People who work for and who belong to institutions have one thing in common: they all wear uniforms. Uniforms are dress codes, usually distinct in style, clothing and even color that can make the wearer easily identifiable not only to his peers but also to other people.

Take for example the military personnel who are all clad in fatigues, except for some who have their own distinctive brand of clothing like those in the navy or other branches of the military. But no matt…

Keywords:
work uniforms, school uniforms

People who work for and who belong to institutions have one thing in common: they all wear uniforms. Uniforms are dress codes, usually distinct in style, clothing and even color that can make the wearer easily identifiable not only to his peers but also to other people.

Take for example the military personnel who are all clad in fatigues, except for some who have their own distinctive brand of clothing like those in the navy or other branches of the military. But no matter what, most of them can be identified through the use of fatigue or what they call seven colors.

Then there are those who belong to the medical profession who generally wear white not only for their laboratory coats but for their daily hospital wear. Doctors and nurses all wear white but nurses are given more freedom in wearing other colors.

Even students of particular schools are required to wear uniforms to make them identifiable as students of a certain school. So why do people generally wear uniforms?

People are required to wear uniforms because it is a sign of conformity or being one within a certain group. Conformity means the person who wears the uniform is a bona fide member of such group and he abides by the rules and regulations of the group.

Wearing uniforms have psychological effects among the wearers and the people around them. Civilians who see military personnel in their uniforms are most often awed by the authority projected by the uniform. Doctors earn respect when people see them wearing their white laboratory coats because such uniform is identified with saving lives.

Uniforms have become widely used that people do not have to go far to search for specific uniforms. There are various suppliers that have established their presence in the web and they have made all kinds of uniforms available online. Uniform for nurses have become a common thing that nurses can easily order their uniforms from the web.

People who need other kinds of uniforms can choose from the online catalogs that are available in the websites of different companies. Some of these companies provide orders for all kinds of uniforms that they no longer send individual uniform lists or photos to their clients. All the clients need to do is to browse the website for the uniform they are looking for and they can order them online or through telephone.

There are companies that can deliver orders in a span of a week or two. However bulk orders should be ordered ahead of time to make sure that they are delivered at the time the client needs them. They can also order uniforms in different sizes.

Ordering uniforms online can be very fast and efficient because transactions are completed at the click of the mouse and payments are generally made through major credit cards.

Clients should also specify the exact address where they want their orders to be shipped. Some companies provide free shipping for bulk orders of uniforms. However, other companies require the clients to pay for the shipping of their orders.

Background checks can be used for a variety of purposes and are a good way to have
confidence that someone with whom you are involved personally or professionally is
disclosing all necessary information.

Keywords:
background check, criminal background check, sensitive information, back ground check, background check systems.com

Background checks can be used for a variety of purposes and are a good way to have confidence that someone with whom you are involved personally or professionally is disclosing all necessary information. Employers often use background checks to get verification of previous employment, driving records and to ensure there is no criminal activity. This is an important step in the hiring process especially in positions where employees may handle sensitive information or who may be working with the public or with children. Having the security that background checks were made will not only allow the employer to feel better about their hiring decision but it may also reduce the liability of the company should something happen in the course of employment and the company is sued.

Background checks are not only for employers, though. People will do background checks on other before getting into a personal relationship with them. This is becoming even more common with the increasing popularity of online dating services. Because the Internet lends a certain amount of anonymity to a person, the other party can get information and check their story by doing a background check. This is a good safety precaution especially with the news stories of abductions and abuse at the hands of people they met online. Knowing the person on the other end of the computer is telling the truth is not one hundred percent guaranteed that something bad might happen but it reduces the odds significantly. A person can determine if they want to meet in real life after the back ground checks are complete.

Background checks can also be conducted for people who are trying to search for long lost friends or relatives. Even if there is only a little bit of known information, you may be able to get previous addresses, employers and criminal history that will help track the other person down. There are a number of back ground check services available. They can be found in a local telephone directory or online. Many employers who hire frequently subscribe to these services to do background checks on all prospective hires. They will get a discounted rate for the number of checks that are done each month.

Article showing 10 effective ways to cut your business costs

Keywords:
reducing your business costs, free stuff, online auctions, offline auctions, wholesale supplies, low prices

10 Effective Ways To Reduce Your Business Costs

1. Barter
If you have a business you should be bartering goods
and services with other businesses. You should try to
trade for something before you buy it. Barter deals
usually require little or no money.

2. Network
Try networking your business with other businesses.
You could trade leads or mailing lists. This will cut
down on your marketing and advertising costs. You
may also try bartering goods and services with them.

3. Wholesale/Bulk
You’ll save money buying your business supplies in
bulk quantities. You could get a membership at a
wholesale warehouse or buy them through a mail
order wholesaler. Buy the supplies you are always
running out of.

4. Free Stuff
You should try visiting the thousands of freebie sites
on the internet before buying your business supplies.
You can find free software, graphics, backgrounds,
online business services etc.

5. Borrow/Rent
Have you ever purchased business equipment you
only needed for a small period of time? You could
have just borrowed the equipment from someone
else or rented the equipment from a “rent-all” store.

6. Online/Offline Auctions
You can find lower prices on business supplies and
equipment at online and offline auctions. I’m not
saying all the time, but before you go pay retail for
these items try bidding on them first.

7. Plan Ahead
Make a list of business supplies or equipment you’ll
need in the future. Keep an eye out for stores that
have big sales. Purchase the supplies when they go
on sale before you need them.

8. Used Stuff
If your business equipment and supplies don’t need
to be new, buy them used. You can find used items
at yard and garage sales, used stores, used stuff
for sale message boards and newsgroups etc.

9. Negotiate
You should always try negotiate a lower price for
any business equipment or supplies. It doesn’t hurt
to try. Pretend you are talking to a salesman at a car
lot.

10. Search
You can always be searching for new suppliers for
your business supplies and equipment. Look for
suppliers with lower prices and better quality. Don’t
just be satisfied with a few.
-

Strategic alliances increasingly trumpet the word “unique” as in ‘unique alliance’ or
‘unique partnership’. Certain types of partnerships will help you acquire a unique value proposition even if you didn’t develop it? This article will help you develop your company’s alliance road map and projections resulting in higher order volume, added value and increased brand equity.

Keywords:
strategic alliance,business partner,value proposition,strategy,unique,deal,partnering,partner,ally

Recent news concerning IT industry strategic alliances increasingly trumpet the word “unique” as in ‘unique alliance’ or ‘unique partnership’. Usually these unique arrangements bring together a marketer (either a system integrator or a service provider) with a solid footprint in a niche market and a technology developer or manufacturer with an innovative or proprietary capability.

This type of alliance transfers to the marketer a unique technological edge. The marketer’s objective in many such cases is to keep competitors at bay, grow market share or create enough performance value to justify a higher price. For the developer partner, aligning with the marketer provides a significantly extended market reach that simply translates into the sale of an increased number of units as well as a branding leap into greater market visibility.

This deal constitutes an excellent exchange of value for both partners. But as business alliances are not forever, the true assessment of the deal’s value must be evaluated over time. In its early days Microsoft supplied DOS in a partnership with IBM’s original desktop PC. In time Microsoft’s OS took over the PC market supplying all manufacturers. IBM was forced to back up out of the PC driveway, but it learned the power of partnering brilliantly transforming its business model into the world’s most prolific and successful IT services partnership network builder.

Acquiring a Unique Value Proposition

Of the many reasons for initiating a strategic alliance, the most highly-sought after type is one that creates a “unique value proposition” (UVP) — the three golden words so enticing to venture investors throughout the world.

How do you get UVP if you don’t produce it?

A strategic alliance can transform nearly any traditional sales and distribution enterprise into a uniquely positioned provider - all you need are customers! Have your considered this? Transform your company instantly into an unstoppable juggernaut simply by formulating a strategic alliance with one or more suppliers who may add a unique piece to your package, program or end-to-end offerings. Suddenly, your company acquires a UVP. More orders, greater equity value…before you know it, investors come sniffing around.

What are they looking for?

They want to know what you’ll do for your next act.

Sure. That first alliance you just made was a successful move. It got attention. And it’s working. But, don’t get too busy with that. Save some time for developing additional alliance ideas. You need to look at your company’s future in terms of a total, long-term strategic alliances plan.

Six key questions to formulating a long-term alliance road map

Use these six Partner M questions to develop your own alliance road map:

- What are my core competencies?
- What are my customer assets?
- How bad are the performance gaps as experienced by my customer/user?
- What are the innovative upgrades desired by my customer/user?
- How well are my competitors performing in areas where we are weak?
- Where do we perform better than our competitors?

Now answer this:
Can you locate and negotiate a deal with potential suppliers who can deliver to you
a unique product or service that:
(a) your company cannot duplicate more profitably with its core competence;
(b) will be highly valued by your customers;
(c) will fix a problem or enable you to offer customers an optional upgrade;
(d) will strengthen an area where you had been weak; or,
(e) will help insure that you can continue to outperform our competitors?

If your answer is yes to any one or more of these options, then you have the basis for a strategy that would result in higher order volume, as well as a path to added value and increased brand equity.

How do you validate that assumption?

Project the pros and cons of executing your alliance plan

Calculate a scenario assuming the amount of revenue you could generate and profits you would achieve after you’ve found one such partner and have successfully negotiated an alliance.

Be sure you have identified and adjusted your projection for any possible downside and cost of implementing the partnership. Next, forecast where you’ll be in three years without this alliance or a comparable strategy.

In addition you should assess the impact of your alliance on the competition with a sober determination of how they may react. Here is where the value of establishing a ‘unique alliance’ becomes so important. Paradoxically, your alliance’s UVP shelf life must be viewed as both temporary and continuous. Any one alliance you enter is temporary. Your strategy must be continuous.

How temporary is your alliance? If any of your competitors can match your partnership with another and duplicate the contribution of your unique ally in fairly short order, your UVP will not last long. You may need to move faster to extend the your UVP shelf life and begin to plan your next UVP partnership. Within this scenario you would need to move faster on the alliance front or find yourself having to play deep catch up if your competitor takes the initiative before you do.

Design an ongoing alliance strategy

To develop a continuous UVP plan extend your alliance road map by duplicating your forecast calculations to include all potential alliances you foresee into the future. How far can you go using this strategy? If possible, don’t stop until you’re able to imagine this process reaching a global scale or an exit strategy. Finally, your alliance plan must weigh alliance costs and risks against the benefits/costs/risks of alternative strategies.

Whether your enterprise takes the role of a marketer or a supplier, you should consider formulating a phased-in partnership plan containing a list of target partner prospects, financial validations, a timeline and undertake a marketing initiative aimed at shaping a receptive and synergistic relationship with partner executives and operational teams. Executing the plan is your next challenge. Don’t hesitate to seek help in developing your plan and making it happen.

With a variety of surveys abailable, find out what kind of survey is best for you. Whether it’s an online survey or a telephone survey, a survey can help you gain information about any demographic.

Keywords:
online surveys, polls, enterprise feedback management, survey, survey software

Taking a survey can sometimes be an enjoyable task. It’s kind of fun to see where you sit in a sampling of society. It’s also refreshing to be able to take part in a survey and voice your views. However, surveys can also be valuable to businesses and institutions. Allowing them to gain a better understanding of the people who mean the most to them. For the corporation, surveys can be a valuable tool and we will discuss some of them here.

Surveys come in a variety of formats and each offers a different view into any demographic. Online surveys, email surveys, phone surveys, mail surveys, personal in-home surveys are just a small number of potential methods that can be used to better understand the world you live and strive in.

Online Surveys
Anyone who spends anytime on the internet has probably taken a survey from time to time. The subject of these surveys can vary from politics to religion or can include questions about entertainment, technology or lifestyles. Online surveys are often not as intrusive as phone surveys or email surveys, because they tend to exist in a place the respondent has chosen to visit. These surveys can be inexpensive to administer and can produce fast results. Response rates for online surveys can sometimes be as high as 90 percent. Online surveys are an attractive option for those who want a survey that provides a quick snapshot of one aspect or another.

Email Surveys
Email surveys tend to have most of the benefits of a web based survey. They are easy to administer and can produce fast results. The response rate for an email survey is close to that of an online survey. However, email surveys can not offer an interactive html format. This format can be found in online surveys and is useful in providing more accurate results.

Phone Surveys
Telephone response rates can be around 40-80 percent. They are somewhat cost efficient, depending on what kind of phone charges are present. Like online and email surveys, phone surveys can be useful in large surveys that can be either national or international. A downside to phone surveys is that they are limited to audio only. This means the exclusion of visuals such as graphs, videos, charts and taste and smell samples. There are a number of phone survey styles. These types include traditional phone interviews, computer assisted phone dialing, and interviewing. With such a high response rate and low cost of deployment. A telephone survey can be a helpful and cheap survey tool.

Mail Surveys
Mail surveys tend to be more of a survey technique of the past. The response rate of mail surveys is very low at 5-30 percent. Even when had delivered, a mail survey can be costly. With the expense of postage on the rise , a mail survey can be pricey, depending on the location of the survey. Although bulk postage can be cheap, it may not be cheap enough for some start ups or other institutions with little budgets. Unlike email or web based surveys, mail surveys can have long time delays. These delays can prevent the eventual analysis and processing of data. Mail surveys can present respondents with large amounts of information, with some surveys being as long as 50 pages. This type of survey shouldn’t be used by any one in a rush.

Personal In-Home Surveys
In-home surveys are not used very often. They are costly and only provide a response rate similar to that of a telephone survey. They are best used in a situation that requires sampling of a taste or smell. In-home surveys are not a great way to administer a long survey since most people don’t like to be bothered at home for an extended period of time. This type of survey is most effective in areas where telephones and internet are unavailable.

There are a few simple rules to consider when creating a survey. Keep it short, nobody wants to spend all day filling out a survey. Offer an incentive, whether it’s financial or a small trinket people love free stuff. Personalize the request and make the respondent feel comfortable with the survey. Make appeals to the respondents emotions. A survey that covers an emotional topic is sure to get a stronger response. last of all, make sure to point out that the respondents information will be kept an anonymous.

Now that you know how to put a survey together and send it out. Get out there and get to know the people who make your business tick

Writing a business plan can be a lot of hard work or it can be great fun. An effective plan can help your company to greatness. A poor one can lead you out of business. No plan is like asking to fail before you even start.

Not every business needs a 200 page bound business plan. However every business needs to have some idea of where they want to go and how they are going to get there. This article covers some key insights into writing a business plan that get your busine…

Keywords:
business plan, business plans, writing a business plan, how to write a business plan

Writing a business plan can be a lot of hard work or it can be great fun. An effective plan can help your company to greatness. A poor one can lead you out of business. No plan is like asking to fail before you even start.

Not every business needs a 200 page bound business plan. However every business needs to have some idea of where they want to go and how they are going to get there. This article covers some key insights into writing a business plan that get your business to where you want to be.

The first stage of any plan is ANALYSIS. You need to take a very objective look at a number of factors that may impact your business. There are many factors to consider but the two major ones are competition and your operating environment.

Let’s look first at competition. Every business has competition, even if you think your product or service is unique. How is this? Well it’s quite simple really, people have choices to make. The most fundamental choice they make in most cases is whether to buy what you offer or but something else. For example I could buy a game console or I could buy groceries instead. Customers only have so much money available so you first task is to ask yourself what is my competition like and can I beat them? The more you understand your competition the more you can develop your business strategy of being different and outperforming them.

Now let’s look at operating environment. This is understanding what factors around your area of operation are likely to affect your business performance. For some companies this includes looking around the World in other cases it’s just your local neighbourhood. You need to ask questions such as:

How is the economy going?
What is consumer confidence like?
Where is technology heading in my industry?

After answering all the questions you need to decide how these might negatively or positively influence your performance.

Now you know more about your competition and operating environment it’s time to set some OBJECTIVES. This is what you want to achieve in the period your business plan covers. It is said that good objectives are SMART. That is specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and targeted. Here’s an example of a SMART objective for a hypothetical business.

“By the end of this year we will have increased sales of product X by 7.5% over the previous year.”

You can see how clear this objective is. It is much easier to achieve high performance with clear objectives.

Now you need to outline your STRATEGY. How are you going to reach you objective(s)? This is where your marketing plan often comes in as it helps describe the programs you will run to achieve your desired objective(s). To continue the example above our strategy may be to gain distribution for our product in one new major retail chain.

To make your strategy work you must then allocate appropriate RESOURCES. Certain things will need to be provided to reach your goal. This could be dollars, people, equipment, etc. Your plan must have included the resources you are allocating and why you believe this is adequate to get the result.

Every business plans also has some PROJECTIONS. This is your basic financials that you plan will deliver. Are you expecting a profit or loss? How much?

Lastly you need to allow for CONTINGENCIES. Things change all the time and your plan needs to consider these possibilities in advance. A good way to do this is to ask What if?

What if a new competitor enters our market?
What if a distributor delists our product?
What if interest rates rise?

Your analysis should give you some idea of likely contingencies. It saves a lot of stress if you have some documented ideas for dealing with them before they become a big problem.

Writing a business plan is never perfect, the plan is on paper and you’re operating in the real world. However a good plan can really guide you in the right direction. Take time to put real thought into preparing your plan an above all make sure you USE YOUR PLAN!

This article throws light on the significance of branding a business and how carefully thought brand names can potentially result in a more successful and a profitable business.

Keywords:
Brand, Branding, Coca Cola, Loyalty, Customer

Branding is perhaps the most important facet of any business-beyond product, distribution, pricing, or location. A company’s brand is its definition in the world, the name that identifies it to itself and the marketplace. A model may be beautiful, but without a name, she’s just “that girl in that picture.” Where would Norma Jean be without Marilyn Monroe, or who would imagine Coca-Cola as just a soft-drink manufacturer? A brand provides a concrete descriptor to customers and competitors alike, a name for a product or service to distinguish it from anything else. Bob may run a hobby shop, but trying to advertise as “The hobby shop a guy named Bob runs down the street a ways” is financial suicide. Each customer will have to describe the shop, who Bob is, and what the shop does every time someone asks about it. This makes the process of recommending a good hobby shop too much work for the average customer, and far too much work for a user looking for hobby shops on the Internet. A customer looking up Bob’s hobby shop will have an easier time of it if he or she knows to refer to it as “Bob’s House of Hobbies,” and the customer can then refer others to Bob’s hobby shop by name, increasing the potential advertising exponentially.

Developing a brand involves more than just picking a catchy name and placing an ad in the newspaper-a brand is more than a unique string of letters denoting a particular product; a successful brand is a mnemonic trigger that makes a consumer feel a certain way when the brand is thought of. For those who drink cola-flavored soft drinks, which is more appealing on a hot day: a cold cola soda, or an ice-cold Coke? Coca-Cola has spent 100 years developing their particular brand of cola-flavored soda as a refreshing beverage and a seminal representation of a market segment. Coca-Cola has used a combination of direct marketing, give-away techniques, and multi-product cross-branding to achieve maximum brand recognition and visibility in not only its immediately competitive market, but in markets as diverse as Coca-Cola branded race cars and housewares.

Brand loyalty is an integral part of building a brand, as consumers usually have a choice of products in the same market segment, and so a successful company will come up with a way to keep consumers re-buying their product or coming back to their location rather than going to a competitor. These brand loyalty-building efforts may come in the form of coupons, incentives such as many grocery chains’ technique of “grocery discount cards” or “loss leaders,” meant to draw consumers into the store, where they will hopefully buy products along with the discounted fare at a higher profit ratio. In exchange for these discounts and grocery cards, many companies collect information about buying habits and average spending amounts, the better to tailor advertisements and better-focus future promotional efforts. Once a consumer is hooked, brand loyalty tends to result in higher sales volume, as well as loyal customers being less sensitive to price changes of their favorite brands (within reason, of course), as well as less sensitive to competitors’ incentives. Studies have shown that it takes 5 times as much money to gain a customer as it does to retain one. That’s 5 times as much money as could have been spent on other things.

A brand is who your company is, and what it is selling-it is as important as naming a baby, and should require the same amount of effort to develop it, but if done well, can mature into a successful and profitable adult.

© 2009, Wholesale Pages UK. All rights reserved.

Today many organisations have decided to move their operations offshore to reduce costs and increase competitiveness. The cost savings offshore are considerable but the headline saving is only a small part of equation. Having spoken to many project managers over the past year it has become clear that the same issues are arising time and time again.

Keywords:
project management, software development, offshore, outsourcing, IT

Today many organisations have decided to move their IT development offshore to reduce costs and increase competitiveness. Work is sent to places such as India, China and Russia. The cost savings in these countries is considerable but the headline saving is only a small part of the equation. Running projects offshore is very different to running them at home. Having spoken to many project managers over the past year, it has become clear that the same issues are arising time and time again. Understanding these before you start an offshore project will help you to be better prepared. These are six of the key areas to consider and where most of the issues lie when offshore outsourcing.

Understanding the Culture

This is possibly the most complex area and takes time to understand. Western norms of doing business cannot be applied in places such as India and China. Without a good understanding of the culture it’s easy for things to go wrong. This is where it can be useful to go on a cultural training course. A good course will tell you what to expect, how to react and plan strategies to deal with different ways of working.

Selecting the Right Projects to Go Offshore

Some companies are taking a blanket approach to their offshore adventure, expecting to dispense with their internal IT development entirely. The problem is that not all projects lend themselves to offshore development. Good candidates for going offshore are typically those projects that are either very well defined with very little change expected or repetitive work. Projects that require a large amount of customer interaction or are likely to have a lot of changes during development are not suitable.

Defining the Scope

Offshore projects need to be defined in more detail than those run at home are. You will get exactly what you ask for including all mistakes and errors, whether obvious or not. Make sure everything is written down and never make assumptions about what is obvious or implied. A spin off benefit many companies have experienced in this area is an improvement in the quality of their functional and technical specifications.

Getting What You Pay For

It is important to check whether the people and services you pay for are what you get. There is a tendency to provide cheaper solutions. Agree what you are buying and check on a regular basis that is what you are getting. Ask for peoples CV’s to ensure that they have the relevant experience and qualifications. Make regular visits to check that the working environment and equipment is as expected.

Effective Communication

This is probably the single most important aspect of offshore working. A lot of effort should be put into setting up a good communications structure. It cannot be assumed that the correct information is passed to the right people and it is important to make sure that it is to avoid problems later. One solution is to have a company manager offshore, at least initially, to ensure that everything runs smoothly.

Monitoring Progress

The terms “offshore development” and “black box” should not be heard in the same sentence. This is a concept that will not work. Offshore projects need managing or at least monitoring. It is important to have short milestones and frequent deliverables in any offshore project so it’s easier to monitor progress and quality and take timely corrective action. The onus is on the customer to monitor progress because the offshore company will seldom mention problems or delays in order to save face.

Common Pitfalls

i Not a quick fix budget cut. It takes from three months to a year to completely hand the work over to an offshore partner and during this period costs will rise, therefore don’t assume savings during this period.

ii Employing arms and legs rather than brains. It is common place to find that you will be assigned a qualified and experienced developer and several inexperienced trainees or students. The developer is expected to coach and guide the inexperienced staff to deliver packages of work. These people are usually unable to make sound technical decisions and in some of the worst examples have only a rudimentary knowledge of the technology they are working with. This can lead to poor quality and extended lead times.

iii Lack of accountability. It is important to have a single point of contact that can make decisions and get you want you need. All to often the person in this role has no power and is only there as a token to keep the customer happy.

iv Onshore experience. Do not rely on telephone and e-mail communication only. It is necessary for key staff from the offshore partner to work onshore in order for them to understand the company culture and what is expected of them. This can typically last between three and six months.

Anecdotal evidence from companies with two or more years experience in offshore outsourcing is that given time it can work and savings can be made but be prepared for the years of effort and a large up-front investment.

If you fail to meet the customer’s expectations at the Moment of Truth , customers are very likely to tell 11 people about the problem they had with your company.

Keywords:

If you WOW a customer at the Moment of Truth , the average customer will walk away and tell 5 people about the experience.

If you fail to meet the customer’s expectations at the Moment of Truth , customers are very likely to tell 11 people about the problem they had with your company.

If you drop the ball with customers at the Moment of Truth , but rebound with a quick customer recovery, research shows that the customer will tell up to 17 people about your service recovery.

Did you get that? Customers will tell 5 people if you WOW them, BUT if there’s a problem and you quickly fix it, they will tell more than 3 times as many people as they would if no problem had occurred at all.

One of the fastest and easiest ways to grow your bottom line is to equip your front line employees with skills to respond to complaints and problems in such a way that they completely regain goodwill and restore the customer’s confidence.

Read on to find out exactly how to do this.

1. Resolve problems as quickly as possible. The faster the resolution, the better the chances for maintaining loyalty. TARP, Inc. found that ninety-five percent of complaining customers would remain loyal if their complaint was resolved on the first contact. That number dropped to seventy percent when the complaint was not immediately resolved. In fact, the speed of resolution has a greater impact on future loyalty than the resolution itself. Strive to resolve complaints on the first contact and when that isn’t possible, final resolution should occur within 5 - 10 business days in order to maintain and build loyalty.

2. Give Them Something. Coupons, product samples, and other freebies have a definite impact on loyalty after a service failure has occurred. Years ago American Airlines gave me 7000 frequent flyer miles after I experienced a gruesome delay. And that gift of miles, was enough to make me come back. But don’t take my word for it: A study conducted for the Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals (SOCAP) found that 58% of complaining consumers who received something in the mail following their contact with consumer affairs departments were delighted, versus only 40% of those who did not receive anything. Giving customers token items, such as coupons or product samples, after a service failure both increases the perception of value and serves to maintain loyalty.

3. Only allow the friendliest, most helpful, and diplomatic employees to talk to customers. Employee courtesy and attitude are critical factors in regaining the goodwill of customers who have experienced a problem. Customers contacting a company with a problem want to talk to a person who is courteous, professional sympathetic and understanding. Additionally, employees must be skilled in communicating with diplomacy, expressing empathy, and representing the company credibly and convincingly during times of consumer distress. The attitudes and behaviors of frontline professionals form powerful lasting impressions with customers whether these impressions are positive or negative.

4. Encourage your people to “Be Gumby”. You remember Gumby don’t you-the green rubbery figure that Eddie Murphy portrayed so hilariously on Saturday Night Live? In my seminars I teach employees to “Be Gumby” when it comes to dealing with customers. By being Gumby, I mean do whatever it takes to service customers. This includes being flexible, bending over backwards, making a 180 degree turn when you were heading another direction on a non customer-impacting task. It might even mean standing on your head. The idea is to be completely customer focused. Being Gumby guarantees you’ll always make customers happy.

One great way for mortgage brokers and loan officers to market the benefits of their products and services is with a Blog.

Keywords:
Sales, marketing, loan officer, mortgage, leads, telemarketing, skills, training, blog, selling, internet mortgage lead

One great way for mortgage brokers and loan officers to market the benefits of their products and services is with a Blog.

There are many sites on the internet that allow for you to set up a Blog for free. They also make it very easy for beginners to set up their Blog allowing for them to choose their own url name and template.

On your Blog you can put a photo of yourself, allowing for potential customers to put a name with your face. You can also put a short biography of yourself to allow your potential clients an opportunity to get to know a little more about you.

This is a great way to allow for customers to find a comfort level with you.

Once you have the name and template set up, you can than begin to add information about the products and services you have to offer, and how they can benefit your customer, and meet their needs.

Than, every day, post a new topic. It can be an article you have written yourself on the mortgage industry, or just some information on a new product or promotion you are offering. New material added to your Blog on a daily basis will keep customers coming back to your Blog.

Believe me, you do not need to be a rocket scientist or have a degree in computer science to build a Blog. A Blog can be built in less than five minutes by anyone that wants to do it. It is very simple.

Once you have your Blog in place, you can add the url address to your e-mail address and you can also have it put on your business cards.

Whenever you are dealing with a new client, end the conversation by asking them to visit your Blog.

Also, blogs are a great way to communicate with other professionals in the mortgage industry. Encourage other loan officers to visit your Blog and post their thoughts, comments, or industry related material.

Building your own Blog is definitely worth looking into, so give it a shot. It is another great tool to add to your mortgage marketing arsenal.