How to Stop Customer Attrition & Win them back?

How to focus on your customers, clients or patients. More importantly, why we need to make them feel ‘LOVED’!

On average, and for a variety of reasons, most businesses will lose between 10% and 20% of their existing customers each and every year. Customers come and go. It’s simply a fact of life.  

Some of the reasons for customer attrition are unavoidable but others are in the complete control of the business.

 Interestingly, according to a recent survey by the Sales and Marketing Executives International, customers stop buying for the following reasons:

·  1% die

·  3% move away

·  5% develop other friendships

·  9% leave for competitive reasons

·  14% are dissatisfied with the product or service

·  68% leave because they were treated with indifference, disrespect, apathy or neglectful behaviour on the part of employees of that business organisation with whom they interacted

But what is good news is that 82% of a business’s customers leaving because they are unhappy is not good news in anyone’s book.

Because   68%   of    people leave through indifference, with a bit of ‘handholding’ many of these customers wouldn’t leave in the first place, and those that do can be ‘won’ back. 

As a business, we work very hard to keep our clients happy. We’re not perfect by any means but we focus on every interaction we have with them and make sure at the very least they are happy with the outcome. We also regularly tell them we appreciate their business, and when they refer people to us, we say ’thanks’ and send them a gift.  

There’s more we do, but I can tell you from my own experience that once you get a customer it’s your job (and the job of your team) to make sure you hold on to them. It’s not difficult to ‘love’ our customers, as long as we don’t forget . After all, even a loved one needs telling how much you care every so often!

How to improve employee productivity using Virtual Offices?

What is a Virtual Office Space?

Many businesses consider the office environment to be the conventional way of functioning. With the increasing costs of office space, more and more businesses are looking out for other ways of working to cut down office space costs and the concept of remote/flexible working is getting popular. This can be facilitated through technology but requires more progressive management strategies. Virtual offices let their staffs work remotely from their home or any other location they choose with internet connection.

Why Choose Virtual Office?

The important reason for choosing a virtual office is the costs involved in the office space. Virtual offices are cheaper than renting a space in the heart of the city. This is often the driving factor for start-ups and SMEs opting for virtual space. This option is considered a lifestyle choice for the modern organisations. This works well with employees especially when they relocate or have children. It is also a good idea to set up virtual work office initially, and then changing to a physical space when profits are better. Employees can also benefit from virtual working to reduce travel costs.

Some businesses may be geographically spread across many countries. In such cases, a permanent office space does not make sense and a virtual office setup is a perfect solution.

Employee Satisfaction and Work Productivity

 

Every business strives to make its employees happy.  Allowing employees to work virtually means they get to spend more time with their family. This flexibility makes an employee happier and more productive. They no longer arrive at work after a stressful, train or bus journey. Instead they can simply work while feeling relaxed and happy. A virtual working style is ideal for people who wish to work as consultants or in desk-based roles, or for people who do not wish to relocate. This is a win-win situation for employers and employees. A physical office may be a geographical constraint for a prospective employee but when allowed to work virtually, this allows the business to hire better talent without having to force them to relocate.

Working virtually is also an advantage for people with disabilities who can work from home with all necessary help and support.

Ultimately IT is key to running a virtual office effectively. Employees need good broadband connections, secure computers provided by their employer and a proper desk, and chair. The culture of the firm is also important - a strong work ethic and adoption of practices such as video conferencing is necessary to have a productive virtual office.

Share you thoughts/experience as comments below. If you need any help, feel free to contact us.

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How to Build Long-Term Business Relationships? 6 Important Tips!

Building up healthy business relationships will help you to meet more people with new, innovative ideas, create a reputation for your business and ultimately boost your sales. Whatever kind of business you are in, developing better business relationships with customers, suppliers, vendors, clients, contacts and more takes time.

Here are 6 useful tips for building better relationships.

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1. List out Objectives:

Plan your objective on what you want to achieve from a particular business relationship. Do you want to meet up with a likely client, vendor, supplier, referral or candidate? Setting objectives will help you to better determine which relationships are worthwhile spending time and resources in.

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2. Be Ready to Present yourself:

Be broad-minded and have a professional approach. Though it is common, just a reiteration: have your business cards handy. Be prepared to briefly explain what your business is about using a short “elevator pitch” to attract support for your product or project. Follow business meetings ethics.

3. Be Part of Local Business Associations:

Join relevant organisations/associations. There might a handful, if not plenty, of Organisations, Associations and Chambers available to help/network businesses around. Join hands with local charities which can help you to start making contacts. Start your Networking by attending meetings. Share your Business Card & don't forget to get their cards as well. Best way to follow up is through LinkedIn or other professional networking platforms.

4. Make use of the Technology

As said above, use the technology to get in touch and extend your relationship online and long-term. CRM systems, social media and other technological methods will help you in keeping track of and in touch with your business contacts. Share your business information with them directly from time to time to their email address or through their social media profiles.

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5. Connect Offline

Though you build an online relationship, it is as important to connect with them personally. That way you can build proper business relationships. For this and all the methods, you need to put in some time and effort in meeting face to face. Schedule casual meetings like a dinner or an official one at their premises. 

6. Win-Win Situation

It is important to have mutual benefits when it comes to business relationships, especially if it has to last long. Give as much or more than what you get from the relationship. Try to extend your helping hands whenever possible that will create a good will.

Try these methods and set a target for yourself, say 10-15 new contacts every month on top of getting in touch with existing contacts, and try to achieve it. 

Let us know how it worked! If you need any help, feel free to contact us.

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5 Tips to make your Negotiation Skills Better!

In our day-to-day lives, we often face situations where we should negotiate with other people for various reasons. It might be a personal or business, internal like salary or external like selling negotiation, or a discussion to find an answer to a question. When we negotiate, we hope and thrive to result the negotiation in a positive outcome especially working for us.

Here are 5 important tips to help yourself improve your negotiation skills.

Listening

Listening is very important in any communication, be it business or personal. Especially if it relevant to business, it is very important that you listen to the other party. Comprehend the information or message they are trying to convey. More importantly don't interrupt unless you find it extremely necessary. If you listen, they might just answer almost all of your questions for you.

   

Seek Answers by Asking Questions:

Being smart,  you need to know how and when to ask questions and they need to be relevant to the topic of the discussion. Understand all the required background details related to the discussion, beforehand if possible. Infer what the party, you are talking to, has to say and i you have any doubts, verify them with the party so that there are no misunderstandings.

Asking questions is the one of the most straightforward way of encouraging active participation.

Do Some Research

As mentioned above, before the scheduled time of negotiation, get relevant and required information that you can present in order to validate your negotiations. Numbers speaks better than words. Present the required statistics for your negotiation. For business negotiations, research on all the details about the company, learn about the factors surrounding their offer and, if possible, affirm the information you have got relating to their business proposal.

 

Be Patient

Don’t think that after the first meeting everything will be confirmed and you will reach a final decision. If you or the other person are still undetermined, then you have to schedule another meeting so that both of you can discuss over the considered information from the first meeting. By now, you will have more information and idea about how it will go. Being patient is the key here.

 

Understand the Other Party

Don't be narrow-minded. Learn to understand the situation from the other party’s perspective. You should also prepare to walk away if you think a successful negotiation is not possible. Stop the deal if necessary so that the other party can see that you have a strong will and are serious about the negotiation. This can often put you in a stronger position as the other side will have to ask you to resume negotiations if they wish to carry on working towards an agreement.

Good communication skills, open-mindedness and preparation are some of the most important factors in securing a positive outcome from a negotiation.

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4 Important Elements to measure your Online Marketing Success!

Businesses often wonder if their online marketing is successful.  Here are a few metrics which may help your business measure online marketing success.

1. New Business and Increased Revenue

This is the ultimate sign of a successful marketing campaign. While driving traffic to your site, gaining relevant social media followers and building your base of inbound leads are all steps in the right direction, the main goal is to grow your firm. When you see an increase in new business and revenue from leads which originated online, it’s a safe bet that your online marketing is successful. However, if you aren’t gaining new business opportunities as a result of your marketing efforts, it might be time to re-evaluate. For instance, if you notice an increase in the amount of traffic to your website, but not a higher number of inbound leads, it might be time for a website redesign. Why? Bounced traffic is an indicator that your homepage lacks clarity and/or engaging conversions. Or, if your content is frequently being read and downloaded, but your prospects aren’t taking the next step, you might want to re-evaluate your calls-to-action.

2. Followers and Shares

Before beginning a new marketing campaign, take a moment to track your existing number of followers across each of the social media platforms currently employed. With this knowledge, you will be able to assess the degree to which your latest marketing efforts have increased the firm’s visibility. It is also helpful to know the average number of shares your content generates, as this will tell you which types of content generate the most interest.

3. Website Traffic

A primary goal of online marketing is to drive traffic to your website. It is therefore essential to know what your traffic numbers are prior to any campaign. If your website begins to see more traffic after the initiation of a campaign, this is a good indicator that your marketing efforts are working. Monitor the sources of your inbound traffic to identify the sites or pieces of content that are bringing in the most traffic, and use this information to plan future campaigns.

4. Inbound Leads

The actions your prospects take in reaction to your marketing efforts are one of the best ways to measure your success. When more people reach out to your firm for consultations or fill out contact forms, it’s a sign of a successful campaign. If your list of prospects and influencers is growing, your marketing is doing its job. All of your online activity—from the content you produce, to your social media interactions—should work towards driving more prospects and influencers to reach out to your firm and show interest in your services. Your prospects might show interest by simply sharing their contact information or signing up for a webinar, or they might ask for an appointment to see one of your sales people.

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4 Steps to execute a Business Plan Effectively!

Failing to plan, plan to fail. We all know this. However, many businesses who create a strategy or business plan fail to execute it to any significant degree. This is because it requires change, commitment, innovation, leadership and numerous other things to align your business in a way that facilitates the execution of your plan.

These 4 steps will help you to successfully execute your business strategy:

Clarify your vision

Image Source: PanoramaStock.com

 

Define what the business will look like if your strategy is executed successfully. Develop a summary of that vision and communicate it to all stakeholders. Communication must also be consistent - keep the vision in front of your team and make it a part of their daily lives. People cannot follow you successfully if they don't know where you want to go.

Set goals

 

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As part of your planning process, you should develop 4 or 5 critical goal categories. Each of these categories should be broken down and given specific goals with due dates, metrics to show progress and the names of the people that are accountable for their completion.

Align systems and people

 

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This is the step where most businesses encounter trouble with strategy execution, as they do not take the critical step of aligning people and processes to attain their vision. They just assume that the firm will "figure it out". All systems, people, incentives and business processes must be aligned with the new strategy. People must understand what they need to do and how their role affects successful execution of the strategy. They must get help in establishing priorities on what to do, as well as what not to do, to ensure that the overall strategy doesn't get lost in the day-to-day.

Review

 

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The business should hold annual reviews of their current strategy and how outside forces have impacted on it. The aim of the review should be to determine whether the strategy is still valid, whether the firm is making adequate progress and what customers think. Strategy execution doesn't just happen; it must be driven with the same commitment that built the business in the first place.

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Managing Difficult Employees

Effectively managing hard employees can be a challenging prospect. Whether it is the employee who is consistently late, who complains incessantly or who seems to constantly upset their co-workers, every company must deal with difficult employees.

These situations drain management's time and energy, impact on the morale of co-workers and interfere with overall workplace productivity. The key to effectively addressing such situations begins with an understanding of the issues and a clear identification of the actual source of the problem.

Even the best employee can have an off-day (or week, or month). Before deciding if an employee is difficult, managers must first step back and neutrally assess the situation. The first question to ask is whether the behaviour is critical enough to implement a formal HR process. Another important concept to consider is that ‘different’ does not equal ‘difficult’. There will always be employees that a manager does not gel with, understand or even like. However, this is not enough to deem an employee difficult. To constitute a "difficult employee", behaviour must exceed acceptable standards, policies and procedures or interfere with productivity.

Define the Problem

When addressing the problems created by difficult employees, the focus should always be on job performance. It is management's duty to clearly explain why the issue is a problem, and how the problem is adversely impacting the company. At this stage it may be useful to refer to the employee's job description and the company handbook.

Clarify Roles

It is important that both the manager and employee are absolutely clear on individual roles. The manager's role is to ensure business success by leading, coaching and supporting employees. The employee's role is to meet predefined performance and behaviour standards, and function as a cooperative team member. A key concept that employees must grasp is that it is not only the level of their performance that is important, but also how their performance affects the functioning of their team, department and the company overall.

Identify Expectations

This is where the manager should clarify four things – the employee’s performance, responsibilities, impact of their behaviour and the consequences if it doesn’t change. A follow up and ongoing review should be scheduled and regular updates between the manager and the employee will help to move things forward and get the employee back on track.

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Managing Your Time Effectively —Is The Route To Your Success

We’re almost approaching the end of 2014. What have you got done this year, and what will you get done during 2015?

I must confess, I used to be terrible at managing my time. And even now, whilst I manage my time fiercely, I still have to work at it. There’s no short cut. It takes real discipline to ruthlessly manage your time. However, what I do know is that there is a VERY high correlation between success and how well a business owner manages their time. Ultimately, the more you get done, the more successful you’ll be. Of course, you can be a busy fool. But the more time you give yourself to improve your business, your own development and the people around you—the more successful you’ll be.

But time is ALWAYS against you. Don’t you feel that the older you get, the quicker time passes? I’m not sure why this is, but each year seems to pass more quickly than the previous one. The days, weeks and months seem to roll into one, and before you know it 6 months have passed. You’re left wondering, ‘Where did thetime go?’

Now that’s okay as long as you plan your year out AND manage your time ruthlessly. However, most people spend more time planning their holidays than planning THEIR YEAR AHEAD. 

If you plan - you get more done, much more done. If you fail to plan and set goals, it’s surprising how little you’ll accomplish.

All the high achievers and successful people in this world identify planning and goal-setting as a major contributor to their success. 

Why? Because in addition to giving them a clear roadmap, it also helps them plan their daily/weekly/monthly schedules, and effective management of time enables them to get more work done in a week than most other people get done in a month.

Now, I’m not going to spend any time talking about goal-setting (I’ve covered this before), but what I’d like to talk about are a few proven tips and strategies I’ve learned along the way, which have made me “one of the most prolific ‘work machines’ on the planet” (not my own words!). I promise you, getting stuff done is a crucial skill you can learn—but one that will ensure you reach your goals and dreams quicker than you ever thought possible. But mark my words…

None of this is easy. You have to be selfish with your time. People around you will NOT like it (until you’ve ‘trained’ them in your new ways). You’ll find it easy to slip back into your bad habits, but you must fight, and fight hard, to stay the course. Of all the main attributes surrounding success, managing your time effectively, whilst not easy to do, is certainly one of the easiest to acquire and develop.  

It’s also something that isn’t often associated with growing a business, but effective

management of your time is a very potent weapon (and, conversely, poor management of time can be a real business growth inhibitor).

The good news is that you can significantly improve your output if you follow my simple ‘5 Key Time-Management Tips For High Performers’. 

So here are my key Time-Management Tips:

Planning: Plan each month and then each week and then each day based on your goals.

The key here is to establish what you need to do each month to accomplish your goals.

Then break these tasks down to weekly and then daily tasks.  You must always prioritise these ‘goal-orientated tasks’ before ‘general tasks’.

You’re probably thinking—this will take a lot of thought and time to plan out. You’re right. It does. That’s why so few people do it. That’s why so few people succeed in life.

Do not underestimate the power of carrying out this first step—it is the key to your success.

Work During Your High-Performance Times: You’ll get much more done in times when your body is alert and active.

For me, this time is 5.30am-1pm and 8pm-11pm (but you’ll know when you’re at your best).  The worst times are generally after eating! My performance drops significantly after lunch. So I do all my writing in the mornings and other less important work in the afternoons.

It’s during these high-performance times that you should carry out your ‘Goal-Orientated Tasks’.  This one step alone will improve your output significantly—so make sure you only allocate this time to the important tasks!

Use the less productive times for ‘general tasks’ and meetings.

Here’s why using your high-performance time is so important…

1. Since our minds are more active and fresh, we can get more done.

2. Concentrating on the task at hand is much easier.

3. Our creative juices are flowing when our minds are more active and alert.

Block Out Your High-Performance Times: Next, make sure you block out your high-performance times and under no circumstances let other things get in the way.

Again, this is key to your success. Treat your high-performance times as compulsory appointments (in other words, you can’t cancel them).

If you have a secretary or PA, make sure they understand these ‘appointments’ are never to be broken and replaced with anything else.

Resist All Distractions: During your high-performance times, turn off your mobile, take your office phone off the hook and don’t open your e-mail programme.

Even one interruption can set you back an extra 15-30 minutes, not including the time of the interruption.

This does take a high level of discipline. In the early days you’ll find the temptation of leaving your phone or e-mail programme on hard to resist, but I promise you, if you cave in, this will slash your effectiveness by at least 50%.

Once you force yourself to reduce your distractions to zero, you’ll find it very liberating!

For example, as I’m writing this newsletter, it’s 8.52am. My phone is turned off. My e-mail is turned off. I am NOT contactable by anyone (not even my wife, no matter how hard she tries! - although now ‘she gets it’ so doesn’t bother). 

Seriously, this one discipline will make a massive difference to how much work you get done. Not one in 100,000 people have the mindset to do this, so mastering it will put you on a productivity level way above 98% of people around the globe.

Tell Staff (and Family): You must explain to staff and family that, unless it’s an emergency, you are not to be disturbed during your high-performance times.

If your wife (or husband) is anything like mine, it will take time for them to realize you’re serious about this. Helen didn’t even think she used to interrupt me, so every time she did, I made a note of it. That did the trick!!   

By adhering to these 5 key time-management tips, I guarantee you’ll get so much more done. This translates to greater income and more success.

The important thing is to discipline yourself. If it was easy to do these things, everyone would be doing them. The fact is, most people lack real discipline. And getting a high volume of stuff done requires real discipline. You can do it if you put your mind to it. But you have to work hard at it!