Category: Business/Entrepreneurship

How to Maintain Safety In A Factory Workplace

Two of the key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. If you own a factory business, any number of things can happen as your workers are carrying out their tasks. It’s thus important to proactively think about what safety measures and protocols you can put in place. The following contributed post is thus entitled, How to Maintain Safety In A Factory Workplace.

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It’s important that every business owner takes steps to ensure their worksite is as safe as possible, but it’s more important in certain workspaces than others. For example, if you have a factory, then you’ll need to think even more carefully about your safety standards and practices, because the potential for an injury to occur is higher than in, say, a traditional office environment. Below, we take a look at some essential safety tips that’ll help to keep you, your employees, and site visitors safe.

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Identify Weaknesses

If you’re going to find ways to make your business safe, first you need to know what the dangers are. It’s worthwhile hiring a safety expert to perform a check on your site, as they’ll see things that you don’t. Once you’ve got a clear image of the practices that are “accidents waiting to happen,” you’ll be able to navigate your route to a safer worksite. This will be especially important if you’ve never performed a check like this before.

Staff Training

You can come up with all the safety initiatives in the world, but if your staff don’t know how to perform them properly, then they won’t be as effective as they could or should be. There are plenty of employees who get annoyed by the prospect of a safety training day, but it’s important that you’re able to motivate everyone enough to take it seriously. To ensure that the information your employees receive sinks in, try to find a more interactive way of getting the message across. Being walked through some slideshow presentations is not going to capture their attention in any meaningful way.

Employee Feedback

Of course, you shouldn’t just transmit the safety standards to your employees. It should be a conversation. After all, they’re the ones who are “on the front line, ”every day, most likely in a way that you never are. As such, there’ll have a much better understanding of any safety vulnerabilities the site might have than you will. To ensure that this important information doesn’t stay locked in your staff members’ heads, create a policy of open conversation. This is crucial when it comes to making sure no safety stones have been left unturned, and is also just a generally positive environment to create in your workplace.

Updated Practices

Your safety rules and practices shouldn’t be set in stone. They should be updated and adapted as needs demand. If you have a new way of operating or invest in a new machine, make sure you’re developing a safety code of conduct that’s specific to those things. This is where some of your employee feedback will come in handy, too. As a general rule, you should be reviewing your safety methods every few months or so, even if nothing about the way the factory has changed since the last review. It’s an ongoing process that will develop and morph over time.

The Surrounding Area

It’s important to keep in mind the area that surrounds your factory as well as its interior. Through the process of manufacturing, you might contaminate the soil or water that surrounds your worksite, which can lead to health complications. These may be different from the incidents that commonly occur in a factory setting, but should be treated just as seriously. If contamination happens at your site, then take a look at https://hepure.com/product-list/feroxzero-valent-iron-powders/, and begin the environmental remediation process. It’s not something that will necessarily pose an immediate threat to your business or employees, but it’s something that needs to be managed.

Common Injuries

The bulk of the injuries that happen in your factory setting will be minor. They’ll be things like everyday slips and falls, or cuts. However, even though they might be comparatively minor, you’ll need to take any incident seriously. Have an incident book so you can jot down what happened and why, even if all that was required was a band-aid. By recording everything that happens, you will, over time, begin to get a snapshot of why these incidents occur, which you can then use to adjust your safety procedures. While talking about common injuries, it’s important to note that slips and falls will be the most common injury; you can limit how often they occur by getting a floor that doesn’t lend itself to slips, and encourage your employees to wear footwear that is appropriate for your type of flooring.

Break Times

It’s rarely the machine that is dangerous, but the person using it. The majority of incidents are caused by human error. But in fact, even the human errors are created by a human error: not giving staff members enough downtime during the day. There’s an upper limit to how long a human can concentrate before getting tired. And it’s usually when a person is tired that an accident happens. Even when you have busy deadlines, make sure you’re giving your staff enough breaks. It’s usually only when a person stops working for a few moments that they realize how tired they are – by enforcing breaks, an accident may be avoided.

First aid Training

As we mentioned earlier, the bulk of incidents that happen on your worksite will be small. However, there will be times when something more serious happens. During these times, it’ll be useful if you have someone on the team who has had first aid training. It’s worthwhile offering this type of training to your employees; you may wish to offer an incentive to anyone who signs up. It might just prevent something tragic from happening.

An Orderly Space

While it’s important to have safety practices for all the machines and the factory as a whole, sometimes the biggest impact you can have it simply keeping the space tidy and orderly. If there are too many things on the floor, then it’ll only be a matter of time before an accident happens. There should be nothing on the floor that doesn’t positively need to be there. A tidy space is a safe space!

What Really Makes A Customer Choose Your Service?

Two of the key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. The lifeblood of any business is its customer base as it won’t thrive without sales. As such, businesses need to understand what the customers are thinking, and what’s important to them. The following contributed post is thus entitled, What Really Makes A Customer Choose Your Service?

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One of the major things that you always need to try and master in business is how to get enough customers to choose your business, your services and be loyal to your way of doing things. Marketing is all about making sure that this is more likely, but if you only ever outsource your marketing you might not really have come to grips with what makes someone choose one thing over another. Personal differences and taste will always come into it in some way or another, but there are also many things we can infer from the evidence too. In this post, we are going to discuss just three things which can often make a customer choose one service or business over all the others. Improve and work on these, and you will be moving in the right direction.

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A Bold Brand

The marketing is there for a reason – it works when it is done well. Arguably the most central part of marketing is the brand – as long as you have got that right, you will find that you are much more able to get plenty of customers on your side. Very often, the brand makes an unconscious difference to the point where it might even be the thing that tips the scale. If you can work on your brand to the point where you are truly happy with it, you will find that this makes a huge difference and brings that many more customers to your doors and to your products. You’ll probably want a marketing firm to help you and let you know what kind of branding is likely to work, which is fine. But make sure it is original and creative as well.

A Strong Reputation

Just as with your personal life, you want to make sure that you have a strong reputation for your business too, as it is one of the biggest influences on whether people choose your service and product, or whether they go elsewhere. There are many things which affect your business’ reputation, and it is worth acquainting yourself with some of the more important ones and working on building them up as best as you possibly can. For instance, you will find that having a good reputable address makes a difference to what people think of your business, so using a virtual office address if you don’t have a reputable one yourself can really help things along massively. Or you might want to think about acting in a manner which is ethical, focusing on, say, environmental policies. A better reputation makes all the difference in the world.

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The Better Product

Finally, let’s not forget the product or service itself. The most important thing is that your service or product is as good as possible, in such a manner that it will encourage people to spread the word. If that happens, then you will be drawing in more customers away from other rival businesses merely because you are actually offering the better product – that is definitely the most pleasing way to go about things.

Learning To Achieve A Compliant Hire

Two key focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. Hiring workers is an important component of most businesses. It’s a complex process though, with numerous considerations. The following contributed post is therefore entitled, Learning To Achieve A Compliant Hire.

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Taking on employees and putting them to work is a fundamental part of business. Without the ability to have people working for you, it would be incredibly difficult to grow your company, leaving you stuck as a sole-trader for years to come. Thankfully, you have the chance to take on a team of your own. As you start getting into this, though, it will quickly become clear just how complex this sort of field can be. To help you to keep your recruitment compliant, this post will be exploring the best ways to learn about employment law, and the rules you have to follow during this process.

Recruitment Site Rules

Most companies will use a recruitment site when they are looking to take on a new group of employees, and this gives you a great place to start when it comes to understanding the law. These businesses don’t want to get in trouble because of the ads which are posted, and will create sets of rules which their users have to follow. In most cases, as long as you’re not breaking the rules of the site, your job advert will be compliant. Of course, though, this only covers the very beginning of the recruitment process. To ensure that you have the best possible chances of staying out of trouble, you will need to spend some time learning for yourself.

Researching Onboarding

Taking on an employee is a complicated process, involving loads of paperwork, and even some hunting to find the details which you need. Hiring someone who already has a lot of experience in the field of HR can help with this, as they will already know what needs to be done, solving the issue right away. If you can’t afford this, though, you will need to look for information for yourself. There are loads of blogs, videos, and other resources which can be used to give you an idea of what needs to be done when you’re hiring an employee. Once you have them working for you, though, the real legal work will have to begin.

Keeping Them Happy

Avoiding legal issues when you have people working for you should be nice and easy. A lot of the rules you have to follow are very simple, and training people correctly can often enough to avoid trouble, even when something goes wrong. An employment law firm can be invaluable when you’re working on something like this. Not only can a company like this give you advice, but they will also be able to help if you get into trouble, making them very powerful when you find yourself facing legal issues as the result of an unhappy staff member.

With all of this in mind, you should be feeling ready to get started on hiring your next group of employees without a hitch. Breaking laws like these can have a huge impact on your company, with some crimes resulting in large fines or even prison time for those highest in the business responsible, and this is something you will want to avoid.

Surviving An Extreme Case Of Remote Business

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. When you start a business, there may come times where you have to run your business from a distance. As such it’s important to think about what you would in those instances to keep your operations running as seamlessly as possible. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Surviving An Extreme Case Of Remote Business.

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When you first start your business, it can be hard to foresee what might be around the corner in a few year’s time. Your circumstances will almost certainly change and adapt, leaving you in a very different spot to where you started, and a lot of people struggle to balance this with their company. When you’re forced away from your business, for example, it can feel almost impossible to keep things afloat. To help you out with this, this post will be exploring three of the most extreme cases of remote working out there, giving you an idea of what you can do to survive if you ever find yourself in one.

Living Abroad

There are a lot of different factors which can see a business person migrating around the globe. If you started your company in another country, for example, you may find that it becomes harder to get visas in the future. Forcing you to move back to your original home, this can leave your company without proper leadership. To ensure that this doesn’t hurt your company, you will need to find someone who can run the venture using your instructions. They will need to be someone who can communicate with you as often as possible, though, making it worth having someone dedicated to this task.

Being Incarcerated

It’s easy to make a mistake which can land you in big trouble, and a lot of people have things like this come back to bite them when they don’t handle it in the past. Running a business from a prison cell is a very challenging task, unfortunately. Good criminal defence lawyers may be able to get you more computer access while you’re locked up, under the condition that it is only used for business. If you can’t have this, though, taking a similar route to the first option is a good idea, along with taking detailed reports about the company whenever you can. For this role, you will need someone willing to visit the prison as often as possible.

Getting Sick

While it may not sound as dramatic as the option above, getting seriously ill can have a devastating effect on your ability to conduct business. For example, if you are bedbound, you simply won’t be able to go to the office. Thankfully, being in bed doesn’t mean that you can’t work, though, and it can be worth building a solution this if it is going to be a long-term issue. For things which are temporary, you could simply hire someone to fill in the gap while you’re gone and take over again once you’re feeling better.

With all of this in mind, you should be ready to start working on securing yourself in case you ever have to move away from your business. Remote working is becoming more and more popular, making it easier to find tools which can help in this area. Of course, though, there are others issues like this, and you may have to creative if you want to solve them.

7 Things Every Website Needs To Be Successful

Two key focuses of my blog are Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. A key aspect of conducting business today is having a functional and user-friendly website. What’s needed for a website to be successful? The following contributed post is entitled, 7 Things Every Website Needs To Be Successful.

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Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

When it comes to building a user-friendly website that is both successful and easy to use, it’s hard to know where to start. There are so many different things to consider in order to run a website efficiently that often, people can get carried away and start to overload their customers with information and widgets. Whilst they may seem useful at the time, gadgets and gizmos don’t make a website automatically successful.

With that in mind, here are 7 things every website needs to be successful:

1. A Pleasing Aesthetic

The first thing people will notice when they visit your website is what it looks like. If they don’t enjoy the aesthetic and find it hard to view, they’re likely to click off and find another website.

Although it may seem as though you have to put thousands and thousands into a site to make it aesthetically pleasing, there are lots of templates available on sites like Etsy.com that you can purchase for as low as $20 – all of which of are perfect in terms of their layouts.

2. To Be Easy To Use And Navigate Around

When designing your website you need to ensure it’s easy to use from a user perspective. The best way to do this is to think about how you would move through your website as a customer. Can you find everything you need? Is your navigation bar easy to find? Is it clear how to reach every single page on your site?

If you can answer yes to all of the above questions, it’s safe to assume your customers will feel the same.

3. A Blog To Share Relevant And Engaging Content

Having a blog on your website is a great way to share content your customers with love and engage with. In some cases, it’s also a useful tool for allowing potential customers to discover your brand and your site. For tips on how to start a blog for your brand, you can visit this website here.

4. A Really Good Developer (Just In Case)

Whether you have built your site your self or hand a developer build it for you, it’s always good to ensure you have a really good developer on hand just in case. They’ll be able to help you should any issues arise, helping reduce the amount of downtime your website has (if any at all).

For some of the top custom software development companies, you can visit the previous link.

5. Clear Contact Details

If a potential or existing customer wants to contact you but they can’t find your contact details, they’re most likely going to take their custom elsewhere. Having your contact clear at the top or bottom of every page on your site is the best way to ensure you don’t lose any customers due to them not being able to ask you an all-important question.

Do you own a successful website? Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comment section below.

Human Error In Healthcare Businesses: What Are The Solutions?

Three of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Health/Wellness. No matter what arena it is, there will always be some element of human error. When you’re in a healthcare business, errors can be particularly dangerous. As such its important to figure out how to minimize errors in your healthcare business. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Human Error In Healthcare Businesses: What Are The Solutions?

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While human error is by no means limited to healthcare businesses only – every industry has to battle the issue – it could be argued that human error is particularly costly when it comes to medicine. Medical staff are highly-trained, dedicated, and expert individuals, but everyone is human, and – to borrow a famous quote – to err is one of the most human of traits.

For years, owners of all healthcare-related businesses – ranging from private clinics to pharmacies to research labs – just had to accept that human error was inevitable, and to try to limit the damage when it occurred. However, modern medicine is very different indeed, and if you own a pharmacy or medical practice, you’re sure to be delighted by such a development.

Understanding the reasons for human error

When anyone makes a mistake, most of us are trained just to accept it, telling ourselves that these things happen. This is a fairly reasonable response, and there is no benefit to seeing a single error as a reflection of an individual’s overall capabilities, it is perhaps overlooking a key issue: well-being.

Simply put, errors are more likely if someone is not at their best. If they are tired, stressed, anxious, or feeling physically unwell, then an individual is more likely to make mistakes. Over recent years, a societal trend has emerged acknowledging that while some errors will always happen, many more are preventable. You might need to look at increasing your staff levels to reduce pressure or hire more experienced staff who can better handle the complex challenges facing your business. List vacancies on niche sites such as the allied health jobs board for the best applications.

In the course of running your medical business, embracing the above approach can be hugely beneficial. If you focus on ensuring your staff are at their best by managing their schedule, encouraging good employee health practices, and encouraging staff to approach you if they feel unwell or off their game, you stand an excellent chance of reducing human errors that may otherwise have caused huge problems.

The introduction of tech

An understanding of the reasons people make errors is important, but in terms of reducing human error in medical businesses, nothing is quite so efficient as automation. Machines and technology are unencumbered by issues such as stress and overwork, and are thus able to perform tasks with greater accuracy and consistency than their human counterparts.

There are few areas of medicine that are not benefiting from automated interventions. From the well-known benefits of devices that facilitate pharmacy automation and analysis of test results to futuristic ideas such as robotic surgery, automation is changing medicine for the better.

Due to the incredible abilities offered by modern technological advances such as those described above, human error is no longer a factor that just has to be accepted. By investing in tech, you can ensure that your staff have more time to spend interacting with patients, while automated technologies work hard in the background to produce excellent, almost entirely error-free results.

In conclusion

As the above demonstrates, owners of any kind of medical business are now able to better manage human error than at any other point in history. By combining a focus on employee health and well-being with automated technologies, you can embrace a new, exciting future that significantly improves the working life of your staff, reduces overall errors, and ultimately boosts your business’ chances of success.

Construction of the Future – Where to Take Your Business Next

Two of the key areas of my focus of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. A key sector of our economy is construction. It’s cyclical and is very competitive. It’s thus important to strategically know where to take you business. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Construction of the Future – Where to Take Your Business Next.

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The construction market has never been more competitive than it is right now. There are construction businesses popping up right, left and centre, ready to take your customers right underneath your nose. Just because construction relies on some old-school skills, it doesn’t mean the business should never progress. Here’s what you should be thinking about for the future of your construction business.

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Reset Your Goals

When it comes to business, goals should be newly set every year. The construction industry is no different. Perhaps your profit goals will change or maybe you intend on hiring more staff in the future. Whichever goals you set for your business, you need to make sure they are realistic. Every business wants to be successful but trying to run before you can walk could be the death of you. When you want to succeed, your goals should be based on proper research and the evidence of what you can and can’t do.

Find Your Niche

As a construction company, you won’t be able to offer everything. Therefore, it’s important to find a few niches where you can excel and deliver quality products to clients. For example, Ranger excel at rigging. Rather than trying to expand and offer more to your clients, try to focus on how you can better what you already do. Perhaps investing in the latest technology will help you to work quicker and take on more clients as a result.

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Take Work Off Your Plate

When there’s so much work to do, seeking out new contracts can distract you from fulfilling the ones you already have. Using a tendering professional could take your mind off getting new clients so you’re free to work on projects. Applying for big contracts isn’t an easy thing to do, so the more help you have the better. It also takes the pressure off beating the competition to the finish line. Tendering can be a massive weight off your shoulders.

Revolutionise Your Business

As mentioned above, investing in technology can be a great way to take your business to the next level. In fact, if you want to spark the interest of bigger and profitable clients, technology is your best friend. With things like project management software, construction apps and easier ways to stay in touch with clients, your job is made a lot easier. The construction industry is one of the biggest for clients that stay loyal for years, so the better relationship you can create with your clients with the use of technology, the more likely they are to stay.

Online Presence

Your clients aren’t searching through the phone books to find you anymore. If you want to get the right clients, you need to be online and visible. Every business, including those in the construction industry, needs a marketing strategy. Use social media often, consistently update your website and encourage clients to leave positive reviews where potential clients can see them.

Construction of the future is more convenient for both you and your clients, so continue to think outside the box.

5 Things That Will Keep Your Business Running Smoothly In The Long Run

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. When running any business enterprise, it’s important to know what things you can do to assure its longevity. What are some things you can do? The following contributed post is entitled, 5 Things That Will Keep Your Business Running Smoothly In The Long Run.

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If you want to keep your business running smoothly in the long run – and let’s face it, who doesn’t? You’re going to need to know what to do. Long term success is all down to the habits and methods that you adopt now, so take a look at the 5 things below and see what you should be doing:

1. Know What You Can Outsource And What Only You Can Provide
Outsourcing is a very effective technique for keeping your business going and helping you to free up time. You could outsource to a freelancer for example, and this is a great thing to do if you only need a job doing occasionally rather than all the time – why make a permanent hire if it’s not something you will always need? Outsourcing can be super effective if you know how to do it properly.

That being said, you should also make sure you’re aware of what only your business can provide. If you’re experts in something or you’re selling something as completely unique and special to your business, you should probably find a way to get that done in-house.

2. Find Apps That Can Automate Many Of The Tasks You Do
There are likely many apps and pieces of software out there that you can use to automate many of the tasks that you do. If there are small tasks that you tend to do every day, for example, then have a look for things that could take the burden away from you so you can free up more time. In business, time is usually more valuable than money, or at least just as important.

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3. Hire People And Find Services Who Can Help You To Keep Your Business Up And Running
Have a look at people and services that will help you to keep your business up and running. Sometimes, this is something very simple, such as a professional cleaner to come once or twice a week and keep things looking presentable – expecting your employees to do this is a mistake. It can cause resentment, and they won’t do as good a job as a professional cleaner. You might find something a little more specialised is important, like medical gas equipment repair and full maintenance services from a place like MTAUSA.com/medical-gasservices/. Whatever you need, make sure you do your research to find the right service and company for you.

4. Take Marketing Seriously
Marketing should be taken seriously, whether you’re a small home based business or a business that already have a steady stream of customers. Social media marketing and content marketing are two of the most effective ways to market your business right now.

5. Consistent Customer Service Training
Customer service is key to your success. In the digital age where people can share information about your business in a matter of moments, keeping people happy is a must. Make sure you invest in consistent customer service training so that you can build a great reputation and a happy customer base.

The Customer Is King: How To Ensure Your Clients Feel Like VIPs

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. The lifeblood of any business is its customer base. Keeping them happy is in most cases, ensuring success. The following contributed post is thus entitled, The Customer Is King: How To Ensure Your Clients Feel Like VIPs.

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If you run a business, there’s every chance you’re familiar with the old adage, ‘the customer is king.’ Sadly, while many companies strive to provide a VIP experience, not all succeed in the mission to put the customer first. If you’re eager to improve your review scores, you’d like to put more emphasis on customer service, or you’re looking to raise your game to leave the competition in your wake, here are some suggestions to ensure your clients feel like royalty.

Analyze what you’re offering
If you’re running marketing campaigns, you’re offering promotions, you’re sending out emails on a daily basis, and you’re providing new customers with incentives, it can be difficult to keep track of what you’re actually offering. Take a moment to analyze exactly what you’re providing for new and existing customers, read through your offers and adverts carefully, and make sure you can deliver on your promises. Check the small print, and ensure that clients have access to information about the terms and conditions attached to promotions and discounts. It’s also essential to realize your legal responsibilities as a business owner. If you sell products, for example, the last thing you want is to be challenged by a customer seeking legal advice about consumer claims. Your products should meet the relevant safety and quality standards, you should provide accurate descriptions, and you should have a refund policy in place. To avoid complaints and negative reviews, it’s crucial to ensure that you can fulfil promises, so take a good look at the promotions, products, and services you’re offering, verify that the information you’re providing is correct, and make sure you tick every legal box.

Image by https://pixabay.com/en/bargain-action-up-to-date-offer-453492/

Act on feedback
More and more businesses ask for feedback. Research shows that over 90% of people now read reviews before making a decision about which product to buy or which brand to choose. With reviews playing an increasingly important role in the decision-making process, it’s crucial to make use of feedback. If you’ve asked clients to provide and share comments, take the time to read and digest them, and act on them. It can be tempting to focus on positive feedback, which provides a feel-good factor, but negative comments can be even more valuable. If you know you’ve got something wrong, or you’re doing something that your customers don’t like, you can take steps to address the issue before you get any more comments. Feedback can also give you an insight into how consumers view your brand and provide you with ideas and inspiration to push your business forward.

Picture source: https://pixabay.com/en/information-feedback-3011747/

Don’t overlook loyal customers
Sometimes, businesses are guilty of chasing new customers so ferociously that they overlook their existing clients. As a company owner, there is nothing more valuable than a repeat customer. You’ve got a ready-made client ready and waiting to buy from you again, and that customer is also likely to recommend you to friends and family. If you’re building your client base, it’s natural to want to attract new customers, but don’t underestimate the importance of loyalty. Offer incentives for new clients, but don’t forget to reward those who have already contributed to your profits. There are lots of ways you can celebrate loyalty, from rewards cards to access to special offers or exclusive events. Remember that there’s nothing to stop your customers being lured in by introductory offers advertised by the competition.

Offer a personalized service
Even if you’re one of a million customers, it’s nice to feel special. When you run a business, and you’re focused on providing exceptional standards of customer service, it’s incredibly beneficial to add a personal touch. This could mean anything from offering a bespoke shopping service to sending out personalized emails or offers on a customer’s birthday. Instead of addressing all your customers with a generic subject line and welcome, add that customer’s name. Research shows that personalized emails have a higher conversion rate. Use your own experiences as a customer. What has impressed you, and what has put you off choosing a specific company or brand?

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Create a positive user experience
When you go shopping, you browse your inbox, or you take a look at a website, what do you look for? Many buyers are now looking for more than a simple transaction, which involves swapping cash for a product or a service. Modern consumers want to enjoy an experience, which feels new, fresh, and engaging. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes for a moment. Take a walk through your salon, store, or restaurant, spend half an hour navigating your way around your website and take a look at the emails you send out to subscribers. Make notes. Are there changes you could make to enhance the experience? Could you offer new features on your site? Is it possible to improve the aesthetic of your shop or add ambiance with music or lighting? Could you provide a more luxurious experience by offering clients at your hair or beauty salon a coffee with fancy latte art or a glass of bubbly? Try and be original, and match the changes you make to your brand and the target market.

Picture courtesy of https://www.flickr.com/photos/poyang/23118050

Provide staff training
If customer service is an essential part of your business, or this is an area in which you’re keen to make improvements, make sure your staff has the relevant training, knowledge and skills to achieve the desired outcomes. If you own a restaurant, it doesn’t matter how brilliant the food is or how spectacular the interior looks. If the waiting staff is rude, this is what the diner will remember. Training can help employees to develop confidence and to understand what exceptional customer service entails.

To make it to the top in business, you have to be able to impress both new and existing customers. Consumers aren’t happy to settle for sub-standard products or poor customer service, and as a business owner, it’s your job to make sure that your customers feel like VIPs. If you can prioritize customer service, deliver on promises, add a personal touch and provide your clients with a positive, memorable experience, this will stand you in good stead to expand your business, attract rave reviews, and hopefully reap financial rewards.

It’s Time to Focus On Your Small Business’ Shipping Options

Two of the focuses of my blog are Financial Literacy/Money and Business/Entrepreneurship. If your business generates products that need to be shipped, you must understand the logistics of your operations and make sure they run seamlessly. The following contributed post is entitled, It’s Time to Focus On Your Small Business’ Shipping Options.

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As a small business owners, chances are that your thought process focuses mostly on developing products, manufacturing them, advertising them, and encouraging consumers to buy them. But processing a sale isn’t the end of your work. You need to make sure that your products can make their way to them too! Shipping is an extremely important business process, especially if you are based online. So, let’s take a moment to focus on shipping and how your business should deal with it!

National Shipping

The first type of shipping that you should focus on is national shipping. It’s highly likely that the majority of your customers are going to be from the country that your business is based in – especially when you are first starting out. But it’s still good to offer them a few different options when it comes to shipping. Different customers have different preferences and needs, and you want to cater to as many people as possible!

Economy

Every business should offer economy delivery. This is the most basic of the basics. Depending on the courier you use, items should generally be with their recipients within three to five business days. It tends to be a good option for customers who aren’t all too fussed about getting their items straight away and who have patience. The benefit of economy postage is that it tends to be the lowest cost option. It can save customers money and this is likely to boost sales, as it brings the overall price of purchasing and receiving the product down.

Next Day

Next day delivery is a great option. Customers will have to pay more for it, but it does mean that they can have their goods the very next day, as long as they order before the deadline. Make sure that the deadline is set at a reasonable time that will allow you to source and package the product that they have requested and get it on its way to them. Increasing numbers of customers are leaving their shopping until last minute. This means that the option of next day delivery can make or break a sale – if they’re not going to get their item in time for when they need it, they’re not going to purchase it.

Same Day

Same day delivery tends to remain in the territory of major corporations who have huge numbers of staff to fulfill orders extremely quickly. But it may be an option for locals who are interested in having products delivered nearby – you could take their purchase to them yourself!

International Shipping

While you don’t have to offer international shipping, it really is a good idea. At the end of the day, you never know where your next biggest market will be. If you are selling online, chances are that anyone with an internet connection can access your online store and browse your goods. Make sure that all of these people can make purchases if they want to! Sure, international postage can be expensive. But at the end of the day, you can just charge the customer the true cost of posting and if they really want the product, they’ll pay the full amount.

Shipping Hazardous Goods

When you send items via the national postal service or by courier, you will generally have to declare whether you are sending any hazardous goods. But it’s important that you familiarise yourself with what constitutes hazardous goods – there may be items included on the list that surprise you. Batteries are a good example of this. The majority of us wouldn’t consider batteries to be dangerous, but if they leaked or came into contact with heat, they could actually prove to be. Remember to ensure that any hazardous goods are packaged appropriately and declared. This will help postal staff to deal with the package safely and correctly. Battery packaging can be found at C.L. Smith. Other potentially hazardous items include:

• Aerosols
• Alcohol
• Ammunition
• Asbestos
• Balloons
• Biological Substances
• Clinical or medical waste
• Controlled drugs and narcotics
• Corrosives
• Dry Ice
• More – you can find a list here.

Tracking

It would be great if we could send anything that we sell as a standard parcel and know that it will definitely make its way to the customer and that the customer will be acknowledge its arrival. But, unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. There are cases where items go missing in the post and don’t actually make their way to their recipient. There are also cases where dishonest people will claim that a parcel never arrived in a bid to keep its contents but receive a refund too – essentially getting the goods for free at our expense. So, if you are sending an item that is of particular value, chances are that you don’t want to risk this. You can combat these potential issues by sending your packages with tracking. This means that you will be able to see updates on the parcel’s progressing, seeing where it made it to and determining when and where it went missing if this were to happen. It also means that in order to take the package, someone will have to sign for it. People cannot then falsely claim that it hasn’t arrived. Sure, tracked postage costs more. But if the item you’re sending is of value, then the extra postage costs are more than worth it.

Returns and Exchanges

There’s always a chance that customers will want to return or exchange their products. So, to make this process as simple as possible for all involved, you might want to include a returns label in their package. If they don’t like what they’ve got, they can simply package it back up and stick the returns label on. This means that they won’t get the wrong address and the item will make its way back to you.

Shipping might not be the most exciting business topic, but it is essential. So, make sure that you’re doing it properly and offering your customers sufficient choice. This could help you to make a whole lot more profit in the long run!