Education and Training

Where Has Customer Service Gone Part 2

Due to an error in my first piece publishing before I was ready I’ll just start this one where I left off! The hairdresser had rolled her eyes when I had asked for a haircut for my 18 month old daughter. I then replied “Is that okay?”
“Sure, you can come in from 9 to 9 anytime.” She smirked and almost shewed me off as if I were here annoying child. So easy as pie, I left and walked down the shopping center to another salon where they were more than happy to have our business and even awarded my daughter with a certificate for being such a good girl, with a clip of her hair attached. So cute. But I digress, we’re talking about BAD customer service. How many times do you have to be treated poorly at an establishment before you decide NOT to do business there anymore? Do you feel helpless? Well don’t! There are lots of things you can do to get better service and here are just a few.

Complain, Complain, Complain

You need to ask for who is in charge and if they aren’t available you need to ask for a business card. If the place of business is a franchise you can contact the corporate office and notify them of the problem you are having directly. On most receipts you will notice that there are either surveys for your experience or phone numbers to call if you have problems. Why do they do this? Because managers, owners, corporations, and stock holders all know that if the customer isn’t happy then ain’t nobody happy. They can’t be there all the time to supervise so you need to do your part to help them, that is if you want to see them prosper and stay in your area. What a manager does not not he cannot correct and so you must complain, even if it is against your nature, or nothing will change.

Go To Another Establishment

If you love shopping at a certain store but hate the service you get while you frequent it, go somewhere else. A lot of stores will give you the same deals as their competitors all you have to do is ask or bring in an ad with the prices. Some of the best places to shop are local Mom and Pop’s they tend to demand great service and will go head over heels to make sure your shopping experience is the best. Why? Because it’s not easy competing with Big Business and they want to keep any customers they can. But if for some reason you just can’t stay away from your favorite place try shopping at a different location or a different time of day. You would be amazed at the change in attitude of people who are day shift workers compared to night shift employees. The same goes for different locales.

Blog About It

If you are reading this you already know the power of Blog and the Word of Mouth miracle. If you get enough people reading your thoughts, dreams, reviews, and rants then there is pretty much nothing anyone can do to stop you from hurting or helping their store, product, service, or film. I’ll tell you from personal experience if i know one of my fellow bloggers has had a bad time at a store or business, I’ll think twice before i go and if I dodecide to brave it, I’ll compare notes and blog about it also. This can be good or bad. The important thing here is YOU are the money that keeps these businesses rolling. If a company knows they are hurting because of the things you are TRUTHFULLY saying about your experience then they will try with out a shadow of a doubt to make it up to you! I had a client who went as far as making a website that was dedicated to how much he hated a specific product he had bought and never gotten to use efficiently. He even used Search Engine Optimization to make sure that his website came up alongside the products website. My client had so many hits and similar rants on his forum that the company who owned the product not only brought the product back but also paid a hefty sum for his website. I’m not saying that’s the best way to go but that is just an example of how Poor Customer Service got out of control.

There are so many ways out there that you can help yourself to good service. Don’t be a victim of bad attitudes or laziness, fight back and become an advocate for your own customer rights. In the end you will be happier for it and hopefully your shopping experiences will be those that dreams are made of. Until then, don’t forget to grab a business card on your way out.

Education and Training

Where Has Customer Service gone?

The idea of “Service With a Smile” has always enchanted me. I can see it now, upon entrance of a fast food establishment I am greeted as if we are old friends, “Mrs. Bell, what can I get for you ? We have some great specials today, but you probably wouldn’t be interested you are already special enough.” We both giggle and sigh, just thrilled to be a part of our fellow man’s day. I know, far fetched right? I am lucky if the cashier offers me a drink and a sneer. So where has customer service gone? Why does it seem that instead of sales associates, cashiers, operators, and so on wanting to serve you, so that you may benefit their place of work, they instead begrudgingly assist you with even the occasional brush off or eye roll, and most importantly, what can YOU do about it? Case in point: I went to Smart Styles to get my 18 month old daughter her first haircut. I was excited to see how she would look and how such a simple thing as a trim would change her appearance from baby to toddler. I approached the sign in sheet and the stylist turned to me, no smile, no warmth and with an almost annoyed tone asked “What do you need?” I immediately found myself on the defensive, and let me tell you, without you knowing the first thing about me, I am one of the most happy and congenial people you will ever meet. “Just a haircut please.” She rolled her eyes and turned the hairdryer back on. OH NO SHE DI’INT! (I say to myself, snap my finger and do the side to side head roll all inside )

Education and Training

Time Management Tips And Tricks

Properly allocating your time is never an easy task, especially if you’ve never been the type to make the most of your time. However, there are a lot of ways in order for you to start up and slowly integrate your whole system into practicing effective Time management methods.

Here are a few tips in order for you to successfully initiate your time management skills.

Keys To Successful Time Management

Before you can use some time management strategies in your schedule, there are a few key principles you have to understand first.

You need to be aware of your goals. Having proper awareness of what your goals are will assist you in properly prioritizing your activities for the day. It also helps you to get motivated and avoid distractions in between work.

You also need to develop a flexible schedule for yourself. It must be flexible enough to make sure that if you need to fill in other things aside from your usual schedule, you can still take care of them when you need to.

Tips To Successfully Utilize Your Time

Here are a few tips to successfully utilize your time

1. Examine your old habits and look for ways to change them. – When you learn that your habits are not conducive to proper time management, then it’s about time that you start changing them. Bad habits are usually hard to change but when you’re able to overcome it, the results are rewarding.

2. Put up reminders at home and office about your goals. – Usually when you’re trying to pursue long-term goals, you slowly lose focus on them. Putting reminders everywhere would help you get reoriented with your goals motivating you to strictly follow your schedule.

3. Maintain a list of specific things to be done each day and set a top priority on that list. – Maintaining a list of things to be done everyday is a great way to start on successfully allocating your time properly. A checklist would help you to remember all the things that you need to do for the day and compel you to finish them at the end of the day.

Furthermore making a checklist would definitely help you to become a more responsible person. It is more than just a reminder, but is critical in how you follow that list to see if it effective for you.

4. Concentrate on one thing at a time. – Some people try to do all things at the same time. This happens because people need to do a lot of things but they do not have the luxury of time. Proper time management allows you to concentrate on one task at a time. When you feel that this task is more urgent than the other, then you must first focus on that task before moving on to the next most important task.

When you concentrate only on one task, the time needed to finish the job will significantly lessen giving you more spare time.

5. Enjoy what you are doing – When you enjoy what you are doing, it creates less stress. When you are not stressed, you are more likely to accomplish your tasks within a shorter time frame. Consequently, you will be able to do more in your typical working hours.

6. Continually look at ways of freeing up your time – It is important to try to free your schedule up. Looking for ways to free up your schedule improves the time spent on finishing up your activities. Remember that if you save a few minutes from each activity, and then you sum them all up, you’d realize that you have saved a lot of time.