Whatever happened to the adage "The customer is king or queen"? or the customer is always right. Not anymore. Company’s representatives seem to delight in arguing with and stone-walling customers and some even brag on their blogs about early morning and late evening calling just to upset customers to set them up for their day.
What kind of individual gets kicks from this kind of behavior? Do they even think before they call the reaction of the customer they call and whom they might come in contact with that day? Is this kind of action possibly more legal liability just waiting to happen?
Road Rage is so common in our society now... what’s next- Telephone Tantrum? Will this also be a psychiatric diagnosis and a legally defendable offense? I would almost bet on it!
Credit card companies are the amongst some of the worst offenders and now, if one is a good, pay your bills on time and in full customer they don’t want you and in fact, are considering penalizing the "good customer" by charging them an annual fee to use their card. Seriously?
It truly amazes and stuns me how deplorable customer service has become. It‘s such an oxymoron... customer and service don’t go together anymore; there is no service for the customer it is all about the company’s way to make money, more profit. Don’t companies care anymore about the way that they are perceived? The only power and voice the customer has left is not to be a company’s customer anymore and when that happens there will be no need for the bottom-line, making money/profit, customer service or the CEO; therefore no more company.
I have always been a positive person and I try to look at both sides of every situation. Do I have suggestions and offer solutions. ABSOLUTELY! When I have had an excellent experience with customer service I tell them so and thank them as well as telling everyone that I come in contact with what a great company, service or product they have. Lately, I have been silent... wonder why?
Showing posts with label Customer Service. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Customer Service. Show all posts
Saturday, May 7, 2011
The 7 Secrets Of Wow! Customer Service
Your aim in giving your customers exceptional service is to make them say “Wow!” as soon as you disappear. You can do that if you make the following 7 tips part of your normal pattern of service.
1. Give Your Customers Plenty of Strokes. People love to be stroked. Just like domestic pets, we like it when we are fussed at, smiled at, and given gentle touches. Strokes can include any greeting, the use of people's names, and good wishes of the "Have-a-nice-day" kind. But the best stroke you can give others is your undivided attention.
2. Surprise Them With The Unexpected. British Airways airline discovered that passenger goodwill increases when staff do unexpected extras such as spontaneous conversations or invitations to visit the flight deck. These have to remain extras and not the norm if they are to retain their surprise value.
3. Attend To The Little Things. Paying attention to the little things which don't significantly affect the main service is a way of saying: "If we look after the little things, just think what we'll do with the big ones." Such detail includes sparkling washrooms that you could eat your meals from and customer notices that don't talk down to people.
4. Anticipate Customers’ Needs. In a survey of airport check-in staff, customers rated the best staff as those who anticipated their needs. These were staff who would routinely glance down the queue and anticipate the different needs customers had, from the grandmother needing help with her luggage to the business executive wanting a quick service.
5. Always Say “Yes”. Great customer carers never turn down a request for help. Even if they can't do it themselves, they'll know someone who can and put you onto them. They always use positive language. Even if the answer is "No, we're closed", it's expressed as "Yes, we can do that first thing tomorrow for you."
6. Treat Them The Same By Treating Them Differently. We hate to see others get better customer service than we do, for example in a restaurant. It makes us feel second-class and devalued. Equally, we don't want to be treated the same as everyone else if that means a standard, soulless response, as you sometimes get in a fast-food restaurant. The secret is to treat everyone the same by treating them differently.
7. Use Tact With Tact. Tact means using adroitness in handling other people's feelings. In awkward or embarrassing moments, tact saves everyone's blushes. It's something your customers will notice but that you should aim to go unnoticed.
Practise these 7 responses until they are as familiar to you as breathing, and you are guaranteed to have customers queueing up for your attention.
1. Give Your Customers Plenty of Strokes. People love to be stroked. Just like domestic pets, we like it when we are fussed at, smiled at, and given gentle touches. Strokes can include any greeting, the use of people's names, and good wishes of the "Have-a-nice-day" kind. But the best stroke you can give others is your undivided attention.
2. Surprise Them With The Unexpected. British Airways airline discovered that passenger goodwill increases when staff do unexpected extras such as spontaneous conversations or invitations to visit the flight deck. These have to remain extras and not the norm if they are to retain their surprise value.
3. Attend To The Little Things. Paying attention to the little things which don't significantly affect the main service is a way of saying: "If we look after the little things, just think what we'll do with the big ones." Such detail includes sparkling washrooms that you could eat your meals from and customer notices that don't talk down to people.
4. Anticipate Customers’ Needs. In a survey of airport check-in staff, customers rated the best staff as those who anticipated their needs. These were staff who would routinely glance down the queue and anticipate the different needs customers had, from the grandmother needing help with her luggage to the business executive wanting a quick service.
5. Always Say “Yes”. Great customer carers never turn down a request for help. Even if they can't do it themselves, they'll know someone who can and put you onto them. They always use positive language. Even if the answer is "No, we're closed", it's expressed as "Yes, we can do that first thing tomorrow for you."
6. Treat Them The Same By Treating Them Differently. We hate to see others get better customer service than we do, for example in a restaurant. It makes us feel second-class and devalued. Equally, we don't want to be treated the same as everyone else if that means a standard, soulless response, as you sometimes get in a fast-food restaurant. The secret is to treat everyone the same by treating them differently.
7. Use Tact With Tact. Tact means using adroitness in handling other people's feelings. In awkward or embarrassing moments, tact saves everyone's blushes. It's something your customers will notice but that you should aim to go unnoticed.
Practise these 7 responses until they are as familiar to you as breathing, and you are guaranteed to have customers queueing up for your attention.
The Golden Rule of Customer Service
“Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you.” Don’t worry; I’m not trying to take you to Sunday school under the pretense of a business article! However, in one form or another we have learned this rule for as long as we can remember. Many people try their best to apply this rule in their everyday lives. But, how many of us try to follow such a simple principle when it comes to business?
If you think about it, it could single handedly be the most important rule to follow in business. After unpleasant sales encounters, most customers are not most upset with the product or service that they purchased. Sure that may have been the root of the problem. But, most people understand that we don’t live in a perfect world and sometimes things don’t work!
The reason most people leave these situations upset is because of the way that they’ve been treated. They feel that they have spent the money for your product or service that for one reason or another did not perform properly. This upsets them, but what really angers them is that they feel that no one cares.
We’ve all had negative customer service experiences. Those of us in sales have most likely been on both sides of such exchanges.
When we’re in the salesperson role, we may be running ragged from an extremely busy day. We may have issues going on in our personal life. We might simply have gotten up in a bad mood that morning. There’s nothing innately wrong with any of those things. However, it is our job to find a way to put all of those things aside to help the people we’re paid to assist. This is why I feel that sales people should really be required to take Acting 101! Ideally, we would always be able to genuinely be interested in listening to our customers and helping them find the solutions that work best for them. But, we all know that that’s pretty much impossible everyday, absent a fairly large prescription of Prozac! Salespeople are just that, people. We’re not always going to be at the top of our game, but we must be able to “act” as if we are. Convincingly, act as if we are!
On the other hand, being that salespeople are people, we are constantly faced with these situations in which we are the customer. Undoubtedly, you have run into a few salespeople who have irritated you or who may not be quite as helpful as you’d like.
Now, obviously, we will never be able to be perfect in all of our customer interactions. However, if we were to try and keep the good old “Golden Rule” in our consciousness at all times when dealing with customers, I think we’d find our jobs more enjoyable, our customers happier and yes, even our profits growing!
If you think about it, it could single handedly be the most important rule to follow in business. After unpleasant sales encounters, most customers are not most upset with the product or service that they purchased. Sure that may have been the root of the problem. But, most people understand that we don’t live in a perfect world and sometimes things don’t work!
The reason most people leave these situations upset is because of the way that they’ve been treated. They feel that they have spent the money for your product or service that for one reason or another did not perform properly. This upsets them, but what really angers them is that they feel that no one cares.
We’ve all had negative customer service experiences. Those of us in sales have most likely been on both sides of such exchanges.
When we’re in the salesperson role, we may be running ragged from an extremely busy day. We may have issues going on in our personal life. We might simply have gotten up in a bad mood that morning. There’s nothing innately wrong with any of those things. However, it is our job to find a way to put all of those things aside to help the people we’re paid to assist. This is why I feel that sales people should really be required to take Acting 101! Ideally, we would always be able to genuinely be interested in listening to our customers and helping them find the solutions that work best for them. But, we all know that that’s pretty much impossible everyday, absent a fairly large prescription of Prozac! Salespeople are just that, people. We’re not always going to be at the top of our game, but we must be able to “act” as if we are. Convincingly, act as if we are!
On the other hand, being that salespeople are people, we are constantly faced with these situations in which we are the customer. Undoubtedly, you have run into a few salespeople who have irritated you or who may not be quite as helpful as you’d like.
Now, obviously, we will never be able to be perfect in all of our customer interactions. However, if we were to try and keep the good old “Golden Rule” in our consciousness at all times when dealing with customers, I think we’d find our jobs more enjoyable, our customers happier and yes, even our profits growing!
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
The Golden Rules Of Customer Service
Everything I know about customer service I learned from working at McDonalds as a teenager. Hard to believe, but true! In this day of highly competitive cyber business, the companies that will succeed will be those that offer superior customer service. The value of a lifetime customer is immeasurable. So once you get a customer, how do you keep him? The answer is killer customer service! Here are some of the secrets that have made McDonalds the success it is today!
*Service with a Smile*
"Hi, Welcome to McDonalds! May I take your order?" Got a new prospect? Welcome him to your business. Introduce yourself and tell about your services in e-mail. Let your customers get to know you. People are more likely to do business with someone they trust. You can't overstate the importance of building strong customer relationships.
Smile when you are talking on the phone. Customers will hear the difference in your voice. Be careful when you send e-mail. It's easy to be misunderstood. E-mail lacks the visual and audio cues of face-to-face communication. You must make an extra effort to ensure that your "tone" is cheerful and friendly.
Also with an e-mail, people expect a quick reply. A fast, friendly response will let your customers know that you are working hard to keep them happy!
*Suggestive Sell *
"Would you like an apple pie with that today?" When a customer buys a service do you have something complementary that would add value? Business folks, who are pressed for time, will value the convenience of one-stop-shopping. Look at your line of products and think to yourself, What can I do to make this more useful to my customers?
Is there a helpful article I can send them?
Is there a service that would complement my business's other services?"
*Have the Menu in Plain Sight!*
"What all comes in the #3 value meal?" People like to know what to expect when they order from you. They want to know up front what things cost, how soon to expect it, etc. If a customer doesn't see this information on your website, he just might leave. You know how nerve-racking it is buying a car when you don't know what you are going to pay or if you are getting a good deal!
Knowledge of what to expect takes the fear out of buying.
*The Customer is Always Right*
"I'm sorry your order was wrong, how can I make it better?" Nothing is worse than a "screw up" in an order. The best way to turn a negative into a positive is to go out of your way to make it right and make that customer feel satisfied with the results. After you make it right, apologize for the screw-up sincerely, and offer an incentive for him to try you again--for example, a discount on future service.
Everyone knows one complaint will scream louder than 30 complements. Make sure to answer ALL complaints. Don't give anyone a reason to leave and say that his or her needs were not met.
You can learn a LOT from your customers. Make sure to LISTEN. Other customers may be experiencing the same problem. Learn from your mistakes.
List your phone number on your web site. An angry customer wants to know that his complaint is being heard NOW! Sending an e-mail response from the customer service department within 24 hours might not cut it!
*Q.S.C.*
Quality, Service, and Cleanliness Quality--Is there any way you could improve your service? Do you set a level of excellence for your products and services that you meet or beat? Service--Do you make your customers feel like they are number one in your book? Do you listen to customer needs and fill them? Cleanliness--Does the atmosphere of your virtual business make customers happy and want to come back? Is your website visitor-friendly? Is your website easy to navigate? Does it load quickly?
*Brand Awareness/Corporate Identity *
Is your URL as memorable as those famous golden arches? Many visitors find your site not by clicking, but by remembering your URL. Is your URL on business cards and stationery? Is it listed in your yellow pages ad? Keep your URL short and simple: long URLs with hyphens, punctuation, or ones that are hard to spell won't give customers a fighting chance. Include your company's URL and other contact information in your email signature. Does your secretary know your URL? The answer may surprise you!
*What is your USP *
(Unique Selling Point)? "We've got the best fries in town!" Tell customers right on your home page why they should do business with you and not the guy down the cyberstreet. Tell your visitors in one short sentence who you are, what you do, and why you are better. Will you save them money? Can they
rely on your experience? Try to list these in terms of benefit to them, and NOT features of your product.
*Customer Appreciation *
"Thank you and come again!" Thank your customers for doing business with you. Send them an e-mail as a follow up to see if your product or service was what they expected. Would they recommend you to a friend? How about a hand-written note or card to tell someone that you value his or her business. There is a lot to be said for good old-fashioned customer service. Treat your customers like gold and they'll be customers for life. The most powerful tool in your marketing arsenal is a customer referral. Give your customers a reason to brag about you and you'll have a lot of customers knocking at your door!
*Service with a Smile*
"Hi, Welcome to McDonalds! May I take your order?" Got a new prospect? Welcome him to your business. Introduce yourself and tell about your services in e-mail. Let your customers get to know you. People are more likely to do business with someone they trust. You can't overstate the importance of building strong customer relationships.
Smile when you are talking on the phone. Customers will hear the difference in your voice. Be careful when you send e-mail. It's easy to be misunderstood. E-mail lacks the visual and audio cues of face-to-face communication. You must make an extra effort to ensure that your "tone" is cheerful and friendly.
Also with an e-mail, people expect a quick reply. A fast, friendly response will let your customers know that you are working hard to keep them happy!
*Suggestive Sell *
"Would you like an apple pie with that today?" When a customer buys a service do you have something complementary that would add value? Business folks, who are pressed for time, will value the convenience of one-stop-shopping. Look at your line of products and think to yourself, What can I do to make this more useful to my customers?
Is there a helpful article I can send them?
Is there a service that would complement my business's other services?"
*Have the Menu in Plain Sight!*
"What all comes in the #3 value meal?" People like to know what to expect when they order from you. They want to know up front what things cost, how soon to expect it, etc. If a customer doesn't see this information on your website, he just might leave. You know how nerve-racking it is buying a car when you don't know what you are going to pay or if you are getting a good deal!
Knowledge of what to expect takes the fear out of buying.
*The Customer is Always Right*
"I'm sorry your order was wrong, how can I make it better?" Nothing is worse than a "screw up" in an order. The best way to turn a negative into a positive is to go out of your way to make it right and make that customer feel satisfied with the results. After you make it right, apologize for the screw-up sincerely, and offer an incentive for him to try you again--for example, a discount on future service.
Everyone knows one complaint will scream louder than 30 complements. Make sure to answer ALL complaints. Don't give anyone a reason to leave and say that his or her needs were not met.
You can learn a LOT from your customers. Make sure to LISTEN. Other customers may be experiencing the same problem. Learn from your mistakes.
List your phone number on your web site. An angry customer wants to know that his complaint is being heard NOW! Sending an e-mail response from the customer service department within 24 hours might not cut it!
*Q.S.C.*
Quality, Service, and Cleanliness Quality--Is there any way you could improve your service? Do you set a level of excellence for your products and services that you meet or beat? Service--Do you make your customers feel like they are number one in your book? Do you listen to customer needs and fill them? Cleanliness--Does the atmosphere of your virtual business make customers happy and want to come back? Is your website visitor-friendly? Is your website easy to navigate? Does it load quickly?
*Brand Awareness/Corporate Identity *
Is your URL as memorable as those famous golden arches? Many visitors find your site not by clicking, but by remembering your URL. Is your URL on business cards and stationery? Is it listed in your yellow pages ad? Keep your URL short and simple: long URLs with hyphens, punctuation, or ones that are hard to spell won't give customers a fighting chance. Include your company's URL and other contact information in your email signature. Does your secretary know your URL? The answer may surprise you!
*What is your USP *
(Unique Selling Point)? "We've got the best fries in town!" Tell customers right on your home page why they should do business with you and not the guy down the cyberstreet. Tell your visitors in one short sentence who you are, what you do, and why you are better. Will you save them money? Can they
rely on your experience? Try to list these in terms of benefit to them, and NOT features of your product.
*Customer Appreciation *
"Thank you and come again!" Thank your customers for doing business with you. Send them an e-mail as a follow up to see if your product or service was what they expected. Would they recommend you to a friend? How about a hand-written note or card to tell someone that you value his or her business. There is a lot to be said for good old-fashioned customer service. Treat your customers like gold and they'll be customers for life. The most powerful tool in your marketing arsenal is a customer referral. Give your customers a reason to brag about you and you'll have a lot of customers knocking at your door!
The Top Ten Client Feedback Questions
As program chairperson of my SCORE * chapter I am always looking for new presenters to address the group. I frequently ask my fellow business counselors to give me some ideas for topics of interest to them.
In August one member approached me with an idea. He suggested inviting some of the clients that the counselors had worked with this year to one of our meetings to give us some feedback on our counseling techniques -both the highs and the lows.
Five clients were invited to our meeting and they were asked the first 5 questions of this Top Ten list. We learned a lot from the answers we got.
As 2005 comes to a close and we begin 2006 perhaps you are interested in finding ways to get clients to give you feedback about the products and services you offer. Here is a list of 10 questions you could use. Select a few that suite your situation. The key is to ask the question and then allow the client uninterrupted time to answer. Your job is to just listen!
1. What was the greatest benefit you derived from my service**? This question helps you to understand what is working. Sometimes you will be surprised by the answer. Our SCORE chapter has a limit of 3 counselors at one location to counsel one client. Our client panelists said the more counselors the better! We have now eliminated the restriction on the number of counselors.
2. What would you like to see more of when you work with me? For our session the panelists told us some counselors introduced themselves by telling about their business background during the sessions while others did not. The clients said they wanted to hear the qualifications of the counselors who were working with them. Are you forgetting to be consistent when delivering your product or service to your clients? We were! ☺
3. How could I improve my service? Clients often have ideas that are easy to implement but somehow you haven’t thought of. SCORE does both email and face to face coaching. These were face to face clients who wondered if they could get support between sessions through email. Easily done now that we know it might be helpful. (Our email addresses are already on our SCORE business cards!)
4. Is there anything you would like to see me stop doing? This question gives the client the opportunity to tell you about something that isn’t useful to him or her. It was suggested in our session that sometimes it is difficult for the business owner to meet with the counselor because the owner can’t leave his/her place of business. The SCORE clients wondered if it would be possible for the counselors to occasionally meet them at their own place of business. The answer was “Yes”. Again not something we had thought to offer consistently.
5. Is there anything you didn’t get from my service that you were looking for?
Here is an opportunity for the client to tell you other services that you might provide. If you are looking for ways to expand your offering this question is important. In the SCORE session one client wanted to know how he might get a counselor who actually worked in or owned the specific type of business that he had. Access to a database of the counselors in our chapter and their background would be helpful to the counselors and our clients. We will be putting one together. (We did have one counselor with exactly the right background for this client.)
6. Has my staff treated you with care, attention, and courteousness? This would be an important question for a service provider with an administrative staff to ask. Clients don’t always complain about their experience with your staff but might share something significant when asked.
7. Is there an issue that I have not spent enough time on for you? Sometimes clients allow you to move forward but are still thinking about a previous issue. This kind of question helps them to revisit areas they may have not understood and still have an unanswered question.
8. Am I doing what you want me to do? Most of the time we are doing what we think the client wants. It is good to check once in a while to find out if you are actually doing what the client wants.
9. Where have we been less than proactive in addressing your concerns? It may be that the client is expecting you to move into different areas that you think are being covered by other vendors or staff members. “Being proactive” may have a broader definition to the client than you are using. Asking this question might uncover new business.
10. Is our billing clear? Are you getting value for your money? The bill is often a source of anxiety for the client. He/she needs to know exactly what he/she is being billed for. Does your bill show that? This final value question is critical to insuring your client is satisfied with your product or service.
*SCORE – This is an organization that is part of the Small Business Administration in the US. SCORE volunteers are experienced managers and business owners who counsel small business owners without charge.
**I have used the word service here and also client. You could just as easily substitute product and customer.
In August one member approached me with an idea. He suggested inviting some of the clients that the counselors had worked with this year to one of our meetings to give us some feedback on our counseling techniques -both the highs and the lows.
Five clients were invited to our meeting and they were asked the first 5 questions of this Top Ten list. We learned a lot from the answers we got.
As 2005 comes to a close and we begin 2006 perhaps you are interested in finding ways to get clients to give you feedback about the products and services you offer. Here is a list of 10 questions you could use. Select a few that suite your situation. The key is to ask the question and then allow the client uninterrupted time to answer. Your job is to just listen!
1. What was the greatest benefit you derived from my service**? This question helps you to understand what is working. Sometimes you will be surprised by the answer. Our SCORE chapter has a limit of 3 counselors at one location to counsel one client. Our client panelists said the more counselors the better! We have now eliminated the restriction on the number of counselors.
2. What would you like to see more of when you work with me? For our session the panelists told us some counselors introduced themselves by telling about their business background during the sessions while others did not. The clients said they wanted to hear the qualifications of the counselors who were working with them. Are you forgetting to be consistent when delivering your product or service to your clients? We were! ☺
3. How could I improve my service? Clients often have ideas that are easy to implement but somehow you haven’t thought of. SCORE does both email and face to face coaching. These were face to face clients who wondered if they could get support between sessions through email. Easily done now that we know it might be helpful. (Our email addresses are already on our SCORE business cards!)
4. Is there anything you would like to see me stop doing? This question gives the client the opportunity to tell you about something that isn’t useful to him or her. It was suggested in our session that sometimes it is difficult for the business owner to meet with the counselor because the owner can’t leave his/her place of business. The SCORE clients wondered if it would be possible for the counselors to occasionally meet them at their own place of business. The answer was “Yes”. Again not something we had thought to offer consistently.
5. Is there anything you didn’t get from my service that you were looking for?
Here is an opportunity for the client to tell you other services that you might provide. If you are looking for ways to expand your offering this question is important. In the SCORE session one client wanted to know how he might get a counselor who actually worked in or owned the specific type of business that he had. Access to a database of the counselors in our chapter and their background would be helpful to the counselors and our clients. We will be putting one together. (We did have one counselor with exactly the right background for this client.)
6. Has my staff treated you with care, attention, and courteousness? This would be an important question for a service provider with an administrative staff to ask. Clients don’t always complain about their experience with your staff but might share something significant when asked.
7. Is there an issue that I have not spent enough time on for you? Sometimes clients allow you to move forward but are still thinking about a previous issue. This kind of question helps them to revisit areas they may have not understood and still have an unanswered question.
8. Am I doing what you want me to do? Most of the time we are doing what we think the client wants. It is good to check once in a while to find out if you are actually doing what the client wants.
9. Where have we been less than proactive in addressing your concerns? It may be that the client is expecting you to move into different areas that you think are being covered by other vendors or staff members. “Being proactive” may have a broader definition to the client than you are using. Asking this question might uncover new business.
10. Is our billing clear? Are you getting value for your money? The bill is often a source of anxiety for the client. He/she needs to know exactly what he/she is being billed for. Does your bill show that? This final value question is critical to insuring your client is satisfied with your product or service.
*SCORE – This is an organization that is part of the Small Business Administration in the US. SCORE volunteers are experienced managers and business owners who counsel small business owners without charge.
**I have used the word service here and also client. You could just as easily substitute product and customer.
Ten Ways to Build Client Trust
Clients work with professionals whom they trust. Building trust is an ongoing process. Here are 10 ways to build trust with both old and new clients.
1. Keep your agreements with your clients – If you promise delivery on a particular day, make sure to deliver when it was promised. Even something as small as the time you have scheduled an appointment is an agreement. Each time you break an agreement with a client, you break the trust.
2. Create realistic client expectations – Help the client to understand exactly what you will do for him or her. Put boundaries around what is included in your service and what is not. What will create extra charges? How and when will you be billing the client? Living up to the expectations you create helps your clients to take you at your word.
3. Help client to understand the process – If your client understands how you and your office works the client can then know what to expect and when to expect it.
4. Explain your plan and strategy – Not only does the client need to understand your office procedure but also what the plan and strategy is for his/her particular case. This will help client to know what to expect and when to expect it. Trust comes when the client feels confident and comfortable with the plan and the strategy.
5. Never over promise – It is tempting to promise whatever the client requests without consulting a schedule or asking if it is doable. Over promising often causes broken agreements and thus broken trust.
6. Carefully explain the client’s role – When a client is clear on what his or her role is then the client gets clear on what progress can be made without his or her involvement and what needs his or her input before moving on. Getting really clear on what the client needs to do to move his or her case forward, helps you work as a team and builds trust.
7. Discuss potential pitfalls – Nothing disturbs the trust of a client more than when something unexpected happens. (If it is good of course you can celebrate! Whew!) Guard against something negative happening as a surprise by discussing the potential pitfalls with the client.
8. Review the agreement in detail – Any agreements that the client is going to have to make should be discussed in detail. Trust is built over a long period of time but it can be broken easily. A surprise that results from an agreement the client made but is unaware of breaks that trust quickly.
9. Avoid making the client feel stupid – No one likes to feel stupid. If clients feel that you think they are stupid they will no longer entrust you with their ideas or thoughts. Clients who don’t feel valued by the professional may stop trusting that person. Professionals probably don’t set out to make a client feel stupid. In fact it may be an attitude, an inadvertent comment, or a look that gives the client that impression. Be aware of your inner thoughts. They show up without your noticing. Use careful language.
10. Don’t allow interruptions at meetings – If you take interruptions during meetings with clients it makes them feel they are not important to you. Eventually you erode the good will and trust that you had with them.
1. Keep your agreements with your clients – If you promise delivery on a particular day, make sure to deliver when it was promised. Even something as small as the time you have scheduled an appointment is an agreement. Each time you break an agreement with a client, you break the trust.
2. Create realistic client expectations – Help the client to understand exactly what you will do for him or her. Put boundaries around what is included in your service and what is not. What will create extra charges? How and when will you be billing the client? Living up to the expectations you create helps your clients to take you at your word.
3. Help client to understand the process – If your client understands how you and your office works the client can then know what to expect and when to expect it.
4. Explain your plan and strategy – Not only does the client need to understand your office procedure but also what the plan and strategy is for his/her particular case. This will help client to know what to expect and when to expect it. Trust comes when the client feels confident and comfortable with the plan and the strategy.
5. Never over promise – It is tempting to promise whatever the client requests without consulting a schedule or asking if it is doable. Over promising often causes broken agreements and thus broken trust.
6. Carefully explain the client’s role – When a client is clear on what his or her role is then the client gets clear on what progress can be made without his or her involvement and what needs his or her input before moving on. Getting really clear on what the client needs to do to move his or her case forward, helps you work as a team and builds trust.
7. Discuss potential pitfalls – Nothing disturbs the trust of a client more than when something unexpected happens. (If it is good of course you can celebrate! Whew!) Guard against something negative happening as a surprise by discussing the potential pitfalls with the client.
8. Review the agreement in detail – Any agreements that the client is going to have to make should be discussed in detail. Trust is built over a long period of time but it can be broken easily. A surprise that results from an agreement the client made but is unaware of breaks that trust quickly.
9. Avoid making the client feel stupid – No one likes to feel stupid. If clients feel that you think they are stupid they will no longer entrust you with their ideas or thoughts. Clients who don’t feel valued by the professional may stop trusting that person. Professionals probably don’t set out to make a client feel stupid. In fact it may be an attitude, an inadvertent comment, or a look that gives the client that impression. Be aware of your inner thoughts. They show up without your noticing. Use careful language.
10. Don’t allow interruptions at meetings – If you take interruptions during meetings with clients it makes them feel they are not important to you. Eventually you erode the good will and trust that you had with them.
Monday, April 18, 2011
A Brief Education on Education Verification
It is generally believed by those in our trade that while employment candidates may embellish their employment tasks and positions, they will downright lie about their education.
Yes, that person interviewing with your Human Resource Manger and other relevant executives, the one looking presentable and acting so bright and articulate may well be inventing his education. In most cases your candidate’s claim to a higher education is not necessarily a total invention. He may have in fact actually enrolled in the university listed on the resume. He just didn’t graduate from that school. Or any other school, for that matter.
But then there are those, a notable amount of employment candidates who have engaged in what we term a ghost attendance. That is to say they not only failed to graduate from the school, but they never enrolled at all. Why they chose that particular school as their fictional place of graduation is anyone’s guess. But enough candidates lie about graduating from schools they may have never seen, save for photos on the Internet. The HR person should always consider the ghost attendance a very real possibility.
As to which schools the job candidates may claim to have graduated, the selection is varied and sometimes darkly amusing. Some may choose the smaller and more out of the way schools as their fictional alma maters. They may select something arty and prestigious, one of those schools you may hear about but not know much about.. Or your candidate can take obscurity in another direction by listing on their resume some grievously remote or sub-par institute of higher learning that few ever even heard of..
There is certain logic to making such claims. By listing say, an obscure Mid-Western school or esoteric New England college, as his place of graduation, your candidate may believe he helps substantiate his credibility. Even the more astute HR person may well determine no one would actually lie about graduating from a Reed College, in Oregon, Amherst, in Massachusetts, or Lake Forest, in Illinois? Or for that matter as a defense against low self-esteem, who would dare boast of graduating from one of the legions of North Western Eastern Slippery Eel Teacher’s College in the far corner of the middle of nowhere? So, the thinking goes, you may accept their claim at face value and never bother to check it out.
Other candidates will take the alternate route. Most in fact, will choose the larger schools, believing their names and alleged graduation dates may well get lost in the bureaucratic shuffle. Of course, if they did attend for awhile, they hope their registered enrollment may mistakenly be interpreted as proof of graduation. What they lack in education, they make up for in audacity. Well, sort of.
Finally, there are the no degree degrees. These are the phony degrees awarded for “life experience” and are not representative of attendance or graduation from any legitimate or accredited college. They are totally bogus. But they are popular. The more enterprising among the duplicitous can purchase these degrees online for anywhere from fifty bucks to several hundred dollars. The graduate degrees are a little pricier than the mere Bachelors’ but they are available from any number of phony universities. Some of them even look impressive; provided you don’t look try to find the school’s physical address on the Internet.
Before you become too upset or overly suspicious, bear in mind that those who lie about their degrees comprise a minority of employment candidates. More often than not your candidate actually is who he says he is and did attend and graduate from the college listed in his resume. But bear in mind the operative phase here is “more often than not.” With that in mind, think of the ways you may cause embarrassment and even litigation if you mistakenly hire someone who has obtained only a fictional degree.
It may be true that lacking a Bachelor’s degree in certain disciplines may be irrelevant. There is a saying, for example, that a good sales person is born and not made, or something to that affect. And while that may be true in certain disciplines, in more than a few someone better have the qualifications afforded through the proper education. It may well be your new hire with his fictional degree may genuinely lack the skill sets required for the job. This reality can cause all sorts of problems and even lead to catastrophe in its myriad forms.
You have allocated time and money to his hire. You have distracted your work force, at least those who have conducted the various interviews. In hiring this person, you may have rejected a candidate who was truly qualified but is no longer available. You must now allocate additional resources to hire someone else. Such mistakes can detract from employee morale as well as your bottom line.
Additionally, by hiring someone not qualified by virtue of lacking his degree, you are jeopardizing your relationship with clients. You may have assigned this person to a client, and now your employee has screw things up through is lack of qualifications. This can make your client extremely unhappy. The client may demand compensation. They may even threaten a lawsuit. This is not only costly, but embarrassing as well.
If you think this doesn’t happen, you had better think again. These are not the stories executives like to brag about over lunch. These are the stories that are whispered, and the whispering is far more ominous and damaging to your business. Let’s face it, if your failure to perform due diligence causes proves detrimental to your client, then you will be held accountable. You will look foolish and cheap. You may also be looking for another client to replace the one who left you.
The moral to this story is that your Human Resources Management must check out everyone, no matter how trustworthy they sound. It is essential to have a pre-employment screening program in place and to include education verification as part of that program. The few bucks you spend up front to verify your candidate’s graduation can save you plenty in money and time as well as and potential litigation and embarrassment. Those who win contracts with major corporations, especially technology or defense and security related industries will find these companies mandate background checks for everyone who will be working on the project. This includes education verification. Often they will insist on verification of all degrees and not just the highest.
When conducting education verifications here are some things to keep in mind—
• Colleges and Universities typically provide verification either in-house or through the National Student Clearing House or another third party service. If the University is registered with a third party service, the degree can often be verified that day. Third party services will charge a fixed rate for access verification. Some background checking agencies will add on to this rate while others will pass it on at cost.
• Typically, degrees are verified by background checking services within a couple, few days. The process may take longer if your candidate has either graduated some years back or is not listed in the database.
• Verification may also take longer over the holidays, semester break or the summer. Be prepared to allow for more time for verification.
• Verification from foreign universities inevitably will take longer than domestic verification. Typically, the rates for foreign verifications are significantly higher than charges for a domestic university. Be prepared to pay more and wait longer for the foreign verification.
• Some schools will ask for your candidate’s disclosure and release form before issuing the verification.
• When providing your candidate’s information to the University or third party service, it is best to include the years attended, the year graduated, the actual degree and major, and for large schools the campus where your candidate attended.
• If your candidate is a female, be sure the information you submit reflects the actual name with which your candidate graduated. Sometimes your candidate applies for the position under her married name and fails to provide her maiden name, the name she used while attending school.
• This may also apply for foreign students. Sometimes foreign candidates will change their names after graduation, to make them more accessible in the American workplace. But they may have attended school, using their formal name. Your candidate is known to you as “Ben,” but in school he was still “Bao.” This can complicate the verification process.
• If the school or the third party service is having a difficult time verifying y our candidate’s degree, they may request a facsimile of his diploma or final transcripts.
• Be sure to keep your verification process uniform. You may decide to verify all degrees or only the highest degree obtained. Whatever you do for one candidate, you should do for all the rest.
• Make sure your background checking service stays in front of any complications that may arise in the verification process. Establish and maintain fluid communication channels so that the service can keep you informed and request additional information when needed.
Remember if for some reason and after all due diligence you are unable to verify your candidate’s degree, it probably means he never obtained one. They may try to talk their way out of it, but hold firm and insist they provide any information that has been requested. There is nothing exceptional about this information for anyone who has truly graduated from an accredited college or university. If they can’t provide that information, you may want to look for another candidate. Remember the axiom that if they lie about their degree then they’ll lie when on the job didn’t become accepted wisdom for no reason. Check them out before you hire.
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
COOL PHOTOS BANK
WORLD'S BEST DREAMY PHOTOS
NATURE OF GOD
WORLD'S BEST WILDLIFE PHOTOS
Amazing Filter
VINTAGE DESI
MYSTERY OF LIFE
FOR UR COMPUTER
VIRGINE DESI
ART OF LIFE
FASHION OF LIFE
DREAMY HEALTH
FEATURE TECHNOLOGY
PHOTOS WAR
SECRET OF EARN MONEY ONLINE
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Yes, that person interviewing with your Human Resource Manger and other relevant executives, the one looking presentable and acting so bright and articulate may well be inventing his education. In most cases your candidate’s claim to a higher education is not necessarily a total invention. He may have in fact actually enrolled in the university listed on the resume. He just didn’t graduate from that school. Or any other school, for that matter.
But then there are those, a notable amount of employment candidates who have engaged in what we term a ghost attendance. That is to say they not only failed to graduate from the school, but they never enrolled at all. Why they chose that particular school as their fictional place of graduation is anyone’s guess. But enough candidates lie about graduating from schools they may have never seen, save for photos on the Internet. The HR person should always consider the ghost attendance a very real possibility.
As to which schools the job candidates may claim to have graduated, the selection is varied and sometimes darkly amusing. Some may choose the smaller and more out of the way schools as their fictional alma maters. They may select something arty and prestigious, one of those schools you may hear about but not know much about.. Or your candidate can take obscurity in another direction by listing on their resume some grievously remote or sub-par institute of higher learning that few ever even heard of..
There is certain logic to making such claims. By listing say, an obscure Mid-Western school or esoteric New England college, as his place of graduation, your candidate may believe he helps substantiate his credibility. Even the more astute HR person may well determine no one would actually lie about graduating from a Reed College, in Oregon, Amherst, in Massachusetts, or Lake Forest, in Illinois? Or for that matter as a defense against low self-esteem, who would dare boast of graduating from one of the legions of North Western Eastern Slippery Eel Teacher’s College in the far corner of the middle of nowhere? So, the thinking goes, you may accept their claim at face value and never bother to check it out.
Other candidates will take the alternate route. Most in fact, will choose the larger schools, believing their names and alleged graduation dates may well get lost in the bureaucratic shuffle. Of course, if they did attend for awhile, they hope their registered enrollment may mistakenly be interpreted as proof of graduation. What they lack in education, they make up for in audacity. Well, sort of.
Finally, there are the no degree degrees. These are the phony degrees awarded for “life experience” and are not representative of attendance or graduation from any legitimate or accredited college. They are totally bogus. But they are popular. The more enterprising among the duplicitous can purchase these degrees online for anywhere from fifty bucks to several hundred dollars. The graduate degrees are a little pricier than the mere Bachelors’ but they are available from any number of phony universities. Some of them even look impressive; provided you don’t look try to find the school’s physical address on the Internet.
Before you become too upset or overly suspicious, bear in mind that those who lie about their degrees comprise a minority of employment candidates. More often than not your candidate actually is who he says he is and did attend and graduate from the college listed in his resume. But bear in mind the operative phase here is “more often than not.” With that in mind, think of the ways you may cause embarrassment and even litigation if you mistakenly hire someone who has obtained only a fictional degree.
It may be true that lacking a Bachelor’s degree in certain disciplines may be irrelevant. There is a saying, for example, that a good sales person is born and not made, or something to that affect. And while that may be true in certain disciplines, in more than a few someone better have the qualifications afforded through the proper education. It may well be your new hire with his fictional degree may genuinely lack the skill sets required for the job. This reality can cause all sorts of problems and even lead to catastrophe in its myriad forms.
You have allocated time and money to his hire. You have distracted your work force, at least those who have conducted the various interviews. In hiring this person, you may have rejected a candidate who was truly qualified but is no longer available. You must now allocate additional resources to hire someone else. Such mistakes can detract from employee morale as well as your bottom line.
Additionally, by hiring someone not qualified by virtue of lacking his degree, you are jeopardizing your relationship with clients. You may have assigned this person to a client, and now your employee has screw things up through is lack of qualifications. This can make your client extremely unhappy. The client may demand compensation. They may even threaten a lawsuit. This is not only costly, but embarrassing as well.
If you think this doesn’t happen, you had better think again. These are not the stories executives like to brag about over lunch. These are the stories that are whispered, and the whispering is far more ominous and damaging to your business. Let’s face it, if your failure to perform due diligence causes proves detrimental to your client, then you will be held accountable. You will look foolish and cheap. You may also be looking for another client to replace the one who left you.
The moral to this story is that your Human Resources Management must check out everyone, no matter how trustworthy they sound. It is essential to have a pre-employment screening program in place and to include education verification as part of that program. The few bucks you spend up front to verify your candidate’s graduation can save you plenty in money and time as well as and potential litigation and embarrassment. Those who win contracts with major corporations, especially technology or defense and security related industries will find these companies mandate background checks for everyone who will be working on the project. This includes education verification. Often they will insist on verification of all degrees and not just the highest.
When conducting education verifications here are some things to keep in mind—
• Colleges and Universities typically provide verification either in-house or through the National Student Clearing House or another third party service. If the University is registered with a third party service, the degree can often be verified that day. Third party services will charge a fixed rate for access verification. Some background checking agencies will add on to this rate while others will pass it on at cost.
• Typically, degrees are verified by background checking services within a couple, few days. The process may take longer if your candidate has either graduated some years back or is not listed in the database.
• Verification may also take longer over the holidays, semester break or the summer. Be prepared to allow for more time for verification.
• Verification from foreign universities inevitably will take longer than domestic verification. Typically, the rates for foreign verifications are significantly higher than charges for a domestic university. Be prepared to pay more and wait longer for the foreign verification.
• Some schools will ask for your candidate’s disclosure and release form before issuing the verification.
• When providing your candidate’s information to the University or third party service, it is best to include the years attended, the year graduated, the actual degree and major, and for large schools the campus where your candidate attended.
• If your candidate is a female, be sure the information you submit reflects the actual name with which your candidate graduated. Sometimes your candidate applies for the position under her married name and fails to provide her maiden name, the name she used while attending school.
• This may also apply for foreign students. Sometimes foreign candidates will change their names after graduation, to make them more accessible in the American workplace. But they may have attended school, using their formal name. Your candidate is known to you as “Ben,” but in school he was still “Bao.” This can complicate the verification process.
• If the school or the third party service is having a difficult time verifying y our candidate’s degree, they may request a facsimile of his diploma or final transcripts.
• Be sure to keep your verification process uniform. You may decide to verify all degrees or only the highest degree obtained. Whatever you do for one candidate, you should do for all the rest.
• Make sure your background checking service stays in front of any complications that may arise in the verification process. Establish and maintain fluid communication channels so that the service can keep you informed and request additional information when needed.
Remember if for some reason and after all due diligence you are unable to verify your candidate’s degree, it probably means he never obtained one. They may try to talk their way out of it, but hold firm and insist they provide any information that has been requested. There is nothing exceptional about this information for anyone who has truly graduated from an accredited college or university. If they can’t provide that information, you may want to look for another candidate. Remember the axiom that if they lie about their degree then they’ll lie when on the job didn’t become accepted wisdom for no reason. Check them out before you hire.
COOL PHOTOS BANK
WORLD'S BEST DREAMY PHOTOS
NATURE OF GOD
WORLD'S BEST WILDLIFE PHOTOS
Amazing Filter
VINTAGE DESI
MYSTERY OF LIFE
FOR UR COMPUTER
VIRGINE DESI
ART OF LIFE
FASHION OF LIFE
DREAMY HEALTH
FEATURE TECHNOLOGY
PHOTOS WAR
SECRET OF EARN MONEY ONLINE
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
12 Essential tips to finding the best outsourcing company
The very foundation of outsourcing means getting someone to handle your work, a partner in business. Ideally the outsourcing consultant or company should have a similar vision as yours and solid work ethics.
Success in business would depend greatly on finding the right outsourcing company and for this you must:
• Determine clearly what your core business competencies are. Know your strengths and weaknesses.
• Clearly define your goals, future business plans.
• Create an outsourcing proposal that outlines your objectives as well as needs. State clearly the details of the project, expectations, timelines, as well as budgets.
• Do in depth research on outsourcing companies to find out which ones will satisfy your needs. Alternately one can hire a consultant to carry out the search.
• Search for an organization that can source many talents. Flexibility in operations is crucial.
• Interview at least 3-4 organizations. Check out their referrals and projects completed. Be sure to meet key personnel to gauge their competencies. And check out their technological expertise.
• Do a cost effectiveness study as also how the selected company will fulfill your needs. Whether their infrastructure and training will be in synchrony with yours. Systems must be compatible. The costing should address impact of increased flexibility, difference in productive and time management, which is the time taken to reach the market and its effect on competition.
• Study thoroughly the non-financial costs as well as advantages of outsourcing.
• Check with local chambers of commerce like the California chamber of commerce at www.calchamber.com or other associations that focus on human resource like the Sacramento Area Human Resources Association at www.sahra.org.
• Before making a final choice check whether the outsourcing company or vendor is trustworthy, find out what kind of security measures they use, check the company’s reputation in the market; determine in no uncertain terms whether they have the right qualifications.
• Seek answers to: are they an established and financially sound company; what is their customer service philosophy; what is their service record; who are their current clients; is their estimate transparent or are there any loop holes; are they limited or can they expand along with your growth; is there an implementation plan; what about disaster recovery mechanisms; can they deliver?
• Check whether communications will be smooth and trouble free and if there are any cultural differences between you and the vendor. If yes will you be able to bridge the difference.
The cornerstones of a good and ideal outsource is a company that will enhance your performance; partner you in growth by infusing talent and technology; will share your visions; and contribute positively.
Interview the companies. After you select one discuss in detail the contractual terms. Be sure to protect your own interests well. It takes trust, collaboration, communication, and chemistry to make an outsourcing successful.
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
COOL PHOTOS BANK
WORLD'S BEST DREAMY PHOTOS
NATURE OF GOD
WORLD'S BEST WILDLIFE PHOTOS
Amazing Filter
VINTAGE DESI
MYSTERY OF LIFE
FOR UR COMPUTER
VIRGINE DESI
ART OF LIFE
FASHION OF LIFE
DREAMY HEALTH
FEATURE TECHNOLOGY
PHOTOS WAR
SECRET OF EARN MONEY ONLINE
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Success in business would depend greatly on finding the right outsourcing company and for this you must:
• Determine clearly what your core business competencies are. Know your strengths and weaknesses.
• Clearly define your goals, future business plans.
• Create an outsourcing proposal that outlines your objectives as well as needs. State clearly the details of the project, expectations, timelines, as well as budgets.
• Do in depth research on outsourcing companies to find out which ones will satisfy your needs. Alternately one can hire a consultant to carry out the search.
• Search for an organization that can source many talents. Flexibility in operations is crucial.
• Interview at least 3-4 organizations. Check out their referrals and projects completed. Be sure to meet key personnel to gauge their competencies. And check out their technological expertise.
• Do a cost effectiveness study as also how the selected company will fulfill your needs. Whether their infrastructure and training will be in synchrony with yours. Systems must be compatible. The costing should address impact of increased flexibility, difference in productive and time management, which is the time taken to reach the market and its effect on competition.
• Study thoroughly the non-financial costs as well as advantages of outsourcing.
• Check with local chambers of commerce like the California chamber of commerce at www.calchamber.com or other associations that focus on human resource like the Sacramento Area Human Resources Association at www.sahra.org.
• Before making a final choice check whether the outsourcing company or vendor is trustworthy, find out what kind of security measures they use, check the company’s reputation in the market; determine in no uncertain terms whether they have the right qualifications.
• Seek answers to: are they an established and financially sound company; what is their customer service philosophy; what is their service record; who are their current clients; is their estimate transparent or are there any loop holes; are they limited or can they expand along with your growth; is there an implementation plan; what about disaster recovery mechanisms; can they deliver?
• Check whether communications will be smooth and trouble free and if there are any cultural differences between you and the vendor. If yes will you be able to bridge the difference.
The cornerstones of a good and ideal outsource is a company that will enhance your performance; partner you in growth by infusing talent and technology; will share your visions; and contribute positively.
Interview the companies. After you select one discuss in detail the contractual terms. Be sure to protect your own interests well. It takes trust, collaboration, communication, and chemistry to make an outsourcing successful.
COOL PHOTOS BANK
WORLD'S BEST DREAMY PHOTOS
NATURE OF GOD
WORLD'S BEST WILDLIFE PHOTOS
Amazing Filter
VINTAGE DESI
MYSTERY OF LIFE
FOR UR COMPUTER
VIRGINE DESI
ART OF LIFE
FASHION OF LIFE
DREAMY HEALTH
FEATURE TECHNOLOGY
PHOTOS WAR
SECRET OF EARN MONEY ONLINE
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Saturday, April 16, 2011
10 Critical Decisions for Successful E-discovery
10 Critical Decisions for Successful E-discovery Part 1
The Information Management Journal/September / October 2007- Today’s explosion of electronic data, coupled with the December 2006 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) concerning electronically stored information (ESI), requires information and legal professionals to expand their knowledge about handling electronic discovery. The recent changes to the FRCP include:
* Definitions and safe harbor provisions for the routine alterations of electronic files during routine operations such as back ups [Amended Rule 37(f)]
* Information about how to deal with data that is not reasonably accessible [Amended Rule 26(b)(2)(B)]
* How to deal with inadvertently produced privileged material [Amended Rule 26(b)(5)]
* ESI preservation responsibilities and the pre-trial conference. [Amended Rule 26(f)]
* Electronic file production requests [Amended Rules 33(d), 34, 26(f)(3), 34(b)(iii)]
There are many opinions about how ESI should be planned for, managed, organized, stored, and retrieved. Some of the available options are extremely costly in terms of their required financial and time commitments. Constantly changing technologies only add to the confusion. One area of confusion is the distinction between computer forensics and electronic discovery; there is a significant difference. These are described in the sidebar Computer Forensics vs. Electronic Discovery.
Making the Right Choices
Successfully responding to e-discovery within the constraints of the amended FRCP requires organizations to make many critical decisions that will affect the collection and processing of ESI.
Collection Decisions
The following questions need immediate answers:
1. Are e-mail files part of this project? If so, do any key people maintain an Internet e-mail account, in addition to their corporate accounts?
The sheer volume of transactions for large e-mail providers prohibits the storage of massive amounts of mail files. Many Internet e-mail account providers, such as AOL, BellSouth, and Comcast, retain their e-mail logs no longer than 30 days. If a case could potentially require the exploration of e-mail from Internet accounts, the discovery team must expeditiously request the records, or they may be gone forever. This usually requires a subpoena. In rare cases, fragments of Internet e-mail may be recovered forensically from an individual’s hard drive.
2. Is there any chance illegal activity may be discovered?
Many cases involving electronic data uncover wrongdoings. These situations may involve a member of the technology department or a highly technical employee. In these cases, an organization’s first inclination may be to terminate the employee(s) involved and determine the extent of any damage prior to notifying law enforcement agencies.
This may be exactly the WRONG thing to do. If the wrongdoing is by a technical person, there is a chance that he or she is the only person who knows how to access the files, find the problem, or fix it. This is often the person who knows the passwords for mission-critical applications. The technical employee usually has the ability to work and access company files remotely. Unless such access is eliminated prior to the employee’s termination, it is possible that a terminated or disgruntled employee may access the network and do great damage.
A better solution is to restrict the employee’s complete access privileges, both local and remote. The employee is then notified of management’s knowledge of the situation and given an opportunity to cooperate to minimize the damage. If the situation involves criminal matters, especially if financial or medical records have been compromised, a good decision is to involve law enforcement as early as possible. Electronic criminals frequently disappear and destroy all evidence of their activities.
3. Is it possible that deleted or hidden files may play an important role in this case?
There are three ways to collect electronic files for discovery:
* Forensically ะ as described in the sidebar
* Semi-forensically ะ using non-validated methods and applications to capture files
* Non-forensically using simple cut and- paste copy methods to move copies of files from one location to another. These methods do not include hashing files to ensure the files have not changed, which involves using a hash algorithm to create a mathematical fingerprint of one or more files that will change if any change is made to the collection.
For some matters, the content of electronic documents is all that matters. The context of the files ะ who created them, how they are kept, how they have been accessed, if they have been changed or deleted ะ is not as important.
For other cases, contextual information, including finding deleted files, is vital and requires a forensic collection. This includes
* Ensuring legal search authority of the data
* Documenting chain of custody
* Creating a forensic copy using validated forensic tools that create hash records
* Using repeatable processes to examine and analyze the data
* Creating a scientific report of any findings
Determining the value of electronic forensic file collection must be done prior to any data being captured. Once semi- or non-forensic methods have been used, it is impossible to return records to their original states.
4. Are backup tapes part of an active collection?
Some cases involve historical issues, making the method of handling computer backups important to address immediately.
Most businesses use a schedule of rotating their backup media. For example, in a four-week rotation, daily backups are done for a week and then those tapes (or drives) are taken offsite for storage. A new set of media is used for the second, third, and fourth weeks, and then those three tapes are stored offsite. On the fifth week, the tapes/drives from the first week are reused. This process is done for financial reasons, as it is extremely cost-efficient.
Backup tapes may become part of the active information required to be kept under a litigation hold. This requires cessation of any rotation schedule, and the 2006 amendments to the FRCP make it critical for the legal team to convey that information to the technology employees responsible for business continuity processes.
10 Critical Decisions for Successful E-discovery Part 2
The Information Management Journal/September / October 2007- Todayีs explosion of electronic data, coupled with the December 2006 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) concerning electronically stored information (ESI), requires information and legal professionals to expand their knowledge about handling electronic discovery. The recent changes to the FRCP include:
* Definitions and safe harbor provisions for the routine alterations of electronic files during routine operations such as back ups [Amended Rule 37(f)]
* Information about how to deal with data that is not reasonably accessible [Amended Rule 26(b)(2)(B)]
* How to deal with inadvertently produced privileged material [Amended Rule 26(b)(5)]
* ESI preservation responsibilities and the pre-trial conference. [Amended Rule 26(f)]
* Electronic file production requests [Amended Rules 33(d), 34, 26(f)(3), 34(b)(iii)]
There are many opinions about how ESI should be planned for, managed, organized, stored, and retrieved. Some of the available options are extremely costly in terms of their required financial and time commitments. Constantly changing technologies only add to the confusion. One area of confusion is the distinction between computer forensics and electronic discovery; there is a significant difference. These are described in the sidebar Computer Forensics vs. Electronic Discovery.
Making the Right Choices
Successfully responding to e-discovery within the constraints of the amended FRCP requires organizations to make many critical decisions that will affect the collection and processing of ESI.
Processing Choices
Because of the volume of information available in even the smallest of collections, it becomes necessary to manage the process to control time and budget. The following questions need to be answered:
1. Who are the key people?
The people important to a case should be identified. These key individuals include not only executives, but also assistants and other support personnel from the technology, accounting, sales and marketing, operations, and human resources departments.
2. Where are the files located?
All the potential locations of electronic evidence should be identified. These include home computers and all computers that a key person would use elsewhere (such as a girlfriend or boyfriendีs home), cell phones, PDAs, Blackberries, and any other digital device that might be used. It is important to note that MP3 players, such as iPods, can also be used to store documents or important files.
3. How can the collection be culled?
Methods for limiting the number of files collected may include collecting only those in certain date ranges or only those containing selected key words or terms. This can be done either before or after an entire hard drive is collected forensically. Known file filtering can also reduce the collection by removing standard application files common to all computers (such as the Microsoft Windowsจ logo file).
4. How should password-protected/encrypted files be handled?
Encrypted files cannot be processed until the encryption is broken. In some instances, files with exact or similar names may be available without using passwords or encryption. File locations may also provide information about the value decryptions provide. Decryption may require significant time. Sometimes a password can be obtained simply by asking for it, so this should be the first step. If that fails, using a subpoena may be successful.
5. How should duplicate and near-duplicate documents be handled?
Electronic file collections almost always include duplicates. Multiple individuals may have the same e-mail, with the same attachments. Two or more people may have reviewed key documents, saving them on their hard drives during the process. In processing electronic collections, it is possible to identify exact duplicate files and limit the number of documents that require review.
Identifying exact duplicates usually occurs during the phase in which the metadata is identified and extracted from the files. De-duping the collection will minimally delay the processing.
Standard de-duping involves identifying files that are exact duplicates and eliminating them. If anything has changed within a document, including formatting such as a change of font, it is no longer an exact duplicate and is not de-duped.
It is imperative that both sides of a case agree on what is meant by าde-duping.ำ Many electronic discovery systems literally delete the files so they are gone from the collection. The forensic tools used in law enforcement, however, usually do not delete the duplicates, but merely identify them for future use.
Discussing this definition during the pre-trial conference to ensure that all sides of a case use the same definition is imperative to ensuring that there is not a discrepancy in the number of files that each side later has.
A more significant portion of any collection will be าnear duplicates.ำ This includes files that have been significantly altered or contain only a portion of the main document. For some projects, the sheer file volume requires that near duplicates be identified and reviewed as a group. This significantly reduces review time and costs when compared to traditional linear review.
Identifying near duplicates requires comparing each document to every other document or using sophisticated software applications that require additional processing time. This technology increases consistency of review categories, reducing the chance of near-duplicate documents being identified as both privileged and non-privileged.
6. What form should the collection take?
The new rules state that the parties will meet and determine the format in which they wish to receive electronic evidence. In the absence of an agreement, the format will be that าin which it is ordinarily maintainedำ or in a าreasonably usableำ format.
The choices a legal team has include whether each side prefers to receive the electronic evidence in native file format, converted to TIF or PDF, or in some other form. Often, this will depend upon the teamีs standard litigation review system.
Such systems handle both native and converted files, with or without associated metadata and full text. There are pros and cons for both options. Native files with extracted metadata reflect the exact original file; however, they cannot be Bates labeled, which is a technique to mark documents with a unique identification code as they are processed, and are subject to inadvertent change.
Converting native files to TIF or PDF is time-consuming and is the most expensive task in electronic discovery. Because 60 to 80 percent of the files in a collection may be non-responsive or irrelevant, both the time and finances expended in conversion may be counter- productive.
The best compromise involves receiving files in native format, reviewing them for relevancy, and choosing only those that may be produced or used extensively for conversion to image format.
Managing the vast amount of electronic files for litigation requires preparation planning for the production, organization, and retrieval of pertinent and relevant documents and managing both cost and time budgets. Because every case presents unique circumstances, there are no absolute correct answers to the questions above. But a team that understands the choices and their ramifications is prepared to make the informed decisions that will result in the best possible outcomes for the case and the organization.
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
COOL PHOTOS BANK
WORLD'S BEST DREAMY PHOTOS
NATURE OF GOD
WORLD'S BEST WILDLIFE PHOTOS
Amazing Filter
VINTAGE DESI
MYSTERY OF LIFE
FOR UR COMPUTER
VIRGINE DESI
ART OF LIFE
FASHION OF LIFE
DREAMY HEALTH
FEATURE TECHNOLOGY
PHOTOS WAR
SECRET OF EARN MONEY ONLINE
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
The Information Management Journal/September / October 2007- Today’s explosion of electronic data, coupled with the December 2006 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) concerning electronically stored information (ESI), requires information and legal professionals to expand their knowledge about handling electronic discovery. The recent changes to the FRCP include:
* Definitions and safe harbor provisions for the routine alterations of electronic files during routine operations such as back ups [Amended Rule 37(f)]
* Information about how to deal with data that is not reasonably accessible [Amended Rule 26(b)(2)(B)]
* How to deal with inadvertently produced privileged material [Amended Rule 26(b)(5)]
* ESI preservation responsibilities and the pre-trial conference. [Amended Rule 26(f)]
* Electronic file production requests [Amended Rules 33(d), 34, 26(f)(3), 34(b)(iii)]
There are many opinions about how ESI should be planned for, managed, organized, stored, and retrieved. Some of the available options are extremely costly in terms of their required financial and time commitments. Constantly changing technologies only add to the confusion. One area of confusion is the distinction between computer forensics and electronic discovery; there is a significant difference. These are described in the sidebar Computer Forensics vs. Electronic Discovery.
Making the Right Choices
Successfully responding to e-discovery within the constraints of the amended FRCP requires organizations to make many critical decisions that will affect the collection and processing of ESI.
Collection Decisions
The following questions need immediate answers:
1. Are e-mail files part of this project? If so, do any key people maintain an Internet e-mail account, in addition to their corporate accounts?
The sheer volume of transactions for large e-mail providers prohibits the storage of massive amounts of mail files. Many Internet e-mail account providers, such as AOL, BellSouth, and Comcast, retain their e-mail logs no longer than 30 days. If a case could potentially require the exploration of e-mail from Internet accounts, the discovery team must expeditiously request the records, or they may be gone forever. This usually requires a subpoena. In rare cases, fragments of Internet e-mail may be recovered forensically from an individual’s hard drive.
2. Is there any chance illegal activity may be discovered?
Many cases involving electronic data uncover wrongdoings. These situations may involve a member of the technology department or a highly technical employee. In these cases, an organization’s first inclination may be to terminate the employee(s) involved and determine the extent of any damage prior to notifying law enforcement agencies.
This may be exactly the WRONG thing to do. If the wrongdoing is by a technical person, there is a chance that he or she is the only person who knows how to access the files, find the problem, or fix it. This is often the person who knows the passwords for mission-critical applications. The technical employee usually has the ability to work and access company files remotely. Unless such access is eliminated prior to the employee’s termination, it is possible that a terminated or disgruntled employee may access the network and do great damage.
A better solution is to restrict the employee’s complete access privileges, both local and remote. The employee is then notified of management’s knowledge of the situation and given an opportunity to cooperate to minimize the damage. If the situation involves criminal matters, especially if financial or medical records have been compromised, a good decision is to involve law enforcement as early as possible. Electronic criminals frequently disappear and destroy all evidence of their activities.
3. Is it possible that deleted or hidden files may play an important role in this case?
There are three ways to collect electronic files for discovery:
* Forensically ะ as described in the sidebar
* Semi-forensically ะ using non-validated methods and applications to capture files
* Non-forensically using simple cut and- paste copy methods to move copies of files from one location to another. These methods do not include hashing files to ensure the files have not changed, which involves using a hash algorithm to create a mathematical fingerprint of one or more files that will change if any change is made to the collection.
For some matters, the content of electronic documents is all that matters. The context of the files ะ who created them, how they are kept, how they have been accessed, if they have been changed or deleted ะ is not as important.
For other cases, contextual information, including finding deleted files, is vital and requires a forensic collection. This includes
* Ensuring legal search authority of the data
* Documenting chain of custody
* Creating a forensic copy using validated forensic tools that create hash records
* Using repeatable processes to examine and analyze the data
* Creating a scientific report of any findings
Determining the value of electronic forensic file collection must be done prior to any data being captured. Once semi- or non-forensic methods have been used, it is impossible to return records to their original states.
4. Are backup tapes part of an active collection?
Some cases involve historical issues, making the method of handling computer backups important to address immediately.
Most businesses use a schedule of rotating their backup media. For example, in a four-week rotation, daily backups are done for a week and then those tapes (or drives) are taken offsite for storage. A new set of media is used for the second, third, and fourth weeks, and then those three tapes are stored offsite. On the fifth week, the tapes/drives from the first week are reused. This process is done for financial reasons, as it is extremely cost-efficient.
Backup tapes may become part of the active information required to be kept under a litigation hold. This requires cessation of any rotation schedule, and the 2006 amendments to the FRCP make it critical for the legal team to convey that information to the technology employees responsible for business continuity processes.
10 Critical Decisions for Successful E-discovery Part 2
The Information Management Journal/September / October 2007- Todayีs explosion of electronic data, coupled with the December 2006 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) concerning electronically stored information (ESI), requires information and legal professionals to expand their knowledge about handling electronic discovery. The recent changes to the FRCP include:
* Definitions and safe harbor provisions for the routine alterations of electronic files during routine operations such as back ups [Amended Rule 37(f)]
* Information about how to deal with data that is not reasonably accessible [Amended Rule 26(b)(2)(B)]
* How to deal with inadvertently produced privileged material [Amended Rule 26(b)(5)]
* ESI preservation responsibilities and the pre-trial conference. [Amended Rule 26(f)]
* Electronic file production requests [Amended Rules 33(d), 34, 26(f)(3), 34(b)(iii)]
There are many opinions about how ESI should be planned for, managed, organized, stored, and retrieved. Some of the available options are extremely costly in terms of their required financial and time commitments. Constantly changing technologies only add to the confusion. One area of confusion is the distinction between computer forensics and electronic discovery; there is a significant difference. These are described in the sidebar Computer Forensics vs. Electronic Discovery.
Making the Right Choices
Successfully responding to e-discovery within the constraints of the amended FRCP requires organizations to make many critical decisions that will affect the collection and processing of ESI.
Processing Choices
Because of the volume of information available in even the smallest of collections, it becomes necessary to manage the process to control time and budget. The following questions need to be answered:
1. Who are the key people?
The people important to a case should be identified. These key individuals include not only executives, but also assistants and other support personnel from the technology, accounting, sales and marketing, operations, and human resources departments.
2. Where are the files located?
All the potential locations of electronic evidence should be identified. These include home computers and all computers that a key person would use elsewhere (such as a girlfriend or boyfriendีs home), cell phones, PDAs, Blackberries, and any other digital device that might be used. It is important to note that MP3 players, such as iPods, can also be used to store documents or important files.
3. How can the collection be culled?
Methods for limiting the number of files collected may include collecting only those in certain date ranges or only those containing selected key words or terms. This can be done either before or after an entire hard drive is collected forensically. Known file filtering can also reduce the collection by removing standard application files common to all computers (such as the Microsoft Windowsจ logo file).
4. How should password-protected/encrypted files be handled?
Encrypted files cannot be processed until the encryption is broken. In some instances, files with exact or similar names may be available without using passwords or encryption. File locations may also provide information about the value decryptions provide. Decryption may require significant time. Sometimes a password can be obtained simply by asking for it, so this should be the first step. If that fails, using a subpoena may be successful.
5. How should duplicate and near-duplicate documents be handled?
Electronic file collections almost always include duplicates. Multiple individuals may have the same e-mail, with the same attachments. Two or more people may have reviewed key documents, saving them on their hard drives during the process. In processing electronic collections, it is possible to identify exact duplicate files and limit the number of documents that require review.
Identifying exact duplicates usually occurs during the phase in which the metadata is identified and extracted from the files. De-duping the collection will minimally delay the processing.
Standard de-duping involves identifying files that are exact duplicates and eliminating them. If anything has changed within a document, including formatting such as a change of font, it is no longer an exact duplicate and is not de-duped.
It is imperative that both sides of a case agree on what is meant by าde-duping.ำ Many electronic discovery systems literally delete the files so they are gone from the collection. The forensic tools used in law enforcement, however, usually do not delete the duplicates, but merely identify them for future use.
Discussing this definition during the pre-trial conference to ensure that all sides of a case use the same definition is imperative to ensuring that there is not a discrepancy in the number of files that each side later has.
A more significant portion of any collection will be าnear duplicates.ำ This includes files that have been significantly altered or contain only a portion of the main document. For some projects, the sheer file volume requires that near duplicates be identified and reviewed as a group. This significantly reduces review time and costs when compared to traditional linear review.
Identifying near duplicates requires comparing each document to every other document or using sophisticated software applications that require additional processing time. This technology increases consistency of review categories, reducing the chance of near-duplicate documents being identified as both privileged and non-privileged.
6. What form should the collection take?
The new rules state that the parties will meet and determine the format in which they wish to receive electronic evidence. In the absence of an agreement, the format will be that าin which it is ordinarily maintainedำ or in a าreasonably usableำ format.
The choices a legal team has include whether each side prefers to receive the electronic evidence in native file format, converted to TIF or PDF, or in some other form. Often, this will depend upon the teamีs standard litigation review system.
Such systems handle both native and converted files, with or without associated metadata and full text. There are pros and cons for both options. Native files with extracted metadata reflect the exact original file; however, they cannot be Bates labeled, which is a technique to mark documents with a unique identification code as they are processed, and are subject to inadvertent change.
Converting native files to TIF or PDF is time-consuming and is the most expensive task in electronic discovery. Because 60 to 80 percent of the files in a collection may be non-responsive or irrelevant, both the time and finances expended in conversion may be counter- productive.
The best compromise involves receiving files in native format, reviewing them for relevancy, and choosing only those that may be produced or used extensively for conversion to image format.
Managing the vast amount of electronic files for litigation requires preparation planning for the production, organization, and retrieval of pertinent and relevant documents and managing both cost and time budgets. Because every case presents unique circumstances, there are no absolute correct answers to the questions above. But a team that understands the choices and their ramifications is prepared to make the informed decisions that will result in the best possible outcomes for the case and the organization.
COOL PHOTOS BANK
WORLD'S BEST DREAMY PHOTOS
NATURE OF GOD
WORLD'S BEST WILDLIFE PHOTOS
Amazing Filter
VINTAGE DESI
MYSTERY OF LIFE
FOR UR COMPUTER
VIRGINE DESI
ART OF LIFE
FASHION OF LIFE
DREAMY HEALTH
FEATURE TECHNOLOGY
PHOTOS WAR
SECRET OF EARN MONEY ONLINE
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
7 Business Growth W.O.W. Tactics for Increased Market Share
Here are Seven Business Growth W.O.W.® tactics for increased market share that you can deploy now:
1. Rule 1-12-50© - The first portion of every month (hence the number 1), consistently every month (hence the number 12), identify a population index upwards of fifty (hence the number 50) key customers or emerging customers and provide them a value added communication.
2. eSignature Line – Consider adding into your standard email auto signature line any updates on products or services you provide to all recipients of your communication exchanges. This also serves as a powerful standardization for ensuring customers receive advance notices for deadlines, product or service announcements, changes and discontinuations, etc.
3. eAuto Responder - Consider adding into your standard email auto responder (if you don’t engage it routinely, especially engage it when you will be away from email receiving) any updates on products or services you provide to all recipients of your communication exchanges. This is also a great way to promote and advertise to those people that initiate sending email traffic to you first, as now you can instantly bounce back a message to them.
4. Hotel Letters – Realize that in most all hotels there seems to be at least pieces of stationary and envelopes in the desk drawer. Consider a hand written note to three “Vital Fews” about something that is top of mind to you and of value to them.
5. “Advocate” Maintenance – Ensure that you never let an advocate get more than 30 days out from hearing from or seeing you. Plan regular communications and/or “thank you” events to draw from them ways to continue to enhance the service you provide to them.
6. Newsletter – Design a high impact, value rich content based print newsletter for your core customers (the Vital Few) and send routinely to them as a way to enrich their value proposition in their market. Then, soft communicate a product/service from you to them at the end of each newsletter. This vehicle can be distributed to customers as statement-stuffers, attachments with invoices and contracts, attached to proposals and general correspondence from customer service contact professionals and the sales team alike. This can serve as a source for the Rule 1-12-50© campaign.
7. Fax Alerts – Consider a Friday afternoon fax blast to your customers with any products/services that can impact their bottom line, send announcements and press releases, etc. If these contact names are in your data base as clients and or contacts that you have a pre existing relationship with and/or have established a relationship with whereby they want communication offers from you, than a Fax alert or blast is a smart, fast, economical and acceptable contact means. Conversely, if you don’t have this rapport or permission then a fax blast may be seen as spam and be illegal in some non business growth oriented communities!
Deploy these field-tested and proven strategies now and watch your business flourish.
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
COOL PHOTOS BANK
WORLD'S BEST DREAMY PHOTOS
NATURE OF GOD
WORLD'S BEST WILDLIFE PHOTOS
Amazing Filter
VINTAGE DESI
MYSTERY OF LIFE
FOR UR COMPUTER
VIRGINE DESI
ART OF LIFE
FASHION OF LIFE
DREAMY HEALTH
FEATURE TECHNOLOGY
PHOTOS WAR
SECRET OF EARN MONEY ONLINE
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
1. Rule 1-12-50© - The first portion of every month (hence the number 1), consistently every month (hence the number 12), identify a population index upwards of fifty (hence the number 50) key customers or emerging customers and provide them a value added communication.
2. eSignature Line – Consider adding into your standard email auto signature line any updates on products or services you provide to all recipients of your communication exchanges. This also serves as a powerful standardization for ensuring customers receive advance notices for deadlines, product or service announcements, changes and discontinuations, etc.
3. eAuto Responder - Consider adding into your standard email auto responder (if you don’t engage it routinely, especially engage it when you will be away from email receiving) any updates on products or services you provide to all recipients of your communication exchanges. This is also a great way to promote and advertise to those people that initiate sending email traffic to you first, as now you can instantly bounce back a message to them.
4. Hotel Letters – Realize that in most all hotels there seems to be at least pieces of stationary and envelopes in the desk drawer. Consider a hand written note to three “Vital Fews” about something that is top of mind to you and of value to them.
5. “Advocate” Maintenance – Ensure that you never let an advocate get more than 30 days out from hearing from or seeing you. Plan regular communications and/or “thank you” events to draw from them ways to continue to enhance the service you provide to them.
6. Newsletter – Design a high impact, value rich content based print newsletter for your core customers (the Vital Few) and send routinely to them as a way to enrich their value proposition in their market. Then, soft communicate a product/service from you to them at the end of each newsletter. This vehicle can be distributed to customers as statement-stuffers, attachments with invoices and contracts, attached to proposals and general correspondence from customer service contact professionals and the sales team alike. This can serve as a source for the Rule 1-12-50© campaign.
7. Fax Alerts – Consider a Friday afternoon fax blast to your customers with any products/services that can impact their bottom line, send announcements and press releases, etc. If these contact names are in your data base as clients and or contacts that you have a pre existing relationship with and/or have established a relationship with whereby they want communication offers from you, than a Fax alert or blast is a smart, fast, economical and acceptable contact means. Conversely, if you don’t have this rapport or permission then a fax blast may be seen as spam and be illegal in some non business growth oriented communities!
Deploy these field-tested and proven strategies now and watch your business flourish.
COOL PHOTOS BANK
WORLD'S BEST DREAMY PHOTOS
NATURE OF GOD
WORLD'S BEST WILDLIFE PHOTOS
Amazing Filter
VINTAGE DESI
MYSTERY OF LIFE
FOR UR COMPUTER
VIRGINE DESI
ART OF LIFE
FASHION OF LIFE
DREAMY HEALTH
FEATURE TECHNOLOGY
PHOTOS WAR
SECRET OF EARN MONEY ONLINE
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
Saturday, April 9, 2011
He calls himself the Rich Jerk – He is rich and he tells you how to be as well.
This guy doesn't need you, but you might need him. He's good. He knows it. He's prepared to tell you how to do it. His “wisdom” is laid out for you to see. Make of him what you will, thing is, he’s made it in a big way.
Sometimes we need to be told outright what’s going on, how to do something, how to make it, without huge amounts of hype, gloss and flash and he does just that.
He calls himself The Rich Jerk. He's got a viewpoint that's straight down the line, calls it as it is and doesn't care if you don't act. He's successful and he knows it. He knows how to make money online and he's making his method available. Now you've got a chance to take advantage of it.
If you're serious about making money online you really have to look at all of this. The information is condensed to the essentials. Clear, detailed and precise information about multiple successful strategies that’s he’s used and is still using today.
His information about how to make money online includes (but is by no means limited to):
Sometimes we need to be told outright what’s going on, how to do something, how to make it, without huge amounts of hype, gloss and flash and he does just that.
He calls himself The Rich Jerk. He's got a viewpoint that's straight down the line, calls it as it is and doesn't care if you don't act. He's successful and he knows it. He knows how to make money online and he's making his method available. Now you've got a chance to take advantage of it.
If you're serious about making money online you really have to look at all of this. The information is condensed to the essentials. Clear, detailed and precise information about multiple successful strategies that’s he’s used and is still using today.
His information about how to make money online includes (but is by no means limited to):
- 10 ways to create an affiliate site that sells, and sells, and sells
- How to knock off Google Adwords competition, and pay less as well
- How to get 20% click through from Adsense ads
- How he attained a #1 listing on Google and held it for 3 years
- How he develops huge link popularity through automation
- The ins and outs of "white hat" and "black hat" strategies
- Getting super-affiliate sites to promote you over the others
6 Tips for Keeping Your Cool When Customers Get Hot
1. Be assertive - not aggressive or passive. My definition of assertion is simple: "Say what you mean, mean what you say, and don't be mean when you say it." Let this rule guide your conversations with all customers and you will always be confident, cool, and in control AND you'll always be professional.
2. Speak more slowly. You'll be amazed at how much more clearly you can think and how much control and confidence you experience when you consciously slow down your rate of speech. Speak slowly and methodically when your emotional triggers are launched and you'll maintain poise during difficult conversations.
3. Wait 1-2 seconds before responding. Responding immediately to difficult or tactical customers could result in you saying something you'll later regret. Before you respond, take a deep breath, wait at least 2 seconds, and think about the best response and the best approach.
4. Take a time-out. When you sense that your buttons have been pushed, take a break. You can tell the customer you need to put him on hold while you review a file, or whatever excuse sounds good at the time. The point is to get away from the customer for a few seconds so you can re-group.
5. Use positive self-talk. I'm going to sound like Dr. Phil on this one, but I'm quite serious. Instead of saying to yourself, "I don't get paid enough to put up with this ____." Say something more positive like "This guy really needs my help." Thinking more positively helps you respond more positively and professionally. Negative thoughts lead to negative words, and it spirals into a very negative situation.
6. Show your power before you use it. Often, a subtle suggestion of your "power" is far more effective than the outright use of your power. As a customer service professional you may have the power to terminate a phone call. You could say to your customer: "If you don't stop yelling, I will terminate this call." But, believe it or not, you are far more "powerful" if you say, "I want to help you, but when you yell and cut me off, you make it difficult for me to work with you." The latter statement demonstrates your power and your message most definitely gets across. The former statement uses up all of your ammunition and won't usually diffuse an irate customer.
These incredibly simple tips will position you to keep your cool when customers get hot!
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
COOL PHOTOS BANK
WORLD'S BEST DREAMY PHOTOS
NATURE OF GOD
WORLD'S BEST WILDLIFE PHOTOS
Amazing Filter
VINTAGE DESI
MYSTERY OF LIFE
FOR UR COMPUTER
VIRGINE DESI
ART OF LIFE
FASHION OF LIFE
DREAMY HEALTH
FEATURE TECHNOLOGY
PHOTOS WAR
SECRET OF EARN MONEY ONLINE
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
2. Speak more slowly. You'll be amazed at how much more clearly you can think and how much control and confidence you experience when you consciously slow down your rate of speech. Speak slowly and methodically when your emotional triggers are launched and you'll maintain poise during difficult conversations.
3. Wait 1-2 seconds before responding. Responding immediately to difficult or tactical customers could result in you saying something you'll later regret. Before you respond, take a deep breath, wait at least 2 seconds, and think about the best response and the best approach.
4. Take a time-out. When you sense that your buttons have been pushed, take a break. You can tell the customer you need to put him on hold while you review a file, or whatever excuse sounds good at the time. The point is to get away from the customer for a few seconds so you can re-group.
5. Use positive self-talk. I'm going to sound like Dr. Phil on this one, but I'm quite serious. Instead of saying to yourself, "I don't get paid enough to put up with this ____." Say something more positive like "This guy really needs my help." Thinking more positively helps you respond more positively and professionally. Negative thoughts lead to negative words, and it spirals into a very negative situation.
6. Show your power before you use it. Often, a subtle suggestion of your "power" is far more effective than the outright use of your power. As a customer service professional you may have the power to terminate a phone call. You could say to your customer: "If you don't stop yelling, I will terminate this call." But, believe it or not, you are far more "powerful" if you say, "I want to help you, but when you yell and cut me off, you make it difficult for me to work with you." The latter statement demonstrates your power and your message most definitely gets across. The former statement uses up all of your ammunition and won't usually diffuse an irate customer.
These incredibly simple tips will position you to keep your cool when customers get hot!
COOL PHOTOS BANK
WORLD'S BEST DREAMY PHOTOS
NATURE OF GOD
WORLD'S BEST WILDLIFE PHOTOS
Amazing Filter
VINTAGE DESI
MYSTERY OF LIFE
FOR UR COMPUTER
VIRGINE DESI
ART OF LIFE
FASHION OF LIFE
DREAMY HEALTH
FEATURE TECHNOLOGY
PHOTOS WAR
SECRET OF EARN MONEY ONLINE
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5 Things NOT to Do With Upset Customers
A couple of months ago I had a small kitchen fire in my home. All is well now, but for a few days my family and I camped out in a hotel room and once we returned home we had no oven (it was destroyed in the fire) so we were forced to eat every meal out for several days.
On the day of the fire two representatives from the insurance company told me to "Hold on to your meal receipts, send them to us and we'll cover your meals plus sales tax." After the contractors restored my home and we settled back in, I was preparing to mail in my meal receipts for reimbursement and I gave my adjuster a quick call before dropping the envelope of receipts in the mail. He explained that reimbursement was actually for 50% of meals and not 100%. While a partial adjustment made sense to me, I clearly recalled two company representatives promising to "cover meals plus sales tax."
My adjuster became sarcastic and defensive in both his words and tone and said, "No one in this entire company would have told you we cover 100% of meals. Our policy is to cover 50% because you would have been eating even if the fire had not occurred."
I was livid. Now it's no longer about the issue, it's about the principle. So what did I do? I assembled all the facts that supported my case, presented an opening argument to the company's corporate office calmly and methodically, and finally delivered a fervent and succinct summation of my evidence and closed the deal---walking away with 100% of my meal charges.
Here's the lesson here: Had the claims adjuster done and said the right things during my initial phone call, the company would have been able to resolve this problem with a simple explanation and apology. Instead, they paid out nearly $200 more than they had to and had to spend 10 minutes listening to my case.
This costly scenario is played out countless times every day throughout the service sector because employees don't know how to communicate with upset customers with diplomacy and tact and in such a way that creates calm and goodwill.
In my case, had the claims adjuster responded with, "What we were trying to explain is that your policy covers 50% of your meals plus sales tax. You would have been out of expenses for meals even if you had not experienced the regretful fire. We try to minimize your inconvenience during your loss by covering expenses above and beyond your normal meal expenses. Does this make sense? I'm so sorry for any inconvenience this misunderstanding has caused you."
This approach certainly made sense and I would have very likely accepted the 50% policy. But instead, the claim adjuster's attitude incited me and I was determined to accept nothing but full reimbursement. The wrong approach to an already upset customer only makes them more forceful and often results in a much higher payout from the company. I don't want you to have to pay one dollar more than you absolutely have to and to help you manage costs better I'll give you 5 things not to do with upset customers.
1. Don't tell a customer they are wrong. Telling your customer he is wrong arouses opposition and will make the customer want to battle with you. It's difficult, under even the most benign situations to change people's minds. So why make your job harder by starting out on the wrong foot.
2. Don't argue with a customer. You can never win an argument with your customers. Certainly, you can prove your point and even have the last word, you may even be right, but as far as changing your customer's mind is concerned, you will probably be just as futile as if you were wrong.
3. Don't speak with authoritative tone as if you have to prove the customer wrong. Even when the customer is wrong, this is not an appropriate response, as it will put the customer on the defense.
4. Don't say, "We would never do that." Instead try, "Tell me about that."
5. Don't be afraid to apologize. Offer an apology even when the customer is at fault. An apology is not admission of fault. It can be offered to express regret. For example, "I'm so sorry for any inconvenience this misunderstanding has caused you."
Never forget in problem situations the issue is not the issue. The way the issue is handled becomes the issue.
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COOL PHOTOS BANK
WORLD'S BEST DREAMY PHOTOS
NATURE OF GOD
WORLD'S BEST WILDLIFE PHOTOS
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VINTAGE DESI
MYSTERY OF LIFE
FOR UR COMPUTER
VIRGINE DESI
ART OF LIFE
FASHION OF LIFE
DREAMY HEALTH
FEATURE TECHNOLOGY
PHOTOS WAR
SECRET OF EARN MONEY ONLINE
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On the day of the fire two representatives from the insurance company told me to "Hold on to your meal receipts, send them to us and we'll cover your meals plus sales tax." After the contractors restored my home and we settled back in, I was preparing to mail in my meal receipts for reimbursement and I gave my adjuster a quick call before dropping the envelope of receipts in the mail. He explained that reimbursement was actually for 50% of meals and not 100%. While a partial adjustment made sense to me, I clearly recalled two company representatives promising to "cover meals plus sales tax."
My adjuster became sarcastic and defensive in both his words and tone and said, "No one in this entire company would have told you we cover 100% of meals. Our policy is to cover 50% because you would have been eating even if the fire had not occurred."
I was livid. Now it's no longer about the issue, it's about the principle. So what did I do? I assembled all the facts that supported my case, presented an opening argument to the company's corporate office calmly and methodically, and finally delivered a fervent and succinct summation of my evidence and closed the deal---walking away with 100% of my meal charges.
Here's the lesson here: Had the claims adjuster done and said the right things during my initial phone call, the company would have been able to resolve this problem with a simple explanation and apology. Instead, they paid out nearly $200 more than they had to and had to spend 10 minutes listening to my case.
This costly scenario is played out countless times every day throughout the service sector because employees don't know how to communicate with upset customers with diplomacy and tact and in such a way that creates calm and goodwill.
In my case, had the claims adjuster responded with, "What we were trying to explain is that your policy covers 50% of your meals plus sales tax. You would have been out of expenses for meals even if you had not experienced the regretful fire. We try to minimize your inconvenience during your loss by covering expenses above and beyond your normal meal expenses. Does this make sense? I'm so sorry for any inconvenience this misunderstanding has caused you."
This approach certainly made sense and I would have very likely accepted the 50% policy. But instead, the claim adjuster's attitude incited me and I was determined to accept nothing but full reimbursement. The wrong approach to an already upset customer only makes them more forceful and often results in a much higher payout from the company. I don't want you to have to pay one dollar more than you absolutely have to and to help you manage costs better I'll give you 5 things not to do with upset customers.
1. Don't tell a customer they are wrong. Telling your customer he is wrong arouses opposition and will make the customer want to battle with you. It's difficult, under even the most benign situations to change people's minds. So why make your job harder by starting out on the wrong foot.
2. Don't argue with a customer. You can never win an argument with your customers. Certainly, you can prove your point and even have the last word, you may even be right, but as far as changing your customer's mind is concerned, you will probably be just as futile as if you were wrong.
3. Don't speak with authoritative tone as if you have to prove the customer wrong. Even when the customer is wrong, this is not an appropriate response, as it will put the customer on the defense.
4. Don't say, "We would never do that." Instead try, "Tell me about that."
5. Don't be afraid to apologize. Offer an apology even when the customer is at fault. An apology is not admission of fault. It can be offered to express regret. For example, "I'm so sorry for any inconvenience this misunderstanding has caused you."
Never forget in problem situations the issue is not the issue. The way the issue is handled becomes the issue.
COOL PHOTOS BANK
WORLD'S BEST DREAMY PHOTOS
NATURE OF GOD
WORLD'S BEST WILDLIFE PHOTOS
Amazing Filter
VINTAGE DESI
MYSTERY OF LIFE
FOR UR COMPUTER
VIRGINE DESI
ART OF LIFE
FASHION OF LIFE
DREAMY HEALTH
FEATURE TECHNOLOGY
PHOTOS WAR
SECRET OF EARN MONEY ONLINE
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5 Simple Tips For Dealing With Nasty Customers
If you’ve been in business very long, you’ve likely heard it all! You know, the irate customer who is going to sue you over the nineteen dollar product that they claim is bogus; the one that’s going to “shut your business down” because they conjure up in their minds that you might have breeched your privacy policy, or the one that takes complete advantage of your money-back guaranty. My favorite has to be the one that calls and screams vulgarities into the phone for apparently no reason.
It doesn’t happen often, but if you’re going to be in business, you will run across some nut cases from time to time. Some can be diffused, some can’t. That’s just the way things go in business.
There are some simple techniques for dealing with irate customers without burning yourself an ulcer over them and without telling them you hope they get cancer and die!
Here are some tips you may find useful…
1. Don’t take it personal
There is one thing that almost all nasty customers have in common. They try to attack you on a personal level. Name calling is not unusual. When you take it personal, you are likely to get into a yelling match with the customer which resolves nothing and only stands to make things worse. Try to diffuse the situation – kill the anger with kindness so to speak. If that doesn’t work, ask them to contact you again once they have calmed down and are willing to speak reasonably. Refuse to speak with a customer in an irate state. You don’t have to put up with abuse ever.
2. Don’t overdo the “customer is always right” concept
In customer service training you will always hear that the customer is always right. While that is true to some extent, sometimes they are just flat wrong. You should always try to accommodate a customer within reason, but do not allow that concept to go too far.
3. Realize it isn’t always your problem
Sometimes people just have a bad day and are looking for someone to take it out on. A hateful, ugly customer is often one of these people. If you listen to their ranting and raving, then respond kindly telling them you understand their frustration and you want to work with them to come to a resolution, you will often diffuse the anger and uncover the rational human being beneath it.
4. Don’t fall for fear invoking bluffs
In customer service some business people tend to do anything to avoid the potential harm of a threat even if it means losing money or giving in to irrational demands. When you are threatened, consider the validity of the threat. Do you really think someone is going to pay thousands of dollars in attorney fees to sue you over a low dollar transaction? Likely not. Again, do what you can to accommodate within reason but don’t give in to unsubstantiated threats.
5. Be prepared to decide whether or not a customer relationship is worth salvaging
You’ve heard it said that one happy customer tells one person about your business while an unhappy customer will tell 10 or more. Undoubtedly, word of mouth can be the best or the worst exposure for your business. This is the very basis of the “the customer is always right” concept. Of course it is best to salvage a customer relationship if you can, but again, do so within reason.
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
COOL PHOTOS BANK
WORLD'S BEST DREAMY PHOTOS
NATURE OF GOD
WORLD'S BEST WILDLIFE PHOTOS
Amazing Filter
VINTAGE DESI
MYSTERY OF LIFE
FOR UR COMPUTER
VIRGINE DESI
ART OF LIFE
FASHION OF LIFE
DREAMY HEALTH
FEATURE TECHNOLOGY
PHOTOS WAR
SECRET OF EARN MONEY ONLINE
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
It doesn’t happen often, but if you’re going to be in business, you will run across some nut cases from time to time. Some can be diffused, some can’t. That’s just the way things go in business.
There are some simple techniques for dealing with irate customers without burning yourself an ulcer over them and without telling them you hope they get cancer and die!
Here are some tips you may find useful…
1. Don’t take it personal
There is one thing that almost all nasty customers have in common. They try to attack you on a personal level. Name calling is not unusual. When you take it personal, you are likely to get into a yelling match with the customer which resolves nothing and only stands to make things worse. Try to diffuse the situation – kill the anger with kindness so to speak. If that doesn’t work, ask them to contact you again once they have calmed down and are willing to speak reasonably. Refuse to speak with a customer in an irate state. You don’t have to put up with abuse ever.
2. Don’t overdo the “customer is always right” concept
In customer service training you will always hear that the customer is always right. While that is true to some extent, sometimes they are just flat wrong. You should always try to accommodate a customer within reason, but do not allow that concept to go too far.
3. Realize it isn’t always your problem
Sometimes people just have a bad day and are looking for someone to take it out on. A hateful, ugly customer is often one of these people. If you listen to their ranting and raving, then respond kindly telling them you understand their frustration and you want to work with them to come to a resolution, you will often diffuse the anger and uncover the rational human being beneath it.
4. Don’t fall for fear invoking bluffs
In customer service some business people tend to do anything to avoid the potential harm of a threat even if it means losing money or giving in to irrational demands. When you are threatened, consider the validity of the threat. Do you really think someone is going to pay thousands of dollars in attorney fees to sue you over a low dollar transaction? Likely not. Again, do what you can to accommodate within reason but don’t give in to unsubstantiated threats.
5. Be prepared to decide whether or not a customer relationship is worth salvaging
You’ve heard it said that one happy customer tells one person about your business while an unhappy customer will tell 10 or more. Undoubtedly, word of mouth can be the best or the worst exposure for your business. This is the very basis of the “the customer is always right” concept. Of course it is best to salvage a customer relationship if you can, but again, do so within reason.
COOL PHOTOS BANK
WORLD'S BEST DREAMY PHOTOS
NATURE OF GOD
WORLD'S BEST WILDLIFE PHOTOS
Amazing Filter
VINTAGE DESI
MYSTERY OF LIFE
FOR UR COMPUTER
VIRGINE DESI
ART OF LIFE
FASHION OF LIFE
DREAMY HEALTH
FEATURE TECHNOLOGY
PHOTOS WAR
SECRET OF EARN MONEY ONLINE
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