The Thriving Small Business

12 Steps to Contract Negotiations

by

The ability to negotiate a vendor contract is a skill that every business owner will need at one time or another.

Whether it is the decision to outsource a service, or negotiate the price for new office equipment, business leaders will need to fine tune their negotiation skills.

Most of us don’t have the natural ability to negotiate so the trick is to use a systematic and unbiased approach to negotiate vendor contracts. Read the Full Article →

Service Recovery – 5 Tips For Successful Service Recovery

by

Great customer service is the cornerstone of any successful business. Knowing who the customers are, what they want and making an effort to exceed customer expectations – is the key to business success.

Unless an organization understands this very basic principle, it will have a difficult time achieving desired results.

What is service recovery?

Read the Full Article →

Tips For Conducting Focus Group Interviews

by

I was recently asked to provide the definition of a focus group, how to conduct a focus group interview and what is the purpose of focus group interviews.

Focus groups are forums used to gather qualitative data on the customer experience.

This  is a widely used marketing tool which helps organizations develop products and services that are influenced by participating customers.

Read the Full Article →

4 Keys to Great Customer Service

by

Successful organizations understand that consumers pay the bills and great customer service is the key to business success.

According to a Zendesk Customer Service Survey, 81% of customers reported that they shared a bad service experience with family and friends and 59% of consumers who had a bad service experience stopped buying from that company. Read the Full Article →

25 Interview Questions To Ask A Job Candidate

by

Anyone who has ever interviewed a job candidate understands that it can be a daunting task.

Knowing the right questions to ask is critical to identifying the right fit for your organization.

Interviewing is a skill that is developed with practice and being prepared for the interview is an important first step. Read the Full Article →

5 Steps To Help You Prepare to Interview a Job Candidate

by

Hiring a new employee can be an exciting yet stressful time for a small business owner.

The reason being – no one wants to make the costly mistake of hiring the wrong person.

There are many steps to the hiring process – articulating the need, creating a job description, budgeting for salary, advertising and reviewing applications to select a handful of candidates to interview. Read the Full Article →

Say This, Not That – 7 Things Retail Businesses Should Not Say To A Customer

by

As I was out and about this holiday season shopping, I made a point of supporting small business retail shops.

What I learned through the experience is that many small retail shops undermine their own success by doing silly things that turn off customers – and most likely costing them sales. Read the Full Article →

5 Tips To Instantly Improve The Customer Experience

by

We all know that it is the customer that purchases our products and services, and ultimately pays the bills.

Too many organizations lose sight of this reality and ignore the very basic things that could enhance the customer experience.

If you are like me, you can probably give countless examples of a bad customer experience, and hopefully,  remember those times that you interacted with an organization that “got it” and made the experience enjoyable and memorable. Read the Full Article →

9 Ways to Ensure Your Startup Succeeds!

by

Have you ever wondered how some businesses take off and grow very rapidly in just a few short years while others stay stagnant  and barely get by?

Some entrepreneurs make the mistake of achieving a certain level of success, sitting back and lose their drive to push the organization forward.

This often results is a business failure.  Read the Full Article →

How Well Does Your Organization Recovery From a Bad Service Experience?

by

We are all human and human beings make mistakes.

This is just part of the imperfect nature of living life here on earth.

Because of this, it is important for organizations to take precautionary steps to minimize human error in the workplace.

This concept is what led the quality movement and product manufacturers to embrace quality management as a business practice. Read the Full Article →

4 Things United Airlines Could Have Done Better To Avoid Its PR Nightmare

by

Unless you have been living in a cave the last few weeks, you probably saw the shocking video of a passenger being dragged off of a United Airlines Flight on April 10, 2017.

What was the most amazing thing to me was that this event happened because the airline needed to make seats available for employees. Read the Full Article →

24 Tips For Office Etiquette Training

by

I admit that I have been in the work force for a long time, however it is disheartening to see the deterioration of basic etiquette and professionalism in the workplace.

Some say it is just “this generation”. I am not convinced – because I see it in all demographics.

I believe it is a symptom of a culture that is modeled from the top down. Read the Full Article →