Why Do I Need Contracts?

A contract gives you a sound legal base for your business, and some guarantee that you’re going to get paid for your work without you having to ask the customer for payment in advance. In the event of a dispute, the contract lays down what the agreement was so that you can point to it and say what was agreed. If you ever end up having to go to court (let’s hope you won’t), the contract is what the judge’s decision will be based on.

Without a contract, you leave yourself vulnerable and open to exploitation. Someone could claim that the terms they agreed with you were different to what you say they were, or that they never signed up for anything at all and so they won’t pay. It’s especially common to see big businesses mistreat small ones, thinking that they won’t have the knowledge or the money to do anything about it. Essentially, contracts take away your customers’ ability to hold non-payment over your head, and give you the ability to hold it over theirs instead.

Written and Verbal Contracts.

It is important to point out the distinction in the law between a verbal (spoken) contract and a proper, written one. A verbal contract is binding in theory, but in practice can be very hard to prove. A written contract, on the other hand, is rock-solid proof of what you’re saying.

You might think that you’re never going to get into a dispute with your customers, but it’s all too common to find yourself in a little disagreement. They will often want to get you to do some ’small’ amount of extra work to finish the job or make it better, not realising that doing so would completely obliterate your profit margin.

For this reason, you should be very wary of doing anything with nothing but a verbal contract. On the other hand, if you were incautious or too trusting and only got a verbal contract, it could still go some way towards helping you, especially if there were witnesses.

Won’t It Be Expensive?

Written contracts don’t necessarily need to be formal contracts, which are drawn up by a lawyer with ‘contract’ written at the top and signed by both parties. These kinds of contracts are the most effective, but can be expensive to have produced, not to mention intimidating to customers.

The most common kind of written contract, oddly enough, is a simple letter. If you send a customer a letter (or, indeed, an email) laying out your agreement before you start work, and they write back to agree to it, that is enough to qualify as a written contract, with most of the protections it affords.

If you are doing high-value work for some clients, though, it could be worth the time and trouble of having your lawyer write a formal contract, or at least of doing it yourself and getting a lawyer to look it over. Formal contracts will give you more protection if the worst happens, and there’s nothing to stop you from making it a one-off expense only by re-using the same contract for multiple customers.

Contracts for Small Purchases: the Terms and Conditions.

Obviously it would be silly to expect everyone who buys some $10 thing from you to sign a contract, or write back indicating their agreement to your terms. In this situation, you should have a statement of the ‘terms and conditions’ that your customer is agreeing to by buying from you, and they should have to tick some kind of box indicating their agreement before you send anything.

Luckily, it isn’t usually so necessary to be paranoid about contract law with small purchases anyway, since customers will be paying you first and receiving the goods or services afterwards, not the other way around. If you plan to offer any kind of payment plan or other long-term agreement, of course, this should always be backed up with a signed contract.

Contracts For Your Customers, Ink It On Paper is a post from: egodrivendevelopment.com

Contact center consultants are valuable for setting up both small and big contact centers. They advise the firms on using the right technology, latest practices, and complete evaluation of the available resources. These inputs are very important for companies who want to evaluate and consolidate their present centers, and for those who are just starting out.

Like every organization, people form the core of these centers. Skilled, self-motivated people are what employers are looking for. Contact center consultants develop and improve the employee’s performance and increase the output of the center through agent error reduction, training and development. Counseling desks are regularly set up for stressed-out employees who are then encouraged to give their best.

Experts have realized that there are three factors which are responsible for the success of any contact center. First is people, as mentioned earlier, second is the business processes and third is the technology. All three of them are interrelated and susceptible to change. Contact center consultants thoroughly understand their client’s work environment and needs. They are ready to get involved as soon as the firms decide to improve the performance of their companies.

The overall goal of the consultant is to help the clients in improving the performance, thereby increasing customer loyalty and revenue. They also play a major role in reducing operating costs by planning the customer service requirements of the future. In a world of cutthroat competition and the need to put customer satisfaction first, contact center agents have become an indispensable part of the industry.

Contact Center Consultants is a post from: egodrivendevelopment.com

The field of computer forensics was developed primarily by law enforcement personnel for investigating drug and financial crimes. It employs strict protocols to gather information contained on a wide variety of electronic devices, using forensic procedures to locate deleted files and hidden information.

Computer forensics tasks include capturing all the information contained on a specific electronic device by using either a forensic copy technique or by making an image of all or a portion of the device. A forensic copy provides an exact duplicate of the hard drive or storage device. None of the metadata, including the ?last accessed date,?is changed from the original. However, the copy is a ?live?version, so accessing the data on the copy,even only to ?see what is there,?can change this sensitive metadata.

By contrast, making a forensic image of the required information puts a protective electronic wrapper around the entire collection. The collection can be viewed with special software, and the documents can be opened, extracted from the collection, and examined without changing the files or their metadata.

Other forensic tasks include locating and accessing deleted files, finding partial files, tracking Internet history, cracking passwords, and detecting information located in the slack or unallocated space. Slack space is the area at the end of a specific cluster on a hard drive that contains no data; unallocated space contains the remnants of files that have been ?deleted? but not erased from the device, as ?deleting? simply removes the pointer to the location of a specific file on a hard drive, not the file itself.

Electronic Discovery

Electronic discovery has its roots in the field of civil litigation support and deals with organizing electronic files using their attached metadata. Because of the large volume encountered, these files are usually incorporated into a litigation retrieval system to allow review and production in an easy methodology. Legal data management principles are used, including redaction rules and production methodologies.

Electronic discovery tasks usually begin after the files are captured. File metadata is used to organize and cull the collections. Documents can be examined in their native file format or converted to TIF or PDF images to allow for redaction and easy production.

Common Capabilities, Different Philosophies

Computer forensics and electronic discovery methodologies share some common capabilities. One is the ability to produce an inventory of the collection, allowing reviewers to quickly see what is present. Another is the ability to determine a common time zone to standardize date and time stamps across a collection. Without this standardization, an e-mail response may appear to have been created before the original e-mail.

Computer Forensics vs. Electronic Discovery is a post from: egodrivendevelopment.com

With some careful thought, a well-crafted letter can provide comfort to a complaining customer and enhance your reputation as a customer-focused business. In this article I am going to share some tips on how to write a great letter.

What are you writing for?

To write a great letter you have to be in the right frame of mind. Are you writing to handle a complaint, answer a query or to thank them for placing an order? Framing the letter in the right context means you will use the appropriate language and the tone will be right. Try writing a thank you letter as if you are responding to a complaint – the message is totally different.

Before putting pen to paper, think for a minute and decide what your aim or goal is.

State your purpose

Start off by summarising why you are writing. Open your letter by saying that you are responding to a query, or to resolve a problem they have had. This set out to the reader why you are contacting them and puts them in the right frame of mind to accept your message. An opening summary will grab their attention.

Include a W.I.I.F.M.

No, this is not some obscure radio station! WIIFM stands for ‘What’s in it for me?’ To truly engage your customer and get them on your side, you have to include a benefit for them. They have to get something out of your letter so they feel satisfied. What could their WIIFM be? Their complaint may be resolved; they may get a discount voucher; a priority service the next time they use you. If the compliant is a minor one, a simple, heartfelt apology may be enough!

Study your letter carefully and make sure you have a WIIFM moment.

Don’t say ‘I’

Wherever possible, avoid littering your letter with I’s. The reader will find it hard to link with you if they receive ‘me, me, me’ letters. Review your letters and wherever possible substitute ‘I’ with ‘you’. Change the focus to the reader. Make them feel valued.

Write as you speak

I forget the number of times I have received letters, which read as if they were written in the early 1900’s! Packed full of boring, stiff and outdated language – too formal. Your writing style should reflect the way you talk. After all, providing good customer service is partly down to how you interact or communicate with your client and letters play an important role.

So, review your letters and get rid of those phrases you learnt in school letter-writing lessons!

“Please do this…”

Having written a great letter, you don’t want it to tail off into nothing. Have a clear action-orientated close. Make sure your reader knows what you expect him to do next – “call me so we can discuss this idea in more depth”, “Fill in the attached form and pop it in the post”, “send me an order” (a bit strong perhaps but certainly to the point!).
A resounding call-to-action is a great way to finish a letter and leaves the customer in no doubt what he has to do next – another element of good customer service.

Ask someone to check your letter

If you are writing a very important letter or one containing a complex message, it’s wise to ask someone to proof read it. This is not just to check your spelling but also to check readability. Is the structure of the message you wish to convey clear and understandable? You’ll be amazed by what someone else will pick up which you have completely missed!

So, there you have it. Some useful tips on how to write a superb letter, which will further enforce your image of providing exceptional customer service.

Complaint Letters: How to Respond in 7 Simple Steps is a post from: egodrivendevelopment.com

Now I am not opposed to finding discounts and deals, but not at someone else’s expense. If someone decides that they want to give me a haircut at no charge, or half price, out of love, then that’s fine. But to just expect that Christian businesses are supposed to give discounts to all the “brothers and sisters” is not love. It’s actually an indication of a poverty mind set. I’ll explain that later.

For me to think that my Christian brothers and sisters are obligated to give me a cheaper price is selfish and it takes money away from them. Suppose you couldn’t find a Christian for the service or product you needed? What would you do? You would end up paying someone the price they charged.

I know some Christians who are very good at doing car repairs and some of them even do it as a business. And hardly a week or two goes by that another Christian asks them for help in fixing their car, expecting to pay little or nothing for services rendered. That is very selfish and, again, an indication of a poverty mentality.

Here’s a startling thought: pay your Christian brother or sister more than they normally charge! Now that’s a concept that has love written all over it. Why would you do that? First of all it is indeed a blessing to have a Christian provide a service or a product. If they operate their business with integrity and love, that love will have an impact on my life. Secondly, by believing God’s promises of abundance you can go over and beyond and give more to the person who is providing you the service or product. That increases their prosperity. But, if you have a poverty mentality, you are always looking for someone to charge you less for everything and expecting any Christian to give you a discount. Why not believe God’s promises of prosperity, receive His abundance, and then share that abundance with others?

Now I would rather pay a Christian for a product or service, but there is another side to this coin. Just because I am a Christian does that mean I have to find another Christian to provide my products and services? Suppose I know a Christian who could get the job done, but not with the quality I require? Am I obligated to hire a Christian anyway and then have inferior work done? Some say that would be the “Christian thing to do.” I say, “No.”

If I hire you to fix my car I am expecting you to know what you are doing and to do it right the first time. If that doesn’t happen then I have wasted the money God gave me to steward, not to mention the time that I have lost. Perhaps the “Christian thing to do” would be to be honest and tell someone that their work is not the quality that it could be. Instead of feeling obligated to hire them, why not give them some money so that they can get the training they need so they can do quality work? Feeling sorry for someone and then having them do a job that they or someone else will need to re-do it is not helping my brother or sister.

As a final thought, why shouldn’t Christian businesses be the best businesses on the face of the earth? That takes a lot more than just having a Christian sounding name. It means quality work. It means integrity and honesty. It means operating biblical principles of giving more value. Having a Christian business reflects back on our Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, whether we own a business or are simply employed by someone, the “Christian thing to do” is to work heartily, ethically, and honestly with the love of God. Our light should so shine that everybody, Christians and non-Christians alike want our products and services.

Christian Services: Service or Using Others? is a post from: egodrivendevelopment.com

We all think we know how to listen, yes? The fact is that very few people know how to truly listen. In our earnestness to serve, we get pulled out of a conversation by preparing for the answer while the other person is still talking. We wait for a pause and when the person takes a breath, we jump in to improve or remedy the situation.

Or, we worry about the question that we may be asked that we might not be able to answer intelligently. Will we know the answer? Will we be able to respond appropriately? What if I am asked a question I don’t know the answer to? What if I don’t understand the question? What if they find out that I’m new on the job/on the equipment/at this company? What if they get angry at me? What if I frustrate them? What if, what if, you fill in the blank. We are anywhere but listening to the other person.

Our intentions are good. We want to give the best response we can, hopefully the right answer. However, if we are not present to the conversation, the other person feels not heard, unimportant, ripped off, and the like. If there was no upset on their side to begin with, it now exists big time. Fact: if you are not listening to the customer, there is no way you can answer the question. The truth is you probably haven’t even heard it.

Listening is our least used and weakest communication skill. None the less, great customer service professionals are first and foremost great listeners. Active listening forces us to tune in to what the customer is saying, instead of trying to think of what our responses will be.

Hearing and listening are not the same, though many people use the words interchangeably.
Hearing is a physiological process whereby auditory impressions are received by your ears and transmitted to your brain.
Listening involves interpreting and understanding the significance of the sensory experience.

The derivative of listen is ‘list,’ which means to lean toward one side. Have you ever noticed how you lean in when someone is talking to you, or vice versa? Even on the phone?

When you listen, you win and the other person wins. But it is not enough to just listen, you have to communicate to people that you’re listening. Sometimes people don’t think you’re listening when you are because you’re not communicating that you’re listening.

*Training, December 2006, p. 9.

Can You Hear Me Now? is a post from: egodrivendevelopment.com

In today’s fast-paced business world where too many people claim that they don’t have time to be nice, it’s easy to overlook the details that can help you grow your business, increase your profits and build long lasting client relationships.

Try taking this quick true/false quiz to test your own business etiquette expertise. Then run it by your employees.

1. Business etiquette is based on rank and hierarchy. True/False
2. If the information on your business card is incorrect, draw a line through it and write the correct information on the card. True/False
3. Business casual means dressing down one notch from business professional. True/False
4. In today’s relaxed business environment, it is not necessary to ask your clients’ permission before using their first names. True/False
5. Callers do not mind holding for information as much as holding for a person. True/False
6. You don’t have to smile or make eye contact with your customers unless you feel like it. True/False
7. Handwritten notes are out of place in the business world. True/False
8. A man should wait for a woman to put out her hand in business before offering his. True/False
9. When composing an e-mail message, complete the “To” line last. True/False
10. Small talk around the office is a waste of time. True/False
11. People can hear you eating, drinking and chewing over the phone. True/False
12. If you receive a call on your cell phone when you are with a client, look to see who is calling, but don’t answer it. True/False

Answers:

1. True. In business, you always defer to the senior or highest ranking person, regardless of age or gender.
2. False. Handing out business cards with information that is outdated or crossed off is unprofessional. Have new cards printed immediately.
3. True. Business casual is not an excuse to wear your favorite old clothes to the office. It is still business, and everyone needs to look professional.
4. False. Don’t assume because our work world has become more informal that you can call clients by their first name. Use their titles and last names until they ask you to do otherwise.
5. True. Clients will wait contentedly while you search for information, working on their behalf. However, if they have to wait more than thirty seconds for you to come to the phone, they begin to wonder how much you value them or want their business.
6. False. This is only true if you are planning a going-out-of-business sale. Every client deserves a genuine smile and eye contact.
7. False. Handwritten notes have become almost as extinct as the typewriter. You will stand out from your competition every time you send off a short note written in your own hand.
8. False. Every woman should be prepared to shake hands as soon as she meets someone in business. For either a man or woman to hesitate could indicate a lack of confidence.
9. True. You can send e-mail without inserting an attachment, without checking for grammar and punctuation and without a subject line; but you cannot send e-mail without an address. If you wait until you have carefully proofed your message and added all attachments before you complete the “To ” line, you will never be embarrassed or have to apologize for your mistakes.
10. False. Small talk carried on at the right time, in the right place and on the right subject is a great way to build relationships among co-workers.
11. True. Mouth noises are even louder over the phone. Just because your clients can’t see you eating those potato chips doesn’t mean they can’t hear you munching on the other end of the line.
12. False. It is just as rude to pull out your phone to see who called as it is to have it on and take a call in front of a client. Turn your phone off and check your messages later in private.

If you had trouble with any of these questions, your employees will, too. If you want your employees to be at ease in business situations, to represent you well and help build your business, give them the information they need. If you haven’t done basic business etiquette skills training lately, do it now. Don’t let rude behavior cost you business.

Make sure that your employees know how to handle clients over the phone, that they understand the importance of being attentive and alert to clients’ needs, that the value other people’s time and that they can deal with difficult people and situations with grace.

No one is born with good manners. People have to be taught, and from time to time, they need to be reminded of what they already know.

(c)2006, Lydia Ramsey. All rights reserved. Reprint rights granted so long as article and by-line are published intact and with all links made live.

Can You Afford What Rudeness Is Costing Your Business? is a post from: egodrivendevelopment.com

Call monitoring can be live or recorded. Most call center systems provide for both ways to monitor live calls. The “barge in” facility means that a supervisor is able to join the call in a conference, while “listen in” means that a supervisor can only listen to the call, and cannot talk with the customer or the representative. In addition to these monitoring options, some systems allow a supervisor to take over and close the call.

Some clients require full monitoring and recording of calls. This typically happens in highly regulated industries like telephone service sales where third party verification (TPV) systems are in place to guard against fraud. Another area requiring complete call monitoring is market research where response is evaluated based on both content and inflection.

In addition to call monitoring systems, the centers themselves use monitoring technology to ensure performance and security. Many call centers handle sensitive client data like credit card numbers and client identity information. In order to safeguard this information as required by law, call centers use access controls for both people and data.

Managers and supervisors help create quality-monitoring programs and typically integrate new monitoring systems with hiring and training. There are many benefits to monitoring beyond security concerns. Monitoring systems can be used to help in training and with the delivery of quality services. In many cases such systems also provide the basis on which call centers can document and bill their work to customers.

Enterprises are demanding highly integrated, proactive applications that provide the ability to identify and diagnose problems even before end users experience them. Today’s systems managers need powerful and easy-to-use tools that can monitor all of the interactions between the diverse software, networks, databases, and infrastructure components that can affect the performance of their enterprises’ core online applications.

Call Center Monitoring Software is a post from: egodrivendevelopment.com

CAD has many built-in features and helps in giving simple and easy accessibility to the user. CAD can be identified as a user friendly computer based services used for all 2D and 3D modeling purposes. Some of the services from CAD are: autocad drafting, cad drafting services, CAD Outsourcing, 2D modeling, 3d modeling, animation, CAD Conversion, mechanical drafting and design, architectural cad drafting and design. These services can also be utilized to design machinery and various other tools. This is useful for engineers, architects, advertising designers and 2D as well as 3D animation professionals. Architectural CAD Drafting and design would literally mean architectural drawing on Computer and getting your architectural drawing done in Digitized format. When it comes to designing of buildings, CAD is used in architecture as an efficient tool for designing all types of buildings. CAD can also be used by consumers in designing and developing various products. It can also be used as a mediator in other products. It is very useful in engineering processes to create conceptual designs and layout analyses of components in manufacturing methods.

Now when talking about CAD drafting software, CAD drafting software is used mostly for developing architectural and complex machine designs or drawings. CAD drafting software has all the primary features available in commonly used engineering CAD software. The most eminent characteristic of this type of software is that it allows users to differentiate components that is, to mark different components of a design with different color combinations provided with the software.

This helps in reducing product design time and improves the effectiveness of the designed products. Nowadays, the most advanced CAD drafting software available in the industry can support up to sixteen million color variations. Moreover the graphic user interface (GUI) provided with the software continuously prompts the user to color each and every new component that is added to the design products.

CAD Services in a better way is a post from: egodrivendevelopment.com

There are several compelling reasons for these buyers guides to mimic an advertisement. One is most of the time the guides are sponsored directly or indirectly (thru advertisements) by product manufactures and so the authors cannot really write against the products and therefore have to toe the line of the manufacturers. And since there is no way that the primary players of the buying and selling game, i.e. the buyer, manufacturer or an existing consumer of the product can interact it becomes basically a one-way conversation where the buyer gets to hear all good things about the product. This is more of a biased representation of the products which it features and in most cases the authors of the guides are the company representatives or other hired people having an interest in promotion of the product.

Appropriately a buyers guide, as the name suggests should be buyer or consumer-centric and primarily cater to the betterment of the consumers. If we think hard, we would know that customer satisfaction goes a long way to strengthen the business. So a true buyers guide will not only help the consumers but also the manufacturer of the products in the long run. Once a buyer criticizes a product it actually presents an opportunity for the manufacturer or the sellers to rectify that defect or lacuna or respond to the changing taste of the consumers. But unfortunately such buyers guides are not abundant in circulation and still the vast majorities are the one-way communication types where reporters and paid experts write a product review more as a part of a business deal than a critical review. Probably the authors and publishers of the buyers guide failed to realize the need of the consumers; the consumers are looking for more than brochures in the buyers guides.

So what is the choice before the consumer in the absence of a true buyers guide? Consumers gradually are learning to differentiate between biased information and true feedback. They cannot be just fooled anymore and already many consumers are turning their back to these sponsored guides. They are increasing relying on fellow consumers for information about products and services. Gone are the times when a company can form a consumer opinion by clever advertising and influence buyers to select their products. The consumers in the 21st century have a very powerful tool within their reach and that is internet. There are already hundreds of blogs which anyone can access and these online journals tell us the real consumer experience about products and services. They also narrate the harrowing experience that some consumers had to face due to unscrupulous companies and or inferior products. The information is voluntary and not paid for and so people perceive them as authentic as compared to the adverts. There are positive feedbacks too which are actually recommendations and consumers are taking cues and choosing smartly.

But the battle against biased information that seek to influence and misguide consumers can only be won if there is a larger participation. It is time for consumer action that makes sure consumers reclaim their rights and their voices are heard. Also they deserve timely action as they are tired of the slow and often ineffective consumer forums that have a very poor record in India. In the backdrop of a weak consumer rights protection system and many vested interests only consumers can help fellow consumers and they can do so without spending any money or much effort. There are already few websites available where a consumer can find out feedbacks about a product and also write a review for others to read. But again discretion should be applied as some of the websites contain many bogus reviews and also paid inserts. Consumer blogs are also very good source of unbiased and authentic information. The best part is that a consumer can also interact with the author and can ask specific questions before making a buy decision. So if you are a smart consumer better listen to your folks than an expert when you want to buy a product next time. Don’t worry too much about the experts, you can be an expert overnight and all you just need is to write product reviews which are eagerly waited by other consumers who want to read them.

Buyers Guides vs. Unbiased Product Reviews – why more and more consumers are preferring the latter? is a post from: egodrivendevelopment.com