How to Prioritise Online Reputation Management in 2021

March 18, 2021


For most company owners in the year 2021, much has happened. The previous year brought with it quite a few unprecedented changes, as well as a clear sign of things to come for the business sector. As the pandemic has forced many people to undergo lifestyle changes such as staying indoors and purchasing what they need online, so too has the world of business changed.

Nowadays, most people are content to purchase all they need from online sources, which is why online reputation management (ORM) is more crucial than ever before — especially for new businesses looking to take advantage of the current market. 2020’s holiday season had record numbers for online stores, and it is a trend that will not end anytime soon. Here are just a few ways to help companies prioritise online reputation management in 2021.

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Filed Under: Marketing Tagged With: ,

7 Customer Service Tips for Business Strategy Success

November 8, 2017


Your customers form the backbone of your business. Because of them, your business grows. That’s why you need excellent customer service. It builds customer loyalty, improves customer retention and assists your long-term growth and success. As part of your successful business strategy, implement seven customer service tips today.

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Filed Under: Management Tagged With: ,

Zen and the Art of Losing a Customer – Lessons from Avis Car Rental

September 20, 2015

Avis
Your front line employees who interface with customers regularly can make or break your business. These are the people in the call center providing help and answers to customers as well as calming them down when they call with complaints. They are also the ones working at front desk who direct customers properly and guide them through paper work, etc. When this employee is a manager with an authority the stakes are multiplied. At least with the employee the customer has hope to take the complaint to the manager, but when the buck stops at the manager and when the customer has lost all hopes of getting problem resolved you can be sure to lose him for life!

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Filed Under: Employees, Management Tagged With: , ,

Top 5 Telemarketing Mistakes Every Business Must Avoid

November 7, 2013

Top Five Telemarketing Mistakes Every Business Must Avoid
Few professions are hated with as much passion as telemarketing. Even businesses hate receiving sales calls, and for good reason. The marketing or sales call is an interruption – usually with the intent of selling something that the business never asked for. Many businesses fail to understand this and continue to rely on old tactics of business telemarketing to increase their sales. So, how do you switch from becoming an unwanted pest to a welcomed guest? Stop making the same mistakes that everyone else is making.

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Filed Under: Sales Tagged With: , ,

Blockbuster Failure!! How Can You Avoid Similar Fate

March 3, 2013

Blockbuster Failure! Hot to avoid similar fate
Blockbuster, the ubiquitous video rental chain of the bygone era, announced recently that they will close 300 stores in U.S. and lay off 3,000 employees. This is after they have already closed hundreds of stores over the years. The latest round of closing will leave them with only 500 stores, down from 9,100 at the peak of their business. This is one of the blockbuster failures in the American business history!  To be fair, they are not alone. Recent times have seen number of successful retail businesses wipe out from the landscape – Borders, Circuit City, the list goes on.

Blockbuster was one of the great success stories in how to build an empire by putting number of small rivals out of business throughout the country. Starting with a humble beginning they went on to consolidate the video rental industry to be the eight hundred pound gorilla. And yet, they were not immune to the law of natural business cycle when new competitors came along. There are important lessons to be learned from Blockbuster to ensure your small business does not meet the same fate.
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Filed Under: Management, Strategy Tagged With: ,

What Yelp Business Listing can Do for Your Restaurant

December 23, 2012

Some restaurants are still unsure as to whether or not they want to claim their business on Yelp, the popular review site. They don’t feel like they need to pay attention to the review site while others don’t see the benefit that a review site can bring to their establishment, but a Yelp business listing can bring many advantages to your company, including the following.
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Filed Under: Customers, Marketing Tagged With: , , ,

Customer Service Lessons from my Poor Olive Garden Experience

June 19, 2012


I am always on the lookout for lessons to be learned from my own experience as a customer. I believe small business owners can learn a lot about management and customer service by putting themselves in the shoes of customers. I was presented with such an opportunity when we visited Olive Garden restaurant in Auburn Hills, Michigan over the weekend. This was a special treat from my daughters on Father’s Day.
While I have always liked Olive Garden’s delicious food particularly the soups and salad my experience on this day left a lot to be desired from such a reputable national restaurant. Here is what happened:
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Filed Under: Customers, Management Tagged With: , , ,

How Saying NO to Customers can Benefit your Business

April 7, 2012


Here is an interesting news story we came across this week – Domino’s is launching an advertising campaign in which they claimed that they will NOT allow customers to customize their artisan pizza. Customers cannot add any more toppings to the pizza recipe. Domino’s claims that they have painstakingly perfected their artisan pizza recipe over several months and they refuse to let customers mess with it.
On the face of it, this sounds a bit weird and even risky. How can you say NO to customers who are paying with their own money? They can demand whatever they want with their money. But when you think about it some more their advertising makes sense. In fact, we would argue that saying NO to customers may work brilliantly in their favor. Allow us to explain why it is necessary to say NO to customers once in a while.
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Filed Under: Customers, Marketing Tagged With: , , ,

Tools you can use to Uncover Customer Needs

March 21, 2012


Finding and serving the “right” customers is the most important step you can take to improve your sales. Many small business owners feel that the task is easier said than done. As a result, they fail to align their business with the right customer segment. Even when they do attempt to do it they either go about finding the customer needs in ad-hoc fashion or they use wrong tools to segment the customer base.
As we have noted earlier, we firmly believe that segmenting the customers based on their needs as opposed to demographics or location can improve your sales significantly. But how do you go about finding what customers really need and want?
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Filed Under: Customers, Marketing, Sales, Strategy Tagged With: , , ,

7-Step Action Plan to Deal with Negative Publicity on Social Media

March 6, 2012


For small business owners dealing with social media is equivalent to a relationship with a spouse or girlfriend. You cannot live without it nor can you (sometimes) live with it! Just like the other relationship, you still have to deal with the situation, whether you like it or not. Even if you do not want actively use social media for business marketing, you have to stay engaged to make sure your business image is not being tarnished, which can hurt your business.
You can overcome your social media fears with the 3-step approach we described earlier. We also showed best practices you can use to get the most out of social media. In this post we will show how you can deal with negative comments customers may post about your business on social media.
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Filed Under: Customers, Marketing, Technology Tagged With: , , , ,