Tips for Curing Bad Customer Service

Tips for Curing Bad Customer Service

by: David Bell

Bad customer service is everywhere these days — unmanned front desks, surly servers, clueless staff, employees talking on the phone, and managers who refuse to acknowledge a customer. It’s no longer an exception … poor service has become the norm.

In an alltootypical scene, a customer walks into a retail store with a question about where to find a product. The employee, who is busy and doesn’t want to be bothered, gives the customer a curt answer and continues what she is doing without even looking the customer in the eye. The customer persists, so, with obvious annoyance, the employee begrudgingly turns around and points the customer in the general direction of the product’s location. Instead of buying the product, the customer leaves the store, frustrated, vowing to never return.

Most business owners and employees recognize this as a classic example of bad customer service. And yet, this scene is repeated endlessly in modern society. Negativity breeds negativity, and eventually, nobody is happy.

ขNever, never, never ignore a customer,ข says Art Waller, Regional Department Head for Utah State University. Waller provides tips on how to improve customer relations, a vital segment of any business.

ขIt’s important to be accessible,ข Waller said. ขEverything is an interruption. A phone rings, someone comes into an office, that’s an interruption. But if a customer is right there, do that first. That’s why you’re there.

One of the single most important aspects of a successful business is good customer service. Waller cited recent findings in customer service. A typical business only hears from 4 percent of its dissatisfied customers. The other 96 percent quietly go away. Of this 96 percent, 68 percent never reveal their dissatisfaction because they perceive an attitude of indifference in the owner, manager or employee.

Waller said this statistic is particularly dangerous for businesses because if a dissatisfied customer can’t express their complaints to a business, they’ll express them through other outlets such as friends, neighbors and family. A typical dissatisfied customer will tell eight to ten people about their problem. One in five will tell 20.

ขIt takes 12 positive service incidents to make up for one negative incident,ข Waller said. ขSeven out of ten complaining customers will do business with you again if you resolve the complaint in their favor. If you resolve it on the spot, 95 percent will do business with you again.ข

Waller said these statistics speak to the importance of taking action. Often an employee perceives dissatisfaction in a customer, but chooses to ignore it and hopes that the problem will go away. However, if the customer then goes away with the problem, the customer will likely never return to the business. This trend is what hurts businesses more than anything.

ขWe don’t have the ability to keep people that are already happy with our product,ข Waller said. ขThe average business spends six times more to attract new customers than it does to keep old ones. Yet customer loyalty is in most cases worth 10 times the price of a single purchase.ข

The first step is recognizing tendencies toward bad customer service. But how do businesses improve their overall customer service? Waller offered some basic tips:

Like what you do

ขIf you don’t love what you do, get the heck out,ข Waller said. ขIf you love what you do, it will be evident and people will know it.ข

People who have a bad attitude about what they do will reflect their attitude onto everyone around them, including customers. Like most everything in life, good customer service always comes back to attitude.

ขIf you believe your customers are a pain in the butt, guess what — you’re right,ข he said. ขWhat you say, what you do, and what you think are the same thing.ข

Learn to adjust your perception

Because good customer service depends on a good attitude, a bad attitude will surely diminish any facade of friendliness. Waller recommends that employees analyze what is causing their negative outlook and make a conscious effort to change, rather than cover it up with a false smile

ขHow do you change a belief of certainty?ข Waller asked. ขYou take out references and change it. Over time, it changes that belief system.ข

Establish Rapport

Customers will do business with people they like. Employees gain this approval by establishing rapport, or a positive connection, with a customer. Rapport can be established by simple gestures such as calling a customer by their name, recognizing mutual interests, asking questions, and making eye contact. The customer instantly recognizes the employee as someone who cares about their wellbeing, and is more likely to do business with the company,

ขWon’t you spend more money to go to a car dealership where you’ve been treated well?ข Waller asked. ขDevelop a genuine interest in and admiration for your customers.ข

So what happens when an employee doesn’t establish rapport? The customer automatically meets that employee with more suspicion, which leads to distrust, which leads to potential conflict.

Avoid a standoff

Many times businesses find themselves locked in an argument with a complaining customer that becomes impossible to resolve. Waller said the way to prevent this is to avoid the argument in the first place. His advice is to step back, analyze where the customer is coming from, and form a solution from their standpoint, not yours.

ขI never fought with them,ข Waller said. ขIn fact, I went into a dance with them. You’ve got to dance with them. You have the empathize, and get into their world.ข

Be reliable, be responsive and be credible

Local cable and utility companies are a prime example businesses that do not possess these qualities, Waller said. When a customer calls up in need of service, they give vague ideas of when they’ll be there (ขsometime between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.ข), sometimes don’t show up at all, and are generally indifferent to customers’ concerns. Because of this behavior, they have lost nearly all credibility in the public eye.

On the other hand, businesses such as MercedesBenz, Ritz Carlton Hotels, and Disneyland have all gained reputations for immaculate customer service, where employees are always nearby to cater to customers’ every need at any time. These businesses gained this reputation with years of training their employees to put the customer first.

ขThe customer’s perception is everything,ข Waller said. ขPeople pay for peace of mind. They want security, integrity, and the assurance that if there is a problem, it will be promptly handled.ข

All of these tips come down to the platinum rule, or to ขtreat people like they want to be treated.ข This rule takes the Golden Rule a step higher, forcing the employee to assess exactly what the customer wants and act accordingly, not just act as they would want to act in the same situation.

ขYou can’t reach everyone the same way,ข he said. ขYou don’t deal with reality. Nobody does. We deal with our perception of reality.ข

Waller said any attitude in good customer service fits in the ขas ifข clause. Always act ขas ifข you are the only personal contact that the customer has with the business, and behave ขas ifข the entire reputation of the business depends on you.

ขThe ‘as if’ clause puts you where you need to be,ข Waller said. ขThe bottom line comes down to relationships and how you treat others.ข

I hope this helps in your future marketing decisions.

About The Author

David Bell

http://www.wspromotion.com/

Advertising research and development center

This article was posted on April 09

by David Bell

You Need To Treat Your Website Like An Employee

You Need To Treat Your Website Like An Employee Hereกs 5 Ways To Do It

by: Mike Cheney

People often come to me in a state of crisis and say their website isn’t working. Usually they’re in a cold sweat:
กMike, give me some practical things I can do to get more sales from my website!ก
You want practical advice? Stop treating your website like an object in your business and start treating it like an employee. Most businesses treat their website like a physical item in their business such as a filing cabinet for example. Just take Mr. Smith from ABC Ltd.:
กEveryone else has got a filing cabinet so I thought weกd better get one. Iกm not very interested in cabinets myself but people seem to think they get you more customers. It looks quite neat though I made sure my face is on the front of it.ก
Very good. How much business do you get from it?
กBusiness? Oh I don’t know I haven’t even looked at it for a year or so. Itกs been a waste of money. We paid a company to build it and it doesn’t work.ก
Right, I see. Have you updated it regularly and promoted it extensively?
กWhat? No it went live and that was it, nothingกs happened. I thought the phone would be ringing off the hook. Come and have a look at it anyway, itกs over here in the corner gathering dust.ก
So here they are:
5 Ways To Treat Your Website Like An Employee And Make More Money As A Result
Treat your website like one of your employees and it will start to behave like one.
1. Look after your employees give them the attention they deserve, pay them well and don’t neglect their needs
2. Make sure your employees look the part first impressions count: scuffed shoes and scruffy clothes won’t bring in the business
3. Give them mobility buy them a company car so they can get out into the world and sell for you, they won’t sell much stuck in one place and not being found
4. Keep them informed give them the latest information on the focus of your company, new services, new sales scripts, latest changes to the way you do business etc.
5. Introduce them to everyone don’t let your employee feel like they’re on the sidelines of your business, separate to everyone else they need to be a fully integrated part of your business, not an afterthought bolted on at the last minute
Mike Cheney

www.magnet4web.com

About The Author

You can get free access to lots more of my articles plus a Free Bonus Special Report กHow To Turn Your Website Into A Customer Magnetก worth a value of £47 ($85) here: http://www.magnet4web.com/website_services/?page=freeguide

This article was posted on May 11, 2004

by Mike Cheney

Book Summary: First, Break All the Rules

Book Summary: First, Break All the Rules

by: Regine Azurin

This article is based on the following book:

First, Break All The Rules

‘What The World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently’

By Marcus Buckingham & Curt Coffman

Simon & Schuster

271 pages

Based on a mammoth research study conducted by the Gallup Organization involving 80,000 managers across different industries, this book explores the challenge of many companies attaining, keeping and measuring employee satisfaction. Discover how great managers attract, hire, focus, and keep their most talented employees!

Key Ideas:

The best managers reject conventional wisdom.

The best managers treat every employee as an individual.

The best managers never try to fix weaknesses; instead they focus on strengths and talent.

The best managers know they are on stage everyday. They know their people are watching every move they make.

Measuring employee satisfaction is vital information for your investors.

People leave their immediate managers, not the companies they work for.

The best managers are those that build a work environment where the employees answer positively to these 12 Questions:

Do I know what is expected of me at work?

Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?

At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best everyday?

In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?

Does my supervisor or someone at work seem to care about me as a person?

Is there someone at work who encourages my development?

At work, do my opinions seem to count?

Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is important?

Are my coworkers committed to doing quality work?

Do I have a best friend at work?

In the last six months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress?

This last year, have I had the opportunity at work to learn and grow?

The Gallup study showed that those companies that reflected positive responses to the 12 questions profited more, were more productive as business units, retained more employees per year, and satisfied more customers.

Without satisfying an employee’s basic needs first, a manager can never expect the employee to give stellar performance. The basic needs are: knowing what is expected of the employee at work, giving her the equipment and support to do her work right, and answering her basic questions of selfworth and selfesteem by giving praise for good work and caring about her development as a person.

The great manager mantra is don’t try to put in what was left out; instead draw out what was left in. You must hire for talent, and hone that talent into outstanding performance.

More wisdom in a nutshell from First, Break All the Rules:

1. Know what can be taught, and what requires a natural talent.

2. Set the right outcomes, not steps. Standardize the end but not the means. As long as the means are within the company’s legal boundaries and industry standards,let the employee use his own style to deliver the result or outcome you want.

3. Motivate by focusing on strengths, not weaknesses.

4. Casting is important, if an employee is not performing at excellence, maybe she is not cast in the right role.

5. Every role is noble, respect it enough to hire for talent to match.

6. A manager must excel in the art of the interview. See if the candidate’s recurring patterns of behavior match the role he is to fulfill. Ask openended questions and let him talk. Listen for specifics.

7. Find ways to measure, count, and reward outcomes.

8. Spend time with your best people. Give constant feedback. If you can’t spend an hour every quarter talking to an employee, then you shouldn’t be a manager.

9. There are many ways of alleviating a problem or nontalent. Devise a support system, find a complementary partner for him, or an alternative role.

10. Do not promote someone until he reaches his level of incompetence; simply offer bigger rewards within the same range of his work. It is better to have an excellent highly paid waitress or bartender on your team than promote him or her to a poor startinglevel bar manager.

11. Some homework to do: Study the best managers in the company and revise training to incorporate what they know. Send your talented people to learn new skills or knowledge. Change recruiting practices to hire for talent, revise employee job descriptions and qualifications.

About The Author

By: Regine P. Azurin and Yvette Pantilla

Regine Azurin is the President of BusinessSummaries.com, a company that provides business book summaries of the latest bestsellers for busy executives and entrepreneurs.

http://www.bizsum.com/lite.php

กA Lot Of Great Books….Too Little Time To Readก

Free Book Summaries Of Latest Bestsellers and More!

Mailto: [email protected]

BusinessSummaries is a BusinessSummaries.com service.

(c) Copyright 20012005, BusinessSummaries.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 14

by Regine Azurin

Why Hire an Advertising/Marketing Consultant?

Why Hire an Advertising/Marketing Consultant?

by: Mary Ellen Martelli

As a business owner, you have the option of taking several different approaches to handling your Marketing and Advertising. You may choose to handle the responsibility yourself, with the idea that no one understands your business quite the way you do.. You may also consider hiring a full time marketing manager or even assigning the tasks, as they arise, to someone already working within your organization. Consider this… When your business needs plumbing work do you do it yourself? Hire a plumber to be on staff full time? Or ask your accountant to handle it?

Call in the Experts.

Though some advertising and marketing ventures seems simple enough to be handled ‘’in house’’, nothing is as costly as a marketing misfire. Not only may you be sending out the wrong messages, to the wrong markets, but also by the time you catch it, your budget may be in no shape to recover and redirect. The truth is, no one can do the job as effectively and efficiently as someone who lives and breathes the industry everyday. Plus, the added perk of consistent media contacts that will prove to be financially beneficial to your business.

Seeing the forest and the trees.

When you hire a consultant you hire an objective opinion, as well as a fresh point of view. Sometimes a business may lose perspective on itself by being too heavily immersed in the daytoday operations, and lose itself in the big picture, missing the small details… or viceversa. Sadly, sometimes a business’s marketing will clearly reflect this. The president of a private jet company’s focus is on the bells and whistles of his fleet. It’s what he sees as important in his view of his business. Inevitably, his marketing may also focus on this portion of his business, ignoring what he is really selling to his potential clients: The feeling and the status of private jets.

If you add another ball, technically it is juggling.

If you, as a business owner, or an employee take on the added tasks of the marketing of the business, attention is being taken from other projects and responsibilities. Inescapably, focus and demands are bound to pull from one and take away from others until something falls to the floor. Consultants are dedicated to one, and only one, portion of your business. Their focus is committed, and they allow you to keep yours where it should be.

The Gumby Factor.

Consultants are very flexible. Immediately ready and available to take on assignments at a moment’s notice. Accessibility to getting a new project off the ground is just a phone call away. On the other hand, trying to hire a new employee specifically to handle your marketing needs takes valuable time to places ads; conduct interviews and then sort through applicants, hoping to find the right person for the job.

The M –Word Money.

When you total up the actual cost of bringing on a new employee, you will most likely find that hiring a consultant is much more cost effective. The hourly rates may seem to favor a full time employee, but when you factor in employee benefits, training time, vacation/sick time, 401(k), the added overhead involved in situating a new employee, and the sheer fact that you may be paying full time wages for something that may not need full time attention, the cost effectiveness will fall in favor of a consultant. Which bring us to….

The C Word Commitment.

Hiring a full time employee is a commitment. And bringing on an employee to handle a special marketing project, or set up an initial marketing plan, may in the long run leave you scrambling to find a new project or position for that employee. Or worse yet, you find yourself paying a full time marketing director to do basic maintenance. Hiring a consultant requires no longterm commitment. When a consultant completes a project, they have the flexibility to move into whatever position you need them, from quarterly analysis, to basic maintenance, to completely out of the picture, but on the sidelines when you’re ready to take a new step forward.

‘there are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.ก Franklin D. Roosevelt

About The Author

Mary Ellen Martelli is President of MareMax Consulting, a full service Advertising, Marketing & Website Consulting firm, located in the Southern New Jersey / Philadelphia area. You can reach her at her website: http://maremaxconsulting.com/

[email protected]

This article was posted on September 08

by Mary Ellen Martelli

Corporate Email Policies Lower Unnecessary Legal a

Corporate Email Policies Lower Unnecessary Legal and Security Risks

by: Anti Spam League

What comes to your mind when you think about your email? Email makes possible almost instant communication with your coworkers without leaving your desk, a quick note to a family member who lives far away, but also has a very annoying downside such as junk mail. Since the introduction of the Internet, email has been one of its primary uses. The fact that it is a fast, cheap and easy means of communication, makes email a great business tool. But there are also a series of threats for employers associated with email usage. Email threats such as confidentiality breaches, legal liability, lost productivity and damage to reputation cost organizations millions of dollars each year.

In the majority of cases, companies are held responsible for all the information transmitted on or from their systems. As a result, inappropriate emails can result in multimillion dollar penalties in addition to other costs. For example, a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) employee unintentionally sent a dirty joke entitled ‘Nuns in Heaven’ to 6,000 journalists and government officials on the agencyกs group email list. This employeeกs lapse in judgment and electronic mistake resulted in negative publicity and national embarrassment for the FCC. In the US, Chevron settled a case filed by four female employees for $2.2 million. The employees alleged that sexually harassing emails sent through the company’s email system caused a threatening work environment. One of the sexually offensive messages was a joke sheet titled ’25 reasons why beer is better than women’. A company can also be liable if one of its employees sends an email containing a virus.

Confidentiality breaches can be accidental, for instance when an employee selects a wrong contact name in the ‘To:’ field, or intentional, such as the case where an employee uses his corporate email account to send confidential information to one of the company’s competitors. In the latter case, both the employee and the recipient could be charged with trade secret theft. Nonetheless, whether it is by mistake or on purpose, the result of the loss of confidential data is the same.

Lost productivity due to inappropriate use of a firm’s email system is becoming a growing area of concern. A recent survey revealed that 86 per cent of workers used their company email to send and receive personal emails. Given that it has become very hard in our modern world to segregate peopleกs personal lives outside of the workday, companies struggle to find effective ways of balancing employee freedoms and corporate protection. In addition to personal emails, unwanted spam messages are a significant time waster. Spam and personal abuse of email can also cause a corporation’s email system to waste valuable bandwidth resources. A Gartner Group study held under 13,000 email users found that 90 percent receive spam at least once a week, and almost 50 percent get spammed more than 6 times a week. Personal emails cause network congestion since they are not only unnecessary, but tend to be mailed to a large list of recipients and often include large attachments such as mp3, executable or video files that users do not zip. Adopting an antispam system alone has not proven effective to stop spam. The combination of spam blockers with other methods of spam control technologies such as SIDF, SPF, Bayesian Filters, Blacklists, Whitelists, Anomaly Detection, and Spam Signatures has proven to be much more effective. There are also special organizations such as the AntiSPAMLeague.org that give Internet users the chance to report those individuals and companies that are responsible of spamming. You can become a member for free and learn how to control the spam problem by visiting their website at www.antispamleague.org. For more details on how to deal with spam, read the article ‘How Can I Stop It? The Challenging Task of Controlling Spam’.

How can a company protect itself from these threats? The first step in securing your organization is to create an email usage policy. Every company needs to establish a policy regarding use of and access to company email systems, and then tell all employees what its policy is. After you have created your email policy you must make sure it is actually implemented. This can be done by providing regular trainings and by monitoring employees’ email using some type of email security software. The email policy should be made available and easily accessible to all employees and should be included in employee handbooks and company intranets. It is best to include the email policy, or a short statement regarding the policy, in employment contracts. In this way the employee must acknowledge in writing that he/she is aware of the email policy and of the obligation to adhere to it.

What are some of the benefits of having a clear and effective email policy? First, it helps prevent email threats, since it makes your staff aware of the corporate rules and guidelines. Second, it can help stop any misconduct at an early stage by asking employees to come forward as soon as they receive an offensive email. Keeping the incidents to a minimum can help avoid legal liability. For example, in the case of Morgan Stanley, a US investment bank that faced an employee court case, the court ruled that a single email communication a racist joke, in this case cannot create a hostile work environment and dismissed the case against them. Third, if an incident does occur, an email policy can minimize the corporation’s liability for the employee’s actions. Previous cases have proven that the existence of an email policy can prove that the company has taken steps to prevent inappropriate use of the email system and therefore can be freed of liability. Fourth, if you are going to use email filtering software to check the contents of your employee’s emails, you must have an email policy that states this clearly. Some employees may argue that by monitoring their emails, companies are violating their privacy rights. However, court cases have shown that if the employer has warned the employee beforehand that their email might be monitored, the employer has a right to do so. People usually respond better when they know where they stand and what is expected of them.

The recent spike in the volume of spam traveling across the Internet, combined with the dangers of phishing and virus attacks that frequently accompany these messages, has forced corporations to reconsider how they determine which messages will be allowed into their network. For years, companies have addressed their email security needs through a mixture of third party software solutions designed to address specific areas of vulnerability. Today, however, this approach appears to be ineffective. New threats adapt to even the latest security technology, helping hackers and spammers stay a step ahead of most standalone protective measures. System administrators remain in a reactionary mode, waiting for the next attack and hoping their mixed bag of security software is up to the test.

The role of email in SarbanesOxley compliance cannot be overstated. The SarbanesOxley Act of 2002 and associated rules adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) require certain businesses to report on the effectiveness of their internal controls over financial reporting. Effective internal controls ensure information integrity by mandating the confidentiality, privacy, availability, controlled access, monitoring and reporting of corporate or customer financial information. Companies that must comply with SarbanesOxley include U.S. public companies, foreign filers in U.S. markets and privately held companies with public debt. U.S. companies with market cap greater than $75M and on an accelerated (2004) filing deadline are required to comply for fiscal years ending on or after Nov. 15, 2004. All others are required to comply for fiscal years ending on or after April 15.

Because the bulk of information in most corporations is created, stored, transmitted and maintained electronically, IT departments are responsible for ensuring that sound practices, including corporate wide information security policies and enforced implementation of those policies, are in place for employees at all levels. Information security policies should govern the following items:

Network security

Access controls

Authentication

Encryption

Logging

Monitoring and alerting

Preplanning coordinated incident response

Forensics

Most of us would agree that today email is the primary internal and external communication tool for corporations. Unfortunately, it is also one of the most exposed areas of a technology infrastructure. Email systems are critical to ensuring effective internal control over financial reporting, encryption of external messages and active policy enforcement, all essential elements of compliance. Companies must install a solution that actively enforces policy, stops offending mail both inbound and outbound and halts threats before internal controls are compromised, as opposed to passively noting violations as they occur. An effective email security solution must address all aspects of controlling access to electronically stored company financial information. Given the wide functionality of email, ensuring appropriate information access control for all of these points requires:

A capable policy enforcement mechanism to set rules in accordance with each company’s systems of internal controls;

Encryption capabilities to ensure privacy and confidentiality through secure and authenticated transport and delivery of email messages;

Secure remote access to enable remote access for authorized users while preventing access from unauthorized users;

Antispam and antiphishing technology to prevent malicious code from entering a machine and to prevent private information from being provided to unauthorized parties.

On a final note, some clear guidelines for a good and effective email policy include the following points: a) Emails should comply with the proper RFC protocols for email, 2) Employees should not attempt to obscure content or messages in emails, 3) Companies should post privacy policies where they can be read and understood, prior to submission of a request, 4) Employees should not send email to unverified or nonexistent email addresses, 5) Companies should offer users opportunities to optout of programs.

Given that developments in email and the Internet are changing so rapidly, it is essential to review the email policy at least once every quarter. Keep an eye on new developments in email and Internet law so that you are aware of any new regulations and opportunities. When you release new updates, it is preferable to have each user sign as acknowledgment of their receipt of the policy.

With all of this said, if you want to reduce electronic risks in the workplace you must take the initiative. Electronic disasters can ruin businesses, sink careers, send stock prices plummeting, and generate public relations nightmares. Do not wait for a disaster to strike; prevention is always your best defense. Visit www.AntiSpamLeague.org and they will help you develop and implement written email usage and privacy policies that clearly reflect your organizationกs expected standards of electronic behavior, along with privacy and monitoring policies.

About The Author

The purpose of the Anti SPAM League is to help consumers and business owners reduce the amount of SPAM they receive. In addition, our Anti SPAM organization believes that educating site owners in the area of SPAM prevention and ways to successfully and responsibly market their sites, is key in making a difference.

[email protected]

This article was posted on November 23, 2004

by Anti Spam League

A Simple Strategy to Increase Profits

A Simple Strategy to Increase Profits

by: Kathleen Gage

In today’s competitive business environment it is essential to find ways to reduce costs and increase revenues while keeping productivity and quality high. One of the best ways to achieve this is through hiring and retention of outstanding employees.

Far too often hiring managers rush through the hiring process due to being reactive rather than proactive when filling positions. With some preplanning in the hiring process and implementation of sound strategies once people join your organization, you will lower the cost of doing business by considerable amounts.

As you prepare to hire consider the following:

What type of person are you looking for?

What are the values that drive your company?

How difficult is the job you are filling?

Do you have anyone internally who can do the job?

How long will it take to find the right person for the position?

What are you willing to negotiate with the potential candidate?

In looking for potential candidates you may want to try more than the traditional employee search. Tap into your network of professional connections. Some of your best candidates may be working for your competitors. Be careful about hiring someone just because they are a friend or family member. Not that friends and family members don’t make good employees often they can be fantastic. And yet, if you are hiring them only because they are a friend or family member, you are setting yourself up for some big problems. With the wrong choice morale with other employees can go down. With the right choice it is just as likely to go up.

Think through the compensation package. Are the wages fair for the job, industry and market? Make sure your benefit package is competitive for your industry. Find out what other companies are offering as far as compensation and consider matching or beating their offerings.

There are occasions when someone may take a position without thinking through income, benefits or fit. Once they have gotten settled in and are feeling comfortable with the position and the company, they may realize the compensation and the job is not all it could be. That can cause some discontent on their part. To avoid this, do your homework.

Another key to keeping good employees is to make sure they are treated with respect, dignity and appreciation. This may seem like common sense and yet, it often doesn’t happen. I consult with various types of organizations employee retention and how to gain more commitment from the staff. I often will meet individually, in private, with a cross section of the staff. I spend at least an hour with each employee in a confidential meeting to find out their view of the company. Inevitably, the areas that are most lacking for the employee to be fully satisfied are communication and appreciation.

Once the area of discontent has been identified I design programs for the company in which to address the problems. What is amazing is the problem is often on the way to being solved by virtue of the fact the organization has brought me in. A common comment is, ขFinally, someone is listening to me.ข

Often, a company’s problems can be lessened with some good coaching and training of management. It is amazing how many managers and supervisors were put into their position without any training in interpersonal skills, management and supervisory skills, and how to communicate effectively. Nine times out of ten the people who need the most training are the ones who think they need it the least. And, they are often the biggest obstacle to the success of a company.

In order to stay competitive on all fronts you must keep your entire team on the leading edge. By doing so you will be in business for years to come with a happy, dedicated and productive team. And that will equal profits.

Copyright: © 2005 by Kathleen Gage

www.kathleengage.com

Publishing Guidelines: You may publish my article in your newsletter, on your web site, or in your print publication provided you include the resource box at the end. Notification would be appreciated but is not required.

About The Author

Do you want to gain massive visibility within your market? Kathleen Gage can help you do just that. As a published author, keynote speaker and top rated business advisor, Kathleen Gage teaches strategies that give high impact and high return. Sign up for Gage’s FR*EE Report ขLearn How a Salt Lake City base consultant made over $100,000 from one ideaข at www.kathleengage.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on January 27

by Kathleen Gage