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Improving The Quality Of Your Service As A Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Customer Service|Improving The Quality Of Your Service As A BusinessThere’s always room for improvement for whatever you do in your lifetime, and when running a business, there should be a constant need to improve the service you are providing to your clients and customers. So here are some tips for improving the quality of your service as a business.

Strengthen Customer Service

Customer service is a very crucial part of the service that you supply as a whole. Without good customer service, you potentially lose out on giving your customers what they need, and that can have a negative impact on the business. Strengthening your customer service can be done in a number of ways. Firstly, look at what you’re already providing in terms of communication and explore new ways of reaching out to the customer and vice versa. Social media is one way that’s enabling both customers and businesses to directly reach out to one another via a direct messaging service or by tagging them in their status. Interaction with customers shows that you are wanting to engage as a company and to develop a stronger relationship.

Look At Quality Improvement If Manufacturing

Quality control when it comes to manufacturing products should always be a priority. Whether it’s offering prepackaged medication or using a more eco-friendly packaging, there are always ways to improve the quality that you’re providing to those companies who are then selling your product to a wider market. You can also look at what your competitors are doing too when it comes to quality control and then adapting these methods to your own but making them better.

Always Ask For Feedback

Feedback should always be welcomed, and if you’re not doing that as a company, you’re blindsiding yourself from improving what might need adjusting or developing. Several eyes are better than just the one, so always reach out to clients and customers to ask for constructive criticism and feedback on how you can improve the services you are providing. It might open your eyes to something you’ve not noticed before and is actually something that’s causing a big problem in the success of your business. So make use of your mailing list and always keep track of reviews that come in for your service or product.

Invest In Research And Training

Two of the elements that can make the biggest difference when it comes to the quality of service is research and training. Investing a budget into these can make a huge improvement on your company as a whole. Market research is always useful to see how your industry has changed and is changing so that you’re able to keep up with the trends and what’s current. Training for your staff is always beneficial and a great way to improve their own career prospects, which could benefit the company massively.

A business that is always looking on ways to improve is one that will continue to have success. Don’t become complacent and always look at ways to strengthen your business and how it operates in every area of its existence.

Stretch Goals, The Field, and Choosing the Best Path

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StrategyDriven Professional Development Article | Stretch Goals, The Field, and Choosing the Best Path | Stretch GoalsStretch goals are intended to push the organization to higher levels of performance. They stretch all teams and the individuals in those teams. Stretch goals can rarely be met with incremental changes, thus, management and staff must be dynamic and creative in planning how to meet the goals. This situation can be intimidating, but it is the ideal scenario for you to shift your career in a new, more desirable direction. There are two key components to help you make the shift: understanding how the Field works, and discerning the work activity you most enjoy – regardless of “normal expectations” for your position.

Defining the Field, Understanding Its Drivers. The Field – which is also referred to as “quantum reality” – is a matrix of electromagnetic waves that permeate everything. “So what?” you may ask. Consider the following reality as proven via scientific experiments and measurable observations: i) at the base of all physical matter are tiny electromagnetic energy waves, ii) as two electromagnetic waves intersect, they exchange data, and iii) communication in the Field is instantaneous. This reality means that all living and innate matter in our world are connected every single instant.

Okay, so how does one use this massive web of connection to choose the best path in a stretch-goal environment? Think about the basic formula that underpins all success in the workplace – to achieve a high performance rating, you need to understand how your boss thinks, what their expectations are, and what their goals are to attain a high rating from their superiors. Once you understand this, then you can design an effective performance plan. It is the same with the Field: understand what is important to the Field, then you can proactively engage the Field to aid in directing your career path to higher levels of success.

Why the Field supports you. What is the top priority of the Field? Expansion. Everything in the universe has a drive to expand – humans, animals, plants, bacteria, even the universe itself. At the individual level, the human feeling of “excitement” is most closely aligned with expansion. Why? The Field is connected to all things, so it is aware of your strengths and how those strengths can best help it expand. Thus, when you are focused on an activity that you enjoy (that you look forward to, that excites you), the Field gives you a clue you are on the right track via the feeling of excitement.

So find a comfortable spot at work – or even head to your favorite coffee shop – and review all your work activities, ranking them by how much you enjoy the activity. Be sure to include activities or skills that you have been wanting to learn. Next pick the top activity (or top two, not more) and create a plan around that activity, quantifying how your efforts will increase productivity or drive efficiency.

In the Field, a Low Risk. Your unique stretch-goal-plan is – in quantum reality – a low risk. This is because you have centered the plan around what excites you at work, and when excitement is combined with venturing into new territory, it will invariably lead to your growth as a professional. Thus, you grow personally, your wider team is challenged and grows with you, and the project itself will be productive. Put another way, each of these aspects expands – and, thus, the Field expands.

The Fringe Benefits. What about the other goals in your overall career plan? The good news is that by focusing so much energy on just one or two areas, your plan/project will create a larger momentum that will inevitably demand the demonstration of other skills. Besides the leadership and innovation capabilities you show in putting forth the plan, the additional skills of project management, team management, communication, selling, leveraging diversity, conflict management, and budgeting will likely be demonstrated.

Stretch Yourself, Stretch Your Boss… Expand the Field. In creating a plan that will stretch yourself in an area you enjoy, you will also be stretching your boss. They will need to acknowledge the merit of your plan, they will need to consider how best to sell the idea to their superior(s), and they may need to think about who else on the team will perform the duties they had expected you to be doing. All of that is a fantastic challenge for your boss. They don’t want a boring job; else they would not have accepted the promotion to manager. Besides, like you they may be a bit intimidated by the stretch goals, so you will be helping them with an innovative idea for meeting leadership’s expectations.

Understanding how the expansive properties of the Field work, combined with a focus on the top one or two work activities that excite you, ensures the design of a successful stretch-plan. It also raises your awareness of potential opportunities that may arise – whether those are hoped for or unexpected.

Stretch goals are not obstacles to success, they are unique opportunities to customize your path and accelerate your success. Embrace and use them to stretch yourself, stretch your boss…and expand the Field.

Rejection Epilogue. If your boss rejects your stretch-plan, this is not a failure. Remember that the Field is connected to all things, so it will be keenly aware of your focused and organized vision for expanding your career/team, and by default the Field itself. After the rejection, maintain a positive “can do” attitude and keep your eyes open for other development opportunities. Perhaps a mentor will ask you to join their team, perhaps someone outside the company will offer you a job, or perhaps your boss will ask you to lead a brand-new project in an area that you find exciting. As long as you focus your stretch-plan on an activity that you enjoy, the Field will not be able to help itself: It will notice your effort, and, one way or another, it will respond.

About the Author

For 28 years John Jay McKey has been a student of success, building and leading data analysis teams in the banking sector, a Big Four accounting and consulting firm, the Office of Inspector General, and a multinational Fortune 50 company. While commuting from Chicago to Washington DC to work for the OIG, Jay had a personal epiphany that led him on a deep dive into the world of quantum physics. That journey resulted in the writing of Leverage the Field for Success, which explains how one can use what scientists call the universal energy field, the zero-point field, or simply “the field,” to support and accelerate one’s success and/or the success of their team.

How Much do Software Developers Make in 2019?

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article | How Much do Software Developers Make in 2019?
 
Software developers have always been in high demand, but in 2019 the appetite for developers has just increased as new innovations and applications emerge. With this high demand comes a corresponding rise in salary expectations.

So how much can a software developer expect to make in 2019?

It’s not a simple answer. Not all software development jobs are alike; some are more specialized than others, which is reflected in their pay. But there are so many different types of software development specializations these days that it’s a challenge to keep track of them all and how much they pay.

That’s why we’ve put together a handy table below, with the most common types of software developer roles as of 2019 and what they earn.

StrategyDriven Talent Management Article | How Much do Software Developers Make in 2019?

*All figures based on Ziprecruiter estimates

Notice how in the above chart that the more specialized roles are able to receive a much higher average salary than the more general roles as they get more experience. The outlier seems to be blockchain developers, who receive disproportionately higher starting salaries due to both their rarity, the difficulty of the subject matter, and the current hype surrounding blockchain development.

AI and machine learning developers have similarly high salary prospects. The starting salaries mentioned in the chart are misleading. Actually, only a small percentage of jobs pay at this low range. Salary ranges begin to spike at $78,500 – $91,000 for AI developers (19% of jobs) and $70,500 – $100,499 for machine learning developers (17% of jobs).

The starting salary of cyber security engineers is also misleading. 30% of surveyed cyber security engineer jobs actually begin at the $83,000 to $108,499 range. This reflects cyber security’s vital role in an increasingly digital world, especially in large-scale enterprises with massive amounts of data.

Video game developer salaries in 2019 are also higher than in more general developer roles, however, there is a culture of overwork inherent in the industry which is a definite trade-off for anyone seeking a position in that field.

Note that engineering roles have slight but significant job differences from your standard developer: engineers don’t just code. Software engineers help develop processes and apply engineering principles to solve client needs, which means understanding the big picture and taking a strategic approach. It requires an additional skill set beyond mere programming and is reflected in the salary. The right software engineer will help ensure your development projects don’t fail, which attributes to their high demand and salary requirements.

So there you have it. We hope this chart will be helpful in either choosing a career in software development or switching to a different specialization in mid-career.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Shane ZilinskasShane Zilinskas is the Founder and CEO of Los Angeles software development agency ClearSummit, and the Co-Founder and CTO of TuneRegistry, a music rights SaaS platform. He also provides consulting services to startups and enterprise companies. Prior to working in the agency space, Shane built news media backends and part of the FAA’s air traffic control system. He has a B.S. in Computer Engineering from UVA. He has a passion for efficiency and combining the best tech and design to solve complex problems.

Twitter: @clearsummitapps

Recommended Products: Ekster 3.0 Smart Wallet

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StrategyDriven Professionals represent the pinnacle of performance excellence achieved through personal motivation and drive. Consequently, they seek to surround themselves with only the highest quality products that similarly represent excellence and help them push toward ever greater levels of achievement.

Ekster 3.0 Smart Wallet – Parliament

One such product is the Ekster 3.0 Smart Wallet. Sleek and elegant, this finely crafted leather wallet combines simplicity, style, and compactness with modern security and technologies expected of a superior wallet.

The Ekster 3.0 Parliament Smart Wallet we tested is a bifold wallet comfortably housing four embossed credit cards with an RFID shielded aluminum case and offering sleeves for three additional cards and an elastic strap to firmly secure paper money. Cards held within the shielded aluminum case were raised smoothly upon activation of the card release button and were otherwise held firmly in place. When raised, the cards were staggered in height by approximately one-quarter inch enabling easy selection and removal of any individual card. The wallet’s high quality leather and fine stitching gives it the look and feel of a luxury product.

Additionally, the Ekster 3.0 Parliament Smart Wallet was compact in size, being noticeably thinner than a traditional bifold or trifold wallet holding the same number of cards. This provided the added benefits of comfort and appearance particularly when carried in a pant’s pocket.

StrategyDriven Recommended Products: Ekster 3.0 Smart WalletEkster Tracker Card

We similarly tested the Ekster Tracker Card. Easily paired with the Chipolo tracking app, the tracking card enables location tracking of the wallet within which it is placed as the phone with which it is paired. The tracker card provides a pleasant audible ring to further aid wallet location identification while the app can be configured to enable mobile phone ringing even when silenced. The Ekster Tracking Card is solar powered, environmentally friendly and easily recharged in any lighted environment.

The highly rated Chipolo app was easy to register, configure, and pair with the Ekster Tracker Card via a smart phone; supported by step-by-step instruction screens. A notable bonus features include ‘ringing the phone’ even when in silent/vibrate mode and remotely triggering selfie photos from the tracker card.

Ekster offers thorough online instructions for the use of its 3.0 Smart Wallets and Tracker Card though we found both devices intuitive to use making the instruction manuals largely unneeded.

Both the Ekster 3.0 Parliament Smart Wallet and the Ekster Tracker Card can be purchased from Ekster.com using the links provided in this article.

From Spark to Flame – How to Find Ideas Worth Pursuing

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StrategyDriven Innovation Article |Innovation|From Spark to Flame - How to Find Ideas Worth PursuingTurning fresh ideas into full-blown, marketable commodities is the mandate of every innovation team. The endeavor is more than serendipity. A great part is honed skill.

While originality and innovation spring from deep in the recesses of the mind, it’s our job to develop a creation mindset. This requires strengthening that mental muscle that allows new ideas to arise and exciting refinements to emerge. Part of this exercise is overcoming the self-judgment, criticism and lack of confidence that all contribute to our ability or lack thereof to think quickly or creatively.

I take my inventiveness cues from improvisational comedy. I’ve performed in, directed and produced improv comedy shows for more than 20 years. In improv, the actors make up scenes and stories from nothing. They build off of each other’s ideas without worrying about what the entire scene is going to look like. They just focus on the small, in-the-moment decisions.

As in improv, refining our ability to heighten inspiration and add our own creativity and imagination to an initial idea will let us take ideas to unexpected and exciting places.

Generally speaking, ideas don’t hit like a lightening bolt. Nor do they spring up fully formed, packaged and ready to market. The trick is to recognize the spark when our mental radar identifies a blip of inspiration, and then decide to act on it.

How do we go about finding the spark? Here are some ways that consistently help me set fire to new and interesting ideas:

1. Curiosity. Allowing ourselves to pursue interests for no reason other than the fact that something intrigues us is reason enough to explore new subjects. When you allow your curiosity to explore new concepts, you create new data points in your brain. What we’re doing is filling our “subconscious thought well” with snippets of ideas that our brains can reference. Ideas don’t come out of nowhere — they come out of that subconscious thought well. The more curious we are, the more and different pieces of information we make available to draw from.

2. Go do stuff. Moving from a passive role to an active roll activates the entirety of our bodies and ingrains whatever we’re doing more deeply. Like flowers? Then actually plant and grow some. Interested in history? Take a guided tour of an historic site. The point is, when we actually go out and physically experience whatever we’re most interested in, it becomes a part of us that can never be if we’re just watching. Having pursued a broad assortment of experiences gives us a greater capacity for making associations from a piece of information. Like improv actors, we’re able to build upon ideas by making connections or finding possibilities in all kinds of unexpected places.

3. Observe. Different from spectating, observing is a purposeful activity where we’re consciously focusing on what we see, hear and feel. When we observe, we tend to see both the micro and macro aspects. We take in the entire scene in the macro, yet pick out specific details in the micro. Observing is important to the creative process because we’re again taking in new information and building that subconscious database. This new information allows potentially unrelated concepts to collide to allow something new to happen.

4. Ignite sparks. Every day, people come across sparks of inspiration. An idea comes to mind and a small flash of excitement courses through us as we say to ourselves, “Hey, that’s a pretty good idea.” But most of us never do a thing about it and the spark dies out. The ability to jump on the spark is the single most important way of putting innovative ideas in motion. When we have a positive emotional reaction to an idea, it means there’s something there to take a look at. It may just mean starting to research it online. Some sparks will die a natural death, and that’s okay. What we’re doing is strengthening that muscle that allows us to make connections and let things spontaneously combust.

5. Fan the flame. Following inspirations even to their next iteration creates a momentum that can eventually allow a spark to flicker to life. One hundred sparks may die out for every one that builds into a flame, but when excitement for an idea doesn’t die and continues to energize us, we need to jump on it and see where it goes. From following an idea to its next logical step, one decision leads to the next. As the flame of the idea continues to build, we reach the point where we’ve envisioned something worth creating.

By following our curiosity, which leads us to do stuff, and observing what’s happening around us, we’ll start to experience the feeling of inspiration. And by fanning those sparks of inspiration that continue to excite us, we’re more likely to land on ideas worth pursuing.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Norm LavioletteNorm Laviolette is the co-founder and CEO of Improv Asylum, IA Innovation and Asylum Gaming and Esports (AGE). He has performed, directed or produced more than 10,000 improvisational comedy shows on three continents. He brings the experience of building companies from the ground up into multi-million dollar businesses. Norm Laviolette has worked with Fortune 500 companies, including Google, Red Bull, Fidelity and more. His new book, The Art of Making Sh!t Up: How to Work Together to Become an Unstoppable Powerhouse (Wiley, May 7, 2019), describes how the techniques of improv can transform teams into more powerful, creative and healthy organizations. Learn more at iainnovation.com.