All of us are always looking for ways to be a little more productive at work and in our personal lives. The following article discusses what most of us do now and highlights a couple of new apps that will help make you more organized and productive. The nice thing about them is that they are very easy to use and you can get started with the basics within an hour.
Read moreTop 10 Video Projects that will Increase Sales
Are you looking for new ways to increase sales this year? Have you thought about adding more videos to your website? Video technology is one of the top 10 latest technologies that will increase business sales this year.
Video marketing is a hot fast-growing trend in all companies. Why? You can thank YouTube, Tablets and Smartphones for the explosion in video interest and content over the last 2-3 years.
Read moreHow to Increase Your Appointments 20-Percent using New Technology
The Traditional Way
Just about every salesperson spends time setting appointments each week. If you're lucky, you may have someone helping you. But very often if you’re trying to set up time with an executive, you’re handling it yourself. Traditionally, we make phone calls and we send emails trying to find a convenient time for a meeting. It will take on average 4-6 emails (and calls) going back and forth to set up an appointment and to confirm it. This can be challenging during the best of times.
Read moreDo You Know the 5 Levels of CRM?
Ten years ago, there were a few dozen CRM Systems available from ACT (for Small Businesses) to Siebel (for Large Enterprises). In the past, you bought the software once, paid for the implementation and then paid an annual support fee...forever.
Read moreThe #1 Secret to Motivating Your Sales Reps
- It's NOT more Money!
- It's NOT a Trophy!
- A Sales Manager Can't Do It!
- So... What is it?
Salesforce Admin & User Self-Paced Training
Top Salesforce Training for Administrators, Managers and Users
Over the last five years, Salesforce.com has become very complex to successfully implement and manage.
However, the CRM System is still very easy to just turn on with their standard configuration and start working. It's quick, not too painful and many companies just do that. They really need some training basics before they start using it.
Read moreTop 7 Benefits of New Customer Service Technology
We all know that Customer Service has always been a critical component of all successful Businesses. However, you may not know about some of the latest Customer Service System Benefits.
If you are still using the same Customer Service Technology from 3 to 5 years ago, you may find this information helpful to help Increase your Customer Satisfaction, Improve Staff Productivity and Increase your Sales this year.
Here are the Top 7 Things New Customer Service Technology Can Do for You this Year:
1. Customer Service Feedback You can now automate customer surveys after each request for help is completed and get feedback on how you are doing. If something went wrong or was delayed, this allows your customer an opportunity to give you the feedback directly vs publishing the feedback on a public social network like Facebook, Twiter, LinkedIn or Yelp.
2. All Customer Service and Support Requests are Consolidated in One Place The new systems allow you to consolidate the many ways your Customers want to request help or support. Facebook, Twitter, Website Forms, Chat Forms, Phone Calls and eMails can be automatically converted to tickets or requests in the system. Some of the new Customer Service Systems automatically convert a voice mail into a Ticket. Having all your requests, in one location, saves time and makes you and your staff much more productive.
3. Real-time Reports & Dashboard How fast do you respond to your Customer Requests for help? Do you know how many requests are overdue? Do you know the status of the top 10 critical customer service requests placed this week? How much time do you spend each month preparing activity reports for management? The new systems have real-time reports and special dashboards that give you this information 24 hours / 7 days per week.
4. Workflow Automation You can automate many aspects of your customer service workflow. For example, when you receive a help request, you can automatically send the customer or prospect a confirmation that you received their request. You can also automatically send them updates as you progress answering their question. If a help request is received from a key customer executive or a manager, the request can be automatically escalated and put on a special report or flagged. These features greatly improves staff productivity and improves the Customer's impression of your responsiveness.
5. Knowledge Base for Employees You can replace procedure manuals with a Knowledge Base for your internal staff. The new systems are easy to use and update. You create one central location for all documentation. New and existing employees can use them for references and training material.
6. Self Service Help for Customers and Prospects You can reduce the number of help requests by publishing easy-to-use self service help information for many customer questions. The new systems can help identify repeat questions that can be answered once and put on the Self Service Help page. Most people prefer Self-Help these days. Surveys confirm that most bank customers prefer going to an Bank ATM machine now vs going into a bank, waiting in line and talking to a Bank Teller.
7. Mobile App for Smartphones and Tablets In 2014, Smartphones will represent over two-thirds of all phones sold in America. During the last two years, small 7” Tablets exploded in popularity. Many of the new systems have Smartphone or Tablet applications that keep you updated all day long. You can process service requests at the office, at home, out having coffee or on-site at a customer.
These are just seven of the many ways the new Customer Service Systems can help you profitably grow your business. Some of the new smaller systems are free for 1-3 users and the larger systems can cost $200 per user per month. Many of the Customer Service and Support Systems can be implemented in a few days or within 2-3 weeks.
Photo Credits: Courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net
How to Find and Hire Top People Faster for Your Business?
The other day I was browsing the Zendesk website to learn more about their Customer Service / Help Desk solution for one of our clients. As part of my review, I always look at the jobs postings (to see how fast a company is growing) and also scan the company Youtube videos. I came across their recruiting video called "This is Zendesk." I didn't plan on watching the whole thing. However, the more I watched, the more I liked it. The video sucked me in, bit by bit. After watching, I called over my business partner to watch it and give me her opinion.
We both thought it was great and walked away being very impressed with the company and the people. If I was looking for a job, I would have wanted to work there... all from a simple video.
The job market for top people is getting more and more competitive. There are so many bad companies to work for out there.
After watching this video, you too may want to work at Zendesk. .... or you can produce one of these videos for your own company today.
So, one of the Secrets to finding and hiring Top People is to... Produce a fun low-budget recruiting video about working at your company.
Please comment with any other great company videos that would get a new employee excited to work for your company.