When you define customer service, it should involve these basic principles.

•Activity Based – Customer Service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction and the feeling that a product or service has met or exceeded their expectations

•Action Based – Customer service is defined as any action you take to ensure that a customer is pleased with the transaction or service, and with the outcome on a long term basis.

•Friendliness: The most basic of all customers needs.

•Understanding: Customers need to feel that you understand and appreciate their requirements.

•Control: Customers need to feel they have an impact on the way things turn out.

•Options: Customers need to feel they have options available.

•Information: Customers need to be educated and informed about products and services.

Follow these basic principles and keep your customers coming back.

Ethics and Integrity 

We should always attempt to make sound ethical decisions in our lives ...it is possible however for two or more people to make different decisions from the same situation. In business it is important that people understand those around them have different ethical approaches.....whatever the outcome ensure integrity rules.

People typically use five different ethical standards to interpret the world around them. Understanding the different approach styles is important to gain a common understanding to the different styles in business. 

Here are the basic personal ethical approach styles .....which one are you ?

Utilitarian Approach; Focuses on outcomes to do more good than harm in any situation. 
Rights Approach; Focuses on everyone respecting others as a moral obligation. 
Fairness Approach; Expects people to be treated equally and with fairness. 
Common Good Approach; Looks at the conditions that affect everyone in a situation.
Virtue approach; Based on honesty, compassion, patience and courage to guide behavior.

Whatever ethical approach defines you..recognize the social and business responsibility.

Identify ethical and unethical behavior....... but most of all learn how to make ethical decisions and lead your decisions with total integrity.

"There is such no such thing as a minor lapse of integrity" Tom Peters

Business Ethics
 
A company’s ethics will determine its reputation. Good business ethics are essential for the long-term success of an organization. Implementing an ethical program will foster a successful company culture and increase profitability. Developing a business ethics program takes time and effort, but doing so will do more than improve business, it will change lives.
 
A company's ethics will have an influence on all levels of business. It will influence all who interact with the company including customers, employees, suppliers, competitors, etc. All of these groups will have an effect on the way a company's ethics are developed.
 
It is a two way street, the influence goes both ways, which makes understanding ethics a very important part of doing business today. Ethics is very important, as news can now spread faster and farther than ever before.

…... if you want to test a man’s character give him power. Abraham Lincoln

"Divorced from ethics, leadership is reduced to management and politics to mere technique"
James MacGregor Burns

Vision and Awareness

Business Vision and Business Awareness are not the same thing.
 
The ability to improve your all-round general and current business awareness is more often than not a significant influence on those business owners who always seem to be able to steer clear of trouble.

Related to the ability to listen and to read actively, those business owners with heightened business awareness have the invaluable ability to detect, see and act upon commercial risks and opportunities much earlier than anyone else. Hence they always seem to find those little edges or advantages that keep them ahead of the field, or more importantly their head above water.

Reading frequently and widely, talking to and listening to your customers, staff and suppliers regularly and finding time to network with other small business owners and advisers will help you to improve your all round business awareness and gain your black belt in entrepreneurship. 

"Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success"

John D. Rockefeller

Motivation = Great Results

Without motivated employees, any manager or leader will find it a lot harder to get the true results and the real potential they expect from their team. 

Any person or team can produce a reasonable standard of work without having great motivation, but to exceed the expectations and achieve great results in a business it is essential to have everyone extremely well motivated. 

Without the correct motivation it will always be difficult to produce top quality results.....because an absence of enthusiasm will result in flawed results.

"Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it" Dwight D. Eisenhower:

"People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well, neither does bathing - that's why we recommend it daily" Zig Ziglar

Create a Social Media Workplace Policy

Remember with social media, once it is out there, it is out there.... and it is out there for good......create your workplace social media policy.

 When building a social media policy for your company, there are several aspects and guidelines to consider.

 In order to prevent situations that can put a business at risk, a business should create a policy that outlines what is and is not acceptable us of social media in the workplace.

Some basic rules should be established first to give the policy some structure. Determine what the policy wants to accomplish and what can be done to make that happen. Once the basics have been established, you can move toward the specific points of the plan and form a policy that will benefit everyone involved.

Create a living document or policy that is always changing or revised. Many company policies are written and then shared with everyone, only to be filed away and left the same as the day it was written. But social media is one area where things are constantly changing, so your social media policy needs to change with it.

As new laws come into effect or new regulations are made, the rules of social media and information sharing should not remain stagnant. Keep this policy on the top of your to-do list, even if it has already been reviewed, because it will need to be checked often to ensure continuing accuracy.

"The beauty of social media is that it will point out your company’s flaws; but the key question is how quickly you address these flaws" Erik Qualman

Nothing To Say?

 Think again; engaging your followers takes many forms.

SOURCE NOTE:DAVID MULLEN, an account supervisor at Mullen, where he focuses on developing and executing integrated marketing communications for clients
 
I was recently asked for ideas on how brands can participate in social media without new product announcements or company news to tout. It’s a good question that keeps some brands away from social media. But it shouldn’t. Social media is more than a way to distribute news releases. Here are three ideas to jump-start your tweets.

Loosely related content. Tweet about the big picture/end benefit of your brand or product.
Is it: Relief? Joy? Knowledge? Confidence? Health? Bringing people together? Once you’ve identified your end benefit, share anything that delivers that to your audience, even if it’s momentarily. 
For example, Sun Trust Bank provides tools and tips to make solid, confident financial decisions. 
The company is starting Facebook and Twitter discussions around everyday ways to Live Solid. 
If I worked with a baby products brand, I’d spend a little time every day scouring YouTube and other places to find short baby videos and stories that remind parents why they love being parents.

Industry news. Don’t just share your news. Share news that is related to your industry and that your customers might find interesting. It’s away to keep them informed without making it all about your company. For example, if you’re in a regulated industry, share updates on proposed, pending and new regulations. If something is proposed that would have a negative impact on the ability of you and your competitors to run profitable businesses, share your concerns with your social media connections. If appropriate, try to inspire and mobilize them to share their thoughts with regulators.

Your personal side. People want to do business with people. Actually, they want to do business with people they like. Empower your social media community managers to be human and share tid bits about their daily lives. Ask questions and implement the answers from people who take the time to respond.This helps humanize your brand and create personal connections with current and potential customers.

"Social media can be an enabler and an accelerator of existing core capabilities, values, attributes and plans. It can even be a catalyst for change" Denise Zimmerman

Expectancy Theory of Motivation.

Victor Vroom is a much-respected professor and researcher in the business world, and works at the Yale Business School as well as serving as a consultant for some of the world’s most successful companies. 

This elevated status is due in no small part to his expectancy theory of motivation, which addresses the reasons why people follow the path that they do within corporations. 

His proposition was that behavior results from choices made by the individual where the choice exists to do something else. The underlying truth in this theory is that people will do what works out best for them, the important element is the outcome.
 
Vroom worked on this theory with fellow business scientists Edward Lawler and Lyman Porter. 

The theory dates back to 1964 and is still widely used by professors. 

While the process is characterized as Effort, Performance, Outcome, and more specifically as E>P (increased Effort leads to a greater Performance) and...P>O (increased Performance brings a better Outcome) he takes notice of the fact that greater effort will not happen all by itself. 

What makes a satisfactory outcome for one individual may not necessarily work for another. 

People in the workplace are individuals and behave in different ways but equally, all of these people, and others, play a major part in making up a workplace. 

"The only way to get people to like working hard is to motivate them. Today, people must understand why they're working hard. Every individual in an organization is motivated by something different"  Rick Pitino 

Entering the Dragons Den.....or Attracting Business Angel Investors...


Here are some tips on what business owners should do to impress potential investors in their new idea....the first heading "valuing your idea" is a common theme in the TV show The Dragons Den  

Valuing your idea. Don’t assume a business angel will be as interested in your idea as you are. Small business owners are notorious for catching ‘cabin fever’ and valuing their business idea at ridiculous multiples of its real value on the outside world.

Identify your skills. Successful entrepreneurs know their strengths... but they also recognize their weaknesses. When pitching for investment be clear on what skills you bring and what the strengths of your team are...be clear also on the outside expertise you require to make your plans succeed.

Make a good impression. Not all investors will be as taken with the “new media” look so many would-be entrepreneurs go for....a clean, simple, professional look is always worth adopting when meeting business angels....so dress for success.

Presentation. Make sure you commit any background information, plans and forecasts to paper. Have a copywriter go through your plans if necessary and don’t be frugal when spending money on a presentation.

Exciting the angels. The vast majority of angel investors are not looking for a ‘safe investment’, they are looking for a business idea which will be exciting to get involved in as well as success.

Putting it on Paper

Writing a business or executive report? Here's a few tips.

Keep the purpose of the report in mind when writing it...ask the person who requested it what they are expecting to see in the report and how they plan to use the document.....define the objective of the report. 

The following tips will guide you in discerning what data to include:-  

• Stick to the objectives of the report, unless there is a specific request for personal opinions.
• Reports are meant to be fact-based and most importantly impartial.
• Make sure that you double-check your content....read it to see if you have your own personal biases coming through on paper. 
• If your opinions are requested stick to professional opinions substantiated by facts. 
• Know who you are writing to.... determine how best to address this audience.
• Define the tone, the attitude, and the emphasis and gear it towards your readers.

"What a lot we lost when we stopped writing letters. You can’t reread a phone call" William Zinsser