Strategic Planning

Advantages and Disadvantages of Performance Appraisals

Employees, as well as managers, often question why organizations do employee performance appraisals. Anyone who has received or been given a performance appraisal could argue why they perceive it to be ineffective and a complete waste of time. So what exactly is a performance appraisal? A performance appraisal is an evaluation done on an employee’s [...]

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Job Satisfaction and Job Performance

According to a January 2009 Employee Job Satisfaction report by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), employees who are satisfied with their jobs are more committed, productive and more likely to stay with an organization.  When employees are dissatisfied, there is higher turnover and a higher instance of absenteeism. Life has become more challenging [...]

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Using Text Analytics to Improve the Customer Experience

With today’s use of internet blogs, social networks and the like, customers have a voice, an audience and they talk.  They share their experience either with online business reviews, on blogs or social forums.  When customers have a good experience, they may share it but if they have a bad experience, they often feel compelled [...]

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Will Toyota Recover?

Unless you live in a cave, don’t listen to the news, don’t read the paper and don’t get online, you are aware of Toyota’s current “quality” challenge in dealing with millions of recalled vehicles. The question is, how will Toyota recover from this one? It’s funny, I’ve never had a Toyota. My husband is committed [...]

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What are the 5 benefits of customer complaints?

The sad fact is only about 4% of dissatisfied customers complain. If a customer does not complain and has an issue that is not resolved, they are likely to go to the competition. The worst part about this is that the organization isn’t even aware that there was an issue. The other sad fact is [...]

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Customer Satisfaction Survey Template

Customer satisfaction is paramount to the success of any business. Understanding who your customers are, what they want and having systems and processes in place to not only meet their needs but exceed their expectations is what sets the successful apart from the rest.  Soliciting and monitoring customer feedback should be part of an organization’s [...]

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What is Customer Retention?

Customer retention is an organization’s ability to create customer loyalty by providing the systems, processes and support to not only keep a customer happy but to also transition them into an advocate for the organization who is not only loyal but also tells and recruits others. Customer retention should be part of a comprehensive customer [...]

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Accomplishing Goals

Anyone who manages a business understands the challenge of balancing the day-to-day operation while keeping the vision, strategy and business goals moving forward. The day-to-day management issues associated with people, processes, facilities, equipment, etc. can be very distracting and can affect our ability to accomplish goals.  For this reason, it is important to keep goals [...]

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Outsourcing

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Outsourcing is a business strategy that moves some of an organization’s functions, processes, activities and decision responsibility from within an organization to outside providers.  This is done through negotiating contract agreements with a vendor who takes on the responsibility for the production process, people management, quality, service and key asset management.  The process can greatly [...]

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What is Benchmarking?

Benchmarking is the process of going outside an organization to look at how high performers are doing things in other industries.  The concept is to identify and learn from good performance best practices. Organizations use benchmarking as part of their Quality Management System to gain insight into ways to improve what they do.  Successful organizations [...]

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Charity Donations

Most of us have been inundated with media cries for financial help for the victims of the earthquake in Haiti.  As responsible citizens and business owners, we need to be diligent to make sure that our donations to this relief effort truly make it to the people who are hurting the most. For whatever reason, [...]

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12 Steps to Implementing a Quality Management System

Successful organizations have figured out that customer satisfaction has a direct impact on the bottom line. Creating an environment which supports a quality culture requires a structured, systematic process.  Following are steps to create that process and system to bring the process full circle. Let’s begin by defining the word “quality” as defined by the [...]

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