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No business likes to get complaints. However, we have to accept the fact that complaints will happen. Customers may complain about our products, service, or may simply be confused about an issue.

Is the customer always right? No. But the customer is still the customer and deserves our best efforts to make him or her happy. While a few customers may be chronic complainers or trying to take advantage of the system, the vast majority are simply looking for a solution to some problem they have encountered with our business.

Handle Complaints Quickly

How important is it to properly handle complaints quickly? One statistic often quoted is that 70% of customers will return if their complaint is ultimately handled satisfactorily, but 95% will return if the complaint is resolved quickly. While this is, of course, a simplification, it stands to reason that a customer whose complaint we handled quickly should be much more impressed with our business, more likely to believe that we are concerned with customer satisfaction and, thus, more likely to return. And what is that customer worth to us over a period of time? The lifetime value of that customer to our business can be substantial.

Since speed of response is important, we must first empower your employees to handle complaints. If our front-end employees have to call a manager for a complaint to be handled, we have just increased the time cost to the complaining customer. We have also increased the emotional cost to the customer by suggesting that the problem must be handled at a higher level. And we have increased the possibility that the complaint will not be handled on the spot (i.e., the customer may not be willing to wait to talk to the manager). This also puts our employees in a difficult position since they must take the brunt of complaints from customers while being powerless to do anything about these complaints themselves.

Training Is Essential

Thus empowering our employees to handle complaints, following certain guidelines, can greatly improve the situation. However, empowerment is not enough. Employees must first be properly trained. There is a natural human tendency when faced with a complaint to become defensive, to offer explanations rather than solutions and to focus on immediate cost savings rather than the long-term or lifetime value of the customer to the business. Here are a set of steps that your employees can follow when handling complaints to help satisfy and keep your customers:

* Don’t take it personally – the complaining customer is not angry with you.

* Don’t argue with the customer, become defensive or try to explain the situation. Listen to him or her.

* Make sure your first statement in response is something that addresses the problem or shows empathy such as: “I’m sorry that you had this problem.” “I can see why you would be upset.” “Let’s see how we can fix this situation.”

* Don’t admit wrongdoing (unless it is obviously your mistake). This can be particularly important if there are potential legal issues involved, e.g., a slip and fall.

* Get the facts. Understand the issues involved.

* Find out what the customer wants (if it is not obvious).

* Offer a solution. Tell the customer what you will do and when. Place emphasis on what you can do rather than what you can’t do.

* If the complaint does not require immediate action, record the complaint on a slip of paper in the presence of the customer, thank the customer and note that action will be taken.

* Consider giving the customer more than is requested. Remember his/her investment of time and emotion. Consider the lifetime value of the customer to the business.

* Record name, address and phone number of the customer for possible follow up on satisfaction and to identify chronic complainers.

* Record the problem and solution (including time, place, etc.) so others can learn and evaluate.

* Follow up with the customer, as appropriate.

Correct Repetitive Problems

While complaint handling is an opportunity to build the relationship, repeated recovery for the same mistake is not. In such situations, customers will soon come to realize that the error is not random but rather is built into the system, and they won’t come back. Getting feedback from customers can help uncover such systematic problems, and diagramming the service process can help uncover why they happen. The above steps also assume the complaining customer, while possibly upset, remains civil. Abusive customers do not need to be tolerated and should be referred to a manager.

Proper complaint handling is essential. It takes planning, training and trust in our employees, but the rewards are well worth our efforts.

2016, Dr. Dennis Rosen. All rights reserved. Reprints welcomed so long as article and by-line are kept intact and all links made live.

Members Every Growing Business Needs on Their Team

Many businesses begin as a solo-entrepreneurship. With one person who has a vision, passion and skill that compels them embark on a journey so they can make a difference in the world and build a successful business along the way.

But the truth of the matter is, no one can build a successful, thriving business singlehandedly.

One person cant possibly possess all of the skills needed to carry out day-to-day business and marketing operations. Not well anyway.

As solo-entrepreneurs build their business, its a natural progression to surround themselves with a support team in order to avoid becoming stagnant and making costly mistakes.

After all, they simply dont know what they dont know when it comes to charting new territory in the business world.

When I began building my team years ago, I started by hiring people who offset my weaknesses.

Being a generalist in the web development/online marketing field made that a bit tricky because there was a lot that I could do myself. But as technology evolved and I got busier, it became clear in order to expand my business, I needed to bring in qualified resources so I could provide more value to my clients.

We all have strengths and weaknesses and if we want our business to be successful, its important to have others on our team who are more capable at certain tasks than we are.

The challenge is to be honest enough to be able to admit where our skills fall short and where we could use help in offsetting them.

I had a conversation with a visionary client the other day after he realized his business was in a state of disarray due to him trying to manage it all himself (or hiring the wrong people for the wrong reasons to help him). He was asking who he needed on his team so he could better focus on what he was good at. So below is a resulting list of what I shared with him.

Heres 5 essential team members and resources every solo business person needs when they are ready to grow to the next level:

1. Financial Person

Someone to take care of the bookkeeping, tax filings, payroll etc. This person doesnt need to be on the payroll, just have someone available that you can outsource this work to so they can free up your valuable time and let them do what they do best.

2. Legal Representative

Its always good to have access to legal advice, especially when it comes to creating contracts and even for debt collection.

3. Administrative Assistant

This type of person can end up being a hugely valuable resource on your team that will free up a ton of your time so you can focus on your business instead of all of the little details.

Heres a brief list of what this type of assistant can help you with:

1. Calendar management. Have your assistant set up your appointments for you (or use an automated service like Acuity.)

2. Team or project management where they are responsible for ensuring delegated tasks are done accurately and on time.

3. Customer service liaison where they take care of all client questions and concerns.

4. Email management where they can manage your inbox for you and delegate to appropriate team members instead of you being the middleman.

5. Affiliate management. If your business includes selling online programs where affiliates and other partnerships are involved, an affiliate manager can keep everything organized and running smoothly.

Depending on your type of business, you can probably think of many other areas that an assistant could help you with including doing personal errands if they are local.

4. Social Media Manager

Lets face it, social media is a big time drainer. But in todays marketing world, its a necessity for every business to have a social media presence.

Even though you do not want to delegate all social media activities to others, a social media manager can help by creating and scheduling daily posts, being a customer service representative, posting news and updates, sharing blog articles, uploading YouTube videos and much more.

Qualified social media managers can also take on the marketing tasks of creating and fulfilling promotional campaigns including Facebook ads.

5. Website & Marketing Team

Notice I didnt say a “website guy or gal” as in a single person. There are many different components that make up a website and its rare one single person can be really good at them all.

So having a website team as a resource will ensure all of the areas that are needed to create, manage and promote an effective website are in place such as:

Website programming/development and maintenance
Branding / Graphic Design
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) including Google Ad Words campaigns
Marketing and Copywriting for writing and sending newsletters, marketing campaigns, blog articles and other promotional needs
Video editing
Audio editing and processing

Every business is different and these roles are the essentials for new entrepreneurs but can easily be added to depending on the industry you are in and the type of business you want to create.

It also doesnt hurt to have a business mentor or coach to help guide you through all the different areas that you might not be thinking of too.

So if you are a solo-entrepreneur and are getting overwhelmed or too busy at trying to learn and do everything yourself, perhaps its time to consider the benefits of having someone on your team who can support further growth and sustainability for your business.

The first step is determining your weaknesses and finding suitable people to offset those.

The second step is to take action. And if youre wanting a web and marketing team who will be your trustworthy champion every step of the way, consider eVision Media as that valuable resource youve been needing.

Id love to hear from you: have you started to surround yourself with a team yet?

In recent times there has been a sudden increase in the number of home-based business opportunities. In fact, nearly 50% of all small business owners work from home. According to a study, the home business industry is expanding and the revenue generated from this industry will increase by 17% yearly through the year 2008. Growth by such leaps and bounds has seen its share of scamsters along the way, claiming lots of unsuspecting victims. They succeed by typically playing on the inexperience and gullibility of wanna-be entrepreneurs, and roping them into participating in dubious ventures. If youre planning to start one, and have to choose between several proposals, first of all make sure that all the ideas are for a legitimate home based business.

To begin with, you might have trouble looking for the right business option but nevertheless, exercising few precautions can go a long way in making sure you choose the best program. So, how do you find a legitimate home based business in an ocean of fraudulent schemes?

Before you rush into something that might burn your fingers, take time to evaluate the business ideas. Some safety measures are:

Look for established businesses: Look for tried and tested business ideas that have been successful over a period of time. See if theres a good buzz around the business, or better still, try to talk to others who have a stake in it. If the business has been around for a bit, chances are that it is a genuine opportunity.

Keep a cut-off date for success: Sometimes, a proposal which might seem like a legitimate home based business on the surface may actually be a smokescreen for something more sinister. If youre already into it, but havent seen any returns so far, theres not much point pouring good money after bad. Most businesses that have a leg to stand on turn in a profit within a couple of years. Its wise to work to a deadline for success, failing which opt out of the business.

Get real: While consider competing offers, remember that the other parties will glorify their programs, so do remember to discount the hype. For example, a home business that promises you millions of dollars in next to no time is likely to be a get-rich-quick chimera. A legitimate home based business proposal will not offer implausible guarantees.

Check for reliability: Check the credibility of the business before you buy-in. Organizations like the Better Business Bureau can help you check a companys pedigree. Ask whether the business enjoys a good reputation among existing and prior members. Interact with customers or vendors to get some true feedback.

Try it out: A great way to suss out a legitimate home based business is to try out the product or service that is being offered. If the product is delivered as promised, and works satisfactorily, youre probably onto a good thing. If its one of those businesses where youre asked to send a check of $20 in the mail, and thats the last you hear of it, thank your lucky stars that you got away easily!

Today, advertising has become a medium for marketing a particular brand, product, service, event, business or even movies. Advertising has influenced our day to day lives and has so far provided a great impact upon our lifestyle as well. Whether it is about entertainment, festival, consumer goods, advertising has become the sole medium for promotion. With various forms, tools, techniques and mediums of advertising it has become easier for brands to get instant recognition in the market. Especially for consumer goods market advertising holds the sole responsibility of creating a buzz or reminder message about the brand to its target group.

If you look around and study you will realize how advertising has become an important factor for creating a brand experience in our mind. Every single business, brand or service holder advertises. Various movie makers even take huge help of advertising tools to promote their film in the market. And for political leaders, advertising is one effective tool to promote their political ideas among the masses. To sum up, it is already an open secret about how advertising has created a huge impact upon our lives.

Innovation is the key to success in any field of expertise. Be it any sector or organization, an innovative idea or strategy always takes the business to the forefront thereby creating a boom to the overall revenue of the particular organization or company. In brand advertising business, innovation plays a significant role. In fact, it is an innovative idea which is required to communicate to the target customers, influence their buying behaviours and finally convince them to adopt the product or brand. Besides innovation, there is one more factor which is again a key to successful brand advertising.

Any brand advertiser is aware of the fact that the first and foremost purpose of a brand advertising campaign is to capture the attention of customers by making them feel and think about the product. For this, the advertisers need to frame the brand message in such a way that it probes into the minds of the customers no sooner than they read it. But how is it possible? Creativity is the answer. An insightful creativity is also required to frame the brand communication in order to tickle the attention of the target customers.

Customers always seek to find something new in the brand message for which creativity is the only solution. But as mentioned above it should be insightful creativity, not some ordinary or complex one which will confuse the customers.

An innovative idea and an insightful creativity (in terms of design, message, approach) – these are two keys to successful advertising widely adopted by famous advertisers. Its quite a challenge (especially for existing brands) to convey the brand message to the same customers again and again. However, an innovative idea conveyed through a creative approach makes it easier for the brand advertiser to talk at ease about the brand to his target groups. Like leaves to the trees, like water to the ocean, innovation and creativity are to brand advertising. Cheers!

Thinking that you can achieve online business success with a plain website that simply displays your product is a big mistake you should remedy as early as now. With technology continuously evolving, consumers are expecting more and more from online shops.

They want the convenience of shopping from home yet an experience close to that when shopping at a local store. One of the things they look for is the assistance they get from staff.

They usually have questions and they want answers. One way to meet this need is to get a live chat for website.

THE CONVENIENCE OF LIVE CHAT

Live chat is convenient for consumers. Even when shopping online, many consumers want to get help (when they need it) from a real person. What is surprising is that most of them would choose live chat support over assistance via phone or email.

Live chat is just more convenient than dialing a toll free number or composing a long email that contains all their concerns. Moreover, live chat for website usually involves a shorter wait time than call centers.

Emails are usually answered within 24 to 48 hours. Consumers want prompt answers.

TAKING ADVANTAGE OF CONSUMERS LOVE FOR LIVE CHAT

Take advantage of live chat support. With a live chat box on your website and a high number of consumers using it, you can double your sales and build or improve your customer base. It is best to have a team that can answer live chat queries 24/7.

While you can be offline, wont it be great for you and your potential customers if there is a communication channel available round the clock?

SAVE ON LIVE CHAT SOFTWARE

Live chat for website has become cheaper than ever with several companies that offer similar programs. You can find an affordable live chat software and get all the necessary features. Just do your part conduct research before making a purchase.

Compared with phone support, live chat offers big savings to business owners. For instance, when the line is breaking up, callers tend to hang up and businesses would have to make a callback, which costs a few bucks, to salvage the sale.

With live chat for website, costs are reduced because the average interaction cost is also reduced.Save on Payroll with livechat

Moreover, you can reduce payroll expenses. Skilled live chat support representatives can handle several chat sessions simultaneously. Some live chat programs offer canned responses, making answering frequently asked questions fast.

Whether you have just started your online business or have been online for quite a while and want to boost your conversion rate, getting live chat for website is definitely a wise thing to do.

Provide consumers a convenient way to reach you. While phone and email work, adding a live chat box to your website can help a lot, especially in establishing your involvement.

Take advantage of consumers love for live chat support by meeting their expectations in terms of the quality and speed of customer service. Save on customer service expenses and see your conversion rates and sales soar.

The 500 in 15 Live is a course designed specifically for the brand new Internet Marketer by Alex Malave. This domain was registered on July 13th 2009. His attempt with this video course he released is to teach people the common thread to online business and what all successful Internet Marketing and Entrepreneurs have in common. He believes that every successful Internet Marketer has their own product, a page that converts and lots of traffic.

The objective of 500 in 15 Live is to teach you these dynamics via video is the simplest way possible. He proved in his video via Google Analytics that he was able to generate over 12,000 visitors per month to just one of his websites. This is the first video I’ve ever watched that had a long list of criteria weeding out people that weren’t suited to become involved with Alex Malave’s program.

For example, if you have a list, website, can drive lots of traffic, like to reinvent the wheel or are in debt from purchasing lots of other IM products and are looking for a quick way out, he recommends you don’t purchase his course. He recommends going through the courses you already bought, applying those principles and start seeing results so you won’t end up suffering from Analysis Psoralysis.

His goal is to teach you how to have your first website up within 10 minutes with 500 In 15 Live. He believes a website is required in order to have any chance of success online. He’s also passionate about pointing out that once you learn the skills in this course, you will have a skill that will last you the rest of your life all by yourself by putting up a WordPress Blog.

Alex also believes that if you can drive targeted traffic to a webpage, that you will always be able to make sales online no matter how crappy your offer is. Lets say for example you drive 1000 visitors per month to a sales letter that converts at just 1% on a product you get paid $100.00 for. That’s an extra grand per month in your bank account.

He straight up says his plan is fail proof and newbie style, and that his videos will walk you through each step of the process, he was very clear on this too. He emphasizes the importance of following these steps closely when you are new. Being creative is not what this course is all about. It’s about following predefined simple action steps.

Alex Malave mentions that you can implement the steps in these videos inside of 20 minutes per day. He also mentions that there is software that will do all of the work for you instead of you doing it all yourself. You are really leveraging your time with the software so it’s no problem doing this if you are a full time student or work and support a family. You can get started with this system for $10.00 per month.

One of the other benefits of his program is he’s already done the niche research for you, so this course includes your own product and converting sales letter so you don’t have to worry about choosing your own niche market to get started in. His cost for getting started is only $10.00, and his current guarantee as of the time of this writing is that if you don’t get your first sale within 10 days he will paypal you $10.00, which is double what you spent with him.

So you are wondering if ACN is a scam huh? Well you are in the right place because I am going to give you a third party perspective about ACN.

Just so you know, I am not affiliated with ACN in any way whatsoever.

Is ACN A Scam?

This question is actually asked about almost every company in the network marketing industry. There are over 1,500 different network marketing companies and just about every single one of them face this same question.

WHY?

The reason network marketing companies like ACN go through so much scrutiny is because there are so many people who have negative feelings toward the company after their expectations were not met.

A lot of people will join ACN with the wrong expectations. They may join thinking that they will be rich in the next few months because it appears to be such a good company.

When these people pay their hard earned money to join ACN (or any other company), and their expectations are not met they tend to call ACN a scam.

Is ACN Really A Scam?

I guess it depends on who you ask? If you asked one of the top earners if ACN is a scam their answer would be much different than someone who tried and failed.

People have a natural tendency to blame outside circumstances when they fail. I am no different either. When I started in network marketing, I failed my butt off!

I spend thousands of dollars only to bang my head against the wall with marketing strategies that didnt work for me.

The truth is that ACN is not really a scam. It is a legitimate company with a great track record of success. This doesnt necessarily mean it will be the right opportunity for you, but it will provide you with the opportunity to achieve your goals if you work hard.

I bet you could ask any top earner in ACN or any network marketing company about their failures and they would have a long list of failure before they became successful.

I just about lost all of my friends when I started network marketing because I wouldnt stop harassing them about my opportunity. Luckily, I discovered that you can actually market your network marketing business online.

Can You Imagine Having More Leads Than You Could Even Talk To?

Back when I was making a list of my friends and family, I could have never imagined that the day would come when I would have more leads coming into my email inbox than I could possibly even follow up with.

Well it is possible and MUCH better than trying to talk my friends into the business. If you do decide to join ACN, you should definitely investigate the Empower Network. The Empower network is a viral blogging platform that will help you generate leads and upfront income for your business.

If you still think that ACN is a scam, then find an opportunity that you feel better about and learn to use the internet to market that opportunity.

About a month ago a friend of mine approached me with a business opportunity, it was with a company called Adzoo. Now this particular friend is not internet savvy to say the least. To be honest I don’t even think he owns a computer. He told me that the company affiliated of Google and even went so far as to refer to them as “Google’s little brother.” Now I knew something was wrong, I could smell it from a mile away. If this company was in any way affiliated with Google I would have surely heard about it.

Maybe around a week later I was invited to a conference being held by a large insurance company that had decided to go into business with Adzoo. I only went out of curiosity and I have to admit, I was not impressed.

Now I myself have never been into MLM (multi-level-marketing) not to say that there’s anything wrong with people who are, but it is just not my preferred business model. I have learned through experience that for the most part MLM businesses can’t afford to provide a very good service and pay everyone in the down line to, but there are maybe a few exceptions.

The service that Adzoo provides is referred to as SEO when dealing with their customers. What the customers do NOT know is that Adzoo is merely over charging them for ad cost on some very poor ppc campaigns. They promise customers that they will get them on the first page of Google for the key words that they want to rank for within a 7 to 14 day period. This is done mostly on a local scale, and pricing is based on the radius that the person or company want’s to cover. Their targeted consumers are small business owners who are having a hard time with sales due to the emergence of internet shopping.

Now I do agree with one thing that Adzoo has to say in their pitch, and that is that any business that want’s to succeed in today’s market needs to have a strong presence online. However, that is all I agree with. Needless to say, I declined the “business offer” as I was not interested in promoting the organization in any way. I mean after all, if I wanted to make a couple buck overcharging people for adwords I could do it on my own couldn’t I.

So to answer the question, is Adzoo a reputable company? In my personal opinion; no! I checked out some of there work and realized that the businesses that have paid them for services are on the first page of Google, in the ad section! And not for any good keywords related to the industry at that, but the cheaper keywords and the actual company’s name!

If you are a business owner and you are interested in gaining more income via an online presence, I would have to advise you not to do business with this company but rather pay a real SEO consultant. It will probably cost you more upfront but it will definitely be cheaper in the long run (especially seeing as how Adzoo charges some pretty high monthly rates. If you want the true long term benefits that come with having your business online the only way is to get targeted, and organic traffic directed to your business, trust me you’ll be glad you did.