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  • Dealing With Customer Complaints – B.L.A.S.T

    Dealing With Customer Complaints – B.L.A.S.T

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    In a restaurant, not so far away, in the not so distant future, a telephone rings, a customer complains… and the battle begins!

    Handling customer complaints doesn’t have to always be a battle, with the right tools and responses you can use complaints to your advantage; to help you build your business. B.L.A.S.T is a great tool that is used by companies such as Yum! (Parent company of KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, A&W, and Long John Silvers). Training their employees in the basics of handling customer complaints. The acronym stands for:

    Believe

    Listen

    Apologize

    Satisfy

    Thank

    How does your company deal with customer complaints? The easiest way to find out is to pick up the phone and play the role of the complaining customer. What happened? If you were an irritated customer, would you return? Using the B.L.A.S.T guidelines, allows you to create a standardized method for dealing with your complainers and turning them into loyal customers.

    Believe

    This is the cornerstone of handling a customer complaint. Yes, the customer may be lying and be incorrect about their situation. It is important to understand that your customer believes that your establishment has wronged them.

    Listen

    Stop and listen to your customer’s complaint. I’m not certain whether it’s natural instinct or just plain stubbornness. As soon as a customer starts to complain, we start to think of how we will respond to the accusation before we are done listening, and too often the case, already have the response ready to fight back. Take a second, relax, and listen. On occasion a complaining customer will be rude, angry, and use vulgar language, stay the course and remain calm and level headed.

    When the customer is done venting; in a calm, non-judgmental tone, repeat their problem. An example I used in my KFC for a mispacked order:

    “What I hear you saying is that, you came in ordered and paid for 10 Pieces of chicken and when you got home, you only received 8, is that correct?”

    By repeating the problem at hand, you’ve demonstrated your ability to the customer that you heard and understood their problem.

    Listen and clarify. Never defend or justify. The customer doesn’t care if you were shorthanded or if you’re having a bad day, they only care that they get taken care of. No excuses, just solutions.

    Apologize

    Always apologize even if you did nothing wrong. From your customers’ perspective, they have a legitimate complaint, and they expect an apology. It could be as simple as “I’m sorry we’ve inconvenienced you.” or “I’m sorry I know how frustrating it is to buy dinner for my family, only not to have everything there when I get home” A sincere apology will usually diffuse a lot of frustration that the customer has. There is an exception to this rule though, if a customer calls with a critical complaint, such as food poisoning, don’t apologize, it may be construed as an acceptance of guilt, instead refer to your company’s procedures for such events.

    Satisfy

    Make it right. Ask the customer “What can I do to make this right for you”? Be the judge of what is fair of course, but allow them the opportunity to feel empowered over the situation. Many times they may ask for the problem be taken care of on their next visit or maybe that you talk to the person who made the mistake and correct them. We used a great system of sending out a personalized postcard apologizing for the mistake, it was a couple of handwritten sentences (yes, many times with spelling mistakes from my team members), but it was personal and always well received. We always gave them the unexpected as well, maybe a free dessert or an extra side dish just to show that we cared about them.

    Thank

    At the beginning, at the end, in the middle; it doesn’t matter, thank the customer for calling and complaining.

    Why? With the simple act of complaining, your customer is telling you “I care about your business and your success”. They are giving you the opportunity to fix the problem and invite them back so they can give you more of their money. Puts a different spin on it doesn’t it? Thank them for giving you that second chance, for letting you know that something in your restaurant didn’t work like it normally does, for giving you the chance to make it right, and for the opportunity not to damage your reputation!

    Reputation? I had to throw that one in. You work hard, day in day out, trying the best to make your business the best, and yet one unhappy customer can take it away from you. A happy customer will tell two or three friends about a good experience, but an unhappy customer will tell at least ten friends about their experience and it always multiplies through word of mouth. Case in point, when I moved cross country to my new hometown, I was at a Chamber of Commerce event and being the new person in the group, I introduced myself and what we did. No sooner than five minutes passed did I get a list of 10 restaurants in my area that in their opinion were in “need of my services”. Only one person gave me a good restaurant. I didn’t ask, I was told. To this day I still haven’t been to those restaurants as a customer, why do I want to give them my hard earned money, when they made my new friends unhappy? It may not be a rational thought, but it is human nature.

    Will some people take advantage of your kindness? Of course, a rule of thumb I used in my restaurant was:

    First time shame on me,

    Second time shame on me, but I’m watching you,

    Third time… Shame on you and I will make the decision on how I will deal with you as a customer.

    Keep track of who calls to complain, names, phone numbers for follow up, addresses for your postcards. Using a binder and tracking your complaints, you will be able to detect and deter those that would take advantage of your new complaint procedures.

    Adding B.L.A.S.T to your expanding toolbox of customer service tools will help you in dealing with customer complaints and turn them around so they can tell their friends what great service you have!

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    Source by Albert Barneto

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  • Make Dry Ice Blasting Your Small Business Opportunity

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    What is dry ice blasting? Dry ice blasting is a form of abrasive blasting industrial cleaning that uses a solid form of carbon dioxide known as dry ice. Pellets or ice is shot through pressurized air stream of either one hose or two hose machines.

    Which system is best? Most systems today are the single hose technology. Technology using the single hose was created by the Cold Jet company in 1986. One advantage of the single hose system is that it avoids the possible dangers of a pressurized hopper by the use of a quick cycle airlock. Another advantage of the single hose system is that it has more power and you can use a longer hose.

    Making massive money! There are many ways to make money cleaning with dry ice. Many people prefer dry ice blasting for paint removal, because it is less harsh than sand blasting. Another great business opportunity is to clean food processing equipment. Because it can decontaminate surfaces that could contain salmonella and e. Coli. Dry ice can clean without residue so the environmental protection agency prefers it to many kinds of solvent based cleaners. The aerospace industry also uses dry ice blasting to sensitive equipment like clean semiconductors. Manufacturers are also a great business opportunity because cleaning with cold can be used for maintaining their equipment and can drastically reduce their down time.

    The freeze jet is just one of several different types of dry ice blasting equipment. For around $3,000 you can usually purchase a dry ice blasting machine.

    What about safety? How safe is this type of industrial cleaning? Cleaning with cold (normal pressure is -78 c(-108 f) can be toxic if the concentration is over 1%. Asphyxia can be caused because of oxygen removal so dry ice must be used in a well ventilated area.

    Safety Equipment: Typical safety equipment will include a positive pressure blast hood or helmet. Air hoses are attached to a grade D pressurized air supply, which is mandated by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Also using ear plugs for hearing protection is part of the usual safety equipment. Body protection usually includes gloves and overalls as well as a leather coat and chaps.

    What fees can I charge? How much money can I make in this industrial cleaning business? Total typical fees can range in the $300.00 per hour range, so it can be one of the more lucrative types of industrial cleaning.

    The Benefits of Dry Ice Blasting: This type of industrial Cleaning meets EPA, USDA, and FDA guidelines. Has less clean up of the waste material. Extends the life of the equipment. Cleans more thoroughly. Reduces or eliminates equipment damage. Provides a safer cleaning environment. Is Non-polluting and environmental friendly. Can destroy and eliminate bacterial and fungal growth.

    How can I get started? You can get started with your small business by beginning with a business plan. A business plan is a formal statement of business goals, reasons they are attainable, and plans for reaching them. It may also contain background information about the organization or team attempting to reach those goals. It should also contain a good marketing plan. Then apply for small business government grants or small business loans, so you can purchase equipment.

    Having your own business can help you to end money worries. Having a business plan is essential to having a successful small business. Knowing how to market your small business for little or no money is an important key to your business success as well. Imagine how much more profit you can have when you don’t have to budget much on advertising.

    Get colossal cash from government contracts. Companies interested in selling their products and services to the federal government (the United States General Services Administration) can prepare by fulfilling applicable requirements, and registering in the appropriate systems. Companies may also participate by seeking sub-contracting opportunities with current contract holders. The General Services Administration provides and contracts for Billions of dollars’ worth of products and services for federal agencies.

    In summary dry ice blasting can be an extremely profitable business and helps with the environment as well.

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    Source by Brian Mahoney

    Views: 0

  • What Marketing Strategy Is the Best for You?

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    If you pick the right marketing strategy, you’ll be like that little guy in the middle of my diagram above. Yes! Winning! Fist pumps!

    The problem with marketing today is that there are way too many options and it’s much too confusing. It makes me dizzy just thinking about this stuff and I’ve been immersed in it for 35 years.

    Well, I lay down on my bed last week with a notepad and started to map out my “Unified Theory of Marketing Strategies” with an emphasis on online marketing.

    And I actually came up with something that’s not totally confusing, and might even be helpful to a few people.

    Here goes…

    It’s yet another four-quadrant grid where the vertical axis is a scale from easy to hard and the horizontal axis is a scale from passive to proactive.

    I emerged with these four snappy quadrants:

    Hard and Passive = Multimedia

    Easy and Passive = Publishing

    Hard and Proactive = Presentations

    Easy and Proactive = Email

    Now, all of these strategies can be effective. But, yes some are easier than others. And the passive ones tend to take a lot longer than the proactive ones.

    Hard and Passive = Multimedia (Videos)

    Everyone is crazy about video these days. It’s a challenging, yet passive strategy. You put a lot work into creating a video and then post it on YouTube hoping people see it.

    It’s difficult to do well. It’s time-consuming and it can be expensive. And most videos are pure crap. If you want to do it well, it takes a chunk of change and a lot of time.

    Throwing up a lot of little videos on your website can be a nice touch, but they usually don’t get people to call you in droves.

    So, as you can see, I’m not crazy about a video strategy for self-employed professionals. I’m not saying they can’t work, but it’s a whole lot of work to do right.

    Best example: A non-duality teacher named Rupert Spira (non-duality.rupertspira.com/home). He does live workshops and films everything. Then his staff chops them up into questions and answer segments and posts them on YouTube. They’re five to fifteen minutes long. And what you see is what you get. No pitch, no hype. It’s his teaching unadulterated.

    He has hundreds of videos on YouTube with hundreds of thousands of views. Does it work? Well, his workshops are always full and all he does is a low-key email announcement to his list every month or two.

    I like this approach a lot. Got a lot of good content? Look good on video (unlike yours truly)? Then you may want to emulate Rupert.

    Easy and Passive = Publishing

    I happen to like this strategy a lot as it, ahem, built my “Empire.” It’s relatively easy: Write a how-to article on your subject matter once a week, send it out to those on your e-list and publish on your blog. Fame ensues.

    But online publishing can be a lot more than that. You can take those same articles and publish them on Medium, LinkedIn, and Ezine Articles. And then you can announce them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Sometimes you can get big exposure when writing an article for a major online publication. Web traffic multiplies.

    The cost is zero; an article takes from two to five hours to write (unless it takes you several days). And your ideas are online for eternity to be discovered by those looking for practical ideas. Some will opt-in to your e-list and perpetuate this virtuous marketing circle.

    The downside, of course, is that, according to my extensive research, (a 10 second Google search), there are 2 million articles published online every day. The mind reels. So your stuff will be out there, but somewhat lost in a very big haystack.

    I’m still a big advocate of online publishing, but the mountain is getting steeper and steeper. Just writing an article or two here and there won’t help you much.

    Best Example: Well, other than mine, of course, check out Henneke of Enchanted Marketing. She has a wonderful, readable, fun blog on business writing and blogging. And she walks her talk. It’s all about well-written, relevant content. If you don’t have that as a foundation, it’s a total waste of time.

    Hard and Proactive = Presentations

    I built my business on presentations in front of live audiences at professional associations and chambers of commerce. It got me attention, added people to my mailing list and generated warm leads for marketing coaching.

    And I still do presentations today in the form of webinars. I just filled my recent group program with the help of a couple webinars (also called video conferences). They most certainly do work.

    But I put presentations in the hard category, not because they are all that hard to give, but can take a long time to prepare. The last one I did took me two full days. There were about 200 slides (whew).

    Yes, that’s not the only way to do a webinar. You can just go live on Zoom Video, and that can work as well. You ultimately have to find your style and test what works.

    Presentations are proactive in that at the end you can ask for the business. And, of course, you can turn the recording of the webinar into a video in a snap and send it out to those on your list. Watch it here.

    So presentations will always play a big part in my marketing toolkit.

    One other thing though – If you don’t have a LOT of people on your email list, good luck in getting much of an attendance. Yes, you can do guest presentations hosted by others, but you don’t have the same control and ability to pitch your professional services.

    Best example: John Nemo of LinkedIn Riches (linkedinriches.com). His webinar is a blast. There are a lot of them out there in the online marketing world. And many, Like John, have set them up as evergreen webinars that are scheduled to play automatically several times a day. These are kind of a hybrid between publishing and presentations.

    Easy and Proactive = Email

    In my opinion, email is the most powerful overall marketing tool. And it gets the least respect. But I can’t imagine even being in business without email marketing.

    Social media gets all the PR and all the attention, but email gets the business. A recent study showed that email generated 40 times the business results of Facebook and Twitter combined.

    Email is the online tool that’s been around the longest, and I think it’s taken for granted. Promotional emails have expanded exponentially over the years, but most of it isn’t very good.

    We wade through our email boxes like we sort our mail over the trashcan. Delete, delete, delete. Why? Because it’s either not relevant or it’s boring. Usually both.

    I feel that email has the greatest potential of all the online marketing strategies because it’s both relatively easy and the most proactive marketing medium of all. Your message goes right into the mailbox of your potential client. Nothing else can do that.

    Marketing email holds great opportunities for improvement in several areas:

    1. How to incorporate humor as the most powerful attention-getting device in existence (that almost nobody is using).

    2. How to telegraph your value proposition straight to the minds and hearts of your prospect.

    3. How to make your emails clear, focused, and easy-to-read.

    4. How to craft a compelling call-to-action that is hard to resist.

    5. How to get emails to thousands of your prospects without looking like spam.

    If you’re not working on ALL of these, your emails will not get the attention and response you want.

    Best Example: Therapy Practice Accelerator. Visit this site and get on the list just to see the brilliance of the email marketing. It’s all about demonstrating results.

    What marketing strategies will you choose?

    Take the four marketing quadrants into consideration. The easier a marketing activity, the more likely you’ll actually do it. And the more proactive a marketing activity, the faster the response you’ll get.

    Cheers, Robert

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    Source by Robert Middleton

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  • Multi Level Marketing Advertising Ideas for Your Network Marketing Home Business

    Multi Level Marketing Advertising Ideas for Your Network Marketing Home Business

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    Advertising in Multi-Level Marketing is vital to any Network Marketing Business. Starting your Multi-Level Marketing business does not have to cost your hundreds or even thousands of dollars. I want you to read that last sentence again, because it is very important.

    When starting a business, be it a home based business or any other Multi-Level Marketing home business, you need to design a budget. You do not have to go broke starting your Multi-Level Marketing business.

    There are many great low cost and even FREE tools including advertising that will help jump start your Multi-Level Marketing business. Here are several FREE advertising ideas to help you start advertising your Multi-Level Marketing business.

    8 Multi-Level Marketing Advertising Strategies

    1. Writing Press Releases: Writing a press release is not difficult, it is not any different that writing any other type of document. Write a press release about your Multi-Level Marketing business, your product, your company opportunity, when you have accomplished a new level of achievement in your company’s compensation plan. There are so many reasons to write a press release, it creates great exposure for your Multi-Level Marketing business. Many websites offer tips on how to write a press release and where you can submit your press release. My favorite place is prweb they offer tips and ideas, and FREE posting of your press release.

    2. Submit Your Articles: There are many great websites and e-zines to submit your articles to. Make sure that your articles have great value to the readers and that it is informative. Writing articles is a great technique to brand you as an expert in your Multi-Level Marketing business. Having your articles listed on different websites and e-zines will allow other publishers to “borrow” your article for their website, e-zine or newsletter. You want to be sure to have your “bio” at the end of each article you write also make sure that you have a link to your Multi-Level Marketing business in your bio. Your “bio” stays attached to your article no matter where or who “borrows” your article. Keep in mind having one of your articles in one e-zine it could reach potential thousands of prospects.

    3. Write Blogs: Another great tool for your articles. Search Engines love blogs and the Search Engines spider’s blogs more often. Remember you can have several different blogs and I believe it is important to have several different blogs for your interests. For example, I have a few blogs at this time, one for recipes and cooking, one about my Multi-Level Marketing business and the third about Direct Sales and Multi-Level Marketing tips and tools. I also plan to set up a couple of other blogs in other areas of interest to me. On your blogs you should have links to your various websites, the e-zines where your articles are located. One reason for putting your articles not only on your blogs but other websites and e-zines is that more links coming into your personal website the better the rankings in the Search Engines and of course more potential customers and prospects to your website.

    4. FREE Advertising Websites: There are several of these websites on the internet. Google “FREE advertising websites” and you will get a multitude of websites to try. Remember consistency is the key here. A great way to see where you are getting your leads, from which advertising site is to use a different email address for each ad you place or you can put a different code in the ad; this helps to see what advertising website is generating the leads.

    5. Organize a FREE Seminar/Workshop: Sharing information that can be informative to others as well as bringing value to them is one way of creating relationships. Relationships are a significant part of growing your business and building trust with people. At the conclusion of your seminar or workshop you can share information about your Multi-Level Marketing business, service, and product or business opportunity. Depending on your product giving a FREE sample to each person attending along with your business cars is an excellent idea.

    6. Participate in Discussion Groups and Forums: There are many excellent discussion groups and forums covering a wide range of interests on the internet. Discussion groups and forums are a place to share your ideas, tips to give advice to others, brand you as an expert. Do not blast ads about your company, products, or business opportunity. That is not to say that you can never share your products or Multi-Level Marketing business opportunity, however, you are trying to build trust with people. Give advice or as the saying goes “give your two cents” about a topic. Start a topic that interests you and share your tips and ideas. Give people value and a reason to trust you.

    7. Email Signature: This is a very effective technique in creating publicity for your website. Do not make your signature too long or containing so much information. Keep your signature short, sweet and to the point. Use this signature not only on all your emails that you send out but any written letters. For example:

    Your Name

    Your Company’s name here

    http:// www. yourwebsite.com

    This tells people who you are, your company name and your website for them to go visit. Use this on everything that you send out of your home.

    8. Social Networking: Social Networking is all the rage these days and why not, this is an excellent method for branding yourself on the internet as an expert in your field of interest. Social Networking can promote your Multi-Level Marketing home business. There are numerous Social Networking opportunities available online. Here are a couple of my favorite Social Networking sites. You can see how I have accomplished my sites and you can promote your Multi-Level Marketing home business online. Remember how I have my sites set up and how I have them laid out will be different than yours. There is Facebook (the #1 place), Squidoo, MySpace, YouTube just to name a few.

    Multi-Level Marketing advertising strategies conclusion

    Multi-Level Marketing advertising is vital to your Network Marketing business. Without advertising either online or offline it would be very difficult to build your business into a success.

    Before you leap in head first you need to set a budget, not just for advertising but for all the costs involved in starting a Multi-Level Marketing home business. Not setting a budget could be the cause of your business not succeeding. It is far too easy to spend more money than you have; than your business can suffer and give you a bad outlook about Multi-Level Marketing. So work on a budget and stick with it.

    The advertising ideas listed here are just a few different ideas; pick a couple of these great ideas and master them and then integrate a couple of new ones as your Multi-Level Marketing business starts to grow.

    Starting with just a couple of the ideas rather than all of them will alleviate any stress of trying eight different advertising ideas. It can be very difficult to keep up and doing an excellent job.

    You also want to do a good job on each advertising idea to show off your business, products, Multi-Level Marketing business opportunity as well as brand you as an expert in your field.

    What do you think? Did I leave any Multi-Level Marketing advertising strategies out?

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    Source by Barb Sibbing

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