customer
Understand the importance of diversity
Smart small businesses today understand diversity is more than just a feel-good notion on a human resources poster. It is, in fact, crucial to doing business in a world whose populations are interconnected now more than ever before. Consumers buy what your business sells—or ignore it—depending on whether your company is as diverse as they are and whether your products are attuned to their demands and desires. Full article.
Encourage customers to complain
Many times your customers will not tell you when you have alienated them, but will simply go away. There are several things businesses can do to counteract this trend, including posting signs that encourage customers to voice their complaints, getting counter staff and sales people to make eye contact with customers, and actually calling customers to find out why they stopped using your business or service. Full article.
Five rules for collecting late payments
The warning signs of a customer's cash-flow woes are easy to detect. Reduced orders, slowing payments, a change in phone number or business name, and a reluctance to get on the phone are all signs that trouble is brewing. There are several practices businesses can adopt that are designed to increase the odds of collecting late payments. Full Article. Similar Article.
The end of Outsourcing as we know it
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n traditional outsourcing agreements service providers take on the expensive and time-consuming task of building and operating the digital tools customer require. There is, however, a new outsourcing model, in which outsourcers provide standard, off-the-shelf software on a pay-per-use basis and users tap into computing power available via the Internet. The appeal: scale, flexibility, and efficiency. Full Article.
A bold management strategy: Keeping quiet
The chief executive officer of Girl Scouts of the USA recently suffered vocal cord paralysis. From this, she gleaned three vital lessons. The first has to do with the customer. Her message to managers everywhere: There is no better way to conduct customer research than to actually experience what the customer does. Her second lesson pertains to empowering people, and the third is about the importance of listening. Full Article. Similar Article
Think and Act Like Your Customers
An innovation-focused company shouldn't have an avoid-the-competition-at-all-costs mindset. Instead, the company should always be wondering what the competition is up to, why might people prefer their products to ours and how does the customer think through purchase-and-use decisions? The simplest form of competitive intelligence is to encourage employees to act like "regular" customers. Full Article.
Fans hear 'iPad' and think 'iWant'
Apple Inc.'s newest gadget, the iPad tablet computer, falls into a category that's foreign to most people. And yet plenty of them have already happily dropped $500 or more for a device they've never seen, in the hopes it will be some previously unidentified missing link in their digital lifestyles. Full Article.
Eight Reasons Your Customers Hate You
It's the messy job of nurturing relationships—caring, consistency, collaboration, and communication—that separates organizations. There are eight common mistakes companies might want to avoid when dealing with customers. Full Article.
Where Customers Go to Praise or Bash You
If you run a business, chances are pretty good that a few of your customers are posting their opinions about it on the dozen or so Web sites that review local businesses across the country. In a 2007 comScore study, 24% of respondents said they looked at an online review before making an offline service, and more than three-quarters of respondents call online reviews "influential" in their purchase decision process. Full Article.
Tips for Running a Successful Coffee Shop
This article, written from a customer’s point of view, contains ten common-sense tips for running a successful coffee shop. The information provided can, however, translate to other types of businesses. Full Article.
