The Thriving Small Business

10 Tips for Dealing with Customer Complaints

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Anyone who has a business has had the experience of dealing with customer complaints.

While listening to a complaining customer is not something most people enjoy, a complaining customer can be an organization’s friend if they try to learn from the complaint.

There are lots of things customers can complain about – communication breakdowns, process failures, faulty products, rude employees and unclean facilities, just to name a few. Read the Full Article →

How Do You Define Customer Service?

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Customer service is a common term we are all familiar with which means “one who aids or provides help to the purchaser of a good or service”.

Customer service is seen in all industries and across all demographics. It is important because if the purchasers of our goods and services don’t feel like they are taken care of, they will soon find another organization that can, and will take care of their needs. Read the Full Article →

5 Reasons You Should Welcome Customer Complaints!

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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 that a dissatisfied customer is more comfortable telling their friends about a bad experience than the organization. Read the Full Article →

5 Steps to Dealing with Negative Employee Behaviors

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Most of us who have managed people, have had the unpleasant experience of dealing with negative employee behaviors.

It’s one of those things that just drains the energy out of you and makes being a manager an unpopular job.

While confronting employees is never fun, it can be done with diplomacy and result in changed behaviors. Read the Full Article →

7 Keys to Planning Effective Meetings

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There are two types of people in the world.  People who love meetings and people who hate them. Much of this is due to the fact that people spend hours in meetings and very often have nothing to show for it.

Meetings come in all shapes and sizes but one thing is for sure, they are either a great experience for all attendees and perceived as time well spent, or they can be a mental drain and a complete waste of time.  Read the Full Article →

Are Your Communication Processes Impacting The Culture of Your Organization?

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Every organization has a culture.  Culture is defined by the way people communicate, interact, how information is shared and how decisions are made.

Organizational culture is something that is created by the leadership of the organization and can become ingrained into the core fabric of the way things are communicated and business is done on a day-to-day basis. Read the Full Article →

Read This Before Donating to That Charity

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It seems that there is a natural disaster happening all the time. I’m originally from the St. Louis area which has been hit pretty hard by recent flooding.

These disaster situations solicit cries for help from flood ravaged home owners and small businesses. This hits home for me as my daughter was a victim of the flood. Read the Full Article →

Service Recovery – How Well Do You Respond to a Bad Customer Experience?

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Great customer service is the cornerstone of any successful business. Knowing who the customers are, what they want and exceeding their expectations is the key to business growth. Unless an organization understands this very basic principle, they will have a difficult time achieving desired results.

Service Recovery is a theory that suggests that a customer who has a bad experience and receives a prompt, effective response to their issues, will be a more loyal customer than a customer who had no bad experience at all. Read the Full Article →

13 Characteristics of an Employee Empowered Culture

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Empowerment is a buzz term that we hear a lot about in leadership.

Empowerment is defined as “the giving or delegation of power or authority; authorization; the giving of an ability; enablement or permission.”

Empowerment is based on the belief that employees have the ability – and want to take on more responsibility.  Read the Full Article →

Customer Satisfaction Questionnaire Template

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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 overall strategy. Read the Full Article →

Free Customer Comment Card Template

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Businesses rise and fall based on their ability to understand the experience and expectations of their customers.

Assessing your customer needs and expectations is part of managing customer satisfaction.  There are several ways to obtain customer feedback – focus groups, customer satisfaction surveys and text analytics.  But the main goal of a customer comment card process is to capture the customer experience when it is fresh in the customer’s mind. Read the Full Article →

7 Essential Tools for Quality Control

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Many organizations use quality tools to help monitor and manage their quality initiatives.

There are several types of tools that can be used.  However, there are seven management tools for quality control that are the most common. Different tools are used for different problem solving opportunities and many of the tools can be used in different ways. Read the Full Article →