How To Manage Upset Customers

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When it comes to running a business, one of the biggest keys to success will be making sure that you know how to manage customers who are upset, or who have a complaint about the way they have been handled by you, your employees, or your company.

When an upset customer has a legitimate complaint, they can ruin a lot of business for you if they share their complaints with others, but when you are able to fix a situation with an upset customer, they will often be so impressed with the way you handled things that they will end up sending more customers your way!

The first thing you need to do - regardless of whether you feel their complaint is legitimate or not - is to acknowledge the problem; when you acknowledge that their complaint and convey that you understand the complaint, you will be on the right path to making the situation better.

The next step is working to resolve the problem - but the mistake that many people make when trying to resolve a problem with a customer is that they allow the customer to dictate the terms of the resolution. It can be difficult to maintain the balance between keeping the power in your hands and still being helpful, but this is an importance balance to maintain - otherwise, you may end up with a customer who is not satisfied no matter what you do.

And lastly, recognize the fact that there actually will be customers who you will never be able to satisfy; these are the customers who tend to complain with every company they deal with, and the best way to deal with such customers is to do the best you can and then send them on their way!

Managing upset customers is not always easy, but it is one of the most important aspects of keeping your business in good shape - and when you can start to do this effectively, you will maximize the positive news that customers spread about your company.

Tips For Using YouTube To Promote Your Business

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If you have a small business, you may have realized that YouTube is a great market to tap into in order to promote your business. And while YouTube can certainly be a great way for you to promote your business, you can also go about it the wrong way, in which case it will be a poor way to promote your business! Before you take the time to try to launch a YouTube campaign for your business, you need to recognize what you need to do for the campaign to go well.

One of the first things you will want to do is create your own YouTube channel, one that is specific to your business. This will enable people to become more and more familiar with you, as they will be able to subscribe to your channel, which can go a long way in helping you on YouTube.

Next, you should study first; take a look at other businesses like yours, and see who has done the best job promoting themselves on YouTube. And here's a hint: The ones that have done the best job are the ones that have the most hits on their videos! You certainly do not want to copy anything they themselves have done, but you can borrow inspiration and ideas from them as much as you would like.

You also need to keep in mind, if you want a video of yours to go viral, that you need to create something that is actually worth spreading around. The beauty of YouTube is that it enables others to do the work for you, spreading the video around; you cannot just have someone standing there and talking to the screen - you need something that catches the eye.

If you let people make the videos for you, you will find that this is the best way to get others to help you spread the word about your business! Depending on the sort of company you have, you can run a contest where the best video gets a certain, high-priced item for free. This will help you spread the word about your company more quickly than anything you could do all on your own!

YouTube is a goldmine just waiting for the savvy marketeer to come along and tap into it; once you figure out the best way for you to use it, you can watch your business soar!

Tips For Keeping Conversations Short

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People often say that time is money, and even if you disagree with this, you certainly feel that time is important. Time can be anything from money to leisure to fun, but whatever the case, time is an important element for many of us. And even though it might seem funny to figure out how to "end conversations quickly," it is also true that you sometimes find yourself in conversations you would prefer to keep short. And if you learn how to end these conversations quickly - regardless of whether they take the shape of conversations with coworkers, neighbors, or strangers - you will have more time to yourself and the things you want to do.

Be polite: The best thing you can do, when aiming to end a conversation quickly, is to summon every ounce of politeness you can muster. If you are rude to someone when trying to end a conversation quickly, you may find that the conversation actually ends up dragging on longer. On the other hand, your counterpart will leave the conversation feeling fulfilled if you are polite and friendly throughout - which makes it much easier to end the conversation.

Recognize what most people want to talk about: Even though a conversation is supposed to be an exchange between two people, most poeple would much rather be engaged in a "conversation" that focuses on nothing but their own self. Allow the other person to tell you all the things they want to tell you as quickly as possible by turning every question they ask back to them, and in this way they will feel fulfilled with the conversation much more quickly.

Know how to graciously finish: Closing out a conversation is often the toughest part of keeping conversations short, as lots of people try to exit a conversation by making excuses. Instead, you should always end a conversation the same way when you are trying to keep things short: simply tell the person that it was great talking to them, and that you look forward to catching up again!

If you follow these tips, you will not only be able to keep conversations short when you need to, but you will also do so in a manner that leaves your counterpart feeling fulfilled!

Dealing With An eBay Customer Who Does Not Pay

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EBay is a great tool for anyone who wants to get rid of their old, unwanted stuff or wants to make some extra money. But while eBay is great for selling your items, it is not always great for getting you paid for the items that you "sold." After all, on eBay, you do not get paid first and then give the customer the item - the way you would in a regular store - but instead, you have to wait for the person to pay you after they win the bid, and sometimes they can leave you waiting for a while!

If you are dealing with a customer who has won a bid but has not yet paid you, the first thing you should know is that they have four days to pay. Even though this seems like a while, eBay will not take a complaint unless it has been at least four days from the day when the auction ended. At the same time, however, eBay usually takes these matters very seriously if the four full days have passed without the payment.

The first thing you need to do, if someone has not paid you, is contact them and see if you can work things out. If they are uncooperative or - perhaps even more frustrating - unresponsive, you then need to take things to the next step, which is filing the complaint with the Resolution Center at eBay.

The buyer will again have four days to pay after you file a complaint with the Resolution Center (and will also, of course, be notified of the complaint). Although they are allowed to contact you and try to work out an extension or another arrangement during this time, you are not required to oblige. If they do not pay you within four days, and you have not agreed to any other arrangements, it will go down as an unpaid item.

This unpaid item will be listed permanently on the buyer's account, and you are then able to list your item again, or you can give a Second Chance Offer to one of the bidders who lost on the item. And keep in mind: you can look at people's accounts when they are bidding, and if you run into a bidder with an "unpaid item" on their account, you can block them to keep this from happening to you!

How To Find Items You Can Buy And Sell For More Money

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If you are hoping to make some extra money - or even if you are wanting to find a creative way to eventually make a full-time living - one idea to consider is finding items that you can buy and sell for profit; with the great reach provided to each and every person by the Internet, it is quite easy these days to find a way to sell the things you have, which means that the main thing you will need to figure out is exactly where you should go to buy these things that you can resell.

One great place to look for things that you can resell for more money - and perhaps the best place of all for really excellent deals - is garage sales; start going out on Saturday mornings and perusing the items for sale at different garage sales, and you will be surprised at how much good stuff you find - but make sure that you also go in with an idea of what it is you are looking for, lest you end up with a whole bunch of stuff you do not really need, and are not really able to sell!

Along the same lines as garage sales is estate sales, and while you will not find nearly the deals at estate sales that you would at garage sales, you will be able to find some really top-notch stuff; always keep your eyes open for different estate sales that are going to be taking place near where you live, and look for items that you feel will be easy to sell (and easy to ship!) so that you can quickly turn a profit.

And even though items at antique stores will run you more money than you would have to pay at a garage sale or an estate sale, you can also find some real treasures here when shopping correctly; visit antique stores and get a sense for what they are carrying, then head online to find which of these you might be able to sell for more money on your own.

A lot of times, people sell things at a low price simply because they need to get rid of these things - and this is the perfect opportunity for you to swoop in and buy this item yourself, before turning around and selling it for a profit!

Writing An Effective Press Release

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A press release is one of the best ways for you to spread the word about your business, but as with just about any efforts intended to promote your business, a press release will not do you much good unless you take the proper approach; there are a lot of things that go into taking the proper approach - and the proper approach for you may be different from the proper approach for others, depending on a variety of factors - but there are also some basic things that will be important for any press release.

The title of your press release will be the first thing that you should be paying attention to, as this will be the first thing people see when deciding whether or not to read your press release, and it will go a long way in determining which search engine searches you show up in; make sure your title focuses on keywords that are relevant to your business, and make sure it is designed to catch the attention of those who see it.

Another area where you will want to make sure you are focusing on keywords is in the anchor text included in your press release; the anchor text, of course, is the text within your content that you turn into a link that points to your site, and when this anchor text focuses on keywords, it will help the search engine ranking of your site as well!

And finally, make sure that any quotes you include within the text of your press release are both descriptive and specific, rather than being something generic; the quote can be a big selling point of a press release, but if you fail to take the right approach, it can also be entirely ineffective!

In order to ensure that your press release will have a maximum impact, there will still be a number of other things you will need to make sure you are doing, but these tips will get you started on the road to press release success!

Is A Business Degree Right For Me?

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If you will soon be heading off to college - or if you are already in college and are trying to decide what you want to major in - one of the degrees that will probably stand out to you as a 'good, solid choice' is a business degree. After all, 'business' covers so many areas, and even if you do not know what you want to do after college, there is a pretty good chance that you can achieve your goals if you have a business degree in hand - right?

Actually, it turns out that a degree in business might not be nearly as useful as it once was - and here is why.

Over the years, Business has grown into the major that students tend to choose when they do not quite know what they would like to do after school, and in addition to there already being lots of people interested in business, this creates a situation where large numbers of students are in every single class. Because each professor is likely teaching a handful of classes throughout the week - and because all of these classes have a large number of students - these professors are unlikely to hand out any "writing" assignments that are terribly difficult; which has been proven lately to be a mistake, as companies are looking to hire employees who know how to write!

A business degree can still be a valuable thing to have if you are truly interested in business - but you should seriously consider pairing your business degree with a degree in another area of study that will require you to do a lot of writing in order to obtain a degree. Even though such majors as English, History, or Philosophy have long been seen as degrees that do not have much practical application in "the real world," the starting income for those who have such degrees is actually higher these days than for those with business degrees - so as you choose your major, you should keep this fact in mind!

Tips For Using Search Engine Optimization With Affiliate Marketing

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If you are wanting to test the waters of affiliate marketing - either to pull in some money on the side, or in an effort to be your own boss and make a living from home, on your own time - one thing you should realize is that it will be of the utmost importance that you are able to figure out how to get people to your website (after all, you will not generate many sales if you are generating no traffic!); affiliate marketing and search engine optimization are both powerful tools if used properly - but if you are wanting to get the most out of affiliate marketing, you will have to pair it with great search engine optimization!

You will want to make sure you have an understanding of what you are targeting within your when you are setting up a website; you will either want to go with a very narrow and specific target (picking a niche that you will focus on, and sticking with this throughout all the content on your website), or you will want to go very broad (exploring lots of different topics and products, and realizing that some will be misses, but that others will be hits).

Another thing you should realize is that some people use the Internet simply to search for information and knowledge about products, while others will be looking for an opportunity to buy; as you create a website that is keyword-intensive, make sure these keywords will be attracting people to your site who are ready to make a purchase, instead of attracting those who are just wanting to gather some information.

And also, realize there is no reason for you to limit yourself on your website to just your affiliate marketing, as you can also make money on your site through pay-per-click ads. As you continue to beef up the content on your website, doing so in such a way that you will show up regularly in search engines, you will be able to seriously boost your income with a nice rotation of ads that get people to click on them - and that get extra money to keep on coming your way!

Tips For Acknowledging The Hard Work Of Your Employees

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One of the most important things when you are running a business will be that you are able to get the most out of your employees - after all, employees who work hard and truly care about your business will act as just one more extension of you, whereas employees who do not care about your business and do not work hard can be a huge detriment in the long run; of course, getting the most out of your employees is not always as simple as just coming up with some magic solution, but when you understand how to acknowledge the hard work of your employees, you will be much more likely to get the most out of them.

One thing that you should be aware of is that an employee of the month award really means nothing at all if the only thing these employees get is the title “employee of the month”; make it clear to your employees what it takes to win employee of the month, and what the process is for selecting the employee of the month, and then make the reward for winning employee of the month truly worth their efforts!

Making sure you are giving your employees time off is another way to get the most out of them; if you are making your employees work during holidays (when other people they know are not working), and if you never give them any bonuses for the hard work they have done, they are unlikely to give you nearly as much as you would like from them.

And of course, as much as hard work is important, relaxation is important as well, as employees will not be able to continually give 100% if they are never able to replenish themselves; even as you create a work environment that expects and promotes hard work, you should also make sure that you are taking care of your employees at work so that they feel relaxed, as this will help them to keep working hard.

If you want your business to be a success, you will need your employees to help, and the biggest step in getting your employees to help is to realize that they will take care of you as long as you are taking care of them!

Tips For Scoring High Praise At Work

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At your job, one of the most important things will be that you understand how to do the things you need to do in order to score high praise; of course, one reason why you want to do this is because high praise from those above you is a great indication that you are doing the job you are supposed to be doing, but the other reason why scoring high praise is an important part of your job is that this can give you the energy and the drive you need in order to keep doing great work!

In order to score high praise at work, one of the first things you need to do is be willing to take on challenging assignments; many people try to avoid the assignments that will be more difficult, but your higher-ups at work know which are the more difficult projects and assignments, and they will certainly notice if you are always the person volunteering to tackle these projects as others shy away from them.

You should also be willing to work harder than what is expected of you when you are looking to score high praise at work, as going over and above expectations will catch the eye of those above you - and even if you do not do a perfect job on a project or assignment, you will be given a bit more room for error if they see that you are always working as hard as you can to go over and above!

And as you wait for your hard work to pay off, you need to have a bit of patience; you will not always see the fruits of your labors right away, but as you continue plugging away and working hard, this will certainly be noticed in time, and you will be rewarded accordingly - with high praise, and with all the other things that come with this.

Of course, in the end, you should truly be working as hard as you can at work simply for yourself, always knowing that you are doing the best job possible - but scoring high praise at work is certainly an added benefit of this hard work you put in, and in taking this approach, you will soon arrive at this desired end result!

Tips For Becoming Better At Sales

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People who are in sales for a living realize that sales are extremely important (after all, they depend on sales for their livelihood!), but it is also great for people in every area of life to understand the importance of sales, as sales reach much further than just sales in business; regardless of what you do for a living - or what you do in life - here are a few things for you to keep in mind in order to become better at sales.

One mistake a lot of people make is that they try to sell a product, but if the person to whom they are trying to sell the product has no connection with them (or worse, if they do not like them!), the sale will probably not be made; one of the most important things in sales is knowing how to sell yourself - recognizing that people are a lot more likely to buy something from you if they like you and trust you from the start.

Many salesmen make over-the-top promises that they cannot keep (and that they have no intention of trying to keep), but instead of making promises that you will be unable to keep, you should instead make it your goal to always go over and above what the person is expecting of you; when you do this, you will give the customer a much more satisfying experience, and will bring you more business in the long run, as people are likely to spread the word about you if they have a good experience (in the same way they are likely to spread the word about you if they have a bad experience!).

And as you keep in mind the realization that people are likely to talk to others about their experience with you, realize that it is up to you to fix any problems or issues the person to whom you made the sale deals with in the aftermath. In sales, one of the best things you can do is realize that your responsibility does not end when the sale ends - instead, your responsibility ends only when the customer is completely satisfied!

Is Dilbert Okay For My Employees?

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Not only are you familiar with Dilbert as a member of the business world, but as a boss in the business world, you probably even think that Dilbert is sometimes funny. After all, these cartoons are not making fun of you, right? But then again, it is easy to second-guess this sentiment when you start to see Dilbert cartoons tacked up on the cubicle walls of your employees. Of course, at first, it feels like you are just being overly paranoid to think that a cartoon strip could have any effect on the morale of your employees, but it is also difficult to shed from your mind those articles that talked about how Dilbert actually can have a negative effect on employees. And so the question becomes, are Dilbert cartoons bad for employee morale?

First off all, one must remember that humor and laughter is good for morale. Certainly, these cartoons are posted on people's walls because they induced a laugh, so this is a sign in the right direction.

The issue, of course, is that many of these cartoons induce laughs by poking fun at corporate culture. And when you see a cartoon on someone's wall where the boss is made fun of, it is difficult to keep your mind from wandering to the question: Why did this employee post this particular cartoon on their wall? But the solution to the problem might be more complicated than just banning these comic strips. After all, it is unlikely that banning these strips would have any effect except to make employees think that you are out of touch with the way they feel.

Instead of reacting brashly and ordering all Dilbert strips to be taken down from cubicle walls, a better approach is to look at the strips yourself. Many of these strips are funny because they poke fun at the way businesses are run; if your employees think that these strips are applicable enough to be tacked on their cubicle wall, the problem might not be with the strip itself. The problem might be a whole lot closer to home; perhaps the problem is with your company and the way it is run!

While some might think it is trivial to turn Dilbert into a topic of serious discussion, many businesses have, in fact, banned these cartoons from cubicle walls. If you are wanting to improve morale around your office, do not alienate employees by acting in this manner; instead, take a look at the way your business is run, and aim to improve morale by improving your business!