What is customer service?

Customer service starts with management and the values they instill in their employees. Unfortunately, customer service has moved away from the concept of “The customer is always right.” This is in part due to the litigious world we live in. We are afraid to admit that a customer might have a valid point when they make a complaint.

Whether you run or work for a large organization or a small outfit, the principles of customer service are the same. Here are some of them.

1. Keep the customer happy. This doesn’t mean that you have to put everything on sale or that you need to go to extraordinary lengths to make the customer happy. Most people would be satisfied with a little honest attention when they are shopping or looking for someone to provide service in the home. 
2.  Listen to the complaints without becoming defensive. Too often when you ask a sales clerk or service person a question, they tell you why your question is out of line instead of answering the question. If I ask how long something will last, I don’t want to hear, “Forever.” I know that’s not true. Tell me the truth and I’ll be grateful and more likely to buy from you in the future. 
3.  Show that you value the customer’s time. So often brick and mortar stores and phone and online service businesses don’t hire enough people to give good customer service. When I go out for lunch, I don’t want to hear how many tables the waitress has, or I don’t want to stand in line forever to find a clerk. In too many cases, stores and restaurants are maintaining minimum staffing levels. This is especially true of phone services for all businesses. How many times have you heard a recording say, “Your call is important to us. The next available person will be right with you.”? It is not customer service to make a customer wait on the phone for half an hour for a “real” person to come on the line. 
4.  Stand behind the value of your product.  Assist a customer rather than trying to sell him something more expensive than he needs. Too often when we ask for a particular product, the sales clerk will offer a suggestion of a more expensive product. Now, I would appreciate this if what I am proposing to buy is not worth the price. However, I don’t want to have to fight with a sales clerk to obtain information about a product I want, just because he/she wants to make a bigger commission. 
5.  Meet the customer’s needs, rather than your own. The customer is always right. Businesses would find their businesses booming if some of them returned to this old tenet and to the one about having pride in their product.

How to set goals in your career path

It is never too late or too early to set goals for your career path or to revise the goals you set a while back. Here are some simple steps to map out a career path:

1.       Assess. The first order of business in setting goals in your career path is to assess where you are. First, you need to determine if you are even on the correct path for you. If you aren’t on the correct path, then make the more desirable path the subject of your goals. 

2.       Define. The next step is to determine what success on your chosen career path means to you. For some, goals will be based on money only. For others, it’ll be based on status of becoming “director,” “head salesman,” or “supervisor.” For still others, successful achievement of career goals means reaching levels of increasingly more meaningful work. 

3.       Make a quick list of how many goals it will take to reasonably reach the end goal of your career path.

4.       List the goals in more detail. Be sure to write the goals in measurable terms. Each goal must be something tangible enough that you’ll be able to assess, at any given point, how you are doing in achieving the goal and you’ll know immediately and triumphantly when you reach each goal. For example, instead of listing “Be recognized for my work,” be specific and measurably in writing your goal by saying, “Be recognized for my work by being promoted to assistant director.” 

5.       Once you’ve written the complete list of goals, put it away except for the current goal and the one that follows it. List under each of these goals the steps you must go through to reach them.

6.       Then break it down by listing under each step what you must do to achieve that step. This is your blueprint to achieving the goals in your career path. Keep it handy to remind you each day where you want to go with your career and how you plan to get there.

Write your career goals and the steps under them in pencil. As you progress, you may find your goals will change or you will need to revise them. Don’t be afraid to make these changes as you go along. It’s only natural that as you mature, your goals will mature with you. Make those changes to your goals as you go along so you won’t lose your way on your career path.

How to follow-up after a job interview.

The job market today is tight. Applicants need every advantage to distinguish themselves from other applicants. After a job interview it is important to give your self a boost toward landing that job. Following-up after a job interview is one way to let a potential employer know that you are serious about the position and eager to work for their company.

However, you don’t want to hurt your chances of getting the job by pestering them. Here are some tips on how to follow-up after a job interview:

• Before you leave the interview, ask when they will be making a decision about the job and how and when you will be notified. By knowing their time-table, you can gauge when to inquire about your status. You don’t want to inquire too early and annoy the employer. 

•  After the interview, send a brief thank you letter to the person who conducted the interview. In it, thank him/her for the opportunity to apply, the time spent in the interview, and their consideration of you for the position. Keep the letter short, sincere, and close it with some statement of your interest in the position and your hope to be working for them soon.

• If you haven’t heard from the employer by the time they expected to contact you, it is acceptable to make a phone call to inquire about the position. In doing so, remember that every contact you make with the employer is part of your application process, so it is best not to show your irritation that they have not notified you of the status of the position. 

• Sometimes the decision-making process takes longer than expected, and you will show your maturity and willingness to work as a member of the team by showing your patience with the process. That said, there are also reasons that an applicant may need to know the outcome of the selection process. In this case, tell the employer honestly that you are very interested in the position and go on to tell him/her the reason you need to know the outcome of the selection process. It might be that you’ve been offered another position and you need to let that other potential employer know. It is perfectly acceptable to put this information before a potential employer. 

• Whatever you choose to do, don’t make your inquiry sound like you are delivering an ultimatum. Instead, state the facts, express your desire to work for him/her, and the reason that you must make a decision. Don’t use this if you are merely tired of waiting for an answer. In many cases, the potential employer is working as quickly as he/she can to make a decision. If you deliver an ultimatum, you might fine that they encourage you to go ahead and take that other job.

The important aspect of following up after an interview is to let the employer know that you are serious about the position and that you are grateful for the opportunity to be considered for the job. 

How to encourage participation during meetings and workshops

Many people who attend meetings and workshops just want to listen to what is going on and not participate. They don’t want to be encouraged to participate in the meeting or workshop. They want to be informed or entertained. Often this shyness stems from fear of not measuring up. Here are some tips on what a facilitator can do to encourage participation:

1. Create an environment of error-free participation. As a facilitator of a meeting or workshop, it is best to put the participants at ease in the beginning. One way to do this is to create an environment that encourages people to participate without increasing their worry about saying something wrong. As the facilitator you can do this by framing your questions and discussion points so there are no wrong answers. Instead of speaking in absolutes, ask for one of many in a list. For example, instead of asking the group to “…name the one marketing strategy that will work for this product,” ask the group to “…brainstorm all the marketing strategies that might be good for this product.” By broadening the question, you lower each participant’s fear of being wrong.
2. Brainstorming technique. Another way to encourage participation is to request to hear all ideas no matter how silly they might think they are. By lowering the expectations and making it okay to offer a silly idea, people will have feel freer to speak up.
3. As the facilitator, ensure that you are part of the discussion. If the meeting is supposed to be a lecture, then let the participants off the hook by not calling on them. If you as the facilitator truly want their ideas, make the meeting into a conversation where their ideas are as important and as respected as yours.
4. When someone offers some information that might be embarrassing to them, find something good to say about it. And be authentic about this. Don’t say the traditional, “That’s a good point,” if it’s not. But find a way to expand the idea to make the participant feel that at least he/she provided a spark of an idea that led to more.
5. Make speaking out fun. Ask the group a question and ask for the silliest comment about it. The exercise is for someone to offer a silly or invalid idea and it’s the responsibility of the group to form it into a good idea. In this manner you are providing reinforcement for silly ideas. This will loosen up the group and make them feel it is safe to talk in your workshop or meeting.
6. If it’s possible to rearrange the room, do so. Make the arrangement of the room as informal as possible in order to facilitate communication.

To facilitate discussion, the facilitator needs to express an authentic desire to hear from everyone in the group. If certain people within the group, look particularly uncomfortable even after the above activities, then allow them to have a pass during the workshop or meeting and work them into the conversation the next time.

Small business guide to effective marketing strategies

The goal of marketing is to attract customers who want to buy your service or product. Small businesses frequently fail if they can’t figure out how to do this. However, small businesses can move toward ensuring their success by implementing the following strategies:

1. Create a product or service that is needed by the public and stands out from the others in the same category. For example, there are many wedding photographers in most cities. If you are one of them and you want to book more weddings than the others, you’ll have to distinguish yourself by providing services that are different and better than theirs. Instead of creating wedding albums that look just like theirs, create your own style that sets you apart. At times, this will be a risk, but if you deliver quality work, you will develop your own niche of the market.
2. Develop a name for your business and a motto that will identify you easily. To attract customers and to facilitate their referring you to others, choose a name that it easy to remember and has something to do with the product or service you are offering.
3. Create printed materials, including a business card, brochure, and website, with a uniform look, so when people see it, they don’t even have to read it. They’ll recognize the look of it as yours.
4. Don’t distribute anything about your company or service that is not professional. Every piece of paper and every communication from you reflects your business, so make each communication count.
5. Keep your name in front of your customers. Don’t let long periods go by without letting your customers hear from you. And, set up a good system to keep track and communication with your customers. You’ll want to continually add to your customer list.
6. Don’t advertise. Send information instead. By this I mean that people often throw away advertisements without reading them, but they rarely throw away an information booklet or newsletter. So instead of sending out a flyer that just advertises your product, write an article or two about what you do or informative text about your product’s use and send it out as a newsletter. Always include information on topics other than your product, so your readers will learn to look through the newsletter carefully because you’re providing them some interesting text.
7. Sponsor some type of event to bring in the customers. A talk about your product or an open house for old and new customers is a good idea. With events such as these, you can send out a press release to various media outlets and you just might gain the interest of a writer for the local paper or supplement. If no one wants to publish an article about your event, you can at least have it listed in the calendar of events in the paper and on local radio shows.
8. The most important thing that a small business owner can do to market their business is to stay alert for opportunities. Frequently, you hear about events that would have been a perfect opportunity to market your business. To know about these opportunities in time to take advantage of them be sure to read local papers and magazines cover to cover. You never know what opportunities might arise.    

How do art galleries work?

There are basically two business models for art galleries. One follows the set up of an individually owned, traditional retail store. The other follows the co-op model. This is where the artists ban together and own the gallery and work cooperatively to run it.

In the case of the individually owned gallery, the gallery owner runs the gallery as a retail business. They have sales clerks who wait on customers shopping in the gallery. Individually owned galleries operate as follows:

1. To show artwork in this type of gallery, the artist would approach the owner with a portfolio representative of their artwork or with a few samples of originals of their work. The owner would evaluate the work and decide whether or not to carry the artist’s work
2. The artist would then provide the gallery with work ready to hang or be displayed. In some cases, the owner lets the artist choose what work they want to display in the gallery. However in most cases, the gallery owner would choose the works for the gallery.
3. At times, galleries will buy the artwork outright at a wholesale rate from the artist and sell it at a retail rate in the gallery. Most often, however, the gallery will represent an artist on a consignment or commission basis. In these cases, the artist receives a portion of the price of the artwork when the work sells and the gallery receives the rest.
4. The gallery owner is responsible for the overhead of the gallery, including the salaries of the sales clerks and other costs of running the business.

 In a cooperative gallery, all artists join together and cooperatively set up and run the gallery. They collectively incur all costs equally. A cooperatively owned gallery usually operates as follows:

1. Wall space is shared by the artists in the cooperative.
2. Expenses are shared by the artists in the cooperative. There is usually a monthly fee to cover the operational costs and a commission goes to the gallery kitty when an artist sells a piece of artwork.
3. When an artist joins a cooperative gallery, there is often an initial fee for joining.
4. At times, cooperative galleries take in consignment pieces and have shows for artists who do not belong to the cooperative. They usually charge for these services and provide these opportunities to help defray the costs of operating the gallery.
5. The member artists share the duties of being on duty at the gallery. They act as gallery guide and sales clerk when it is their day to be on duty. Usually, each artist works a certain number of hours per month.

Museums are often considered galleries, but do not operate in the same manner. They are not a retail business like a gallery. They are in the business of showing artwork rather than selling it. They are usually run by a board of directors or some such advisory board with employees often consisting of a curator and several docents who tell visitors of the museum about the art work. Often museums have offer educational programs that are not available in galleries. Galleries usually hang traveling exhibits rather than representing local artists.

There are of course many variations within these two groups, but the structure is the same. When joining a gallery, it is important to study their structure and determine if you will be happy with what they can provide and the amount of work you'll need to put into it.

Are you ready to start a business?

Testing your readiness to start a business.

In these economically challenging times, it is important to know what you’re getting into before you start that business. You can test your readiness to start a business by honestly answering a few key questions regarding finances, marketability of your idea, your understanding of business practices, and your expertise.

Specific questions to help you determine your readiness to start a business are:

Can you afford to start a business?

1. How much money do you have saved toward starting your business?
2. It usually takes businesses at least six months to start receiving regular payments from clients and customers. How much money do you have saved to live on during the first six months of your business?
3. If your business doesn’t make money at first, how long can you wait for profits to roll in?
4. How much will the start up of your business cost? Is this money above and beyond the money you have set aside to live on during the first six months of your business?
5. Can you run the business on your own or do you need employees in order to succeed?
6. If you need employees, do you have enough to pay and to provide for benefits for them while you wait for your customers to pay you?

Is your product or service marketable?

1. Have you tested your idea in the marketplace?
2. What proof do you have that your service or product is needed enough for people to pay money for it?
3. Have you tested the viability of your product or service on a small scale? Did you find customers easily and were those customers pleased with the service or product you are proposing to provide?
4. Have you determined ways you will market your product or service and how much this marketing will cost?

Do you have the business knowledge necessary to start a business?

1. What do you know about running a business? Is it enough?
2. Do you know the best business structure for a business with your product or service?
3. Do you know the ins and outs of setting up a business?
4. Do you know how to keep the books for a business such as yours?
5. Do you know what documentation to keep for business and tax purposes?
6. Do you know how to track the inventory of your business?

Do you have the expertise to run the business you have in mind?

1. Do you have the background and knowledge required to run business such as yours?
2. Do you have the appropriate educational credentials and business licenses to run a business centered on the product or services you are offering?
3. Do you know who your competitors are?
4. Why do you feel you can compete with them?

If you assess these areas thoroughly and honestly and you determine that you have the expertise, the financial backing, and the market for your service or product, it just might be the right time to dip your toe into the business world. If you can give positive answers to most of these questions and are willing to work to overcome your weak areas, you will have done all you can to determine your readiness to start a business.