Location
We are fortunate to be located in a beautiful area of Melbourne, Historic Downtown Melbourne. With tree lined streets and much to do, we couldn't ask for a better work environment. We are creative and the natural old Florida surroundings make it easy to come in everyday.

When we look at promoting our businesses, it's important to realize other aspects that will effect our bottom line than just advertising and customer service. The truth is, there are countless factors. It's your job to try to deal with as many as possible to keep your business on the right track.

Do you have that one customer that cannot be pleased or causes you too much time and energy?

Today with competition in the marketplace what it is, it's hard to think you would fire actually fire a customer. But, there is another theory. What if you fired that customer and spent all the time you would normally spend on that customer nurturing your good relationships and reaching new customers? But before you go firing your customers, you should ask yourself a few questions.

The very first question should be if there is anything you could do to make the relationship better?

Is this a highly profitable customer?
Is this customer influential within the community that you do business?
Are they a repeat purchaser of your products or services?
Do they pay a fair price for a fair product/service?
Do you need this customer to survive?

If you answered yes to any of these, you may want to reconsider and try to work with that customer. It is easier to retain an existing customer than it is to reach a new one. All good relationships take a lot of work and fostering to make them successful.

There are some warning signs of a truly bad customer.

Does the customer pay late consistently?
Is the customer overly aggressive with your people?
Does the customer require a lot of rework?
Do they cost you a significant amount of time?
Do they ask for unwarranted refunds?
Does the customer ask for things not in your scope of work?

These are a little more obvious and alone most can still be serviced. And I would encourage you to work towards a solution that works for you both. But if your customer has many of these you'll have to actually sit down and figure out the math. Add up your profitability from this customer vs. the actual cost of doing business with this customer.

Should you decide to end your relationship, do it with class and professionalism. The world is small and you never know when you will be re-establishing commerce with them again in the future.

We all seem to recharge every year. Whether you have personal goals or professional ones, this time of year is perfect for making some decisions and sticking with them. I use this time of year to evaluate my business and see what I can change for next year that will improve my customer relationships, my packaging, and my marketing. Below are a few ideas for you to consider for your business.

1. Get organized. It is so easy to get bogged down searching for things instead of just being organized and know ing exactly where your files are. There are many ways to get organized.

• Financially—make sure your receipts, accounts payables and receivables are all ready for tax time.

• Email—Make it a point to reduce the number of incoming emails that hit your computer a day. Make sure you unsubscribe to the spam and move on.

• Customers—Your customer contacts are invaluable. Make sure you have all your emails and addresses correct and entered so you can utilize that list for your marketing efforts this year.

• Marketing—Make your plan for the new year. Fill in your yearly plan, with budget, so you know what needs to be done. Marketing with no plan is super expensive. Get your website and social networking sites updated and make sure you are in the mobile business listings.
  

• Equipment— Make sure you are on top of your equipment. Computers, phones, fleet tracking, etc. Update it. Don't show up to a meeting with an antiquated clap trap of a computer, it's not a good representation of your business or you.

2. Get your goals back on track. Take a look at what your goals were last year and see what you missed or what was successful for you. Then adjust. Make yourself a list and stay focused on what you want to accomplish. In order to be successful, they need to be realistic goals. Make sure you look at that list everyday to keep it at the top of your mind.

3. Learn to delegate. It is hard for us business owners who want to do everything so it gets done right. But you are only one person. And if you are already working many hours during the day, you will have to make some choices. Either work harder and more organized or delegate some of your tasks to someone else. It's that simple.

4. Find one new way of connecting with your customers. Whether you choose to go mobile, social networking or joining a local organization, they are all successful. It is because people like to know exactly who they are doing business with. If you're out and about, even online, meeting new people, you are going to gain awareness.

5. Give back to the community. This is one of mine this year. I have a goal of volunteering at 4 events in our city this year. You should pick where you want to make a difference and really give it your all. But again, make realistic goals. Or you will just disappoint yourself.

6. Time for yourself. Make sure you have time to recharge and refresh. Whether you need one day monthly or a couple of hours weekly. Do what you need to do to stay smart and healthy.

7. Drop what fails. If you have something that is holding your company back, an employee, procedure, product, etc. Get rid of it and make the change to something successful.

8. Shop small. You are a small business. You want people to shop your small business. So shop theirs. Buy local and shop in the small local businesses in your town. You will find the practice reciprocated.

9. Waste Less. I keep this one on the list, because it is so easy to control the waste. Get your statements and bills sent electronically. Reuse items that can be washed.

I hope you are inspired to make positive changes in your business this year. Happy New Years to all, may all your hard work pay off and fill you with warmth and prosperity!

'Tis the time of year for corporate holiday card ordering and mailing planning. And how do you plan from beginning to end the process of this excellent opportunity? You use our simple guide. I say opportunity because, the holidays are a great way to personally "touch" your customer. The whole idea behind the greeting card is to personally wish another a wonderful holiday season. So, you're riding the happy, warm wave of holiday wishes. No better wave to ride with your logo and a personal message.

First, you need cards. Don't go buying the standard cards you can find in a card store. You need something quality and professional and printed just for you. You don't want to send a second rate anything with your logo on it. Choose something nice and tasteful.

You want to keep your warm message generic and unless you are a religious oriented company, make sure you keep religion out of it. This is out of respect for your customer's beliefs. And try to keep t keep humor out of it. You may think you're being clever and inadvertently insult a client. Santa in an outhouse sounds funny, but doesn't look all that professional to a customer. And doesn't help your business image.

The next thing you need is a list. Who should be on that list? You want to reach your current customers, prospective customers, and old customers. Give everyone warm wishes. And make sure that list is accurate and up-to-date. What you do not want to have happen is to waste a bunch of money on return to senders. So, have someone verify your list. Make sure your list contains business addresses and not home addresses. Unless you have a home based business, then it's perfectly acceptable. At that point, you would still address it to the business.

A personal touch to the inside. That's right. You need to physically sign your name. And anyone you would like to send the card from needs to physically sign it. Do not print the signatures, everyone will know it was printed. Also, the proper etiquette is to write a hand written personal message. Something short and sweet. Do not include your business card or brochure. There are other mailings for that.

A personal touch to the envelope. You're not quite done yet. The right way is always the most manually intense way! You should never meter your holiday cards. Always use a generic holiday stamp. And then, yes.... hand write the address. And make sure you have the person with the best handwriting do it. The ones that get delivered and look like a 3rd grader did them, are not that impressive. But worse would be to print labels. Do not print your labels.

A time to send. Absolutely there is a wrong time to send. the wrong time is too early and too late. You want to send them by December 15th. The exceptions are if your sending out of the country and if your customer's offices will be closed for the holiday. You want to make sure anything send internationally leave around the 5th of December. If you're sending to a company that is closing early, make sure they receive it a week before their offices close.

May your holiday greeting go well. If you are interested in purchasing quality printed cards, click here. We will design a beautiful and appropriate card for you.

When you hear customer service, you always think about the consumer. The person from outside the company that buys or uses the products and services we offer. But internal customer service is just as important. It's how you treat your employees or co-workers within the organization. It effects everyone that is employed by the company. How you treat your employees or how they treat each other is considered internal customer service. The idea behind it is that the most important employee you have is probably the least paid. They are the people on the front lines taking care of your customers. They should be treated with just as much respect as the president or owner. And your executives, managers and assistant managers should be trained to do the same.

Think about it. You want the person on the front lines to be happy, so they are happy to customers. You want them to feel comfortable , so they are comfortable with your customers. If you treat that person badly or with disrespect, how do you think they will treat customers when you're not there.

It comes down to this, if your people are happy, they are going to treat your customers well and spread happy thoughts and comments, which will in turn produce more sales.

If there's one thing I've noticed lately, it's the lack of customer service. Something so simple, as being polite and courteous has become such a burden. Is it the fact that business has been so bad for so long that people are becoming complacent. I don't know what has caused the lack, but it needs to change. And if you own a business, you can take advantage of that and run with it. New customers cost 10 times more to acquire than keeping your current customers. So keep em. And be courteous to anyone that calls, even wrong numbers. You never know who your next customer will be.

I've put together a small list of ways to keep and acquire new customers through service.

1. Positive upbeat energy. If you answer your phone with a smile, the person on the other end will know. They will immediately be placed in a more positive state of mind.

2. Sense of urgency. Make sure when a customer calls to ask a question or to get information, make sure you understand that the faster you get the information into their mind, the more they will know that you care about their business. If you let your customer go for a few days and not get back with them, they will definitely already have someone else in mind to do the job. You cannot take your time these days to stay competitive. And it doesn't matter what you do, whether it's real estate or cashier, there are other people out there who will care about their needs. And you want to be that person. Your customer wants to feel that he is your only customer. So do your best to do so.

3. Listen & Follow-up. Listen and answer questions. Listening is the best way to get to know your customer. If you're too busy telling them what they need without listening to what they want, you have failed. And whatever you do, don't leave your customers hanging. They probably need the information to complete their project. Get them the information requested and in a timely manner.

4. Empathy. Most of the time when customers complain, they actually have something to complain about. And as a business owner, that is sometimes the most valuable information you can get. What you want to do is listen to their concern.  You want to put yourself into their shoes and see what you would want to happen should the positions be reversed. Usually you will find a good compromise that will keep them as a customer. Make sure they know you understand how they feel. 9 times out of 10, they want someone to listen to the complaint so it can be avoided in the future.


One of the best books I've seen on customer service is Customer Service For Dummies, Third Edition
Karen Leland and Keith Bailey

It can be purchased at the address below and is great for training others

http://www.dummies.com/store/product/Customer-Service-For-Dummies-3rd-Edition.productCd-0471768693.html