As a customer, I know what it’s like to be on the customers side of the counter. You want to turn over your hard earned money for goods or services. You are then confronted with attitude, rudeness and utter disregard for just how hard you have worked for your dollar. Either the service is slow and the quality of the goods are poor, or worse the company you are patronizing rigidly enforces poor policies for handling customer issues.

As a business owner I realize the cost of poor service. Poor service decreases impulse purchases, leads to a reduction in repeat business, causes lack of referrals and negatively impacts customer relationships. When you are trying to build a business in a competitive market each of these are critical to your success. In an environment where customers have a dozen or more purchase options it is imperative that great care be taken to build your business.

How are you doing at building your business with customer service? Consider how you would handle the following customer interactions:

(1) A customer purchased a $10 item and now wants to return it. Your policy is no refunds. This a customer who has shopped your establishment many times. Do you return the item or enforce the policy? If you must, gently remind the customer of your policy, but you should absolutely refund or exchange the product to the customers satisfaction.
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What is a leads group? Leads groups seem to be the most popular form of networking judging that comment by the fact that there are more leads groups in existence that have been around for a long time than most other types of groups.

Leads groups are often referred to as closed groups. This means that there can only be one type of a business represented in a group. Lets say that I am a web designer. In a closed group I would be the only web designer represented in the group. Other web designers would be allowed to visit, but if they wanted to join the organization they would have to find a group that did not have a web designer. If there was no opening in an existing group for a web designer, the person would have to go on a waiting list until an opening became available, or a new group was formed.

Most leads groups meet once a week. There are some that only meet once a month. Leads groups offer something that a lot of people need. Structure and discipline. What do I mean by this?

Structure – In a leads group you do not have to be a master net worker. As a matter of fact, you can be a shy person and still have success in a leads group. Most leads groups allow a given amount of time to tell other members about your business. This usually ranges from one to five minutes. In this allotted amount of time you can go into great detail about your business including describing what type of leads you are looking for. The format is usually accomplished by sitting around a large table, and a leader moderates the time and asks questions. The meetings are generally held early in the morning or at lunchtime.
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Excitement at the thought of starting your own business venture, fear at the thought of failure, are the two major emotions that people face when thinking of starting their own business. For many the fear of failure is enough to hold them back from taking the chance at starting their own small business; however, with careful planning and some luck a small business will be set for success.

When starting a small business it is important to step back and decide what exactly the company will be focusing on. What type of products or services will it be providing and to what group or niche will the company be aiming towards as its target audience. This seems like a simple enough step however many people many people either try to cater to too broad of an audience or to too small of a group. Although trying to appeal to a large audience may sound great at first, it can be harmful for a small business. Trying to cater to a broad spectrum of people makes the company lose focus and ultimately lose its identity. Targeting too small of an audience is a problem simply because a small target group makes for a small population of potential customers.

Another thing to consider is the supply and demand of the market that the company will be focused on. A company will need to either be excellent at what it does, very unique in what it does, and most importantly lucky to succeed let alone survive. Choosing a market that is largely in demand and short in supply will increase a company’s chance of survival immensely. The opposite can be said for a market that is low in supply and large in demand. Try to study where current business trends are headed towards and what is needed or wanted by today’s consumers. Also, it is important when looking at trends to try and think about its long term viability. The last thing that you want to do is start a business based on a fad that is over within a year or two.
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Online networking web sites. Are they really networking and are they really working?

They have been springing up all over. They are based on contact management. They are direct in messaging, emailing, and even in the six degrees of separation. They go by many different names and have various methods of finding people. The problem with these sites is that they are not really networking. Do you disagree?

To be effective in networking requires building a relationship with another person. This is difficult to do through messages and email. If you have ever had a discussion with a person through email or instant messaging, I would like to ask if you ever found yourself in a situation where you had to actually pick up the phone to find out what a person was really talking about?

In relationships conversation is extremely important. The communication is key. The thing that we may not really pay attention to is the importance of tonal inflection in the voice and the added benefits of body language in expressing ourselves. These are the things that online networking is lacking.
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