How to Make Technology Work for Your Business, Not Against It...

A few more tips on how you too can make technology work for your business, not reduce effectiveness of staff or quality of service

1.     Use auto-responders to manage expectations about when a response can be expected from you or a member of your team.

2.     Reduce the number of email messages you receive by unsubscribing to lists that you rarely read the messages or do relate directly to your business. Sometimes even the latter require further pruning to ensure you are not spending several hours every month deleting spam or email messages you have neither read nor plan to read.

3.     Respond to email messages on at specific times of the day, usually late morning and/or towards the end of the day. Alternatively, choose specific days of the week (I know a few business owners who take this approach) to reply to email –incredible, but true. Some managers and indeed business owners who take drastic action and dedicate only once or twice per week argue that if the message requires urgent action, the person will pick up the telephone and make contact directly, instead of sending an email.

As a business owner, if you find yourself spending more than two hours every day on email messages, maybe it’s time to get your Virtual or Personal Assistant to handle more general email messages for the business.

Your follow up action...

If you need to spend more time on developing your business and less time deleting email messages and unsubscribing from lists, then a new time management and email strategy could benefit you and your business. You can telephone me on 0845 054 2870 and I can quickly explore how you can increase efficiency and effectiveness during an Express 30-minute Coaching session.

To take action immediately:

-email: bizcoachuk@gmail.com

-Skype: bizcoachuk

-Telephone 0845 054 2870
Business Coaching, Mentoring & Training
Your Small Business Coach
http://www.yoursmallbusinesscoach.co.uk/

Technology or YOU -who rules the roost in your business?

Technology or YOU -who rules the roost in your business?

Technology can be invaluable in helping small businesses ‘punch above their weight’ which allows business to grow not only in terms of number of customers/clients in their local area but nationally and, even internationally. Technology can be the catalyst that makes a small business become a large business. As Jonathan Jay, Chairman of the National Alliance of Business Owners (NABO) observes “The only difference between a small company and a big one is the number of customers it has.”

The use of technology in business has a downside. It can dominate daily life and reduce efficiency of business owners as they become even less effective at managing time –both their own and any staff/employees they may have hired. Think of those scores if not hundreds of email messages sent and read every week and the numerous enewsletters and online line groups to which many of us subscribe –then unsubscribe.

As one of my Business Associates observed recently “we are have come to expect immediate responses to our email messages, and think it has not been received if there’s no response within 24 hours”. Indeed, I am guilty of apologising on more than one occasion for the ‘delayed reply’ when I take longer than 48 hours to reply to an email. Not an effective way of staying on top of countless email!

In general, however, technology does provide businesses with more benefits than hindrances.

Three ways in which my business has harnessed technology very effectively in both marketing and delivery of services to clients/customers are i) providing online webinars for training, ii) using Skype and GoToMeeting for coaching and mentoring sessions with business owners and iii) using automated systems to post messages on social media such as Twitter.

Webinars

In using webinars (online seminars), which provide both visual and audio sharing of information, it makes it more conducive/compatible for various learning styles to learn in an interactive/informal way. In this context, I am not referring to unsupervised and limited human interaction found in ecourses. No, what I am referring to are those online sessions (or telephone for those who prefer audio only) in which one or more persons/experts share invaluable/useful information and insights on a topic of interest to those online. Advantages of online seminars include: i) global reach to anyone with an internet connection and suitable bandwidth, ii) being able to listen, view and learn about topics relevant to your business or the work of your staff without leaving the comfort of your office, iii) having flexibility in deciding when you listen to a webinar, as if you are unable to listen live, there is often the option of listening to the recording, sometimes for a limited time.

Using Skype or GoToMeeting

Using Skype (www.skype.com) or webconferencing services such as GoToMeeting (www.gotomeeting.com) for business coaching and/or mentoring sessions with clients. Here again, clients can have their coaching and/or mentoring sessions from the comfort of their own offices or homes at a time and on a day mutually convenient to business owners and their coaches or mentors.

Automating your tweets

You can use Tweet Deck (http://www.tweetdeck.com/) to schedule your tweets over several days or a couple of weeks. This frees up time for staff (or you the business owner) in invest in more strategic developmental work for your business, rather than routine and/or repetitive tasks.

Your follow up action...

If you would like to use technology more effectively, and save time and money in learning to do so, or you are keen to use online conferencing in your business, then get the benefit of a focused business coaching session to find some answers. Just telephone 0845 054 2870 and book yourself an  Express 30-minute Coaching session, during which time you can quickly explore and plan how you can use technology more effectively in your business during .

To take action immediately:

-email: bizcoachuk@gmail.com

-Skype: bizcoachuk

-Telephone 0845 054 2870

Saving Time & Saving Money –how Business Coaches and Mentors can help clients

To paraphrase the American poet Maya Angelou, ‘People will forget what you’ve said or what you did, but will never forget how you made them feel.’  And, in the world of business, quite a lot of positive feelings can be generated when you save clients time and money.

‘Saving Time’ and ‘Saving Money’ are two strong hooks that appeal to customers which leads them to buy a product or service you offer. I was reminded of these hooks today for two reasons. First, I spent a couple of hours this morning delivering a pricing strategy workshop for small businesses. The second trigger was the email about his latest blog post that was circulated by Ryan Lee (http://ryanlee.com/mini-hook-time/).

In his mini-hook post, Ryan showed how to become effectiveness and profitability with the ‘Save Time’ hook. He recalled how he doubled his income more than 17 years earlier through saving his customers time.

Here’s what Ryan said about how that experienced happened:

 “I first discovered the power of time-saving when I was running my personal training business back in 1994. Every other trainer in the world was doing 1-hour sessions – but I knew people were busy. So I offered more intense 30 minute sessions and people LOVED them. And because I still charged almost the same amount of the 30 minute sessions as I did for the 60 minute sessions, my income more than doubled almost overnight.”

Here are Ryan Lee’s tips on key words for your sales copy to let customers know you can save them time:

v  in a flash

v  fast-acting

v  works immediately

v  instantly

v  same-day

v  in half the time

v  immediate  

Your follow-up action...
If you are working on your marketing or pricing strategy and would like to find other ways to save your customers time and increase your profitability, beyond making your systems automated, then email or telephone me. I’ll discuss with you and quickly explore how you can make this happen in an Express 30-minute Coaching session.

To take action immediately:

-email: bizcoachuk@gmail.com

-Skype: bizcoachuk

-Telephone 0845 054 2870

Business Coaching, Mentoring & Training
Your Small Business Coach
http://www.yoursmallbusinesscoach.co.uk/

Developing your pricing to suit your customers -the three star approach

These tips on pricing are applicable even if your business has only one product or offer just one service,  as it is possible for you to package that product or service in a way that you can offer various options to customers.

First, however, you need to decide on the standard price. ice for your product or service. Then, you consider whether or not you can sell the product in a smaller quantity or offer a shorter version of your service, i.e., a taster version of either your product or service. In doing this, you allow existing or potential customers to sample your product or service at a lower price, but you should not dilute the quality of what you are providing.

On the other hand, if the single product or service offering is the taster, then you should consider how you can increase the amount offered or frequency for customers who prefer or would be willing to purchase more of your product or service.

Drawing from the pricing strategy used in the airline industry, especially with budget airlines along routes that are serviced by several airlines, below is a summary of  a pricing strategy employing the one to three start approach to the service provided.
Example using services offered by budget airlines

v  Three star –air fare only, does not include hand luggage allowed (£100, return fare)

v  Four star –air fare, up to 10kg hand luggage allowed (£250, return fare)

v  Five star –air fare, up to 15 kg hand luggage, priority check-in (£300, return fare)

When using a menu of prices for your business, you will get best results from choices made by customers if the price difference between most expensive and middle option is smaller than price difference between middle and least expensive.In the above example, the four star package costs more than the mid-point price between the lowest and highest packages. This means that the business stands to earn at least £50 more than if the second option was viewed as the mid-point between the highest and lowest-priced offerings.

Do you agree with the '3-star' approach to setting prices in your business? Have your say below!


For more information about similar articles or how you can improve customer service in your business, contact Your Small Business Coach.

Your Small Business Coach
www.yoursmallbusinesscoach.co.uk
E: bizcoachuk@gmail.com
T: 0845 054 2870

twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/bizcoach4u

Amazon Kindle Store: 52 Tips for Communicating with Customers:
http://www.amazon.com/52-Tips-Communicating-Customers-ebook/dp/B005HRYCW8/ref=dp_olp_1

Ezine article -7 Tips to Help Your Journey to Excellent Customer Care

Excellence in customer service is not a destination, it's a journey, a rite of passage during which the scenery changes. Every organisation needs to use best practice to set minimum standards for delivering on excellence. Beyond developing or adopting best practice, businesses need to remind employees that Everyone's a Customer.

1. Establish a culture for customer care and service. In your business, let your business operations be driven by a desire to solve customers' problems and deliver excellent customer service.

2. Consider the views of customers, place yourself in their shoes and think how the quality of service you provide make customers feel about your service. Is it great? Are they warmed by the experience?

3. If using recorded voices to answer calls at your business, do not subject customers and other callers to irritating phrases. These include: 'no problem', 'your call is important to us'. Omit them from your vocabulary when speaking with customers!

4. Consider customers' feedback in a positive light, not as minor irritants at best or, at worst, necessary evils of doing business. Be a clever organisation, use customers' complaints and enquiries as opportunities to improve quality of service.

5. When you communicate with customers, pay great attend not just to what you say but how you say it. Remember how you say what you say affects the customer/ client relationship with your organisation. This can be either positive or negative.

6. Recognise and remember -People remain the centre of customer service.

7. Review practices used by your organisation to ensure customers are provided with quality service. Test them frequently for the six Cs of excellence in customer service -Commitment, Credibility, Capability, Continuity, Consistency and Creativity.

Ezine article reprint:

REPRINT RIGHTS: This article may be reprinted once copyright is acknowledged as vested in Veronica Broomes and year of publication given as 2009.

Full citation: © 2009 Veronica Broomeshttp://members.ezinearticles.com/article/edit/1348860?id=136624&pass=f63838da792006e8e1905328c0908397976b883831f3e6975102936f4d6fdcce&type=ed

For more information about similar articles or how you can improve customer service in your business, contact Your Small Business Coach.

Your Small Business Coach
www.yoursmallbusinesscoach.co.uk

E: bizcoachuk@gmail.com
T: 0845 054 2870
twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/bizcoach4u
London, United Kingdom

Amazon Kindle Store: 52 Tips for Communicating with Customers:
http://www.amazon.com/52-Tips-Communicating-Customers-ebook/dp/B005HRYCW8/ref=dp_olp_1

How to set your prices for greater customer value and higher profitability...

Pricing and small businesses

Pricing is one of the essential pillars of any business, yet it is an area often ignored! For businesses offering more than one product or service, an ideal way of setting pricing is developing the prices based on a menu of services/products.

For many small businesses, however, setting the price is a huge challenge and sometimes may be caught in a price war as customers use the threat of moving to the competition to drive prices down. Here are a few tips to get you started on providing greater value AND run a profitable business.

Pricing tips

1.   Decide on a pricing strategy for each product or service offered by your business, For business owners offering products for sale, your pricing strategy can use as a starting point the price of inputs or wholesale for goods that are resold. That, however, cannot be the only basis as you need to consider which end of the market you are targeting, e.g., low price vs high value.

2.   Simple pricing strategies that small businesses can consider, whether offering goods or services, are:

i) Value-based pricing

ii) Low Introductory Price

iii) Promoting Customer Loyalty

iv) Brand influenced pricing

3.   Make sure that you have a range of packages for different budgets. This makes it easier for their clients to choose which of the three packages suits them best.)

More tips to follow in subsequent posts.
Comment on the blog and share how you set prices for your products and services.
Your follow up action...

If you need to spend more time on developing your business and less time deleting email messages and unsubscribing from lists, then a new time management and email strategy could benefit you and your business. You can telephone me on 0845 054 2870 and I can quickly explore how you can increase efficiency and effectiveness during an Express 30-minute Coaching session.

To take action immediately:

-email: bizcoachuk@gmail.com

-Skype: bizcoachuk

-Telephone 0845 054 2870

Business Coaching, Mentoring & Training
Your Small Business Coach
http://www.yoursmallbusinesscoach.co.uk/