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How to Build Long-Lasting Customer Relationships? (A Step-by-Step Guide)

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StrategyDriven Customer Relationship Management Article |Customer Relationships|How to Build Long-Lasting Customer Relationships? (A Step-by-Step Guide)With the advancement of technology, consumer behavior has changed. Today, marketing and winning over customers is not the difficult part. The biggest challenge faced by businesses today is to retain their customers.

With every passing day, numerous competitors are popping up in each industry. Hence, it is very easy for customers to switch to new brands that appeal to them more. In fact, according to InMoment, 50% of customers leave a brand for competitors who stay more relevant and satisfy their specific needs.

With these changes, maintaining customer relationships is what makes a brand stand out from its competitors. Laying a strong foundation of a healthy customer relationship leads to reduced churn and increased profitability for businesses.

In this step-by-step guide, you’ll get a quick overview of how you too can build strong, long-lasting relationships with your customers.

1. Add Value Through Content

The principle of reciprocity is super-important when we talk about building customer relationships. No relationship works one way. If you don’t add any value to your customers, they are not going to associate with your brand.

The best way to add value is by creating high-quality, useful content for your leads and customers. This is the 101 for starting your customer relationships the right way.

You can use the tried and tested content marketing strategies such as blog posts, ebooks, guides, and white papers. Or, you can even take it a step further by using content such as webinars, checklists, templates, videos, social media content, etc.

2. Increase Engagement with Prospects

Engaging your prospects in meaningful interactions is the best way to go about strengthening your relationships with them. Hence, you must prioritize user engagement.

  • Integrate customer service options such as live chat, chatbot with your website and social media platforms. This will lead to many fruitful interactions with your prospects and customers.
  • Ensure that you actively engage with your prospects on social media platforms. You can do this by interacting in the comments section. Or, you may even individually reach out to people who have previously engaged with your posts.
  • Build an email list and send out weekly newsletters through emails. Add clear CTAs in your emails and encourage replies to begin conversations.

3. Track Customer Data

For building and maintaining customer relationships, you need to store and track all your customer data in one place. It is important to track customer data such as contact info, previous interactions, purchase history, etc. Without this, you won’t be able to manage customer relationships in an optimized manner.

The SuperOffice Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool can help you organize all the data related to your customers. SuperOffice CRM will help you:

  • Manage lead and customer information at a commonplace so that your sales team can pull up entire customer history at one go with ease.
  • Track all your customer touchpoints and have a birds-eye view of how many customers are coming through your sales pipeline.
  • Provide omnichannel personalized experience to your customers leading to increased customer satisfaction.
  • Manage your entire pipeline and close more deals.
  • Track all your success metrics using visual dashboards and in-depth reports to help you find any gaps in your pipeline and fix them.

4. Use Loyalty Programs

Customer retention can be much more profitable than customer acquisition for most businesses. In fact, returning customers tend to spend 67% more than new customers.

Using loyalty programs is a brilliant way to make your one-time customers return to you again and again. If this doesn’t strengthen the relationship with your customers, nothing else will!

The way to build a successful loyalty program is to provide attractive incentives that your customers won’t be able to resist. You can offer incentives such as special discounts, redeemable reward points, free feature upgrades, and similar more offers.

5. Gather Feedback and Iterate Based on that

The final and most important step to building strong customer relationships is to gather feedback from customers and keep updating your products or services based on that. If you don’t take this step seriously, you might start seeing increased customer churn rates.

  • Collect customer feedback from every touchpoint. You can use means such as chatbots, live chats, emails, surveys, or in-app messages to gather feedback.
  • You should also look for any customer complaints or feedback on social media platforms. People tend to use social media for providing negative feedback.
  • Track and analyze all the gathered feedback. Come up with improvements or upgrades in your products and services.
  • You can also creep on your competitors and look for any common customer complaints. This will help you to identify any gaps in your competitors’ products. You can update your products to fill in these gaps.

To Conclude

Studies show that a 5% increase in customer retention can lead to 25% to 95% increased profits! And, laying foundations for long-lasting customer relationships is the key to maximizing your customer retention.

Hence, start implementing these steps today and watch your business grow to new heights in 2021.

How to Run a Successful Janitorial Business

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Efficiently and successfully running a janitorial business takes time, strategy, and consistency. Due to the ways that janitorial businesses can differ from other companies, there are very specific steps that are most advisable for success.

As a business that focuses on meeting the maintenance, repair, and cleaning needs of others, it’s important for everyone to be on the same page. In order for this to happen, workers, managers, and business owners must effectively do their jobs.

This is where adhering to the following steps comes in handy.

1. Use Time Tracking Software

Time tracking software is a valuable tool for any company; however, janitorial businesses can especially benefit from using this tool.

Janitorial Time tracking software allows you to not only know when your employees are working, but also where they’re working and which tasks are underway. If you employ remote workers or freelancers, then time tracking software can especially come in handy.

Additional benefits of using time tracking software to run a successful janitorial business include the following: knowing where company funds are going, tracking task productivity, and saving time from manual data entry into timesheets.

2. Maintain Contact with Your Clients

Clients are the lifeblood of any business, including janitorial ones. Staying in contact with your clients ultimately helps ensure that your business is meeting their needs.

If the janitorial business is checking all necessary boxes, then having that confirmation is advantageous; if there are areas in need of improvement, then catching this sooner rather than later (and acting accordingly) is always the best protocol.

When communicating with your clients, be open to feedback, suggestions, and even complaints. In the long run, this can only benefit your janitorial business and enable its success.

3. Market Strategically

Strategic marketing is another imperative measure for successfully running a janitorial business. In order for your business to thrive, the free market needs to know about it. Contrary to certain beliefs, the importance of a marketing plan doesn’t disappear when clients arrive.

Even as your janitorial business thrives and grows, marketing will remain a necessity. Keeping your business before the eyes of consumers allows for room to increase your profits; it also puts you and your janitorial staff in the position to remain afloat (and profitable) even if certain clients go elsewhere for whatever reasons.

Running a successful janitorial business is not an overnight process; although, with the best time tracking software, communication with your clients, and strategic marketing, you can successfully run a janitorial business one step at a time.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Raya KhashabRaya Khashab is the CEO and co-founder of ezClocker, a time tracking and scheduling software for small businesses. She is passionate about customers and building products that change the way people run their business. S

Essential Leadership Skills All Business Owners Should Develop

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Leadership Skills|Essential Leadership Skills All Business Owners Should DevelopA business is the most commonly chosen option for income, as its number continues to grow. More of both small and large scale companies keep on springing up in every field of work. That’s has pointed out a predisposition to this trend, which is the rapidly growing competition.

With several contenders in action, business owners need to take charge and participate actively in their work. They need to establish a dominant leadership to ensure growth and progress. Most people neglect or fail in this department, which ultimately drives the team, and consequently, the business to collapse.

A compromise on the leadership could mean a lack of motivation, loss of objectivity, and low work efficiency. All these things are easy to spot from the team’s attitude and the outcomes of your activities. You will notice a steady decline in finances, returns, and the amount of work you are getting from your clients. And if so is the case, you need to intercept this abysmal state before the damage is beyond repair.

Fortunately, there are several tried and tested methods to enhance your leadership skills. Institutions teach many of these as part of the college curriculum or develop them through training and workshops. There’s also a chance that you pick them up while working with some of the most successful leaders. An example is Kuba Jewgieniew, whose success appears contagious to his fellow workers.

On the off chance that none of this works out, you can still work on improving them through practice. Here is a list of the few essential leadership skills all business owners should develop over time. Promoting them should help with both your individual and professional growth.

1. Set Goals & Advance Strategically

Coming up with a business plan and acting on it might get you started, but it won’t last you. You need to set realistic goals and have a vision about your progress. These milestones will help you track your growth and if you need to make adjustments to your practices to meet them.

The second part of this task is to strategize your advancements towards these objectives. Work on getting the kind of orders you need to bag and financial returns you need to secure. Direct your team’s energy into these ideas to make sure that there’s a collective effort. That will increase the chances of accomplishing these goals and make you a better leader.

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2. Communicate Effectively

A leader needs to convey plans and details effectively. They should tailor their words so that every member of the team can understand the ambitions behind them. Try to keep them transparent and delivered with every success and failure, so your team knows how they are doing.

Also, sometimes your employees need to find hope in your statements. These can be regarding personal or professional matters, and they need your support to get through it. Since they look up to you, it’s easier for them to trust or agree with you. Ensure that you are using this privilege well and not letting it go to waste or exploit it. That will make you a more reliable and dependable leader.

3. Acknowledge Talents & Retain Them

You can have a staff of 5 or 500, but all of them can’t be on par with each other. Every individual will be better at fulfilling some duties than the others. Make sure that you are on the lookout and can identify this talent when you see it. Focus on refining their abilities so that you can delegate them more responsibilities.

Also, make sure that you keep them satisfied and retain them for a long time. Finding such employees can be difficult. Plus, even if you discover their potentials, there’s also the time to train them to perform. So as a leader, recognize and acknowledge their contributions to keep them working for you to guarantee your success.

4. Delegate Work & Empower Employees

As a leader, it not so rare to have trust or ego issues with your workers. People wouldn’t want to distribute their work or share responsibilities that they feel are outside their employees’ domains. But it can have adverse effects in the long run and can harm your business.

More competent leaders know their limitations and when they need to start taking help from others. Act on this model and know when to delegate tasks to your team. Make sure that you prepare them for this stage and empower them on occasions where it’s needed. That should help you build a strong network of work and lead it effectively.

5. Discuss Plans for Input

Regardless of your expertise and command over knowledge, never overestimate your potential. Remember that you are as likely to make mistakes and errors as others. That’s why you need to have people that can review your work.

Ask for their input on your designs and models to point out any possible flaws. Listen if they have something valuable to offer that could refine the work or improve its efficiency. Having multiple think tanks working on the same plans should help evaluate its risks and overcome its challenges. That, in turn, will make you a more effective and accomplished leader.

6. Make More Leaders

Lastly, you can find leaders within your organization. These people exist and function in all positions and levels of work. All you need to do is sort them out and work on developing their leadership skills with yourself. Turn them into the kind of employees you want them to be with your mentoring and support. That way, they can share your burdens and offer a leader’s dependability more conveniently.

Summary

These were some essential leadership skills all business owners should develop to advance their companies. Effective use of these should set a favorable trend for you that can guide you to success. Just remember not to give up on certain areas even if they test you or you find yourself ill-equipped. Strategic persistence and experimentation will help you break those barriers and make you a better leader all the way.

Mold In The Workplace: How To Handle It!

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Mold in the workplace|Mold In The Workplace: How To Handle It!When you own a commercial property, you want to ensure that it’s as safe as possible for you, your staff and for any clients who come into the building. The best way to ensure safety is to invest in the right insurance policies. You will know that you have to have public liability insurance and other insurance ranges to take care of people, but have you considered your commercial property? Fire, flood, earthquake and all manner of natural disasters can really affect your business, but if you’re smart about your insurance purchases, you can ensure that you are covered much of the time. If there is one thing that can have a devastating impact on your business it’s flooding.

Whether flooding is because of a burst pipe or a natural storm, your business is going to be badly affected by the water rising in the property. Floods that start in the basement can have an impact on the structure of the building, causing damage that is expensive and interrupts your business hours. You will also find that a side effect of flooding is often mold. Mold can present some serious issues for your business. Not only does it have an impact on the health of your staff and any guests, it can lead to devastation for the structure of the building, too. Those who are dealing with allergies and asthma are particularly vulnerable to the effects of mold and if you have people getting sick as a result, they are not likely to be particularly productive for your day to day needs. Mold can also lead to business interruption as you will need to think about the time taken to clean your business from the mold on the walls and in the ceiling. If the mold is ingrained into the walls, you will have an even bigger job, as there may need to be replacement and replastering efforts made.

Did you know that if you can see mold, it’s not necessary for a company to come in and test for it? They can see the mold is there already, so there is no real need for them to take the time to test for something that they can already see. Mold can be a blessing in disguise if you haven’t considered your flood insurance or your commercial drainage options before. However, you don’t want to have mold in the business property if you can help it! If you suspect mold in your business premises but you haven’t seen any, we’ve got eight situations that warrant booking a mold test. Let’s take a look:

  1. You or your staff are sneezing and experiencing allergy symptoms. Whether it’s sneezing or other symptoms like stuffy heads, headaches, scratchy and itchy throat, runny nose and more, you need to get a mold test booked in. This is especially important if you’ve had some drainage issues and flooding lately.
  2. You think that you can see some mold in the building, but given your lack of expertise with mold, you’re not sure and you want confirmation. There’s nothing worse than mold being in the corners of the bathrooms or the basement. It’s unprofessional to see mold blackening the corners of the room, and if you are seeing mold, you have to assume that it’s in the walls, too.
  3. There is a weird, musty smell in your building but you can’t identify what is causing the smell. The cleaners are doing their usual excellent work, but you haven’t got rid of the smell and it’s getting worse. This can indicate mold in the home – even if you cannot see it.
  4. If you have recently had a flood or plumbing leak, you may not notice the beginnings of mold coming from the damp. Any leaks or drainage issues should be looked into ASAP, too, as this can lead to mold if it’s not caught early enough. If you have a professional come to check your drains, you need to ask them to check out the damp a wet spot has left behind, too.
  5. You can ask for mold testing to see whether a removal has been successful. This is a great way to check if any mold is left behind after you have paid for it to be removed. Air testing is going to be done by a professional and they can tell you if the levels of mold normalized.
  6. If you are buying your commercial property, a mold test is an essential and it’s a great reason to get your commercial place checked by a professional – just in case.
  7. Another good reason for getting a mold test is whether you need to prove that there is a problem. This is especially important if you are a tenant and your landlord is asking for evidence before they spend their money making changes.
  8. If you want to make sure that your staff are breathing in high-quality air, then a mold test is a must.

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Mold in the workplace|Mold In The Workplace: How To Handle It!There are several things that you can do to handle mold in the workplace, and we’ve got some of those things for you below:

  • Keep All Of Your Flood Insurance Documents Accessible
    You need to avoid mold after a flood and you should call a professional water damage company to help you out. You should consider that the longer you are delayed, the longer it will take for your insurance company to come out and reimburse you some costs.
  • Work On Any Leaks Right Away
    If you see any leaks in your business, then the best thing that you can do is clean them up straight away. Mold can present an issue everywhere there is moisture, and you need to prevent that moisture from collecting in the first place! Calling a plumber to deal with your pipes and drainage regularly will mean catching any leaks that you could be unaware of. You want to make sure that you stop any water from getting into the surfaces around the building. This will prevent further damage.
  • Work On Ventilation
    Bathrooms and kitchens are notorious for being full of steam and moisture in the air. With the proper ventilation, you can ensure that moisture is out as fast as possible and avoid any mold and damp patches forming. Installing fans throughout these spaces as well as vents and open windows will help, and standing fans will blow the humid air away!
  • Buy A Humidity Monitor
    You don’t know how truly moist your property is without a humidity monitor. These monitors will tell you how much moisture is in the air and they’re not particularly expensive, which means that you can get answers without breaking the bank. Not only will they check the current moisture levels, they’ll tell you if there is a spike in the amount of moisture in the air.
  • Stop Using Bleach
    If you want to clean off any mold that you have spotted, you need to stop using bleach. The bleach may be a quick fix, but it only takes off visible mold and the idea is to eradicate the problem entirely. To do this, you need the professional to come in. Store-bought solutions just won’t do the job on stubborn mold, but the professional cleaning companies have everything that you need to get rid of the problem properly.
  • Keep The Moldy Areas Empty
    If one office in your building is dealing with mold, you need to cordon it off and have the affected area away from the rest of the property. This prevents the spreading of spores on shoes, jackets and even in the hair of your employees. Don’t wait too long to get help from your local cleaning company, though, as it can be a widespread issue and this is the “ground zero” for it. Close the doors and shut the vents to avoid spreading the issues, too.
  • Get Rid Of Any Contaminated Property
    If your desks and cupboards have become “infected” by mold, you need to get them taken away and scrapped as soon as possible. Even the smallest patch of mold can cause health and long-term issues for your property, so you need to get rid of it as quickly as possible!
  • Listen To Your Employees
    Are your staff complaining of a musty smell or difficulty with breathing? Their complaints have to be taken seriously – as seriously as the mold problem you have. Your employees health matters, and if you’re not listening to them, there could be some serious legal issues coming back to bite you as a result.

Mold in the commercial property you work in is a big problem. If you’re not looking after your staff and yoru building, you’re not going to notice it creeping up on you. Handling the mold as quickly as you can will help to stop the problem from spreading, but are you ready to get rid of it? Start today! If you notice leaks or damp anywhere in the building, you need to get on top of it as soon as you can.

Blog Like A Pro

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article, Blog Like A Pro

In case you haven’t noticed, a business can make good use of a blog. Whether it’s on the business site itself or a different address linked to it, content marketing can do plenty for you. It can increase your visibility, give legitimacy to your brand, and build the kind of connection you want with your consumer. But blogging is a venture that takes skill all on its own. If you want to look like a pro, you have to blog like a pro.

Value must be your focus
If you want to improve the search engine optimization of your business and build its visibility, it’s easy to focus on quantity rather than quality. However, that’s not going to do you much good in most cases. Search engines use algorithms, such as visitor interest, to see just how valid content is. For that reason, as ever, value needs to be the core of what you need to know about your marketing strategy. Make it informative and newsworthy or helpful and instructional. It can even be focused solely on entertaining. The fact is it needs value for you to consider publishing it.

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Make it your own

That’s not to say the text is all that matters. The visual style of a blog has to have a certain uniqueness to it. If you can’t pay for your own design, then at least try to find ones that aren’t widely used while still being relevant to your theme. Even with images heading blogs, you should take care to personalise them. Instead of throwing up generic images, find or make ones that stand out and customise them further by turning them into banners. Otherwise, you run the risk of looking a generic content mill. That’s the kind of design that will ensure readers don’t even stick around long enough to read what you’ve written.

Reach out

Those readers are important. Not just because they can lend the blog credibility. Those are the kind of leads that the blog can build. As with your social media and all your other marketing efforts, you need to put the work into making a community out of them. Reply to their comments. Get them involved in giveaways and competitions. Ask if they have any topics they would like you to cover.

Don’t be afraid to have a personality

When marketing for a business, it’s easy to play things safe and stick to the branding message and tone alone. When it comes to a blog, however, showing your human side is important. Finding your voice gives you the chance to enliven the intros and outros to articles. It enables you to write comments without sounding like a corporate robot. It creates the human connection of the blogger that a lot of blogger-followers want to see. Blogging is a very social kind of marketing, so you need to get sociable.

Building your audience on the blog is only going to improve the business. That means you have to take time. Time for the audience, time for the visuals, and time, most importantly of all, for the content. Happy typing.