping your eyes open for the competition. After all, the customers are not the only ones talking about your products or services, the other companies are also checking you out.

Monitor their activity and content, see if there are things that you can learn from them. Maybe you can learn from their weak strategies to improve yours? How about unsuccessful campaigns that you can use as case studies? Just gather relevant industry information and use them as recipes for success. Keep your customers close and your competition closer. If you find the task overwhelming, hire staff leasing service.

Beyond the noise in social media, there are important information in the form of complaints, positive reviews, questions, and feedbacks that you can use to improve your brand or company. By monitoring only the relevant things, you’re making the social media a place where opportunities abound.

Elsewhere on this blog:

Business 101: How to Widen Customer Network Using Social Media

4 Ways Social Media Can Help Your Business Grow

Shared Services Model – It Could Be Your Best Business Solution Yet

How’s Your Outbound Sales Performance Doing?

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One way businesses generate (revenue) leads and sales is through outbound marketing: sales representatives reach out to existing and prospective customers, promoting products and services. However, this marketing tactic is often overshadowed by inbound marketing, what most companies don’t realize is that outbound marketing is just as important as any other marketing strategies.

While it has its own flaws and disadvantages, outbound marketing can potentially increase not only leads and sales, but the number of loyal customers as well. In today’s industries, consumers not only look for quality product and services; customer service and support are just as important.

Consumers are more inclined to patronize a brand if it delivers well in customer service; they will trust your company if you show a sense of responsibility and empathy. To earn and build loyalty, you have to be sincere in your efforts, and communicating you want the best for them is priority.

This is accomplished in outbound marketing, where sales representatives engage and develop trust with clients. Since their job is to persuade consumers to buy products, outbound sales agents can make use of personal strategies in establishing rapport with customers. This method can be effective if the goal is to generate sales. But how can you be sure if your outbound marketing team is doing their job right?

How is your company’s outbound sales performance doing?

As experts put it, business is not just about product/service quality, there’s also emphasis on customer relationship. Corporations have to realize the way customers think, something which changed over the years. It is still essential to secure a special connection with them. The ultimate goal for every company is to build and maintain a good and trustworthy image. This involves providing high-quality products, and effective customer service and support. This principle is applied in outbound marketing. Anticipating the challenges involved, here are two simple tricks you can implement:

1. Identifying, understanding your prospects

Outbound sales representatives need to know, having basic information about clients won’t do them any good. If they want to really see some progress, sales agents have to understand the way customers think. They should be able to relate to the clients’ situation – how it is in their customers’ shoes, how would they respond to the call or offer? Would they consider buying if the conversation is lighthearted? Does straight-forward work to them best? Agents should be able to contemplate these things before planning their marketing approach.

2. Build lasting relationships

Once the agents establish a connection with prospects, the next important thing to do is to nurture that relationship. Customers who feel a certain bond with a company are most likely to continue patronage with them. One way to do this is with consistent follow-ups, updating on new products or promos that could stir interest. It’s these little things like these send customers the impression that your company has a focused and dedicated customer support system.

While some customers may be a little hard to persuade, following these steps can change the course of your outbound sales. The key here is that your company must convey your message (that your customers are important) clear and loud. As a business owner, the first step you need to do is to find people who can successfully do the job. Look for employees who are effective communicators, good decision makers, great listeners, and most importantly, those who have dedication. Do this and your outbound marketing team should be fine.

Elsewhere on this blog:

Why Bother With Post-Sales Follow Up?

Maximizing Customer Retention: Handling Complaints

Five Tips for Providing the Best Customer Service Experience

Boost Sales through Product/Service Promotion

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Promotion is a crucial aspect of business, especially for small and newbie companies. Compared to giant corporations, small-scale businesses struggle more when it comes to promoting their brand. Competition is tight, and the way consumers think about purchasing products has changed – they’re more cautious and meticulous in terms of deciding which product/service is worth it and which is not.

While it is true business works in cutthroat ways, small and new businesses, however, still get the chance to attract customers and gain profit through marketing. Product and service promotion is one of the most effective ways to raise awareness and popularity of a business, which eventually results to the increase in actual sales.

Your Business, Your Brand

This process, however, is just as hard as putting up a business in the first place. Business owners can engage in various marketing campaigns, but this does not always guarantee success. What many don’t realize is that there’s more to an effective promotion than just spreading words about a company’s brand. If you want for your business to be really successful, you don’t just have to put your name in the spotlight, you have got to make it stick.

Promotion through Word-of-Mouth, on Social Media

Just like in communication, there are so many ways you can promote your business, and with unlimited access to technology, promoting your product is just as easy as clicking a button. Using social media to promote your business is probably the easiest and the cheapest way to attract people’s attention. Since everyone browses the world wide web everyday, creating accounts and pages on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and many other types of social sites would definitely reach a big portion of your target market.

Conventional Media

Advertising has grown into a giant industry, and it’s crucial in the business world. Considered as the most dominant mode of marketing, advertisements will be helpful in raising your company’s popularity, for it uses different forms of media (print and electronic). Advertisements allow your campaign to reach the specific audience, your target market. Television commercials, newspaper ads, and radio promotions can reach a wide range of audiences, in different age brackets. Utilizing these media can very much generate publicity in no time.

Outreach and Engagement Campaigns

Other types of marketing strategies such as telemarketing/telesales, networking, charity events, gift promos, and community programs are constantly being used by various companies. Tactics like run-for-a-cause marathons and social-welfare-themed programs can help build up a good image for your business. Because people love engaging in these events, companies often get the highest attention from existing and new customers, resulting to an increased sales and brand popularity.

All these strategies are proven to generate success when done correctly. It’s not enough that you just execute the campaigns; in order to truly reach your target consumers, you must be able to establish a clear connection with them. Conducting surveys through phone calls, social media, or emails will help you better understand your consumers. This strategy allows you to gather information that would be useful both for marketing purposes and in developing new features or services that would suit the needs of the customers.

Elsewhere on this blog:

Why Bother With Post-Sales Follow Up?

Developing Your Business: Conducting Market Research in the Virtual World

Be Locally Famous: Six Strategies for Budding Businesses

Shared Services Model – It Could Be Your Best Business Solution Yet

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In unity there is strength, as best described in the shared services model; it’s a business strategy where some resources of an organization are combined to cut costs and remove redundant operations. Processes are standardized and resources are optimized, effectively combining the best practices of different teams and strengthening the organization in the long run.

Cost-Cutting

With resources focused on just a single unit, operational costs would greatly decrease. In a normal setup, each department has its own intangible and tangible assets, even repetitive operations, while the shared services model pool valuable resources together to remove menial tasks. Consequently, downtime is lessened and operational costs are reduced.

Efficient and Professional

Reduced downtime enables workers to focus on their tasks. With dedication to only accomplish valuable services, the workers’ training and skills are improved. This promotes the professionalization of their work, making them able to deliver efficient service.

Improved and Standardized Service

A task-driven team is also customer-focused. Once cultivated into a work culture, clients and the business receive services from just a single structure and from a standardized process. There would be no complicated administrative procedures to take, just a streamlined mechanism to quickly and wisely extend services.

Flexible and Focused

There’s the misconception the shared services model is complicated, considering various tasks are juggled by just a single unit. The uncertainty that comes with this is normal, as a shift in business model is coupled with inevitable changes. However, this is resolved as soon as the shared service center is in operation, once the staff knows how to prioritize between processes. Thus, they can control the work flow by managing tasks, as well as strategize procedures based on the business’ and the customers’ needs. With such flexibility, the focus and quality of service is improved.

Indeed, the shared services model is not just a practical means to do business. It is a wise move to improve the overall operations of an organization, all while maintaining a professional workforce and providing optimum service.

Elsewhere on this blog:

Choosing Your Business Model: Shared Services Over Centralization

Expanding Your Business Reach: Multilingual Contact Centers

Four Outsourcing Challenges Your Business Needs to Hurdle

Five Tips for Providing the Best Customer Service Experience

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A bad customer experience can ruin your business reputation, drive customers away. This is unfortunate realization for companies forced to recall products, compensate for poor service. It’s really difficult to make up for such scenarios, especially when you’re up against angry customers who just wouldn’t quit. This is why many consider customer service outsourcing an efficient solution to complaint management. Whether your customer support is in-house or leased, these best practices should spare you from mistakes too many companies fumbled with.

1. Provide a clear explanation

You’re very familiar with your industry’s technologies and terminologies, and they say familiarity breeds contempt – towards your customers. If you can’t explain your service in plain and simple terms, the customer will feel misunderstood, even patronized. The clarity of communication is important because it affects everything you do. It influences the customer’s decision in buying as well as their experience in using the product or service offered.

Aside from slangs, colloquialisms, or technical jargon, you should also avoid passive-aggressive language and negative undertones. Explain things in chronological order or in order of difficulty, complemented by a friendly voice; your customers appreciate clarity.

2. Active Listening

In answering queries and dealing with customer complaints, listen with an intent to understand what the real problem is. If you ignore the issue or fail to meet your customer’s expectations, the situation could worsen or escalate.

To save you from failed communication, pay close attention to the words used, as well as the tone and other nonverbal signals used in a conversation. Through this simple practice, you would know where a customer is coming from, and you can address the problem correctly and efficiently. If you’ve considered customer service outsourcing, invest in training and coaching programs to ensure your support is equipped to handle the worst customer complaints.

3. Use Positive Language

One way you’ll steer clear of accidental conflicts brought by failed communication is to use positive language. Instead of saying “can’t” or “unavailable,” shift to words that propose a definite solution. When the focus of the conversation is on the outcome, the customer is less likely upset in the end. Done professionally and formally, the angry or frustrated customer will still trust your brand.

4. Follow up on Customer Requests

Whether you promised to give an update on a request or not, the customer expects the agent to follow through until completion. Failing to do leaves the impression you’re unprofessional, and may smear the reputation of your business. Before it happens, keep in mind all the requests deserve an immediate response, ensure your customers are guided from start to finish. Remember to be accountable for the customers’ satisfaction, making them feel important and valued.

5. Close the Conversation on a Good Note

Closing a conversation is more than just saying thank you and goodbye. A good agent doesn’t leave an issue hanging and unresolved. He/she guarantees that every transaction completely addressed the customer’s question or achieved the purpose of the call. Your willingness to close a conversation correctly shows that you want to get things right and care about the customer’s gratification.
A good customer experience sustains retention. Manage your customer base well and watch your prospects grow through word-of-mouth, on social media. Building a good reputation takes time; value what you’ve accomplished by keeping constant pulse on your customers.

Elsewhere on this blog:

Maximizing Customer Retention: Handling Complaints

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Four Easy Steps to Calming Angry Clients

 

Three Things Successful Entrepreneurs Never Do

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When was the last time you learned a lesson the hard way? You fumbled in negotiations, costing you that contract. Do you have pangs of regret remembering that business deal snagged by your competition?Should have considered outsourcing projects instead of in-house operations, to cut costs?

You’re in good company if you ever made a costly misstep, it comes with the territory. If it’s any comfort, the most successful businesses are constantly roadblocked by pitfalls. It’s fortunate the stories are well-documented; for your business sake, skip the mistakes and apply costly lessons others learned.

This isn’t your usual to-do list, though. Consider these points as precautions in running your business:

1. Don’t Forget Why You’re in Business

It’s easy to get sidetracked when you’re in the thick of a thriving business. Some forget why they started their businesses in the first place. The reasons may vary, but it’s often to fill a need; it could be personal, financial. Is there a niche on the market few businesses are catering? Did you intend to break new ground in the industry?

The “why” of your business will tide you through times when the “how” doesn’t make sense. If you built your business so you can spend more time with family, keep this in mind once there’s too much on paperwork your plate. Successful entrepreneurs are fully aware of priorities, and they’re willing to drop everything for the sake of what’s truly important.

2. Don’t Enter Partnerships in a Rush

This is tricky dilemma, especially if the prospects are too appealing to pass on. When you’ve done all the legwork, consider trusting your intuition. It’s great if you’ve started this business with friends and long-time acquaintances, and now everything’s as strong as ever. However, some partnerships fall flat because of mismatched expectations. It’s best if you thoroughly consider future business partners, ensure they’ll complement your team.

Opposites do attract, and it’s good business sense to on-board someone with skills and approach opposite to yours. This creates conflict, but it also keeps you from being complacent. You can bounce and filter ideas off each other, in effort to glean best solutions.

3. Don’t Stay on the Plateau, Keep Evolving

All progress occurs outside the comfort zone. You’ll reach plateaus in productivity, in revenue; there’s trickle of new clientele. These should push you to be proactive, take measures and get out of that rut. You only need to consider the humble beginnings of the most successful companies. Google and Apple started as garage businesses; imagine if these plateaued after eperiencing moderate success?

Successful companies keep evolving, for better or for worse. If outsourcing projects is the hard decision you have to make, consider the trade-off in cost and efficiency. There’s always risk of loss in business, but there’s also potential for gain. You can’t know what’s waiting for you at the corner if you don’t turn the bend.

You’ll make mistakes on your own, some can be costly. But, learning from other people’s mistake gives you the advantage. You don’t have to go down the well-tread path of mishaps. If ever you stumble into obstacles few have hurdled, you’ll at least have acquired wisdom of others, enough to tackle problems head-on.

Elsewhere on this blog:

You Need These Five People to Succeed in Business

Be Locally Famous: Six Strategies for Budding Businesses

Four Outsourcing Challenges Your Business Needs to Hurdle

Maximizing Customer Retention: Handling Complaints

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Businesses have goals to achieve, principles to observe, sales strategies to follow. Regardless of the nature of your business, it’s execution and strategies, there’s only one end point you’ll answer to –the receiver of the service –the customers. It is every company’s priority to deliver in accordance with the needs of consumers, always taking into consideration the importance of customer satisfaction in securing clientele.

However, it is no secret that dealing with different types of customers can sometimes (or always) be tricky; many consider BPO outsourcing the feasible solution, hiring personal trained for the task. No matter how careful and strict a company may be in running their business, complaints are unavoidable. The smallest or the most prominent business names aren’t spared from backlash. The complaint can be serious or trivial, but in order to keep a good relationship with clients, companies must deal with these problems as best as they can.

Handling complaints can be trying and time-consuming, and it’s also crucial for business owners to take immediate action in solving the problem – customers must be satisfied, and the company in good standing. While there’s no official manual on dealing with unhappy clients, following these steps may efficiently resolve the issue.

Identify What the Complaint Is All about

Knowing the nature of the complaint gives you insight on what went wrong with the service/s provided. Ask questions that would help you better understand the situation; you’ll know how to proceed in resolving the problem. It’s important you avoid arguments; be professional and polite in effort to work out amenable solution. Assure complainants they’ll receive proper compensation for the problem – sincerity always calms angry customers.

Propose Win-Win, Reasonable Solutions

After you hear out the customer’s side on the complaint, the appropriate action would be to offer a rational solution appealing to the client. Inquire about preferred resolution to the issue, evaluate and implement. Immediate resolution reflects a good image on the company, hopefully leaving no trace of the unfortunate incident. Ultimately, you should win back the trust and loyalty of your clients.

Complaints are smears on your company’s reputation, there is no getting away from it – entrepreneurs are fully aware of the consequences. Resolve issues for two reasons – to keep customers from switching to another brand, and to maintain good reputation. Complaints are often directed to customer service/support, so it it essential your support staff is qualified and trained for the task; this requires patience and empathy.

Clients want to feel that their concerns are valued, so it is wise to hire support who are rational and decisive. Customer support is one of the most important factors in a business, they’re front-liners to complaint management. Investing on a capable team through BPO outsourcing pays off, with a solid and growing customer base.

Elsewhere on this blog:

Why Bother With Post-Sales Follow Up?

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4 Smart Solutions When Your Capital Isn’t Enough

Website Navigation 101

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In a day and age when information can be easily accessed via the Internet, and websites offer more and more pages of data to sift through, there is a demand for proper navigation to quickly get the readers, the end-users, where they want to go. And while it stands true that designing the website to make it visually appealing is a priority, one thing business owners and web developers/designers should keep in mind is making it easy for their readers, their audience, to find what they’re looking for once they load the website. Otherwise, what is the point of putting up information that can’t be seen or accessed?

Website Navigation, in a Nutshell

But let’s backtrack; what is website navigation anyway? And why is it a crucial presence in a website? Website navigation is simply the system where the links/pages of content can be found. Think of it as the backbone of the website, an online version of the table of contents, or a roadmap of points of interests. Without it, readers would feel lost, not knowing where to go next or how to access the information that they’re searching for. And if they get confused or frustrated, site traffic and rankings in search engines will drop.

Various Preferences, Custom Solutions

So how can business owners better serve their readers (aside from a carefully designed and organized web navigation)? By outsourcing services, providing support for web navigational assistance. Business owners should bear in mind that different people have different ways of searching for information — they have their own habits and factors that make up their navigating processes — and might encounter difficulties when browsing the website.

Support Staff Makes It Feasible

With a dedicated support staff available, readers can be guided to solve the problem encountered; reliable techs who know all there is to know about the structure and content of the website are the persons readers can turn to for troubleshooting the features or services that the website offers. The end-goal is to help readers retrieve the information or product they are looking for, and provide a smooth browsing experience that will, in turn, boost sales.

Elsewhere on this blog:

Developing Your Business: Conducting Market Research in the Virtual World

Business Metrics: What Surveys Can Do For Your Business

Navigating Timezones: Three Strategies for Expanding Businesses

Why Bother With Post-Sales Follow Up?

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While continuously finding and acquiring new customers is great for business, maintaining good relationship with current customers is also crucial, ensuring repeat business and loyal customers.

Acquire New Customers, Keep Them Close

A new customer entails going through the process of introducing the business, its product and services, gaining their trust, and of course, convincing them to actually spend their hard-earned money. A repeat customer however, is already familiar with the business, knows what it offers, and has faith in the brand because they’ve already tried it for themselves. That’s why it’s important to have a good relationship with present customers, a stable base who can generate new referrals, bring in potential clients.

Post-ales follow up is vital in keeping and maintaining business-client relationships. It makes clients feel the business’s commitment to customer service and satisfaction, build rapport, and open doors for expansion.

It’s All Worth the Effort

Maintaining your customer base seems like a lot of work, but if it’s worthwhile if you consider the return on investment. Post-sales follow up is the company’s way of showing its sincerity to the customers that it cares. It’s as simple as sending them a thank you note after a purchase, calling to ask about their experience with the product or service, or taking it up a notch by offering warranties, repairs, updates on related products that they may want, and offering discounts and incentives for referrals. These build up the company’s presence to its customer base, eventually to its market. It always pays to build a stronger relationship with existing customers.

Post-sales follow up is a way for the company to ensure customer satisfaction. And with the feedback given by their clients, they’ll be able to find new ways to improve their business. In doing so, not only will they be able to cater to their existing market better, but also their target market as a whole. The little things add up, and that’s what post-sales follow up is all about.

Elsewhere on this blog:

5 Ways Customer Feedback Can Help Grow Your Business

Business 101: How to Widen Customer Network Using Social Media

Should You Outsource Your Customer Service?

Developing Your Business: Conducting Market Research in the Virtual World

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Market research is a default tool used by entrepreneurs in gathering information: current market trends, purchasing history of consumers, public and private records, and more. The data is used by corporations to stay updated in the current business wave. It also enables them to assess whether their products/services still appeal to their target market, or if they need to establish a new marketing strategy for their brand. While this approach sounds like a lot of work, companies have found a faster and more accurate method to generate feedback and results, thanks to developments in technology.

Since the advent of the internet, communication is as second nature as blinking. And with all the social networking sites surfacing and dominating online, researches and surveys can now be done with just a few clicks. The internet is this generation’s best technology, and everyone (especially entrepreneurs) are happy about it. Businesses experience convenience not only in connecting with their clients, but also in promoting brands. And with the increasing popularity of social media among millennials, it has become easier for business owners to collect data and feedback from their markets.

To further enhance your company’s market research strategy, here are some useful tips on how to generate consumer information using the internet.

Social Media

It is no secret almost everyone have various social media accounts. It is the current trend, and every human being with a smart phone and internet connection (which are both globally accessible) is hooked to it. As a corporation aiming to position your brand in the public market’s interest, utilizing social media for your company’s benefit is a smart move. Conducting polls and surveys in different platforms like Facebook, Twitter and other sites can save you both money and time, as it’s free to create social media accounts and feedback generation is done in real time.

Emails & E-newsletters

Another market research method that can be done through internet is sending newsletters and surveys via email -a good way to gather information and opinions from existing customers. Engaging in an email-based interaction with clients also helps establish a personal connection; this is to your advantage, because having a healthy customer relationship increases the rate of customer retention and potentially advances sales generation.

Online Posts & Articles

Reading market-related articles posted online is also helpful in analyzing gathered data. Collecting insights from published studies can give you a head-start in concluding what would be the best step for your company. Articles written by private and government agencies are usually the most reliable sources, citing statistics essential for your own research. Also, studying what potential consumers write or comment about certain products/services gives you insight on your next product release or marketing campaign.

While almost everything can be easily found in the internet, you still have to verify information before you utilize it. Sites delivering false information has bombarded the virtual world, so it is imperative to be careful and wise in selecting what is genuine and what is not. Always refer to data you can trace to legit sources, like official sites and pages.

Elsewhere on this blog:

Business Metrics: What Surveys Can Do For Your Business

Competitive Advantages of Offshore Staff Leasing

Should You Outsource Your Customer Service?