Four Ways to Improve Customer Service
Follow these top tips to give customers exactly what they want.
by Sydney Barrows12.10.2010
Providing friendly, helpful customer service is not only crucial to selling products but also to building a loyal customer base. On the other hand, when you let service slip, your business can take a tumble just as quickly. Here are two recent examples of bad service that I've encountered.
During an excursion to New York City's Lower East Side, a friend and I stopped into a lingerie shop. Inside, we found shelves and shelves packed with boxes, but not a piece of clothing was in sight. The man at the counter glanced up at us and went back to reading his newspaper. When we asked if we might look at a few things, the man barked, “You have to know what you want. Then I'll get it out for you.” So, unless you have the item’s manufacturer name and exact style number handy, good luck trying to buy anything at that store. We stood there in shock for a minute, then we walked out.
Why Should You Promote Local Businesses?
by Devra Gartenstein
It is in your best interest to promote and support local businesses. When you buy from companies close to home, you keep your money in your community, helping to build your local economy. When you buy products and services from your friends and neighbors, you add levels of connection to existing relationships. You can count on your local businesses to take good care of you because they are staffed by people you know, whom you will continue to see regularly. This familiarity makes them accountable to you in ways that are rare when you deal with companies based in distant cities.
Tech Tactics for Growing Companies
by Ramon Ray8.01.2011
Recently a friend of mine (a tap dancing student at Penn State University) asked me to help him send a 161 MB file to one of his friends.
He tried to use Gmail to send it but Gmail has a 25MB limit. I suggested he use the file sharing service Yousendit,
but the free version also has a file-size limitation.
10 Tips For Better Web Sites
by Tony L. Callahan
What are the secrets of the super sites? Why do some sites succeed while the majority of others fail?
More and more Internet business owners are asking themselves these questions. The answers are frequently
more obvious than you may think. Below are 10 tips for better, more successful web sites.
How to Protect Your Turf
Five tips on beating out the competition and making your business stickier
by John Warrillow
The ease with which Google+ is now competing with Facebook for mindshare has me thinking about
barriers to entry. Warren Buffett famously invests in businesses with what he calls a
protective "moat" around them, meaning that they have some protection from competition that
allows them to control their pricing.