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Connect with the Right Business Phone System for Company Growth

May 20, 2015 by Thomas 1 Comment

Is your business telephone system helping you to grow?

It’s easy to overlook your business phone system and just use whatever is available, but in fact choosing the right phone system can provide your business with a valuable boost.

Picking the right telephone system is a crucial choice for your business and can help determine your success. Your business phone system can make it easier for your customers to reach you, and for your team to collaborate with each other.

The result is enhanced customer service, and better teamwork, two elements which are vital to the success of your business.

Helping Your Customers to Reach You

The right business phone system can make a noticeable difference to the quality of your customer service.

Whether they call or text, email or leave a message on your social media profiles, your customers are looking for a quick and helpful response. The right telephone system can help you give them just that.

VoIP (voice over internet protocol) phone systems often offer feature-rich solutions which you can make the most of to boost your customer service.

VoIP allows you to stay in touch wherever you are by forwarding calls to your mobile device, cutting down the amount of times your customers will have to hear “I’m sorry, I’m not at my desk right now”.

With features such as find me and follow me, you can set up calling sequences for yourself and your team that will call different numbers in sequence.

The right system can do more than just find you, however.

You can make use of auto attendants to help your customers reach the right person, or us alert features that will let you know via email when you have a new voice mail (some will even transcribe the voice mail for you).

Choosing a phone system with the right features means your customers will benefit from customer service that makes it easy for them to get in touch with you and get a response.

Keeping Your Team Connected

As the following article looks at, the same features that make the right phone systems for businesses a boon for your customer service can also help your team to stay connected, and can even help boost their performance.

As well as the features outlined above, your team can make use of VoIP phones to make conference calls or even use instant messaging apps.

Whether collaborating with a colleague in an office several hundred miles away or updating your team with vital information while you’re out and about, the right phone system makes it easier to keep in touch.

Some business phone systems can even be used to help with training. They include features that allow managers to listen to customer service calls, join in on the call if needed, or talk to their employee without the customer hearing.

Your choice of phone system can facilitate more efficient teamwork, cut down on games of “telephone tag” when employees need to get in touch with one another, and help to provide training and support for employees who take customer calls.

It’s clear that your choice of phone system can make a big impact on how you run your business and how you connect with your customers.

By choosing a system with features that you know you can make good use of, your team will able to work together more effectively, and your customers will enjoy better customer service.

That means a business that runs more smoothly, and happy customers who will return to do business with you again.

Photo credit: Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

About the Author: Tristan Anwyn writes on a wide variety of topics, including branding, inbound marketing, business telephone systems and how to use social media to drive sales.

Filed Under: Customer Think, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc

How to allow new leaders to thrive

May 5, 2015 by Rosemary Leave a Comment

By Roz Bahrami

The goal for any growing company is to allow core employees to take on leadership roles. Ensuring that these new leaders thrive in their positions and motivate and help other employees is not always the easiest task.

Here are some tips that can help newly advanced employees thrive in their leadership roles.

Promote more than one

Promoting more than one person is a great way to support a rising leader. Allowing peers to go through the process together allows the new leaders to feel more comfortable without being alienated. Learning and supporting one another are key criteria for leadership.

Training

Providing leadership training is a great way to make a recently promoted leader feel more comfortable and confident. Having leadership skills is not an inherent skill for everyone, but providing training allows the employee to not only improve their own skills but also become a more valuable member of your organization.

Constant communication

Communicate the goals and values that your organization strives to achieve, and your new leader’s task will be easier. It is easier to know where you are taking an organization in the long run when the map is already handed to you.

Check-ins

Receiving constant and frequent check-ins allows the newly promoted leader to feel supported without feeling too pressured. An employee who feels they are valued by an organization, because so much time is being spent on them, will work harder.

Feedback

Constructive criticism is the best way to allow an employee to grow, and develop on his or her own.

Allow for failure

Doing a specific task without guidance and failing allows you to learn the skills moving forward. Allowing employees to try methods that fit their needs without being worried about failure and recrimination will help them to flourish.

Show their value

Allowing your newly promoted leader to find their value by voicing their opinion and providing input creates great confidence. Focus on getting them to contribute to a strong and supportive company culture, and you will ensure more initiative is taken.

Give work

By assigning work to your newly delegated leader, you will not only learn how your employee does work but will also give them the confidence that their contribution is valued.

Share your experiences with us regarding a new position you’ve had to deal with in your organization. Do you believe these tips will benefit a new leader?

Author’s Bio: Roz Bahrami is a blogger for SkyPrep.com, an online training software for companies to train employees and measure results. Roz is a regular contributor to blog posts related to corporate training, L&D and HR technology.

Filed Under: management, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc

Is Your Authentic Hustle Evident on Social Media?

April 28, 2015 by Lindsey Tolino Leave a Comment

By Lindsey Tolino

We have to see it to believe it, don’t we? Maybe we want even more proof than just seeing it, but we at least need to see it.

This is so evident on social media. If people don’t see it, they don’t believe it’s happening. We may be doing a ton of work, but if we’re not sharing what is happening, people may not think we’re doing anything.

The people that you think are successful are the ones whose work you see. Subconsciously, we may know that there are plenty of other people out there doing great work, but because we don’t see it, how can we be sure?

Sure, you share your perfectly-manicured blog post or your colleague’s article, but do you share sneak peeks of what you’re working on?

Basically, you have to answer this question – can people easily tell you’re hustling through your social media alone?

If it’s not obvious that you are, you’re missing out. People won’t believe it’s happening unless they see it. They won’t have any inkling unless you’re sharing it.

In January I interviewed former Pittsburgh Steeler and current artist Baron Batch. His experience really hit me:

“It was kind of like this light bulb went off – at the time I was doing a ton of art projects and different collaborations but I just wasn’t getting credit for the amount and quality of work that it deserved. And it hit me – no one knows. No one knows. I’m not showing anything. That opened my eyes – you have to promote yourself while you work. To show your progression.”

And this isn’t about self-promotion. This is about sharing value. It’s about allowing people to see you and your business in an honest and authentic way.

If we filter our social media presence to simply the perfected pieces, people will only see the outcome, not the process. When you showcase only the outcome, people may value it, but they will not easily identify with you. The reality is that we all struggle, working hard on challenges every day. If you don’t show the struggle, if you show only the perfect, it’s harder to identify with you.

The tweets and posts that I have greatly valued are the authentic ones.

The irony of me writing this is that I’m totally hypocritical in this area. I fix myself on the work to be done and neglect to share the process with others. I struggle with it because I want to be fully present in my work instead of thinking about how I’ll share it on social media. But I’m missing out on serving others by being authentic. I need to integrate sharing into my process, instead of treating it as an afterthought.

Can we do this together? Can we be more authentic? Can we share the process?

What tips do you have for integrating sharing into your process instead of treating it as an afterthought?

Author’s Bio: Lindsey Tolino comes alongside artisans, craftsman and people monetizing their passions to help them create healthy, structured businesses. She writes business musings and tips at ToBusinessOwners.com. Follow her on Twitter @LindseyTolino or connect with her on Google+.

Filed Under: Marketing /Sales / Social Media, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc

How To Use Yelp Reviews To Improve Your Business

April 14, 2015 by Lindsey Tolino Leave a Comment

By Lindsey Tolino

Yelp reviews can be excellent marketing or the bane of your business. Have you thought about improving your business based on reviews? Is it sometimes hard to know what is constructive criticism and what isn’t?

Here’s how to cut through Yelp reviews to improve your business:

Things to keep in mind – 1. Yelp reviews may or may not represent your customers as a whole since only a fraction of your customers “yelp.” 2. If you don’t have enough reviews, Yelp explains how to get more genuine reviews here.

 

If you have mixed reviews (3-4 star average):

  • Look for major themes. What do people generally like and dislike about your business? For example, do people often write that the table service is rude? Do people regularly write that you have the best steak tacos?
  • When you find the themes, it should show what your business is doing well and what it may need to improve on.
  • When you know what your business is doing well, ensure that you’re communicating to your customers what you do well to create accurate expectations. For example, if people love your steak tacos, your ads could say ‘Best steak tacos in town!’
  • When you know your weakness, decide if you should eliminate it, turn it into a strength or improve upon it. Let’s look at rude table service as an example. To eliminate it, you could get rid of table service altogether and convert to counter service and take-out only. To turn it into a strength, you could emphasize your rude service and use it as an edge like some restaurants have. To improve it, you could work with your servers to ensure they are serving customers more kindly.

If you haven’t been able to find major themes, issues may be related to inconsistencies in products or services. In that case, you may want to look into establishing some QA/QC processes to establish consistency.

If you have mostly positive reviews (5 star average):

Congratulations! But that doesn’t mean you can’t learn from your reviews. You can always learn and improve, especially if you’re trying to grow your business.

  • Use reviews to gain demographic info. Examining Yelp reviewers as your only demographic can be a bit misleading (because not everyone ‘yelps’), but it still helps to aggregate some data from Yelp to see who loves your business.
  • You can use this information as a source of data to help you determine areas of potential business growth. For example, if college students seem to love your place, you may want to consider events, marketing or even new locations that serve them better.

If you have mostly negative reviews (1-2 star average):

I’m sorry, this can be rough. But you have to set the emotion aside for a moment to look at it intellectually. You have direct-from-the-customer information about how to improve your business, which is great news.

  • If you have consistently negative reviews, it probably relates to the fact that you’re not delivering on customer expectations. Go back to the drawing board and examine what expectations you’re creating for customers. If you don’t know what expectations you’re creating, examine the negative reviews and cite the themes of customer disappointment.
  • If customers expected something wrongly (i.e. you didn’t mean to promise it), then you need to implement better methods of communication (in signage, advertisements, website, etc.). This will ensure that customers have expectations consistent with what you’re promising.
  • If customers expected something rightly (i.e. you do promise it), but are disappointed, then you need to examine what is letting them down specifically. If it is related to a product, use the reviews to recognize product issues and make it right. If it is related to timely service, examine your systems and determine bottlenecks. If it is related to quality service, examine your capability, culture and employees. Make changes as needed.
  • After you’ve made changes, it is essential to let customers know that you have heard their feedback and changed accordingly. You might need to run a promotion, do a PR release or even rebrand. Ultimately, you want to ensure customers know that the old problems are resolved and that you will serve them better.

Yelp is a great source of information for analyzing and improving your business. Don’t be discouraged by harsh reviews. Instead, discern through them and use information wisely to greatly benefit your business.

Author’s Bio: Lindsey Tolino is small business management consultant that comes alongside artisans, craftsman and people monetizing their passions to help them create healthy, structured businesses. She writes business musings and tips at ToBusinessOwners.com. Follow her on Twitter @LindseyTolino or connect with her on Google+.

Filed Under: Customer Think, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc

Visualization Plus Journaling Equals Sales Magic

April 3, 2015 by Rosemary Leave a Comment

By Deb Bixler

We all know about the power of visualization. Combine that with journaling for direct sales success!

I am often asked about how to write a journal.

When we can combine journaling and visualization with a sense of fun, we can create some very powerful possibilities; and you don’t even need a coach to do this!

It’s a coaching technique you can do by yourself.

To illustrate this, I want you to do a little role-playing, a little visualization in your mind’s eye, and then we’ll sort through the ideas behind the activity.

I’ve chosen a situation from a typical direct sales party plan, but you can easily use the same technique, using a networking business opportunity meeting.

How To Write A Journal: Visualize

Just imagine yourself sitting in an invisible corner of a living room watching a party taking place. Visualize what should be happening to achieve success at the party.

As you sit there listening and watching, your mind starts to wander a little bit.

You say to yourself, ‘wouldn’t this be fun if I could just direct this party like it was a play?’

Visualize Direct Sales SuccessYour mind suddenly starts racing as if a light bulb came on, and you start to think back to everything you can remember about dramatic play productions.

Your mind now shifts into overdrive as you think about the different elements of your production. You think about five dramatic elements too fast almost to even write them down, but then you remember that you were going to write down all of your inspired thoughts. You pause just long enough to scrawl down five words that you’ll revisit later.

You’re getting ready to write in your journal the next morning. You remember your scribbled message and pull it out to look at your five terms. If only you could produce this play!

Write a Journal Of Your Thoughts

Write the pictures in your mind in your journal.

  • Scene: Every play has scenery or a situation within which everything occurs. A dark and stormy night produces a much different production than a sunlit meadow. You think about all of the background that makes up a party and then realize if you had the party set in a different scene, the party itself would often be different. A bingo held at a traditional party is much different than one held with multiple hostesses. You also realize that a lunchtime party is much different from an evening one because the scenery is so different. It’s the same basic party, but because the scene changes, the party changes.
  • Act: Every production has different acts. You giggle as you think about the one act play you almost got involved with in high school. Then you start to think about a party as a drama in three acts, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. You keep going as you realize the party guests expect different things to happen at different stages in the party: introductions, product explanations, your recruiting bid, a question-answer time, and finally the order processing. Getting into this whole thing, you start to think about doing different activities during the different acts because they might fit together better with the audience’s expectations.
  • Actors: Drama just wouldn’t be a drama without people playing their parts. When you hold your demonstrations you’re the main character, but you pause to think about the possibilities. Could I make the hostess and the guests the main characters? Maybe if I was more of a director and let them be the actors, they’d enjoy the experience more. Why do I need to prepare all the samples? Let’s let the guests be the characters who make samples.
  • Props. You’ve never seen a play without all that other stuff being present for the actors to use. You smile as you think of a western gunfight happening without any guns. Then you have a serious moment as you think about how your choices of products influence the rest of the party. Maybe you should tell more about what the host offers to help with your dating bids. Those really are very important!
  • Theme: Think about the different types of theatrical productions that you’ve seen over the years. The melodrama (not at my party, you vow); the comedy (they keep coming back because we have fun) the drama (that hostess and her sister really had a terrible fight); stand-up routines (you grimace as you think about how practice might have helped that one).

Thinking about themes, some synonyms come to your mind like the purpose of the party:

  • Was it to sell?
  • Was it to recruit?
  • Was it to just get together and have fun?

Thinking about your theme also leads you to wonder about key motivations.

Why should the hostess have the party? You always hear directors talking about motivation.

How Do You Visualize Your Attitude?

Finally consider attitude:

Did we all really want to be here? What’s our attitude about this play?

You’ve finished writing in your journal and it’s time to start your day.

You think about those five key terms: scene, act, actors, props and theme and realize you’ve found a new way to think about your demonstrations.

How To Write A Journal? Just Visualize Your Business!

How can you see your activities through the camera’s eye? When you start journaling your visualizations you will begin to see results from the efforts!

We’d love to hear about how you can shift the framework for your visualizations. Please share in the comment section below some of your visions of success.

Author’s Bio: Deb Bixler Google+ is a direct sales educator who teaches proven systems that work in all direct sales companies. Treat your business like a profession and you will get professional results. Learn more home business systems at: http://www.CreateACashFlowShow.com

Filed Under: Marketing /Sales / Social Media, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc

Do you need to livestream?

April 2, 2015 by Rosemary Leave a Comment

The short answer is no.

Unless your business is broadcasting, you probably don’t need to lose sleep tonight worrying about your “Periscope strategy.”

Periscope is the live streaming app that was acquired by Twitter a few weeks ago. Around the same time, another live streaming app called Meerkat was making waves at SXSW. Both apps use Twitter as the delivery mechanism, and both focus on live video (although Periscope allows you to save your streams selectively).

Another app? Another tool for me to learn? I can hear your groaning from here.

But fear not, I have a roadmap for you.

Why You Might Need to Add Periscope or MeerKat to Your Marketing Mix

  • If you are camera-ready and articulate on the fly, and have useful information to communicate.
  • If your audience is predominantly on Twitter.
  • If your content marketing is already very video-centric.
  • If your business involves live events, where a live stream could give valuable insider status to your audience.
  • If you’ve mapped out live-streaming content that fits into your marketing plan for the next few months at least. Don’t go in without a plan.

If you don’t answer “heck yeah” to any of the above criteria, then by all means enjoy watching other folks’ live streams, but save your valuable marketing time for things that will add value to your bottom line.

Have you checked out either of these apps? What’s your opinion?

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for Social Strata — makers of the Hoop.la community platform. Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

 

Filed Under: Marketing /Sales / Social Media, Successful Blog Tagged With: bc

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