Templates Are More Than Just For Online Businesses

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When you think of business templates, you probably thought of templates that would be used by online businesses, accounting practices, even engineering firms. But, if you have a small, local business you probably said to yourself, “Templates can’t possibly help me.” You should reconsider this position.

Templates can be exceptionally valuable for all types of business. For example, a carpet cleaning company in Mobile, AL used our templates to improve how their technicians clean carpets. What do I mean by that?

They were having issues with customers complaining because the technicians weren’t being thorough enough with the cleaning. Sometimes they would skip steps, or skip areas that should have been cleaned. The result was a less than perfect finished product. The carpet cleaning company came to us ready to fire the offending technicians and really at a loss for how to manage the problem.

Our solution was simple. We created a template for their technicians to use. It was a step by step guide that brought them through every stage of the cleaning project. It included everything from first greeting the customer to walking through the job with the customer to ensure the scope was properly understood, all the way to a step-by-step guide to doing the work to ensure that nothing was missed or forgotten.

So before you dismiss the ability of templates to help your business improve how it runs, consider how helpful even something as simple a step by step guide for interacting with customers, or a training package for tasks that are done repeatedly in your business. I am confident that our templates can help your business, just like it helped the carpet cleaners in Mobile.

Consider creating your own templates by watching your best employees do the work. Take notes of what they’re doing, and what you would like them to do. Then create your own templates by writing everything down and using it so your employees are all doing the task the same as your best employees.

Reputation Management 101

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Your reputation is worth a lot and you are running a business. Unpleasant customers or a few mistakes can seriously hurt your reputation online and in the local community. Use these helpful reputation management tips and tricks in this article to help you avoid the issues that may threaten your reputation.

Honesty and transparency are key to earn the trust of your customers. Never try to cover up or remove posts that are negative on your website. When you do this, they can make customers feel that you are ignoring their concerns with your company or that you simply do not care about your customers. When you choose to be upfront about problems within your company, customers will tend to trust you more.

Claiming your name is essential to building your company’s reputation. Your company’s name or the name of your product is all part of your brand recognition. You will want to check online to ensure that your companies or products name is not already being used by someone else. If it is, a bad review against that company or products will reflect on you when potential customers search you out online.

On your social media sites and on your website, be sure to post your moderation guidelines. This way, your site visitors will know what they should and should not post on your site. Do not make the guidelines so harsh that they cannot leave criticism, though. You want to know how your customers feel about your business and your products, but you want them to know that they must leave comments that are respectful and honest. If someone does post a comment that falls outside of your guidelines, remove their post and then give the reason for the post being removed.

 

Your reputation is very important to the future success of your business. If you can repair any issues as soon as they happen, it will help to keep your reputation, online and in the community, in good standing. Use the tricks and tips here to help you keep a good reputation.

Social Media Marketing Campaign Ideas

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When you first start a social media campaign, there are many things you will have to juggle. Social media marketing is an you are marketing method used to market your products or your business. Many people find it difficult to know exactly where to start with their social media marketing. But the tips in this article to use to better understand how to more effectively market through social media.

If you’re having a special promotion or a sale, social media should be used to promote it. You can post it on any social networking sites such as twitter or Facebook to have it viewed by thousands of people. It is a simple and quick way to let people know about what’s going on with your business.

Find bloggers with active blogs about your niche and leave comments on their posts. In those comments, you will usually be able to leave a link that can lead readers to your own site. Though commenting on blogs that have a large following could generate more traffic to your site, many times readers on the smaller blogs will add up quickly.

Before you start a social media marketing campaign, map out your goals and objectives. These goals and objectives need to be made available for everyone within the company so that your entire organization can be on the same page. If everyone within your company is working towards the same goals, all of the activities within the company will be focused on those goals, helping the social media marketing campaign to be more productive.

Social media marketing is a wonderful way promote your business and increase the visibility of your company. The more visible your business is, and the more accessible it is through the different social networks, the more that it will grow. Continue to research social media marketing to help your business to grow, and use the advice here get you started on the right foot.