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"10 Top Tips For Reclaiming Your Time"
REPRINT GUIDELINES =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= You are free to publish the following article in it's entirety in your eZine or on your website. Our only condition is that you MUST keep the information about the...

Career Executive Coaching Article -Motivator, Discipline and Desire
"There is a certain combination of desire and discipline in the way I work. Discipline by itself simply is not enough in the creative process." - Robert De Niro Many of us think of discipline as a highly positive characteristic. When we fail to...

How to Start Your Coaching Practice
When you are ready to start your own coaching practice there are several steps that you will have to take. First, you should consider finding a qualified mentor coach that can take you under their wing. A coach without a coach unwilling to afford a...

Personal Training: 3 Keys to Training Clients in Their Homes
When considering your options as a personal trainer, one of the very first things to decide is WHERE you are going to train your clients. The most obvious answer for most trainers is to get a job at a local fitness facility and train clients there....

Tips to Energize Your Presentations
“There can be no knowledge without emotion. We may be aware of a truth, yet until we have felt its force, it is not ours. To the cognition of the brain must be added the experience of the soul.” – Arnold Bennett (1867-1931) Ask...

 
Customer Focus - Just 5 Simple Things You Need to Think About

In all the businesses we conduct, there are customers. And they are the life-blood to us. It's TRUE! Despite all the million and one things we are doing - we've got to have paying customers! Nevertheless, just five things will dictate success or failure. Have you got them right?

You can boil down the difference between successful businesses and the rest in how they work with their customers, in just five areas.

So, what does this mean?

  1. What They Want
    Selling what your customers really want is just critical. Being on good enough terms with your customers to research, (hey maybe just by chatting with them - radical idea, huh?), helps you find out how you can best serve their needs.

  2. Price is Right
    By balancing the kind of pricing you want to offer with exceptional service levels, there is a fascinating calculation to be made. Prices rock-bottom with inadequate attention to item 5 are not likely to bring profitable consumers rushing to your door. Providers have an ongoing dance between price and service - be aware of it. It is not possible to sustain your business with lowest prices and poor service.

  3. When They Want It
    In the internet world, availability of your
    goods and services is measured critically far more than ever before. You may not need to be 24/7, but you certainly need to be aware of it. More traditional customers are also becoming more demanding. So businesses need to be especially sensitive to the hours they trade, whether they sell goods or services, by stores and/or phone.

  4. Easy To Buy
    With the advent of the internet, making it easy to purchase is vital. Why not make purchases


    from the comfort of your home study or workplace office? So having your people who are available, exactly when your customer wants them, to make payment for goods and services relly easy is a serious point worth considering. Even in shops, the sensitivity of simply having staff focused on delivering the very best of attention is critical. Every day
    there may be threats to different shopping channels, so the adage that you 'only have one chance to make a first impression' is becoming ever more important.

  5. Trusted Follow Up
    By ensuring that you have all your ducks in a row so far, sustainably building whatever business you are in, is vitally dependent on how you handle ongoing customer service. Indeed if you are only focusing on a one-time purchase, then, frankly, you are not going to have much of a future.
    Repeat business is very inexpensive for you, so an investment of post-purchase excellence is very worthwhile.
By focusing on these five elements, teasing out the consequences with your management teams, you will have a great chance of making business progress. If you choose not to take the time to
analyse what you truly need to do, there will be a jeopardy for you in the not to distant future.

About the Author
© 2005 Martin Haworth is a Business and Management Coach. He works worldwide, mainly by phone, with small business owners, managers and corporate leaders. He has hundreds of hints, tips and ideas at his website, www.coaching-businesses-to-success.com. (Note to editors. Feel free to use this article, wherever you think it might be of value - with a live link if you can).

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