Sarah Hedayati

No matter what product or service you offer, selling to a customer you have truly connected with is much more fulfilling than a sale to just some random customer whom you’ll never think of again. Not only will you come away feeling excited and optimistic, but your customer will too, and that can prove very valuable.

Developing a connection with your customers can do wonders for your company and give you a competitive edge by increasing customer loyalty, the potential for outside referrals, and of course the chance to sell more.

So, how do you build this connection? Following are a few tips and tricks to help you establish a rapport and transform a simple sale into a good relationship.

Providing incentives for employees is a great way to boost morale, productivity, and promote a harmonious work environment. Even more importantly, offering incentives to your employees in a non-traditional and creative way allows you to keep track of improvement and reward staff for a job well done. Another great characteristic of incentives is their flexibility. Incentives don’t have to be used solely to honor an employee.

Traditionally, employee incentives come in the form of a pay increase or bonus money. While this monetary compensation can undoubtedly motivate your employees in the short term, it is by no means the only way to encourage top-notch performance from your staff.   Many employees are motivated to increase their skills and knowledge by the prospect of promotion or job enhancement. In fact, according to some studies, employees have cited various incentives...

Social media as a service and support channel is on the rise. There is a buzz about what effect social media will have on customer service.

Peter Shankman showed us what one tweet can do. After jokingly asking Morton’s steakhouse to meet him at an airport with a porterhouse in one of his tweets, they showed up!  The power of that tweet is extraordinary! After five months, the story is still being retold.

How do you properly begin a social media support plan?

The following three tips will help you develop your own plan.

Develop a Plan of Action

When getting started in using social media for service and support, the first step is to develop a plan of action. Your plan of action needs to contain a map for how to handle certain situations that may arise. Some issues may be routine or...

The other day, I opened an email from AT&T reminding me of my upcoming bill. I opened it expecting to see my usual monthly payment. Instead, I found a bill total of more than triple the normal amount. My initial thought: Here we go again. I absolutely hate calling AT&T, because it takes at least ten minutes to work my way through their interactive voice response (IVR) and possibly reach a person.

Begrudgingly, I made my call and reached a customer service representative. Hooray! She investigated and told me I had made a mistake and still owed triple the amount my contract stated. The discussion quickly increased in volume and attitude. Eventually, she agreed to pass my issue on to her supervisor who would contact me the next day.

Tweet Tweet

I was extremely frustrated and heated after my conversation, so I decided to tweet my complaint and see if anyone would respond. I included @ATT in my tweet.

Over two hours later, @ATT...