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How to properly execute an online review management program

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StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article00As a business owner or manager, if you are thinking about assembling an online review management program, you are already on the right path to managing the reputation of your company online. Properly executing an online review management strategy in order to benefit your company takes some critical thought, training, and repetition, but the payoff is ultimately being able to provide potential customers with professional profiles that are truly indicative of the quality service and goods you provide.

Executing on Your Online Review Management Program

If you are looking to make sure the process you’re implementing is successful, you’ll want to make sure that you are constantly checking in with staff and the results to see what’s working and to detect weak areas early on if any exist. We always recommend auditing your current online reviews prior to putting a new plan in place, so that you can set goals appropriately and log progress against the original values.

As you are setting up your review management program, make sure you also appoint a single person (whether this is yourself, a manager, or another staff member) to head this project. By allowing this program to “free float” between staff members, it is more likely to get dropped by the wayside or slip through the cracks when it comes to execution. Similarly, make sure you are scheduling time each week to review progress.

Once your plan is in place, you’ll want to complete the following steps:

Set Expectations

Part of your online review management program is going to consist of setting expectations, or goals. This could mean that you’d like to have 5 new reviews left on your business’s Google My Business profile within two months.

But setting expectations should also mean that you are clearly outlining that you expect staff to treat customers, clients, or patients with a set level of quality care. Similarly, let staff know that you’d like them to ask each customer for a review and to ensure that they specify a designated professional profile, like Google.

These expectations should also be held for yourself; are you asking for reviews and working to ensure that customers have a positive experience? Make sure the expectations surrounding this program are entirely positive and aimed at bettering the company as a whole.

Follow up with Staff

Once your online review management program has been set into action, make sure you’re taking time each week to check in with staff. Ask them what kind of reactions they get from customers after they’re asked to leave a review to see if an alternative method, like using a reputation management software that sends text messages, may work better.

Make sure you’re also asking staff how they feel! Do they feel awkward when asking? Has one staff member developed a great flow of conversation that leads into asking for a review much more seamlessly? These are details that should be shared and accommodated to make sure everyone is successful.

Review the Results

At set intervals, you will want to make sure that you are reviewing the results. By this point, your goals and expectations should be realistic, so seeing one review gained after two weeks of action shouldn’t necessarily be taken as a failure.

Reviewing results monthly and quarterly may be a good way to see trends and manage outcomes by working one-on-one with staff to develop better methods of asking for reviews!

How to improve your business sales in 5 easy steps

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There are so many ways for a business to make their sales these days that it can be all too easy to focus on one area. By neglecting alternative avenues to explore, you could be doing your business some lasting damage by not taking advantage of every sales means at your disposal. Often this is down to becoming set in a daily routine, or finding that your day to day schedule too often takes you away from your key skill area, so it’s important that both you and your sales team are utilizing those areas where you excel. Failure to maximize your sales is the fastest way to lose your customers and your business, here are the easiest methods to concentrate on when working out the best way to increase your sales revenue.

Streamline your internet

With so many customers in the modern age willing and able to buy what they need with a click of a button, it’s never been more important to make sure that you are getting the most out of your online presence. Whether you’re alerting customers to a new product by using your social media page or launching a total rebrand on your website, people need to know what you’re selling and what they can benefit from your product or service. Making certain that your website runs perfectly and without glitches will go a long way to making sure that your conversion rates are as high as you hope, and by interacting with customers on social media, you are able to release information about your brand.

Outsource to save costs

Even if your intention when going into business was to be on the phone all day making sales, you may have found that you’re spending more time organizing office activity and dealing with paperwork than closing a sale. There are a number of ways to tackle to issue of not doing the work that you are best at, from hiring more staff to reducing your working hours, but the current trend of outsourcing is proving popular because it enables you to refocus on your skills. By using companies that specialize in the areas that you aren’t so clued up on, be it your delivery service, your social media management or even your marketing campaigns, using experts benefits you two-fold. You get to go back to what you’re good at, and you also lose the headaches as you let professionals lend a hand.

Don’t give up on potential customers

If someone has expressed an interest in what you’re selling, then chances are that half of the work is done for you. The habit of following up on a long-forgotten potential customer can reap huge rewards no matter what industry you may be in. Email alerts and social media updates are one way of reigniting a potential sale, but a willingness to use those expired listings system is the easiest way to increase your bottom line. The trick to attracting the custom of a dormant or unconvinced customer is to find out why you didn’t make that sale. Once you know the why, you can action plan ways to solve the issue, and you’re not going to be able to do that if you simply accept lost sales as gone forever.

Target your customers

If you want to maximize your sales, then you need to know your customers. You need to know who your product or service is going to appeal to, and then you need to target your advertising so that it has the optimum reach in your targeted demographic. This simple truism is the key to your marketing strategy, and without it, you run the risk of wasting advertising money (and time) on targeting the wrong people. You need to build relationships with customers and use the vast array of tools available to find out what they want. Whether it’s a POS conversation about the longevity of the product, or a social media poll about how your customer base feels about changes to stock, a conversation is the easiest way to retain clients and continue to make sales.

Offer options

Not everyone uses the internet to buy, and not everyone can get to your brick and mortar store. In order to get the most profits, you need to make certain that no matter what your customer needs you are able to provide with minimal fuss. Is your website optimized for sales? Can customers use a variety of options to pay you, be it PayPal, credit card or Bitcoin? If you’re not replying to Facebook comments or answering emails, then you’re losing customers. Too many people use ‘offer options’ as code for ‘offer discounts’, but they can often be counter-productive. Coupons and seasonal specials are far more useful, and, of course, you can never go far wrong with easy upsell items. The best way to offer options is simply to make every stage of the sale as convenient as possible for your customers, whether they’re spending money in-store or on your website.

Once you have learned who your customers are and what they want, you are able to concentrate on finding them exactly what they need. Earning a customer’s trust is beneficial both short, and long-term, and failing to do so is damaging to your profits. As long as you are able to provide an efficient, value for money service, then you can be sure that your customers will remember that, even if they then do need the occasional reminder. Making sales boosts confidence and inspires more sales, so concentrate on your customers, and your business will thrive. Consistent analysis of your sales means and methods will ensure that your company is not left behind by the competition, and a happy customer is a paying customer. Whether you have a sales team to work with or you’re limited to one phone and an online catalog, you should be making full use of your skills and the technological advantages that businesses now have access to.

Safe Business Ideas That Are Easy To Start

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Starting your own business is a huge risk. You’ll need a lot of money upfront and your chances of success are fairly slim in an increasingly competitive business world. If you don’t get it right and your new company goes under, you stand to lose a lot of money and you could easily end up in a difficult financial situation. That doesn’t mean you should shy away from starting your own business, but if you’re putting everything that you’ve got behind it, you’ve got to be careful. Certain industries like hospitality or any retail business that sells high priced luxury items have a high failure rate, particularly in times of economic hardship when people are cutting back on unnecessary spending. However, there are a lot of industries that sell goods that people will always need, regardless of their economic situation. These are some of the safest industries to start a business in.

Consulting

Businesses always need a little help so consultants are never short of work. Finding customers in the first place is one of the major hurdles that businesses face when they start out but with consulting, it’s likely that you’ll already have some contacts that you can use to find work. If you’re thinking of becoming a consultant, it’s important to remember that you’ll need a good amount of experience behind you so if you’re fairly young and you haven’t been in your field that long, you’re not ready to be a consultant yet.

Food Industry

A restaurant is a difficult business to start but most other food businesses are pretty safe. There’s a lot of competition of course, but once you establish yourself you should be able to find a good customer base. Vegan and vegetarian markets are seeing rapid growth at the minute so that’s a great area to break into. However, there are a couple of issues with running a food business; you’ll need a lot of startup capital. If you’re storing and distributing food, you’ll need a large facility fitted out with insulated wall panels to keep everything cool and then you need to buy a fleet of vehicles to deliver it all. There are also a whole lot of rules and regulations involved with manufacturing and distributing food and you can quickly get shut down if you don’t follow them.

Energy

Another thing that everybody needs is energy to power their homes so it’s a pretty good industry to get into. You might struggle to gain traction to start with because there are already a lot of large, well-established companies that hold most of the market. Having said that, smaller energy companies have started to grow in popularity over the last couple of years because the larger companies aren’t always offering the best prices. You should also consider the impact of alternative energies. As environmental concerns grow, more people are using green energy instead. In a few decades, green energy will take over fossil fuels and the companies at the forefront of that revolution stand to make a lot of money. Now is the best time to start your own green energy company before larger businesses corner the market.

Construction

Housing shortages are big news at the moment and governments are under pressure to do something about it. That means that construction companies have a huge amount of work on at the minute. A construction company is prone to downturns from time to time but if you land big contracts, you should be able to sustain yourself through the low periods. Getting your first few jobs in isn’t too difficult if you make use of contacts through family and friends. As long as you do a good job, word of mouth should help you gain some traction. Quality of work is the most important thing when you’re trying to start a construction company because one bad review can completely kill you. When you’re starting your own construction company you can do it with relatively little financial input to start with if you do some smaller jobs on residential homes. Once you start turning a profit, you can move onto larger work and eventually start landing those big contracts.

Senior Care

The average age of the population is creeping up all the time due to advances in medical care and that opens up a lot of opportunities for businesses that offer services that cater to them. If you set up your own senior care facility you won’t be short of residents and you can charge a good amount of money to residents that are staying there. Alternatively, you could think about setting up a home care service for senior citizens that don’t need to be in a care home but still need a little help with their day to day tasks. The benefit of setting up a home visit business rather than a care home is that you don’t need to spend as much money upfront. You don’t need to rent a building and if you start out small, you just need to pay your travel costs. Once you’re earning a little more money you can start taking on a few staff members.

Delivery Company

Online retail is one of the biggest industries in the world right now which means there are a lot of products that need delivering. You won’t be able to land contracts from big websites like Amazon because you can’t meet their requirements but smaller sites are well within your reach. The startup costs are fairly high because even if you only start out with one truck, it’s going to be quite pricey. The best thing about running a delivery company is that you can work across a lot of different industries. If one of your main customers starts to lose business and you aren’t getting as much work from them, you can move into different areas that are doing a lot better. Being able to spread yourself over different areas means that you’ll rarely struggle to find work.

Social Media Marketing

Social media has fast become the main platform that almost all businesses use to market their products, that means there is a wealth of work available in that area. A lot of business owners make the mistake of thinking that it’s easy to get business by just making a couple of posts a day, but they’ll soon realize that it’s not that simple and they’ll call in an expert. That’s where you come in. If you’ve got good marketing experience those skills are transferable and you’ll be well equipped to run a social media marketing company. It’s a good low risk business to start because you can do it from home to begin with. You don’t need any extra staff to fulfil your first few contracts so running costs are next to nothing. You may need to hire office spaces for meetings etc. but you can do it on a one time basis whenever you need to impress a client. You should be aware, however, that there is a lot of competition out there so it can be difficult to find work to start with. One of the best ways to make yourself stand out from the crowd is to focus on platforms that businesses might struggle with. Most people are fine with Facebook and Twitter, but they aren’t so good at Instagram or Snapchat. As these platforms get more popular, the demand for social media marketers that know their way around them is increasing. By positioning yourself as an expert on those platforms you should be able to get more work.

Tutoring

The education system is getting a lot tougher for kids and their workload is increasing all the time. There’s also a lot more focus on qualifications so it’s more important than ever for children to do well. That’s not always easy when the workload is so intense so a lot of parents are opting to get tutors for their kids to help them along a little. If you set up a tutoring business, you’ll find it fairly easy to get work, especially if there is a competitive school nearby. You can market yourself online without having to spend too much money and you can deliver your sessions via video chat or do house calls. Either way, you don’t need to spend money on expensive office space or lots of staff. As long as you graduated high school, you’re qualified enough to be a tutor. You can make a little more money by tutoring college students if you have a degree.

The key to finding a safe business idea is identifying consumer needs that are immune to economic downturns or changing trends. The other thing to consider is the startup costs and running costs. There is a risk of failure in any business so any companies that need a lot of financial input upfront are always going to be dangerous. Finding a good balance between security in an industry and low running costs is the best way to decide on the right business for you.

Boosting Your Profit Margin Made Simple

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Successful businesses are the ones that are always on the lookout for ways to boost their profit margins, whether that be by cutting costs or increasing revenues. If you own a business, it is important that you are constantly taking steps in this direction, and here are some of the simplest ways you can do that:

Audit Your Revenue

If you run a company, no matter whether you’re an accountancy firm or a construction company, you should be carrying out regular audits of your incomings and outgoings, so that you can get the full picture. If you can pinpoint costs that are particularly high and areas where you aren’t making as much money as you would have expected, you can start to make the relevant changes.

Cut Your Running Costs

There are lots of costs of running the average business that can be cut quite easily without it affecting the quality of the business, Things like switching to a more affordable energy supplier, conserving energy, and allowing employees to work from home are all things that can bring down running costs while keeping the business running smoothly, but there are more, so be sure to consider every option.

Sell at the Best Price

Are you selling your goods and services too cheaply? There is something to be said for being competitive and a lot to be said for making money now when you need it, rather than holding out, but if it means that you’re not getting the best scrap metal prices or you’re barely squeezing a profit because your prices are so much lower than the competition, is it really worth it? Probably not. Sell at the best price, not only for your customers but for your business too. Only you can work out what that is, but if you have such a thin margin that you’re already struggling, that isn’t it!

Review Your Purchasing Costs

It’s also sensible to access the cost of third materials you are purchasing from your suppliers. Most suppliers, if you are a good client, will be open to some negotiations on price, which will boost your profit margins, and if they are not, chances are there is another supplier who’s willing to give you a better deal. So, periodically review your purchasing and try to cut your costs that way.

Hold Less Stock

Lowering the amount of stock you hold is a good way of cutting your costs because you won’t have to pay for large amounts of stuff up front, not will you need to pay for quite as much space to store it. Of course, you will need to ensure that you can store enough to meet orders and keep your customers happy, but beyond that, there is rarely a reason to stock up on a lot of product.

Expand Your Operation

Of course, a very effective way of boosting your profit margin is by expanding your operations, whether that be by opening another location, merging with another company in the area or expanding the range of goods you sell.

Do you have any ideas about boosting profit margins in business that haven’t been covered here?

How to Use Mobile Devices to Drive the Success of Your Business

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More and more people are now using mobile devices to help with everyday tasks, such as communication, online shopping, and travel. With such a large proportion of the population having access to mobile devices, it makes sense to utilize such a powerful tool to help with marketing strategies and business growth. Finding the best ways to do this can be difficult, especially in an age where technology seems to be moving faster than ever. You can’t get stuck in the depths of the mobile world without first knowing the basics, and just how you can use them as a key component in making your business a success.

Tailor your website to suit smaller screens

Though laptops and macs are still popular gadgets used by consumers, much of their interaction comes from using mobile phones or tablets. It means that you can no longer rely on having a website aimed solely at how people view it from a computer screen. Whether this is for marketing or sales purposes, in today’s world, any website must be optimized for mobile devices This is due to the soaring numbers of smartphone users that are expected to carry on growing in years to come. When it comes to e-commerce especially, much online shopping now takes place from the comfort of your handheld device. Unfortunately, many users abandon the checkout process due to bugs on the website, which come about as a result of the company software not being tailored for use on mobiles. If you have a slick website designed for smaller screens, you can expect increased engagement from future customers.

Use instant messaging

Emailing has always been an integral tool in helping produce successful marketing campaigns. However, even more recently, instant messaging and texting services have been utilized for targeted, personalized campaigns, which bring about a more human feel to the marketing process. Though social media advertisements use cookies to aim specific content at a certain bracket of viewers, messaging allows companies to employ a more intimate tactic to gauge what exactly interests their consumers. Not only does this sell the product, but it helps you to keep track of which elements of your campaign work, and which don’t. In fact, there are now software services such as SMS Blast, which has specified the broad sphere of text messaging for marketing purposes.

Make a mobile app

Mobile apps are a quicker, more convenient way for consumers to engage with products and services your company offers. With the rise in smartphones comes a higher need to integrate mobile applications into a business model. Not only do they greatly improve how you interact with customers, but they can be integrated with social media giants, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to promote new marketing campaigns. Many businesses have started with an app and grown into something bigger due to the reach they can get from using such a service. Whether you want to sell a material product on an online shopping app, or services through an app subscription, more doors are opening up every day which will help you in the future of your business.