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Top Ways to Deal With Unpleasant Customers

Tag: tips and tricks

PayTabs
Mohab Customer Experience 0

Top Ways to Deal With Unpleasant Customers

During your daily operations, you are bound to come across angry and upset customers. Many times, such anger is justified while other times the real reason behind their irritation is not related to your business. However, in both cases, you need to find ways to calm such clients and win their trust back again. Here are some top tips to deal with such clients and ensure that they not only stick with your business but also bring more revenue to you.

Keep Calm: no matter how worked up or rude your customer is, the foremost rule is that you retain your cool. If a person is verbally abusive then take a deep breath and listen to their problem. This approach will allow you to analyze the problem in a rational manner. If you immediately jump the gun and respond to the client in a reciprocating manner, then the issue is bound to get out of hand. If you are interacting with the person in an electronic manner, then re-read your response multiple times before hitting the send button. This stance will let you re-assess and remain calm. However, keep in mind that you are also responsible for your own safety, so if there is any threat of physical harm then report to the appropriate authorities as per your organizational policies.

Listen & Apologize: even if the customer is angry and rude, they still deserve your proper attention. Listen to them carefully when they state their problem. If you have any doubts or concerns then ask appropriate questions. It is also important that you let the customer vent out. Do not interrupt while they are speaking and let them finish before you offer a solution. This approach builds trust and confidence. It also lets the client know that you are genuinely interested in solving their problem. Whether the problem was on your end or the customer’s issue was not genuine, even then offer a sincere apology. However, in the latter case, you may explain the situation to ensure that the client gets the true picture.

Act Fast: once you are done listening to your irate customers, it is important that you take immediate steps to resolve the issue. If the issue lies within your jurisdiction then resolve the issue as soon as possible. In other cases, escalate it to appropriate persons. You should also ensure that you properly communicate all the steps taken to resolve the issue to your client. This will make your client feel valued. During the process, keep the communication channels open with the client so that they are aware of latest developments. It will also satisfy your customer that their grievances are being addressed in a proper manner.

Remain Firm: as important as it is to be courteous to your client, it is equally important to hold your ground too. Being polite does not imply that you have to concede to each and every whim of your customer. If there are any issues which are either the clients’ fault or some other party’s responsibility then explain this situation in a calm manner to the customer. If the customer is making any unreasonable demand then explain organizational policies to them. However, in all the cases, it is important that your business does not suffer on account of client side problems.

Solve the Problem: it is important that you follow up appropriately that the problem is being resolved in a time-bound manner. Also keep the client updated about the steps taken and listen to their feedback. If a client has some specific concerns then ensure that such issues are explicitly dealt with during the resolution process. However, if the clients’ demands are unjustified that clearly communicate such issues to your customer. In such cases, mutual negotiations may be undertaken to reach a solution which is acceptable to all the parties. Once the issue has been resolved, ask your client for feedback to ensure that the things are settled in a complete manner.

Businesses are now required to provide the highest level of customer satisfaction. In many cases, this may become an odious task. However, with above guidelines you can ensure that your clients are always happy and satisfied.

4 years ago
7 Ecommerce Tips for New Entrepreneurs
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

7 Ecommerce Tips for New Entrepreneurs

E-commerce occupies a primary position in today’s economy. Every new business is now required to have online presence to ensure its overall growth and survival. E-commerce landscape is highly dynamic and is continuously evolving. In order to make your business more efficient and productive, here are some tips for a new entrepreneur regarding eCommerce.

  • Deliberate Before Going Live: one of the biggest mistakes committed by new entrepreneurs is to launch half-baked products and services. While online business world follows the practice Minimum Viable Product, it is still advisable for new businesses to endeavor to perfect their products before launching them online. Such precautions should be undertaken with regard to the product as well as with regard to the infrastructure required for online launch. Before making your website live, you should ensure that your domain name, outbound links and SEO are all in the right place.
  • Integrate your Marketing Efforts: as eCommerce is fast evolving, the marketing tools are also changing at a fast pace. In such environment, it is therefore important that the marketing mix is designed in such a way that frequent changes may be incorporated seamlessly. E-commerce generally uses email blasts, newsletters and social media. It is imperative that these promotional media are used in an intertwined fashion. New entrepreneur can use these media to cross target their markets and draw synergies.
  • Use Funnel Approach: in simple words, funnel approach implies that you need to be aware of the path taken by your target customers to eventually buy your product or service. The various facets involved in the process of funnel approach is to retain customers and upselling. Further, entrepreneurs may also use subscription based models and cross selling approaches under this framework. There are various tools available for this purpose such as plugins which may be easily integrated with your website to achieve desired results.
  • Keep Your Systems Flexible: it is important that the infrastructure used for running your eCommerce venture is flexible and is able to accommodate your growing business. The backend system should be designed in such a way that it expands with your endeavor. While selecting various elements such as server capacity, you should keep in mind not only the present requirements but also future potential. In case of eCommerce, later upgrades in the system may prove to be prohibitively expensive and tedious. Therefore, it is advisable to anticipate the future requirements and incorporate them into the infrastructure in the beginning stage, thus minimizing the need for later additions.
  • Go Social, Go Mobile: proper use of social media can work wonders for your online business. With a number of platforms available, it is important to ensure that your social media mix offers you synergies, without causing any duplication of efforts and resources. The use of social media not only allows you to provide latest information to your clients but also to keep track of their changing preferences. Further, one of the most important trends is to use mobile access. More and more people are using eCommerce through their phones and tablets. In order to fully harness the power of mobile eCommerce, it is important that you optimize the mobile rendering of your website. Alternatively, you can opt for designing a dedicated app for mobile devices. In order to future proof your eCommerce venture, it is essential that you pay proper attention to mobile segment.
  • Pay Attention to Analytics: as eCommerce changes at a fast pace, the businesses are required to keep pace with them. This can be done by using various analytical tools which are helpful in gathering data. Such data is then analyzed to find trends and predict future patterns. The important data required for such purpose is the number of visitors to the website, the conversion rate and loading time. Such data is then analyzed and the strategies are designed accordingly. In order to design robust marketing and other plans, the use of analytics cannot be overemphasized.

The above given pointers offer simple and fast way to optimize your eCommerce business. It is essential that an entrepreneur ensures that they are constantly evolving to keep their eCommerce ventures relevant and effective.

4 years ago
The Best 5 TED Talks Every E-Commerce Entrepreneur Needs to Watch
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

The Best 5 TED Talks Every E-Commerce Entrepreneur Needs to Watch

TED Talks are full of insights and are especially useful for entrepreneurs. These talks tend to be informative and inspirational. TED Talks speakers tend to be experts in their areas and can help entrepreneurs in understanding various nuances of the trade. However, there are a large number of TED Talks available, making it a little difficult for people to find the right ones. So, here are our top picks which can help you in taking your venture to the next level.

  • Derek Sivers’ How to Start a Movement

This TED Talk is mainly focused upon bringing about meaningful changes and the leadership styles. The traits required for starting an impactful revolution are the same traits which are helpful in starting and then nurturing a disruptive business. An entrepreneur like a leader should be able to command influence over their peers and target market. Similarly, the techniques such as word of mouth propaganda used by the movements may also be used by budding entrepreneurs for promoting their businesses. Peer recommendation and referrals are especially useful for fledgling businesses when they do not have historical performance to back up their claims. This TED Talk is not only useful for budding entrepreneurs but also for the mature ones.

  • Simon Senek’s How Great Leaders Inspire Action

This TED Talk is concerned with leadership and delves deeply to see why certain people are more likely to inspire others. The talk gives examples of influential leaders such as Martin Luther King and Steve Jobs. The crux of this talk is that people are less influenced by the products and services you launched but more by the reasons behind launching these offerings. This connotes that as an entrepreneur you should be fully aware that there are right reasons behind getting into a particular business. Such understanding and awareness is required to be palpable in your business message when you pitch it in front of consumers and investors. With the help of this video, you can not only hone your leadership skills but may also take your business in a new direction.

  • David S. Rose’s Pitching to VCs

David S. Rose is an accomplished serial entrepreneur who now invests in other people’s businesses. He draws from his own experiences to deliver this TED Talk where he talks about the rules you need to follow while pitching your business. According to David, the most important thing to keep in mind when you are making a pitch presentation is to elaborate upon the most compelling characteristics of your offering. The talk is less than 15 minutes long and is jam packed with insightful advice. It also provides a list of things you should refrain from doing or mentioning in your pitch.

  • Gary Vaynerchuk’s Do What You Love – No Excuses

This TED Talk delivered by entrepreneur and bestselling author Gary Vaynerchuk is weaved around his personal experiences and life stories. The main focus of the talk is on the importance of passion and persistence while running a venture. According to this lecture, the real ingredient essential for entrepreneurial success is to have true passion for what you do. Gary goes on to explain that many entrepreneurs are instead driven by their desire for money or passion, which ultimately leads to mediocre performance or downright failure. Gary delivers the advice in a highly engaging manner which makes this video highly watchable and easy to understand.

  • Richard St. John’s The 8 Secrets of Success

Richard St. John bases his talk on seven years of research work during which he carried out over 500 interviews. He singles out eight main features which are found common in all successful people. These traits are work, ideas, persistence, serve, support, push, practice and passion. These attributes are not just useful for entrepreneurs but for all people in general. According to Richard St. John, if these features are inculcated in people, they can become better version of themselves and may realize their true potential. The video contains a three-minute slideshow which provides sage advice in bite size portions.

TED Talks are treasure trove of actionable advice. The above listed videos can help you in various segments of your entrepreneurial journey.

4 years ago
PayTabs
Mohab Customer Experience 0

How to Improve Customer Retention and What Are the Benefits

Customer retention is highly important for any business as relying solely on new clientele for growth may prove to be a myopic approach. There are several approaches which may be undertaken to ensure that the firm is able to generate repeat business from its set client base. The main benefit of customer retention is that it takes considerably lower expenditure to generate revenue from established customers than from new clients. Higher Revenue: when a business is able to retain its client, it helps in achieving higher revenue as well. As your clients already trust your business practices and products, you are not required to plan any expensive marketing plan. This feature ensures that your profit margin is more robust than ever. Here are some of the benefits of a loyal customer base.

  • Improved Business Image: apart from offering pecuniary benefits, customer retention also helps a firm in generating goodwill in the market. Having a loyal customer base gives a stamp of approval to your products and services. It sends a message to the market and to the prospective clients that your business is trustworthy.
  • Lower Marketing Costs: acquiring new clients is an expensive affair as you need to spend a lot of money on collecting data about them, designing appropriate policies and executing them. However, in the case of existing clients, these expenses are reduced considerably. Lower costs mean that you are either able to provide your goods and services at cheaper rate to your clients or able to add to your profit margin. Both the situations are conducive to solid business growth.
  • Data Collection: in today’s world, data is king as it is used for making analysis and creating policies. When a business has large customer base, they are able to generate big data sets which are required for proper analysis. It is also a lot easier and less expensive to collect data from existing clients than looking for new people for this purpose. In case of loyal customer base, the frequency of collecting data and analysis may also be kept lower, which further helps in rationalizing the associated costs.

Creating customer following need not be a daunting task. Here are some of the main ways you can ensure that your customers keep coming back for more.

  • Know Your Client Base: it is important that you understand the requirements and features of your clients. It will help you in customizing your offerings, motivating clients to keep coming back. Providing customized products to best meet your clients’ requirements is the key to build a loyal customer base.
  • Take Extra Care: for generating repeat business, it is imperative that you provide robust customer care. This step ensures that as and when there is any grievance, it is properly handled. The speedy resolution of the issues is also important as any delay may lead the customers to look for alternatives, eroding your client base.
  • Offer Incentives: it is always helpful to start loyalty program, where you offer incentives to your clients for making repeat purchases. Such incentives may be in the cash form or non-cash form. The monetary incentives may be introduced through discounts and cash backs while the main examples of non monetary incentives are freebies, early access to new products and free shipping among other features. However, it is ideal to offer a judicious mix of cash and non cash incentives to ensure that the requirements of your client base are adequately met.
  • Remain in Touch: it is important that you maintain constant touch with your clients, even when they are not making purchase. This is especially important in the areas where the demand is seasonal. During the lean season, you can remain acquainted with your clients by sending them newsletters about latest developments in your business. However, you should ensure that such communiqué is appropriately customized and is able to pique customers’ interest.

It needs to be noted that offering high quality goods and services is of paramount importance for creating a loyal customer base. However, you also need to undertake the above given strategies to ensure that you are able to generate repeat business from your clients.

4 years ago
Good Cyber security Habits by Which to Live
Mohab Growth Hacks 0

Good Cyber security Habits by Which to Live

Cyber security is an extremely important concept in today’s interconnected world. The significance of this phenomenon has been recognized through the fact that organizations now carry out formal educational seminars to make its employees aware of dangers in the cyber world and the ways to tackle them. There are certain ways you can ensure the safety of your business and data from cyber frauds.

  1. Create Awareness: the first step in ensuring the cyber security is to make all the users aware of cyber attacks, their consequences and the ways to avert them. Many times, employees believe that cyber security is the responsibility of IT department. However, this is not true as most of the cyber threats mainly arise due to certain actions taken by employees outside the IT department. It is important to empower your employees to ensure that they carry out best practices. This exercise should be undertaken by businesses of all sizes and sectors. With elevated awareness, your staff can become a major force in averting cyber attacks.
  2. Use Technology: since cyber threats have become more prevalent due to advancement and proliferation of technology, it is only sensible that the same technological tools are used to fight against it. First step in this direction is to institute Two Factor Authentication system which is also known as 2FA, to access enterprise resources. The first factor is generally the password generated by the user while second factor is delivered through electronic means such as text message or email. In certain cases, you may choose to use biometrics as second measures. Such biometrics may take form of finger print or retina scanning.
  3. Healthy Online Habits: in order to ensure that your employees are following the guidelines, it may be important to set up certain filters. These web filtering tools may restrict access to specific websites or URLs. Further, these filters may also help in managing the links opened by the employees. However, the first step in this direction should be to educate the employees about safe practices. They should be counseled to not click on unknown links sent through emails or texts. The employees should be advised to limit their web surfing to safe sites only as many dodgy websites are known to implant virus on computers which may sabotage the entire corporate network.
  4. Make Passwords Stronger: employees should be educated about the importance of stronger passwords. The passwords are required to be not just long but also complex to provide appropriate kind of security. Ideally, it should be a combination of letters, numbers and special symbols. Further, the passwords must also be changed frequently. Employees should be advised not to share their password with anyone within or without the organization. It should also be noted that unique passwords should be created for different services and not repeated.
  5. Install Updates: in cyber world, threats arise on daily basis. In order to provide protection against them, most of the apps and websites push constant updates. It is highly important that all such updates including security patches should be installed on regular basis. Keeping the apps and programs updated ensures that you have reasonable security against various cyber threats. Proper attention should also be paid to updating default privacy settings. All the devices and accounts used in a firm should undergo this exercise.
  6. Make Cyber Security Practices a Habit: while organizations may institute various policies to ensure cyber security, it is equally important to ensure that these policies are followed by the employees in a prompt and regular manner. Employees should be aware that they do not leave sensitive information lying around. Further, this type of information should be shared with only concerned people and not everyone else. Organizations should carry out periodic checks to see that the policies are being implemented. The employees should also be educated about such practices on regular basis.

As most of the businesses now have online presence, it is important to ensure that your business as well as your clients are secure against online threats. By following some simple rules, you can have a blanket of safety against cyber attacks and keep your data safe from such threats.

4 years ago