Information Junkie

There was something distinctively different and attractive in the way that Sara Smith treated others. As an employee, she was a shining example for other co-workers simply because of her friendly personality. People tended to gravitate toward her. This was especially true in her relationships with the many loyal customers that she had won over the years.

Sara had what it took to be what I would classify as a “customer service superstar.” She had the ability to keep customers and help others within the organization to become their best on the job. Each day Sara made a positive impact for the company and consistently delivered outstanding customer service.

One feature that Sara consistently showed to other people was her genuine friendliness. She had a way of making co-workers and customers feel welcomed simply by the way that she treated them. Her friendly smile and pleasant tone of voice made others feel comfortable from the start. People also were attracted to the way that she genuinely took an interest in them. She could instantly drop everything she was doing and give another person her undivided attention.

Another outstanding feature of Sara was her ability to listen to others without interrupting. Customers truly felt that she cared about them. It became evident within the first few minutes of being served by Sara that she sincerely cared that her customers were well taken care of.

Another admirable trait that defined Sara was her undying enthusiasm for life. She lived in such a way that made others want what she had. It was as if Sara looked at each day as a gift to be treasured. It would be evident after being around her for a short time that she appreciated life. The enthusiasm for living also affected others who were around her.

Her co-workers never once heard Sara complain. Not only did she show appreciation, but Sara also had a way of making others feel appreciated for doing business with the organization. Customers would feel that they were being served by the most thankful person in the world. This not only created a positive experience for the customer, but also gave them the desire to want to return in the future.

Sara also had a way of making her customers feel accepted by the genuine welcome that she projected. She consistently showed consideration and respect and spoke in a way that would build others up. Her encouraging words made a positive impact on her fellow co-workers. Never one to be critical, Sara had the gift of making others feel comfortable in her presence by her genuine kindness and thoughtfulness.

Her sincerity in helping as well as expressing appreciation to her customers had a way of bringing them back time and again. Everyday customers would arrive and ask if Sara was available to help them. There were even those who would go out of their way simply to be served by her. Even though customers had other places where they could get the same product, they would drive the extra miles simply because of the way Sara made them feel. She was valued by her organization, encouraging to her co-workers, and treasured by her customers. This is what made Sara a customer service superstar.

1. Stay in contact with customers on a regular basis. Offer them a free e-zine subscription. Ask customers if they want to be updated by e-mail when you make changes to your Web site. After every sale, follow-up with the customer to see if they are satisfied with their purchase.

2. Create a customer focus group. Invite ten to twenty of your most loyal customers to meet regularly. They will give you ideas and input on how to improve your customer service. You could pay them, take them out to dinner or give them free products.

3. Make it easy for your customers to navigate on your web site. Have a “FAQ” page on your Web site to explain anything that might confuse your customers. Ask them to fill out an electronic survey to find out how make your web site more customer friendly.

4. Resolve your customers complaints quickly and successfully. Answer all e-mail and phone calls within an hour. If possible, you the owner of the business, personally take care of the problem. This will show your customers you really care about them.

5. Make it easy for your customers to contact you. Offer as many contact methods as possible. Allow customers to contact you by e-mail. Hyperlink your e-mail address so customers won’t have to type it. Offer toll free numbers for phone and fax contacts.

6. Make sure employees know and use your customer service policy. Give your employees bonuses or incentives to practice excellent customer service. Tell employees to be flexible with each individual customer, each one has different concerns, needs and wants.

7. Give your customers more than they expect. Send thank you gifts to lifetime customers. E-mail them online greeting cards on holidays or birthdays. Award bonuses to your customers who make a big purchase.

8. Always be polite to your customers. Use the words your welcome, please, and thank you. Be polite to your customers even if they are being irate with you. Always apologize to your customers should you make a mistake. Admit your mistakes quickly and make it up to them in a big way.

9. Reward customers a point for every one dollar they spend. Let’s say customers can get a free computer for 300 points. That means customers will spend $300 dollars on your products and services to get enough points to get the free computer.

10. Build strong relationships with your customers. Invite them to company meetings, luncheons, workshops or seminars. Create special events for your customers like parties, barbecue’s, dances etc. This will make them feel important when you include them in regular business operations and special events.

Inbound telemarketing services are sprouting up all over the United States and even overseas. It is very common for business owners to outsource this service, even to other countries where they can get good service for a lot less money.

Customers who want answers do not want to wait for business hours. Most businesses are very competitive in the United States and customer service plays a huge role in getting the business from the customer. A customer may be more inclined to go with a business that can answer their questions for them twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. When a customer wants information, they want it right away. And they are willing to pay for it.

You need to make sure that whatever service you use will pick up the call promptly and answer the questions your customer has with efficiency as well as courtesy. Few things turn a customer off more than rudeness. The customer service team must be polite to your customers.

Telemarketing services not only answer the inbound calls from your customers but they are the front people who represent your organization as well. The telemarketers should be so well informed of your industry so that the customers do not know that your company is not directly handling the calls. When outsourcing from other countries you must ensure that the telemarketers speak fluent English.

If many of your customers speak another language besides English, make sure that the telemarketing service has representatives who are bilingual. This is important to serve your non English-speaking customers.

Many businesses are outsourcing their inbound telemarketing calls overseas. Wages in some other areas are much less than they are in the United States as is the cost of living. Furthermore, in many countries the people are very polite and well versed when it comes to technical questions. This is one reason why many American businesses are outsourcing their technical inbound telemarketing calls to other countries.

Providing your customers with quality service seven days a week and twenty-four hours a day will continually offer your customers an excellent customer service response time. In addition, most companies usualy provide a script to their telemarketers so that your customers are ensured of a high quality service with every phone call.

Having some type of call record showing number of employees at the call service center, average wait for a customer call to be answered and the length of time for each customer call will inform you of the way in which the service is being operated. But before signing with any telemarketing service, it is recommended that you personally call the telemarketers to get an idea of how they will respond to your customer calls.

Inbound telemarketing services are the wise choice for any business owner who wants to give his customers support all of the time. As more businesses move towards this option, call centers have become more competitive, giving you a good choice of rates and services.

As I stand in the waiting area of a popular restaurant, I thought occurs to me. Do they like having a full waiting area? Do they make us stand shoulder to shoulder with a bunch of strangers on purpose?

I have to say that I am almost certain that they are just a victim of their own success and they have not found a suitable alternative. What solutions are available for a successful business that doesn’t want to make its customers stand and wait around?

DotLogik Inc. is a new company that has developed a way to eliminate this problem. This truly is a remarkable idea that will save everyone hours of waiting around.

SMS has been around for several years now, but it hasn’t been until recently that we have seen real progress made in the SMS market. There are now a host of applications that SMS utilizes. I have to say that one of the best, is DotLogik’s SmartHost Paging. It is a fantastic application that restaurants use to contact its customers when their table is ready. In the past they have used large round or square pagers that light up or buzz when your table is ready. SmartHost eliminates the need for those old style pagers.

When a customer walks in to the restaurant they give their cell number to the hostess. Then they are told an approximate wait time. This lets the customer know how long or how far they can go before their table is ready. When their table is almost ready, the customer receives a voice message or text message on their phone. They return to the restaurant and sit down…no standing around or being squeezed out into the bad weather while you wait for a table.

I am excited to give this a try. I would much rather be doing what I want to do during that hour or more of waiting, rather than be forced to do what the restaurant want me to do…stand around a waiting room. Those days are over now that DotLogik’s SmartHost Paging has set us free!

SMS has set us free and we have DotLogik To thank for it!

Many customers will ask if a restaurant serves alcohol or not. It seems to be a very common item that people are looking for. Not every business of this nature feels like it is appropriate though to offer it. For example you don’t see fast food locations offering mixed drinks or various beers for people to order. If you feel that your guests will want it though you are going to have to decide if it works for you or not.

Serving alcohol at a restaurant can be profitable and that is why so many people choose to do so. You also get your hands on those guests who love to eat out but want an alcoholic drink to go with it. They will frequent other establishments if you don’t offer them that choice regardless of how good your food is. Other people are turned off by any restaurant though that does serve alcohol so they won’t come in.

If you want to do so, you will need to find out how to go about getting a liquor license. This can take some time to complete do make sure you work on it early. You don’t want to end up not having it when you open as it can be embarrassing. It can also give the impression that you aren’t taking your restaurant business seriously.

If you decide to set up your restaurant with a bar area, be prepared for some money to be involved. There are glasses, accessories for the drinks, and of course the alcohol itself you need to have available. You are also going to need to hire excellent bartenders who know how to make an array of popular drinks.

By the same token though, you can sale the alcohol for much more than you pay for it. We all know ordering a beer in a restaurant will cost us twice as much as buying one at the liquor store. So that is quite a bit of profit you can end up making on the drinks alone. That can be a very enticing reason to go ahead and offer it.

It is important that you understand the laws relating to alcohol in your area. You also need to always comply with them. Underage servers can take orders for alcohol but they can’t deliver it to the table. They can remove empty glasses but not those that have alcohol remaining in them. You will need to make sure you have other staff members available that can deliver drinks for this reason.

There are severe fines and penalties for serving alcohol to those under the legal drinking age. It is imperative that you always ask for ID on every single person requesting an alcoholic beverage. It doesn’t matter how old they appear or even if they have been served alcohol there before. You want all of your staff to play it by the book each and every time.

Guidelines need to be in place too for those who have obviously had enough to drink in your establishment. You do have the right to refuse to serve them alcohol. You don’t want to let them get behind the wheel of a vehicle either. If they don’t have someone to drive for them then call a cab to pick them up.

Nowadays many people prefer working from their home itself. Work-at-home opportunities are providing employment for many people. Many parents are benefited from these kinds of opportunities as they can take care of house hold work and also earn money by working online.

Although it can be pretty tough king from home is very enticing. There are plenty of amazing jobs from home for you out there. All you need to do is to choose one that suits you and your lifestyle best.

Part time is perhaps best because, quite honestly, these “jobs” are going to take as much work performing as they would if you were in an office setting. Part time is almost certainly best for working around schedules. Sometimes these jobs are even harder to get done from home because you are responsible for finding the time to do the tasks. And most of them are benefited from these kinds of opportunities.

So before you try to find a work at home opportunity for yourself, you have to be prepared with some of the basic things like a computer, internet connection, and some informative books for reference and a lot of patience and time management. If you have all these packed, then you are ready to go with your new work at home opportunity.

Work-at-home opportunities offers great benefit for many people, there will be no one to boss over you. But at the same time you have to work very hard and spend enough time to make it a successful money hatching business. If you wish to succeed in your new work-at-home opportunity, you have to know some of the basics about it and become familiar with it.

You have to do a lot of research on the internet before you get committed to a work-at-home opportunity. Internet is a place for many useful resources, at the same time there are many scams going around. So you have to be careful before choosing any kind of opportunity. If these simple safety measures are taken, then it is likely that anyone will be able to start a successful work at home job in no time.

It is a good idea to transform the atmosphere of your restaurant from the afternoon to night. You want your customers who come in for either meal to be very happy with what they find. Dinner is often a classier meal for those who choose to dine out so make sure you offer them something spectacular. It doesn’t have to cost you very much or be difficult to achieve.

You may be thinking that this is a concept you agree with, but you don’t need any more overhead expenses to deal with. The good news is that most of these details you can implement don’t require much of an investment at all. The price is minimal as it the time involved in the transformation process.

While you want to give your customers as much room at their table as possible, it is common to have some type of decoration on it. You can easily switch from something basic to something better when you go from serving lunch to dinner. Candles work well as do vases with nicer flowers.

The lighting in the restaurant is something to consider as well. You may find it really adds to the look if you are able to dim the lights for the evening meal. This is great for those looking for a comfortable and even romantic atmosphere to eat in. You will also find this method saves you some money on your electric bill. You should be able to have a dinner switch installed by a professional electrician for an affordable price.

The music in your restaurant is important to evaluate as well. Most places offer some type of background music for their guests. It is often subtle enough though that it doesn’t interfere with their socializing. You may want to think about different music to offer for dinner than at lunch time. This is a very simple yet effective way to transform the overall atmosphere.

Allowing guests to seat themselves for lunch is fine, but you don’t want to allow it for dinner. Place a sign that asks guests to please wait to be seated. Make sure a friendly face greets them and escorts them to available seating that you offer. Make sure guests can offer a preference too so they won’t be placed where they aren’t going to enjoy their dinner.

The ability to charge the look of your restaurant from lunch to dinner is something you can easily do. It can mean a substantial increase in business for you with the evening crowd as well. Your customers will certainly appreciate the additional touches you offer. At the same time they will love being able to stop in for a casual lunch when they have time.

Making these changes for your restaurant from afternoon to night can be very simple too. You will need to have your staff allocate some time to make physical changes to it. You will also need to invest in some supplies to accomplish this. Other types of changes though aren’t going to cost you anything at all. Yet they will certainly be very effective and get more customers coming in for both lunch and dinner.

Waiting for a meal when you are hungry can be very hard for guests at a restaurant. Once they see the food on the plates of those around them as well as smell it, they can become even hungrier than they already are. One way to help curb their appetite as well as help them be more comfortable while they wait for their meal is to offer appetizers.

In some types of restaurants such as Mexican food locations, it is customary for them to be offered at the time when they are seated. Chips and salsa are what is usually offered. You may have a policy of a set amount of them that are free. Additional items will be charged for in order to help keep the prices low of the business.

You also want to offer a wide selection of appetizers on your menu. There are many you can choose to feature. Some of the common ones include hot wings, quesadillas, deep friend mushrooms, nachos, and cheese sticks. You can also have assortment appetizers too with a combination of several different items.

You need to get your customers to take notice of your appetizers on the menu though in order for them to buy them. You want to increase sales of them all you can. Place pictures on the menu to show them what they would be missing out on. Many people will order appetizers due to the look of them on the menu.

Make sure your staff understands their role in promoting the sales of appetizers as well. They can simple ask each table if they would like to order anything from that menu. You can also have competitions where you have them all promote a particular appetizer on a given night. The one that sells the most orders of it will get a great prize.

Make sure orders for appetizers get in to the kitchen quickly. They need to have a very fast turn around time. This way your guests won’t have to wait long before they have something in front of them to eat. It also allows them plenty of time to enjoy it before the full meal comes to the table.

Make sure guests also have silverware, napkins, and dipping sauces for their appetizers. They want to be able to enjoy them while they are still hot. If they have to wait for the staff to accommodate all their needs the food can be getting cold. Being able to anticipate what the guests need is a vital part of successfully serving them from the moment they want in the door.

If you aren’t offering your customers any appetizers you really should consider doing so. This is a great way to help them have the ultimate experience at your restaurant. It can help keep children quite and comfortable too while they are waiting for their food to arrive. You will also notice it is great way for your restaurant to make more money than before.