Small Business Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Improve’

1.Be professional and polite: We all know that First Impression is Best Impression, so make it as best as possible. Lot of times we make some conclusions about people or the organisations within sometime after doing some interactions with them. Make your employees to be professional in handling customers and also polite. Provide them with adequate training and support in this area. This will not only boost their confidence but also helps make you more business efficiently.  

2.Be Knowledgeable of products or services: I have seen many times that the front-desk employees do not have enough knowledge about the products and services and when a customer enquires about them, either you will get the wrong information or no information related to it. Keeping your employees knowledgeable of your products or services, especially those who are interacting with customers like sales people and customer service personnel is very important if you want to deliver good customer service.

3.Consistently following the procedures and policies: Ensure the employees who are constantly interacting with outside customers follow the procedures and policies of your organisation like refund policies, warranty and guarantee policies, etc. In failing to do so, will cause unnecessary misunderstandings, chaos and other problems leading to poor customer satisfaction. Provide the employees with right set of tools and train them how to use those tools. You will have little time to provide the requested information to the customer, so make sure you have all the right tools and right training.

 4.Immediate resolution of complaints: It is very critical that you provide the solution to the Customers complaints as soon as possible. A poor timeline for resolution of problems of customers will lead to significant damage to company’s reputation and image, which will cause serious trouble to your business. Also document the complaints and their solutions for future reference, so that you can resolve those problems, if they resurface in future, immediately rather than reinventing the wheel.

 5.Taking feedbacks and putting them into action: The best way to improve your customer service and keep a touch with customers is to ask for feedback about your company, products and services. This way you not only know where you are lacking but also gets new insights about the expectations of the customers. Many organisations follow this method to stay competitive and improve their processes and products.

 6.Keep it Simple:Simplicity is the way to go in today’s businesses. You can see this approach in every business today. Take for example ipod, it has become popular mainly due to its simplicity in use. People love simple and good design products. Make your procedures and processes simple so that customers do not go through the complex processes to contact a customer service personnel or order a product or enquire about a product.

 Use the principle KISS: Keep it Short and Simple. Or in a funny way: Keep it Simple, Stupid.:) 

At the end I would like to conclude that it is not easy to accomplish the above strategies without the use the technology in today businesses. Invest in the appropriate technologies with clear goals as much as you can and you reap the benefits many more times than your investment (High ROI, Return on Investment). Providing a great customer service is only first step and to have you business growing you need to have Loyal customers, and you can check out 7 Ways to increase your customer loyalty.

 Follow the above steps and you will be on the fore-front of the Customer Service with Happy and satisfied Customers.

Borrow More Money!

Small businesses can improve their credit rating by borrowing more money. You heard me right! Borrow money even when your business does not need it and pay it back on time or better still clear the loan early. Bizarrely, if you have never applied for a loan before then this will negatively impact on your credit score.

The clever way to improve your credit score is by taking advantage of offers that charge you zero percent interest if you pay by a certain date. Why pay the bank interest on a loan when you have money in the bank?

Some lenders offer some very low interest rate loans for asset purchases. Use their loans to buy cars, office equipment or machinery.

Use your cash in your bank to negotiate early payment discounts with your suppliers. Many suppliers with poor cash flow will even offer up to 2% extra discount if you pay their invoices within 7 days.

Lenders base your credit score on your payment history and the amounts of debts outstanding. If you have taken out many small loans and paid them back on time then this will stand you in good stead for when larger sums of monies are required.

Ask for a Quotation First.

When applying for credit make sure you get a quotation first before actually applying for the loan. Lenders will not do a credit search to give you a quotation. They will contact one or more credit reference agencies when you apply for a loan.

Every time you apply for a loan the search gets recorded. You want to keep this “credit footprint” as small as possible.

Do not Move House

Changing your house address can be disruptive to your credit score. Lenders like to see stability and moving house can add minus points to your credit score. If you are planning on moving house apply for your business loans before you move.

Know Your Credit Score

Lenders base their lending criteria based on reports from credit agencies and your businesses trading history. Sometimes credit agencies can get it wrong or still record a debt outstanding that was cleared years ago. For a small fee they will happily send you your businesses credit report. Make sure you examine it for errors and highlight them. They are obliged to change the report if you can prove that sums outstanding have been cleared.

You should check your credit score with the credit agencies at least every couple of years to make sure that there are no errors.

Do not Close Unused Accounts

If you have credit cards that you no longer need, destroy them every time a new one arrives. You credit scores benefits if you have credit facilities from many different lending institutions. Some lenders charge you a set annual fee for a credit card so make sure you cancel these.

Clean up Your Balance Sheet

Get rid of slow selling stock. Dispose of unwanted machinery. This will improve you balance sheet and enhance your credit score.

Boosting your credit score will not only improve your standing with the banks. Suppliers also check your credit score and some even offer better deals to companies that are less of a credit risk.

Copyright (c) 2008 Schauffler Associates LLC

You’ve been told how you should have a business plan, right? What busy street-fighting entrepreneur has time to create one of those thousand page monstrosities?!

But, you know what? Many of the things that are covered in one of those formal plans are important to consider. So – we’ve created a little checklist in the form of 33 important questions for you to answer about your business – if you’re about to start a business – and even if you’ve already got a going enterprise.

So, sit back, read the questions, and see if you can answer them. If you get snagged on one – consider stopping and doing whatever research or considering you need to do. Write some of this down and – presto – you’ll have many of the elements of a solid business plan!

Why did you decide to enter this business?

What was attractive about the opportunity?

What market need did you see that you wanted to exploit?

What have you accomplished so far?

In what stage of development is your company right now?

What milestones have you reached?

What kind of company do you want to build?

What brand image are you seeking to establish?

What strategic position are you trying to occupy in your market?

What is your sustainable competitive advantage?

What is the long range objective? For example, “To build revenues to $50 million within 5 years.”

What are your products/services? (Think about this one – it is not as simple as you thing…)

Can you explain the technology involved to create them?

When will they be ready for introduction?

What benefits do your products/services provide that are clearly superior to the competition?

What are the proprietary aspects of your products/services?

What is your sustainable competitive advantage?

What is the size of your market?

In what ways is the market changing and evolving?

What is the driving force behind market growth?

Who are your competitors?

Determine strengths and weaknesses?

How do you think the competitive environment will change in the next 3-5 years?

Are their barriers to entry into your industry?

Who will your targeted customers be?

How are you going to reach those markets?

How will you distribute and promote the products/services?

How much will it cost to reach these markets?

Who are the key individuals in your management team and what have they accomplished in their careers?

Who owns the company today?

Who will own it the future?

What exit strategies are available to you & your partners?

What prior experience does the management team have that will lead to success in this venture?

How will the product be manufactured?

What type of facilities and equipment do you need?

Where will your office(s) be located?

What risk factors could keep you from achieving your forecast results?

How much capital do you need and what will it be used for?

What is the company’s financial history?

What are the projected revenues, expenses and profits?

If you can answer each of these questions you’ve done a great job of thinking through your business – and you’ve got the essential content for a business plan. You have a well thought out clearly explained plan for your business in the upcoming years.

Analyzing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) of a business is a well-established tool that is widely used by academics, consultants, and advisors. Although it is a simple concept, business owners often struggle when trying to use it because it is so broad. It is difficult to determine where to start, what questions to ask, and where to focus. The obvious problems get attention while many other important issues get overlooked. SWOT analysis is a great tool, but its effective use requires additional structure.

Strengths and weaknesses relate to internal factors, while opportunities and threats cover external ones. The internal factors can be divided into five categories: management, workforce, sales and marketing, operations, and financial. The external factors are also divided into five categories: threat of new entrants, bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of customers, threat of rivalry from competitors, and threat of substitution.

To approach the analysis in a structured way, prepare a checklist using the categories mentioned above. Identify factors within each category that are important to your business. Under management for example, a major weakness for virtually every small business is relying too heavily on the owner. What would happen to the business if something happened to the owner? In the workforce category a factor could be employee turnover and the availability of new hires. The threat of new entrants might include the possibility of a big box retailer opening near your business. The bargaining power of suppliers and customers categories should consider the possibility of losing a major supplier or customer. Come up with several factors for each category to complete the checklist. It is important that you do not try to rate or solve each issue as you identify them. If you do, you will get bogged down on each factor and never complete the analysis.

Once the checklist is complete, you should rate each factor based on its importance to your business. Use an alphabetical scale from A to E, where A = very important, B = important, C = some importance, D = little importance, and E = not important. Next rate each factor based on proficiency (internal) or vulnerability (external). Use a numerical scale from 1 to 5, where 1 = very proficient or not vulnerable, 2 = proficient or little vulnerability, 3 = average proficiency or some vulnerability, 4 = poor proficiency or vulnerable, and 5 = deficient or very vulnerable.

The factors with the lowest letter and highest number (A5) are the biggest weaknesses or threats. The ones with the lowest letter and lowest number (A1) are the biggest strengths or opportunities.

Using this structured approach makes a SWOT analysis possible and practical for any small business. To make this process worthwhile you must use this information to take action. Work to fix the worst problems first, prepare for the biggest risks, take advantage of the best opportunities, and build your secondary strengths.