How to provide poor customer service

How To Provide Poor Customer Service

All businesses strive to provide excellent customer service, but there’s a fine line between service and servility. Extreme servility is called obsequiousness. Now there’s a word for you to know. Even if you don’t know what it means, you’ve experienced it-maybe in a restaurant, a clothing store, a car dealership, anywhere where employees hope that by virtue of their attention they will make sales or garner large tips. It’s one thing to be attentive and meet customers’ needs; it’s another to be so present and «in their face» that customers think you want them to adopt you.

A few months ago, I ordered a gift of steaks and roasts from a meat mail order business for some family members. When no acknowledgement came, I called to find out if they had gotten their present. As it turned out, the parcel delivery service had left the package at the wrong address, but the people who had received it in error were honest enough to immediately call the intended recipients to let them know about the mix up.

The only person who had made a mistake was the delivery man who’d misread the mailing label, and no one ever heard a word out of him or his company. The same can’t be said for the meat company. In its relentless pursuit to keep customers satisfied, company representatives started calling me-daily-to make sure I was still happy and to see if I didn’t want to order more meat.

After the umpteenth call that resulted in no additional purchases from me, I asked to have my name and number removed from the calling list. Being nice hadn’t worked. Maybe some force would be more effective. Keep in mind I had had absolutely no beef with the mail order company until now. It was at this point, however, that customer service attention turned into customer obsession.

I thought I’d gotten the point across, but about a week later I started receiving calls at my work number. When I would take advantage of the caller ID feature on my phone, I saw an area code and number I didn’t recognize. I answered in my usual way, but each time the caller said nothing and simply hung up. This happened several times until I checked the number and discovered it was the cattle crew. This was out of control. I’d said no from my home number. The answer wasn’t going to be any different on my business line.  Now they were intruding on my work day without saying a word.

One final call (and I emphasize the word final) came at 9:17 p.m. last week. Dinner was long over, and no one in the house was thinking about food, especially not about T-bones. No one was consciously thinking about anything since we were all asleep. It had taken almost an hour to get the three-year-old to quit fussing about having to go to bed, but at last he’d drifted off. That is, until the phone rang. I was roused from a very deep sleep by the phone ringing and our child yelling for Mommy.

Too unawake to check the caller ID, I answered. To my utter amazement, it was another company rep wanting to know if I was ready to order more filets.  It was time to take this bull by the horns. «No,» I said, «not now, not ever again!» I can’t remember exactly, but I’m sure I pointed out that I’d asked to have my name and number removed from their list. That he had had the audacity to call so late in the evening was absolutely beyond my comprehension.

This experience is a clear illustration of how customer service can go terribly wrong. Probably part of this was due to someone misreading the data and assuming that since I had placed a substantial order, I would likely do so again. Who knows? Maybe I would have at a later time, but the «overkill» from the sales staff turned out to be a deal breaker as far as I’m concerned.

Let this be a cautionary tale for any businesses out there that think «hard selling» is going to work every time. In many cases it will backfire and have just the opposite effect from the one you want.

I’ve recently conducted a less-than-statistically-valid study polling people (my office manager, my aunt, and a very nice woman behind me in a line at Safeway) about customer disservice. Although not all the results are in, here are ten tips to take to heart to keep your customers truly satisfied:

1. Just because your business model says customers should, in all probability, be interested in buying something, don’t assume they’re kidding when they tell you no.

2. Limit unsolicited calls to the same person.

3. Call at a reasonable time.

4. After you hear «Hello,» really listen to what the other person says to you.

5. Don’t argue when the customer says «no.»

6. Honor the customer’s wishes.

7. If you are offering service to someone in person, be available, but don’t hover.

8. An internet order does not give you authorization to call someone at home or work to offer add-on purchases or services.

9. Know that a lot of people have caller ID, so don’t call and hang up without saying something.

10. Ask yourself: Would you want to get the call you’re getting ready to make?

This is just a starting point. Maybe you have some pet peeves of your own. If so, send them to our website. There are plenty of people we like to hear from. Just don’t contact me about buying anything that was standing on four legs and had a pulse until recently. I’m now a vegetarian thanks to the last person who did!

Increase income — 3 steps to leap your income forward with ease

Increase Income — 3 Steps to Leap Your Income Forward with Ease

You probably dream about increasing your income. Yet, without a solid plan that determines, 1) how much you want to earn, 2) why you want to earn more, and what you will do with it, and 3) your action plan for increasing your income—little forward progress will be made toward achieving your income goal.

By creating a simple three-step income growth strategy, it will be possible for you to embrace the power already within you to increase your income. Follow the three steps I have outlined for you to move you forward on the path to achieving greater money abundance in your life.

1. Are You Thinking BIG Enough?

What is your current annual income level? Are you satisfied with this level? If not, ask yourself how much income you want to earn. Think about this number—what is it?

If the number you determined is less than double your current income level, you probably are not thinking big enough. The reason is that you will not have to make any significant changes in what you are currently doing to earn more money.

This number also may not be large enough to motivate you into the powerful action required to increase your income. The predictable result is your income level probably will not change much from where it currently is now.

To move into a higher realm of income potential, you literally have to train your mind to think bigger. The reason is, as a culture, we are accustomed to our income increasing, on average if we have worked for someone else, about 3-5% a year; the typical pay raise for satisfactory performance in a good economic year.

You want to dream up a number that really feels larger to you. If the number you thought of earlier doesn’t get you emotionally excited thinking about it, feeling challenged, or even a bit scared about how you’re going to achieve that income level—then, the number you thought of is not large enough! You want this income number to be a stretch for you so you creatively think of ways to achieve that number.

The challenge I want to put forth to you is to think about doubling your income in the next year. This number may seem impossible, but I assure you, it is not. You can accomplish this goal by breaking this amount down into four 90-day periods. This means you will be increasing your income a minimum of 25% over the next 90 days, from what it currently is now.

Action Step: Think of an annual income amount that is at least double what you are currently earning. Write this amount down on a piece of paper. Now, take the number you wrote down and divide it by four.

For example, if the annual amount you wrote down was $100,000, dividing by four equals $25,000. This number is your 90-day income goal. You are on the path to doubling your income in one year!

2. Why Do You Want to Earn More?

Why do you want to earn more? What will you do with this money? Will you invest in your retirement, pay off debt, or invest in your children’s college education? The money «why» aligns your passions with your efforts. In order to take the steps you need to increase your income, you need to feel an emotional charge for the reason—or the «why.» This becomes a powerful motivator to do what activities you must do to increase your income.

Action Step: Write down one money «why» you want to increase your income. Feel passionate about this reason, and what you will do with more money in your life.

3. Create a Plan to Increase Your Income

You have tapped into your new income amount and your money «why.» Now you need a plan about how you will achieve your income goal. Start thinking creatively about the programs and services you will offer, develop a promotional strategy, and get selling! Be creative about what you can do to generate this income.

Again, you are thinking in a 90-day timeframe about the activities and tasks you must do to create this income.

Action Step: Write down every single program, product, and service you will sell or launch in the next 90 days. Include the quantity and dollar amounts of each item. Make sure the dollars you plan to generate equals your 90-day income goal in the first step.

This simple three-step income growth strategy works wonders to help you pay mindful attention to your money goals, and creatively kicks you into action to double your income in the next 365 days.

Copyright 2009, Bonita Richter

Learn how to flip a house and become financially stable

Learn How to Flip a House and Become Financially Stable

Do you want to learn how to flip house and make a huge profit?  By definition, to flip a house means to buy a house at a depressed price and then to sell that property very quickly for a much higher price.  This process allows an individual to make huge sums of money without a lot of upfront capital and without a lot of financial risk.  Using this method you can become financially independent very quickly – often on the very first transaction.  Many people think that long complicated real estate techniques are utilized or difficult financial terms have to be understood.  However, this is not the case.  It is a simple and easy process. Just follow some basic steps and you too can learn how to become financially stable.

The first step is to understand how to identify and locate properties with depressed values.  There are several reasons that a house may have a depressed market value.  The owner may have defaulted on the mortgage for the house.  In this situation, the bank or mortgage institution forecloses on the distressed property and assumes ownership over that property.  In order to recoup a portion of the defaulted mortgage, the financial institution will put the house up for sale.  Desperate to recoup their financial losses, the financial institution will often price the house much lower than market value.  These houses present great opportunities.

There are several other reasons a house may have a depressed value.  A sudden death might leave a house in financial limbo.  If there is a last will and testimony, then the property may revert to another owner.  However, if this transfer of ownership is not specified, then the house may be auctioned off to the highest bidder.  These real estate auctions offer great opportunities because the price that a house at auction sells for is usually much less than the market value of the house.  Even if the property reverts to other ownership after an owner death, the new owner is often highly motivated to sell.  Anytime a seller is motivated to sell, the asking price will fall.  Other reasons that a house might have a low asking price include the house falling into disrepair, a house being condemned, or a house being in an unsavory location.  In all these instances the price of the house may be so low that a high profit margin can easily be attained.

The next step is to secure the money to purchase the house.  This is not as hard as you may imagine.  In all of the situations described above, the owners of the houses, be they financial institutions or private owners, are extremely motivated to sell.  Private owners will often offer owner financing, accept little to no down payment, or even hold off payment until the house has been flipped.  Motivated financial institutions will offer short term loans in order to move accumulated assets.  Once the house has been acquired for a low cost, the final step is to sell the house at a higher price.  Follow these simple steps to learn how to flip a house and become financially stable.

How business continuity can help your company

How business continuity can help your company

Business continuity means to continue your business normally even if there have been natural disruptions, crisis or even natural calamity. It simply means planning a system that greatly helps your business continue and grow even after the toughest of conditions which further prevents any probable disaster. Now-a-days our life and the environmental conditions in which we live is just unpredictable and due to natural calamities like floods, earthquakes, tsunami etc, or man-made disasters like terrorists attacks, bombing etc. are ruining and destroying our Mother Nature. These problems have become quite common and after a period when everything returns back to normal we often wonder if we can successfully continue our business operations as before. Due to these enormous natural and man-made calamities, the first thing that is seriously affected is the Internet and our connection across the world due to Internet. This causes terrible loss to businesses and humankind. In order to prevent such a situation where you really become helpless and start loosing hopes, it is sensible to schedule a perfect and effective business plan. You need to plan the resources wisely and take proactive measures so as to help your business survive and flourish as ever before and this can be done by having a lot of communication channels for establishing communication as soon as possible after the disaster. Secondly, the company should plan sensibly to save and secure the important data that may be lost during such crisis, for this you need to have an effective data backup that collects, compresses and encrypts the information and other important files from your computers and servers and sends it to some other remote server of the backup provider companies. The encrypted data can be restored by you any time you need and your information is not only saved but also secured to the extent that even the company employees can not access it. And if your business continuity plans are really clear and effective, it helps you to cope up even in the worst of cases like death and this actually helps to decrease potential losses if any. Always remember, a perfect business continuity plan not only saves your business from huge financial losses but also helps your family to survive whom you might leave behind. If you face a business crisis it is not only you who has to suffer the losses but it also affects your customers too as you are unable to meet their requirements on time. Otherwise think of an alternative supplier who can satisfy your customers’ till your business settles down after the disaster. This is not the end, your suppliers also face a tremendous loss as you could be one of their largest customers. Thus, it affects the entire business chain so it is necessary to think and plan an effective business continuity system. By creating an effective business continuity plan, the manager will analyze some critical portions of your business and come out with an amazing solution. Both proactive as well as reactive plans and help you to prevent any predictable disasters that may arise due to natural or man-made reasons. A successful business is the one that is able to survive and prosper even after passing through difficult situations and the success lies in a perfect business continuity plans and procedures.

Industrial light poles

Industrial Light Poles

Industrial lighting poles are necessary for a number of environments around commercial facilities. Parking lots require them for safety purposes and to fulfill legal requirements for minimal lighting levels. Walkways and outdoor break facilities need lighting, and often the most practical means of doing this is to mount fixtures on short industrial lighting poles. This contributes toward minimizing costs on security lighting because shorter poles with lower wattages will often offset the number of high wattage floodlights used to secure a facility. One can use pole mounted lights for the interior of a property, and secure the perimeter with floodlights.

Industrial lighting poles are engineered and manufactured to the highest specifications in the industry. They are specially treated with a systematic process that has been devised to maximize long life and performance. Industrial lighting poles feature a one piece construction with a uniform wall thickness. Manufactured from weldable carbon steel, RLLD industrial light poles feature a 55,000 PSI, and they conform to ASTMA-500 grade C standards. A number of treatment steps are taken to ensure pole lifespan. First, the lighting poles are cleaned with a process known as «wheelabration» at a pressure of 4,000 PSI to remove all dirt, grit, and industrial by products. This creates a condition known as «white metal» that helps powder coating better adhere to the surface of the pole. Any number of finish colors can then be applied. The interior of the pole must now be protected in a similar manner to prevent pollution and salt spray from corroding the pole’s interior. In order to counter these corrosive agents, RLLD Commercial lighting coats the interior of its industrial poles with a rust inhibitive brown steel primer that is fully compliant with ATSMB-117 regulations. In extremely polluted areas of the country, or in facilities located near coastal waterways, we will also galvanize your industrial light poles upon request with a zinc steel allow that provides an extra barrier against corrosion and a better surface for powder coating to adhere to.

The size of the area you will be lighting will in turn determine the height and number of industrial light poles you install. The taller the poles, the larger the area your luminance will extend. This may, however, require more powerful lights. Make sure if you go this route you consult with a lighting specialist first to make certain you have made the most energy efficient selection.

Shorter poles can be either functional or decorative in nature, and can be utilized as both parking lot lights and outdoor park or landscape lights to mount any number of fixture types ranging from HPS, HM and fluorescent. New LED lighting fixtures will soon be emerging on the market to offer even more options for energy efficiency and environmentally friendly lighting. Due to the wide diversity of facilities, RLLD Commercial Lighting supplies poles ranging from 10-50 feet in height. Industrial lighting specialists will help you determine which heights will best match the requirements of your facility based on wind load requirements for your part of the country, square footage of your site lighting design, footcandle minimums of your community, and operating budget for electric costs.

Developing a truly effective industrial site lighting system often requires a great deal of planning and calculation, and this can often delay time to market. Lead time is another factor that frequently frustrates the architect, general contractor, builder, or commercial lighting designer. RLLD Commercial Lighting specialists are here to help solve both problems by making free consultation services available to all clients, and to expedite lead time through rapid drop shipping of industrial lighting poles and fixtures to all parts of the United States.