Category: Leadership

The relevance of a business is in its ability to attract and retain customers. Research shows that about 70% of customers are likely to spend more on a company with effective customer service.  Another survey conducted also shows that nearly 97% of people tell others about excellent customer services that they have experienced and that 24% of customers will return to a business after two or more years due to excellent customer service experience. 

This shows that customers play an instrumental role in promoting your business, so it is crucial to invest in treating your customers well. These seven tips are guaranteed to help you stay on top of the game concerning customer service.

Build your staff

You shouldn’t reserve customer service for the customer service department, but for every staff. Clients value a business whose team is dedicated to attending to their needs, irrespective of the department that they are in. You need to organise training sessions for your workers where they learn customer service skills. There are many skills your staff must learn to be excellent at serving your clients. They include persuasive speaking, adaptability, self-control, patience, responsibility, positive language, communication, and attentiveness. You can also teach them the principles of commitment and diligence.

Respect for your customers

People respond positively when they are respected. So it would help if you accorded your customers respect at all times and in all situations. It is not unusual for people to talk in an upset manner when they have grievances about your products or services. It is up to you to calm them down, apologize for the troubles, and resolve them accordingly. You can only do that by patiently listening to them and then responding respectfully. Gestures like attentively listening to your clients and giving them as much time as they need to express themselves sends a signal to them that you respect them. Other gestures include going the extra mile to ensure that they are catered for, calling them by their name, and thanking them each time they patronise you. 

Make the most of your website

Your website is the first place that people check for information about your business and seek help on certain issues. For this reason, you should be active on your website, especially in the customer service section. Make your website easy to access and organised so that people know where to go when they need something. You can also get testimonials from your existing customers to encourage new ones. Are you looking to add live chat to your website? Then invest in it because it is an effective way of direct communication between your clients and you, without delay or stress. 

Feedback is essential 

Customer feedback refers to the information that customers give about your products and services and their experiences with them. It also involves customer opinions on how well your business is doing and what can improve. Encouraging customer feedback puts you in a good position with your clients because it makes them feel important and appreciated. They feel happy because they know that you think about them and that their opinions are valuable. They will be pleased to continue their business with you. 

You can personalize your feedback extraction process by calling them directly to find out what they think about your products and services and their suggestions on how you can improve. You can also use platforms like email, SMS surveys, live chats, electronic surveys, FAQ feedback, on-site feedback, social media accounts, and the likes. 

Be empathetic

Empathy is the capacity to understand a person’s point of view or feelings. In customer service, it is the ability to put yourself in the clients’ shoes, understand their grievances, and show support, even when you cannot solve the problem. You deal with people every day, and they are bound to raise issues. People often put their complaints forward because they require you to understand how painful it is for them. 

You should show them that you care about their feelings and that you are truly sorry for the inconvenience that came from patronizing you. Respond to their grievances, letting them know that you understand how they feel. Then apologize to them and rectify the issue if possible. It will help if you are kind with your words and your tone is sympathetic.  Empathy will make your customers stick with you and motivate them to keep patronizing you. 

Treat your staff right

A happy employee is a dedicated and diligent one. Employees are more willing to treat your customers right when they are happy working for you. They are also delighted when you recognize them as members of your team and not just employees. Treating them as members of your team helps them view your business as their own and encourages them to put in the effort to promote your business. 

Be respectful to your workers, recognize their efforts, and acknowledge their initiative. Whenever they hit their target, acknowledge and reward them. Also, welcome their opinions on how to make the business better and act accordingly. Also, reward their efforts with bonuses and other incentives apart from their salaries. These gestures tell your workers that you appreciate and value them, and their happiness will translate to how they care for your customers. 

Effective time management

Time management is essential for effective customer service. Your clients also have other commitments and are probably working on a schedule. Therefore, you must be time conscious when attending to them. Be swift to pick their calls and attend to their emails promptly. This tells your clients that you are serious about your business and that you also value their time. 

Customer service is more than attending to customer issues; it takes the time to understand your customers and do all that it takes to keep them satisfied. It requires dedication to the service of your customers while maintaining the integrity of your business. Investing in customer service will keep your customers loyal to you. 

In a business’s history, there are a couple of crises which it has encountered. Some of them end permanently while some keep recurring. The management must counteract the negative impact emanating from crises in all ways. The emergence of pandemics such as COVID-19 shook many companies. Proper communication and planning are the way out. They make it possible for the whole team to head in the same direction in dealing with the situation.

Investing in your company’s crisis management department is paramount. There are three major phases when it comes to the management of the crisis. These are the pre-crisis, during a crisis, and post-crisis stages. There are signature actions in each phase for efficiency. The application of communication and planning is advantageous to a company. Below are the primary benefits.

Duty of Care

Any company’s management team has the legal and ethical duty of keeping everyone informed on what is happening. During a crisis, this carries more weight. It makes them know the situation they are in clearly. Therefore, it brings a spirit of more caution and the need for safety in every area. Many employees will avoid being harmed by the prevailing situation.

Apart from this, giving them specific details gives a picture of you being mindful of them. The feeling of being cared for boosts their esteem and work morale. It creates a deeper bond with you as a manager. This goes beyond even when the crisis is over.

Avoiding Misinformation

As time passes, the technology is resulting in the discovery of more devices. Unlike the past years where there were no social media platforms, these days there are more interactions across the globe. Failure to provide the clients with proper information on what is happening creates some curiosity. If this thirst for information is not quenched, it makes them turn to social media. There, they will find a lot of misguidance.

A late communication may, therefore, not be effective since they may have made a poor decision based on what they heard. This is why competent managers organize emergency meetings as soon as something major hits the industry. It gives an opportunity of giving guidance. The sharing also allows you to know the minds of the employees concerning the crisis. You will know which issues to advise otherwise due to misinformation from other sources.

Fosters the Internal Preparedness of the Business

Communication within the organization aids in keeping all staff in the same loop during any crisis. There tend to be many layoffs globally when major situations emerge. This creates uncertainty about the future of the workers and the company. Being at constant sharing with workers clears the air on everything. There are basic tips to follow in achieving efficient crisis communication at workplaces.

Begin by preparing your workers in all ways. The occurrence of the crisis is uncertain. Make the workers know this and additionally, guide them on which procedures to follow when it happens. Despite the difference in how people react to problems, the clear guideline will streamline the response into one for all. Identifying the crisis management team and training it. Develop a crisis communication plan as well.

In the relation to communication training, focus on special management training and planning. The two make your company robust when hard times come. In Crisis Management, planning gives an assurance of how you will brace yourself for what can emerge as a crisis. It helps in safeguarding the reputation of the firm and ensures its continuity to operate. A manager can make the right decisions on what to do.

Helps in the Recovery

After the crisis emerges and a business acts accordingly, this makes the performance level stabilize. The recovery phase needs a lot of information for better results. Through efficiency in communication, the issues to do with new opportunities will emerge. This is where a firm can try a different line of products to close a certain gap in the field.

The closing of many businesses in a pandemic makes shopping hard. With proper planning and communication, you may start an online platform for e-commerce. From it, customers can make their purchases online and you make deliveries to their doorsteps. This translates to more sales despite the hard economic times.

 Promotes Idea Generation

With communication being essential for a company to steer through the crisis, it needs a lot of meetings at times. Good decision-making is the root of successful communication. A company will tend to bring all the stakeholders to the same table for discussions. Everyone gets the opportunity to share insight on what can be done. This results in a boost in idea generation. The creativity in most of the ideas will help in the survival of the business.

Some of the thoughts will also act as the basis for future investments. The company will, therefore, make much progress when the business environment returns to normality. The sharing generally builds a lot of togetherness and harmony among employees and the management. This is because everyone feels his or her idea is listened to and positive for the greater good.

Shifts Focus to More Technology

During a crisis, there is a lot of back and forth. This comes from the passing of different messages. Different strategies have to be set to handle specific elements in your overall plan. Schedules for meetings need to be perfectly allocated. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the things necessary for achieving control over the hard times.

There is software that can make you have an easy time handling some of the issues. The tools can be set to give reminders to everyone on meeting times and specific duties. This improves interactions and sharing. The use of computer programs to solve such issues showcases what you can do in normal business operations. It, therefore, acts as a turn-around time for you to embrace technology in most of your daily activities. Through using software, the benefits such as time-saving will come your way.

During any pandemic, businesses are shaken to the roots. The only way to get through this is by setting firm foundations on the right strategies. Using communication and planning is vital in the management of a crisis. It should be done following the right procedures. Numerous merits will come from the proper planning and sharing of information as a business.

There are hundreds of guides online that help you launch your own business; however, there appears to be little guidance available for what happens further down the line when you begin to expand your company. Perhaps this is due to the fact that in building your business from the ground up, you’ll have gathered a lot of knowledge and understanding of what it takes to run a company – but that doesn’t mean a little support will go amiss. 

There are various things you can do to take your online business to the next level. Whether that means focussing on developing your website and social media presence or beginning to sell your products internationally, the latter can provide you with numerous opportunities to grow and develop while simultaneously increasing your earning potential. However, there are various steps you need to take before you offer your products online. 

Do your research. 

As with any business venture, it is important that you know everything there is to know about the market in which you intend to sell your products. While you may have this covered for your home base, you should also ensure that you do the appropriate market research in the countries you wish to expand into as well. For example, your product may perform better in some countries than it would in others – perhaps due to harsh competition with other brands or the simple fact that there isn’t space in this market for your products. 

Doing your research ahead of time allows you to hit the ground running.

Make your website accessible. 

In order to reach a wider audience, you need to make sure that customers can easily access your website no matter where they may be in the world. This means that your website should: 

• Be available in multiple languages. 
• Be compatible across a range of different devices (phones, laptops, PCs). 
• Easy to access from a variety of countries

Make smart marketing decisions.

The next step towards selling your products to an international audience is ensuring they hear about them in the first place. This means that you will likely need to refine your marketing strategy. Take a look at how your competitors market themselves internationally or what advertisements work better in what countries. Pay attention to your analytics, and make changes to your marketing scheme wherever possible. You can market yourself through: 

• Paid promotional posts
• A successful blog
• A strong social media presence 
• A compatible website 
• Traditional print/video advertising 

Send over the products.

Once you have completed the above steps, you are ready to start selling your products online. However, you also need to ensure that your customers can quickly get their hands on your products. You need to ensure that you meet all legal requirements for product shipping (in both the country of origin and the product’s final destination) and arrange for the appropriate shipping. However, shipping can be costly and timely to organise unless you work with the right company. For more information, or get a UPS shipping quote for your SMB, get in touch with UniShippers today.

Accounting has a lot to do with a company’s success. At the management level, the accounting department needs to be well-resourced. With a robust accounting team, different financial transactions and cash flows are worked on well. There are various types of accountants available in the job market. Having an accounting team exhibiting this diversity is resourceful.

Hiring some of the finest accountants for your business is imperative. These professionals besides handling the finance accounts they do also bookkeeping. The tracking of income and expenditure becomes easy. There is proper communication of the economic information concerning the business. Below is a clear guide on why every firm should invest in their accounting department.

Promotes Statutory Compliance

As you work hard in perfecting your operations, focus on the regulations prevailing in your field. Different states have distinctive rules and regulations on business matters. An accounting team helps your firms’ management be aware of the set of rules. It saves your business from losses that come from noncompliance.

The accountants accurately address the issue of the tax obligations of your business. Filing returns in time is something they handle. They oversee the pension funds with the keenness it deserves. A business, therefore, makes smooth payments to retirees. They may advise on why certain investments are not recommendable depending on the government’s business policies.

Aid in Budget Creation and Future Investments

Knowing where you are heading as a business is significant. The sense of direction needs to be based on issues such as the financial position. Accountants develop clear financial records which aid in this. The comprehensive financial income statement gives information on financial position. This is concerning a certain financial year.

Progressive preparation of such documents provides the management with an image of what the future is like. Combining financial data with accurate accounting processes does wonder. As a manager, you build much confidence in a coming project.

Handles Evaluation of a Business’ Performance

Find online accountancy recruitment firms as they can offer a competent accounting team.  First, check out their website and see how the profiles look like. Skillful accountants are superb in evaluations. Any business should be conscious of any slight change in performance. A boost or decline is shown by the financial records. Accurate analysis methods give the true image of your strengths and weaknesses. Aim towards boosting the strong points and eliminate drawbacks

They use different criteria or tools in doing the assessment. For your internal business, there are multiple individual evaluations on each department. All elements are later combined to give the resultant business performance. This gives a sense of direction on which policies to be adopted or dropped for better results.

Assist in Filing of the Financial Statements

In a certain financial period, a business has the duty of visiting the Registrar of Companies for filing financial statements. Entities that are listed need to do this with stock exchanges. Private and public firms that pay direct and indirect taxes follow the same procedures. Accountants are at the center of these operations.

Such professionals still safeguard your tax reports as confidentiality is key. Some do this by use of well-protected accounts in databases. Hiring accountants with a clear track record of work is key. They keep your mind as a manager at peace knowing that no tampering of the accounts will occur.

Reviewing of Financial Records and Transactions

In small to medium firms, accountants have the duties of making transactions to records and books. This is because the volume of work is minimal. However, with more transactions in major companies, employees are the ones who do the recording. After, the financial accounting team will take over and do reviewing.

This ensures high accuracy in the accounts. Besides, it positively impacts the account posting work. Accountants need to constantly check the correlation of the records or books with the actual operating results of the business. Any disparity makes it easy to realize a problem somewhere. With proper tracking, the process will narrow down to the issue.

Annual audits normally take place and companies need to do the necessary preparations. The financial accounts team does the proper organization of all books and reports before the process. A good audit report positively impacts your reputation.

The input of accountancy in a company cannot be underestimated. Major managerial steps like investment need proper guidance from an active accounts team. Pouring enough financial resources in this department will see it work even better. This includes having optimal number of staff in it. As a manager, hire the finest accountants for your company as this translates to efficiency. Motivate the taskforce and emphasis on incorporation of modern technology in your accounting matters.

It is in no way easy being an entrepreneur. The journey resembles a roller-coaster ride rather than sailing smoothly in a yacht on fair weather. But like a roller-coaster ride, it is indeed thrilling and perhaps even fun but fulfilling. The advice rendered to you by this article draws on the personal experiences of several entrepreneurs who have each successfully started more than one business. This is the kind of advice seasoned entrepreneurs yearn they had known before starting on their entrepreneurial journey. Without further ado, the seven things you must know before you begin your entrepreneurial journey.

Having A Business Plan Helps More Than You Imagine

Often, we find entrepreneurs without the need of funding sources skipping the forming a spelled-out business plan part of the whole endeavor. But there’s news for them; they might be doing something that will reduce their business venture’s effectiveness and profits. Sure, it is time-consuming to pen down your business plan, develop different forecasts based on data and formulate the marketing strategy. One option is to hire professional business plan writers and get the plan to be prepared by them. Copywriting industry stalwarts writingmetier.com/ however, is quick to point out that it is better to reserve writing services for the different types of copy you need. Seasoned business experts opine that writing a business plan is a worthwhile, effective, and a recommended practice.

Past Experiences Do Not Necessarily Set Future Outcomes

There have been several instances where entrepreneurs have first tried a business in a particular industry and failed or didn’t meet with expected success. However, undaunted, these same people have entered the same market at a more ripe or appropriate time and met with wild success. While previous experiences in the same market give you an upper hand, it might not entirely be as easy as you are tempted to think. It’s a world where only the agile survive, and often successful businesses close shop due to their inability to adapt. Things change, and usually, things change drastically. So, people entering a market for the second time around will do themselves a favor by erasing previous notions concerning customer needs, competitors, service quality. You need to start writing your playbook from scratch. In other words, markets are constantly evolving, and accordingly, business plans need to address the same.

Hiring Friends And Family May Not Be A Great Idea

By the nature of their work, entrepreneurs are friendly people with a vast network of friends and acquaintances. However, don’t let that determine your hiring. Remember your product, its marketing, and its support are all determined by the quality of talent. Don’t let your social side make you commit business suicide by hiring on reference and relationship alone. Merit matters!

Plan All Aspects Of Your Business

Planning helps, whether it be the business plan or any other type of new commercial initiative you are thinking of launching. You know “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” It is quite right and appropriate, and planning all business aspects is critically essential. This is the era of startups, and it’s only too easy to get mired with that great new idea. But you will do your business prospects a world of good by shying away from distractions and focusing on one idea in the form of a service or product. The road will remain open down the line if you succeed with your present idea. And if you do indeed decide to divert attention, remember to let your company vision and goal direct your efforts.

Don’t Give Too Much Of A Discount.

New businesses are often under pressure to acquire a sizable number of customers in a relatively short period. While it is indeed important, you also need to make sure your business activity can sustain the prices you offer. Keep in mind raising prices later on, is always going to be tricky. It is a better option to add value to the product or service you offer instead of slashing prices.

Try To Find An Experienced Mentor

Mentors are not that different from being business parents. They provide you with the guidance you need. Don’t hesitate to make yourself accountable to them for your actions relevant to your business. Mentors play a role of great importance in an entrepreneur’s life. Exercise discretion and judiciousness in your choice of the same. Accordingly, make sure they are successful themselves and have belief and faith in your business idea and you in an entrepreneur’s capacity. The feedback you will receive from your mentor will prove to be of immense value in whatever you may end up doing.

Be Prepared To Fail

There is no shortage of impressive and accurate choice of words in business. One such example is that which talks about how fear of failure might be the most significant impediment to success. It is true. Accordingly, don’t let that bog you down and restrict your realizing entrepreneurial nirvana.

Business is one of those fields where there’s a little guarantee. The proper steps can better your chances of success. Best of luck!

When students write different academic assignments, they may face any sort of complication. One of them is topic selection. It’s not always easy to define an interesting and meaningful topic that can attract many readers. This task becomes more complicated if students are assigned business speeches.

Although a speech makes you introduce and defend your presentation vocally, it doesn’t mean it mustn’t be written. A good researcher surely writes a speech similarly to essays or research papers. Many students fail this challenge and use the help of speech writers for hire. Their specialists can write flawless business speeches on the most popular topics. Our guide will show you that students can write great speeches without somebody’s professional help. 

We’ll begin with a list of the 25 most popular business speech topics:

1. The major advantages of gaining secondary education for businessmen.
2. What is the most prospective major for future entrepreneurs?
3. Should internship be paid?
4. How to avoid conflicts at the enterprise?
5. Where to get business practice before you graduate from college?
6. The importance of accounting for a corporation.
7. How to improve the productivity of a factory.
8. The main principles of organization workforce according to Henry Ford.
9. When B2B is useful?
10. How to run a startup successfully?
11. The importance of globalization for the business industry.
12. Can business partners become true friends?
13. How does a business plan affect future success?
14. The typical mistakes of the newcomers in the business.
15. What methods allow predicting losses and complications in business?
16. Credibility and trust is the base of a brand.
17. The most effective methods to attract customers.
18. Why are marketing strategies important for an enterprise?
19. The resourcefulness and usefulness of technology in manufacturing.
20. The role of a leader in achieving business objectives.
21. How can managers reinforce the working process?
22. Emotional intelligence and its importance for business.
23. Why is a CEO important to earn money?
24. How to deal with breach of contract?
25. The best methods to motivate workers.

You’re welcome to utilize any of these topics. You may likewise use them as a good example of what a relevant business speech topic should be. Thus, you’ll be able to create your list of great ideas to cover. You should also know the main features of a relevant topic. It should:

• Be clear for your readers;
• Concentrate on an important problem;
• Study an unsolved problem;
• Be helpful and meaningful;
• Be original.

Writing a Business Speech

We believe that you’ll successfully generate relevant topics for your business speech thanks to our list of topic ideas. Right now we’d like to pay your attention to the way a speech should be created. Not all students can do it perfectly.

• Know Your Audience

Firstly, define your listeners and try to understand what they want. You should analyze their preferences, age, life interests, etc. Using this feedback, you’ll have a clear understanding of the things your audience wants to see in your presentation. Try to predict the possible questions of your audience. When you conduct your research, you should question yourself about every point. Imagine that you’re an opponent. It will help to identify possible questions of your opponents.

• Understand Your Subject

Secondly, make sure you clearly understand the topic you are going to present and defend. Research it thoroughly until you clarify all the uncertainties and can explain every component of the thesis statement. Decide what facts and examples to use. Decide where and how to implement them in your presentation. Do that naturally.

• Identify the Purpose

Thirdly, have a clear purpose for your business speech. You may chase different objectives, and it’s necessary to choose the main standpoint. For example, your presentation may inspire business partners, pay their attention to some important but omitted argument, convince them to take the action, assure that your subject is important, and so on.

• Outline the Project

It’s good to have a clear vision of how to deliver your speech. A reasonable outline will help to become organized and disciplined. It should include the introduction, thesis statement, main plot, and conclusion. Each section is crucial and consists of tiny bits of information. Your outline is supposed to take into account how to connect different parts, how you implement them, what examples should be used, etc.

• Control Your Time

You should consider the time of your business speech. It will be surely limited by a strict deadline. Therefore, you should plan the entire presentation without exceeding that deadline. Give a presentation to your friends or at least to yourself to check whether you’re fast enough. If you run out of time, reconsider the speech to decide what parts can be skipped to meet the time limit.

• Practice

Undoubtedly, you should practice your speech many times before the day of the presentation comes. It’s better to ask your friends, mates, or family members to listen to your speech. Ask them to be honest to express their opinion about all the elements of your project.

Perhaps your voice is shaky or your body language is annoying or unconvincing. The slightest details may play a decisive role in your project. Work out your charisma as frequently as possible to get rid of potential drawbacks.

• Revise

Finally, reread the writing parts and slides before you approve the last copy. Pay attention to transitions, language, length, arguments, examples, and similar stuff. All these things are important to make your business speech either perfect or spoil it entirely. We have already recommended asking other people to listen to it. Another good method is to use grammar checkers to make sure your presentation is free of grammar and spell mistakes.

Utilize all the topic ideas we’ve mentioned in our article and/or create your own. Obligatorily use the recommendations about speech writing. Thus, you’ll have great chances to create a perfect speech on business to earn the highest grades.