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Dealing With Difficult Customers

July 10, 2018 Published by kccadmin

Businesses and business needs have significantly evolved overtime. There are very important variations that have arisen with respect to how customers should be treated, giving rise to the most essential debate of whether the customer really is king. Retail in today’s world does not only involve selling products. it has come to more than before, mean giving consciousness to the need to sustain customers. Quality customer service does a lot in separating a company from many its rivals. You could lose huge returns and investments from bad customer service management. It is why some firms create a customer and clientele relations unit to deal with the needs of customers directly and ensure there is customer sovereignty at all times.

It is handy to understand that you would be dealing with difficult customers. The different kinds of customers you may have to deal with could be impatient, intimidating, talkative, angered, demanding or even indecisive.

In any case you would have to develop a strategy for dealing with them professionally

Above all else, note that you can’t control anyone else’s behavior. You have control only over your own actions. Nevertheless, you do have some ability to manage what responses people give to the decisions you take. That should be your focus in dealing with customers. If you lose that ability, you have absolutely lost your hold over the situation and your customer may even bully you.

When a customer is vengeful and determined to make meat of you, stay calm and ask of his opinion on what solutions are best applicable. This puts you in a position where you can relax and allow the customer to think about what was possibly wrong with the solutions you once offered.

Do not be quick to offer solutions. Ask the customer how he would like the problem to be resolved. Offer choices whenever possible. Get control of yourself. Never argue with customers when they are angry, displeased or complaining. If you allow a customer to push your buttons and lose control of yourself, you’ve lost control of the situation. Master the art of coercion and lead even the most difficult customer down a path of reasoning that you develop. You can lose a good customer if you show boredom, irritation, disdain or displeasure.

It is healthy to allow your customer room to vent. Show genuine regret and appreciation of the concerns raised but do not be quick to blame it on your company as it could land you in serious legal waters. The customer wants to be listened to, acknowledged and understood. Use body language to communicate that you’re listening. Maintain eye contact. Show your attentiveness by standing or sitting up straight; lolling or slouching makes you seem inattentive and disinterested. Uncross your arms. This indicates you are listening with an open mind. Let the person talk, and pay close attention. Repeat or paraphrase some of what you hear.

It would only be after a while that even the most difficult customer would understand the price you pay on his importance. He would come around with time.

COURTING SOCIAL MEDIA

July 6, 2018 Published by kccadmin

Until much after now, you are probably going to remain wowed by what the world has become with social media – the single space within which everyone has a voice and connecting with everyone else takes but a click. From the first connections that started on Facebook in 2004 through to Twitter in 2006 down to the Golden Era of social media beginning in 2010, the sense of the world as a global village has taken significant shape. It is within this shape that your business lives, exposing what deficiencies are present in your company when it denies the opportunity to serve a wider space with its golden services. A world without social media – well, you can take the lone trip to the stone age yourself.

With an estimated 1.65 billion monthly active users on Facebook, it is worth discussing what avenues are possible for any person that establishes itself very well within the market space present with Facebook. Social media is relatively a cheaper resort to reaching lots of people. A world without social media is a world that spends too much to accomplish less.

Social media has come to mean more than a place where a bunch of strangers bump into each other, irritate themselves to death and go to bed with expectations of a new day to continue the beef. It is now a culture of sort rather than convenience, exposing values and teaching new trends that dictate the direction of policies and convictions. It has become a tool for evaluating different opinions, chastising silly affiliations and whipping dissent into agreement. The process involved has not been the conventional dialogue everyone is notably comfortable with. In some extreme circumstances, it has involved bullying.

Nevertheless it remains to be seen and said, what impacts social media would have in the future industrial network. With marketing styles undergoing significant changes every now and then, it is really no mean and vague thing to say, that the world has not seen the full of social media.

SHOULD LOCATION MATTER

July 5, 2018 Published by kccadmin

Your business would at some point in time or the other have to decide on where it is to be located. This decision is exciting and could equally be frustrating, given the implications it can wield on your business, in terms of convenience and costs. Definitely, an entrepreneur would have to consider a plethora of factors and map out the right factors that would facilitate growth of the firm.

Significantly, an entrepreneur has to develop an understanding of the various needs of all stakeholders in the business. These stakeholders primarily include staff and employees, customers and support services. The purpose of understanding these is to ensure that you operate in line with prevailing conditions. Your employees want to be sure they can have access to you at all times and your staff must not be stretched beyond limits to report to work. Essentially, you must understand that operating where support services for training and specialist consult services exist is fundamental to the development of your staff as it translates into overall success for your firm.

Another element you may erroneously dismiss is what impacts the location of your competitors, relative yours would have on the strides your business would make. Competition drives excellence. While you may want to maintain some proximity to your competitors in order to fancy your chances of knowing what strategies they are adopting and what new solutions are emerging, it is still important to draw into perspective, all other conditions that may place you at a disadvantage in this regard.

Location thus matters. Talk to us at KCC and we would guide you through what solutions are most relevant for your business. Talk to us today. Click here

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BETWEEN PRICE AND VALUE

July 4, 2018 Published by kccadmin

Hold up! I am not about to tell you that the value of your product would influence your price and so make your products high on value. You don’t deserve to have this repeated to you again. There is a renewed focus on what interactions exist between price and value and that has huge potentials of enforcing customer satisfaction. It is an ancient rule nevertheless, tried, tested and proven to be the sole rule for showing you respect your customer’s trust in your enterprise.

Value, if it means anything at all, should definitely revolve around what worth your customers attach toyour products and services. You should have a projection of what expectations your customers have of your services in order to meet their expectations and it is that knowledge that should among others, influence your pricing of the service. You definitely would not expect your customers to pay so much for crap and nonsense. A fundamental principle here is to make yourself a customer and question the will with which you would buy the very service you have offered for sale. If you cannot expend resources to buy what you are yourself offering for sale, then call off that whack product and save your image and your brand.

Essentially, it is established – there really is no new relationship or theory that can reveal the relationship between price and value. What you know already really is what you should still commit to. This cannot be overemphasized any further. Your customers would always equate value to price and vice versa. There are no shortcuts, compromises, negotiations or turning around this basic truth. If you cannot meet the expectations of your customers with your product, you may as well not even offer it for free.

Put all efforts to ensuring your products and services are high on value. Know a better rule? (silence) I didn’t think so either. Give your customers value for money. You would definitely be pleased you did. Talk to us today for more solutions. Click here

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HOW TO MAKE PROFITS IN YOUR BUSINESS

July 3, 2018 (updated July 3, 2018) Published by kccadmin

At every point in time or the other, your business would have to convincingly make returns that outrun the costs it incurs for operations among other things. This is what profit means and it is a guiding principle for growth as it enables you to reinvest in your own business. It would be very silly to have to commence a fruitless adventure. Even sillier would be deciding to operate without a direct and known revenue source. The truth is even NGOs make some profits at the end of the day. The motivation and use of those profits is what differs from mainstream profit-focused companies. You are no Santa Claus. Determine a profit making strategy. At KCC, we believe the key is in reducing your costs. As much as possible, reduce cost.

In the course of your operations, you would incur costs on labor, equipment, maintenance, software, insurance, legal, rent on office etc. These are unavoidable costs you must factor as operational costs, if you want to keep the sanity of your books. The truth is these are essentially the elements whose combined efforts would keep you out of making profits. In the short term, the situation is even terrible if you do not have a strategic plan to effectively combat these costs while the long term may be guaranteed some sustenance from your earlier purchases you may make. That notwithstanding, you are not altogether absolved from the realities of huge spending to keep your business operational and your investments secured.

Hence, we recommend a deliberate resort to reducing these costs. If the cost of labor is expensive, consider automation or any other mechanism that ensures you reduce your cost of labor significantly. Endeavor to find cheaper equipment but still keep an eye for quality, keep a relationship with maintenance in order to guarantee you don’t embarrass your funds with continuous purchase of materials you have already purchased. Among others, keep your business low on spending but increase your brand visibility with the huge social media market space and let the qualitative service you are offering work a tremendous dose of smile on your fortune.

Your business would keep that smile as would you. Talk to us today on doing more. Click here

AN ENTERPRISE OF MERIT

June 29, 2018 Published by kccadmin

A business must identify a unique value point in order to thrive. It is a very common thing to see lots of businesses under different brand names doing the same thing, under same conditions, making same mistakes and earning same returns. This repeat of value across board means a multiplicity of resources and efforts without a considerable utilization of skill, intelligence, creativity and innovations. If this situation does not create boredom within the industrial space, it causes complacency and kills the zeal for improvement. The reasons for which your business must meritoriously stand out are obvious and plain. It is up to any business to discover what practices would produce this desired result and consequently commit resources towards achieving it. We share a couple of these today.

GIVE YOUR CUSTOMER A KING’S RIDE

You have probably heard already, that the customer is right. You should never really want to question this. If ever you are motivated to insist on your stands against a customer’s goodwill, shut down and operate a court system; business is not what you should do. It is essential for you to give your customer a service that cannot be copied or emulated by your competitor. If at any point in time, there is customer dissatisfaction, be prepared to review your methods and regain your customer. It is the key to ensuring you are standing out in the industry and maintaining a lead over all others. The merits cannot be overemphasized enough. Create the conditions that would put you in the minds of your customers at all times and delight yourself with their respective and individual progresses. Send goodwill messages to them on their birthdays and don’t forget to create bonuses in your dealings with them. You would be amazed at the returns these seeming insignificant thoughts would have on your company.

GIVE HONEST ADMISSIONS OF YOUR PRODUCTS AND/OR SERVICES

It is commonplace to see businesses try to create perfect images of themselves at all times. A business can go to the extent of lying about its own products, create unsolicited fantasies about the service, build tremendous faiths and confidence in the eyes of customers and expose their huge defects and insufficiencies. Otherwise, a business would fail woefully to keep the schedules it sets with a customer and offer to provide justifications for it. The truth is there is no better policy that should guide a business than honesty. It should not have to compete or compromise with any other policy in your organizational structure at any point in time. Identify the gaps in your own delivery and take responsibility for it. There is nothing more upsetting than to be found telling lies by your customer. It weakens the confidence with which they operate with you and can degenerate into major scandals that would affect the lifetime existence of your company. Tell the truth about your products, offer just what you have advertised and create an impression on your customer that is solid and good as gold.

ENGAGE YOUR PRODUCTS

This isn’t conventional and probably isn’t your GoTo tip for being efficient and meritorious in your operations. Nevertheless, it is the one sure way you can be sure you are giving services or products you would have bought yourself. The principle is this; would you purchase what you are selling if the reverse was true and you were the customer? If you must think twice about this, then quickly review your sales method and most importantly, review the product you are offering for sale. Something might be wrong somewhere. You should have absolute confidence about what you are selling and trust the product to be a complete marketing tool in itself. It is the only way you can be sure you are doing something right and positive.

Identify what works for your organization and make the best of it. You would be beating competition while finding motivation to do what you love to do best. Click here to lean more of how to develop your business with services that work.

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3 Fundamental attitudes to Adopt

June 27, 2018 Published by kccadmin

You are probably too busy trying to establish your business and to get it where you want it. As a result, you have committed efforts towards making it the very best. Nevertheless, it is possible your inability to adopt certain work ethics would rob you of the full returns you were entitled to. Today, we share three principles that are verifiably potent in helping you meet the full returns you deserve, given the commitment and sacrifices you have shared in establishing your business.

ALWAYS BE ON TIME. NO MATTER WHAT.

Yeah I saw that grin on your face. This doesn’t look so much like the tip you were hoping for. Nevertheless, the reason your customers, investors and your clients would not refer you to another potential customer or investor or client is because you do not respect their time. In some instances, it just means you really do not have integrity and trusting you may be a risk that ought to be avoided, especially when you are quick to offer reasons and excuses for your lateness.

Regardless the condition, against the odds, keep your time. Let your partners know that you respect them and appreciate the role they play in the success of your business. It would translate into diversified support for you and lead to higher gains for your business. Keep this as a religious law.

FAITH IS NOT A STRATEGY

As you operate in your business, it is easy to want to leave things to chance and blame your failures on circumstances. This option is oft to arise because you may feel there are some conditions you do not have control over. The worst bit is to suggest the populist mantra, “it’ll work out”.

In business, you don’t leave things to just work out because nothing will. You are responsible for your business development and every aspect of growth the business would have to consider. You should never hear yourself say “It’ll work out”. Take charge and determine the parameters, limits and borders necessary for the success of your organization.

RETURN CALLS IN LESS THAN 24 HOURS.

I sure can understand the reason for your smile on this one. You are probably relating with the discomfort you experienced yourself, when you had to wait for periods unending, just to get a service from an agency or institution. This is precisely what you don’t want your customers to experience. Return all calls as soon as possible and never leave customers waiting for answers. The truth is you are not the only one with the service that is sought after and your customers know it. Don’t give them a reason to remember their alternatives. Return all calls, emails, texts or all other enquiries promptly. Social media these days leave an option for Assistant replies for when you are offline. Activate and personalize these to give your company the label of being responsive. Your customers would want to come back.

You can learn more of these tips and access our services directly. Subscribe to receive our posts directly into your emails today. We love to connect with you.

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THE STITCH AND YOUR MINE

June 25, 2018 (updated June 25, 2018) Published by kccadmin

Every business encounters some challenges at one period or the other. This is normal to every business and it is significantly geared at enabling your business grow. In other words, your business would encounter challenges only because it has to grow. This understanding should guide the responses with which you would deal with the challenges that confront you.

This notwithstanding, it is important to emphasize the fact that challenges that confront your business can put you out of operations if you do not put effective and pragmatic solutions to dealing with it. That which is intended to produce positive outcomes have a huge propensity of kicking your business into a space beyond your control and influence and it can frustrate what objectives you hitherto committed to achieving. Essentially, it is critical that you identify the stitch, that seemingly inconsequential gap and deficit and map out a strategy that would not only annihilate the looming danger, but would competently forestall future resurgences of the problem. Knowing that strategy is your mine.

Identifying the signs of danger is a skill any entrepreneur must adopt. You should be quick to learn what conditions are necessary for you to lose profits, incur staff deficit, overspend your budgets, lose markets or even legitimize customer dissatisfaction. When you are not keen in your ability to identify these dark signs, you could be operating into perpetual losses and your lack of pragmatism can drive you out of business.

At every point in time, you must understand that conditions in your business ecosystem are differing, altering and undergoing monumental adjustments. These alternations may be as a direct consequence of factors you absolutely do not control. In order to fully gain control over your business operations, you must commit to continuous research and innovative ways of identifying all gaps, however insignificant that may develop. This knowledge would enable you work conscientiously toward dealing with all the challenges that could erupt.

At the KCC business diagnosis sessions, we detect these minute pitfalls and advise you on the best ways by which you would continue to remain in operations. We specialize in these solutions and more. Talk to us today.

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THE KCC-YOU BROMANCE

June 19, 2018 Published by kccadmin

Entrepreneurship is a life changing decision. It alters situations and creates a responsibility that leaves lifetime impressions. The KCC dream is an emphasis on what strides are made when entrepreneurs understand the world’s need of them. This understanding underscores the existential importance that is garnered from a realization of the supra-relevance entrepreneurs bring to the world. Substantively, it determines the merits to an evolving world system steeped in an appreciation of the need to create more and solve more.

Entrepreneurs are the life source of growth and development. They create a matrix within which all that pertains to progress may be examined. To create a solution space and income-generation outlet is no mean feat, in fact, no meaner than committing to the sustenance of entrepreneurial goals, amid antagonizing odds. What remains critical is the fact that entrepreneurs have an importance that cannot be overlooked or underestimated any further. The attempt would be ridiculous and embarrassing.

Given the fact that differences may arise somewhat in preferred entrepreneurial styles, it is absolutely necessary to rope in a full-scale meritorious structures and processes that are in and of themselves, wholesome and are able to adequately map out the business plan for success. This strategic planning for success disengages all shades of ineptitude that may characterize the business structure. It develops a framework, guide policy, system configuration and ethics. Constructively, these shape the business outline and readies the enterprise for growth – satisfying a need so ancient yet golden, the entrepreneurial drive for success.

KCC has a comprehensive and strategic system that ensures long and short term structural progressions. Our modules are designed such as to enable the smallest business devise a foolproof strategy for development.

Get involved in our business structure development program today. You would be pleased you did. Click here.

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SETTING UP FOR THE BIG PITCH

June 18, 2018 Published by kccadmin

Most businesses have great ideas and solutions they offer. As a matter of fact, new and existing businesses are reputed to develop even greater ideas while in operation, leading to what many call the Shiny Object Syndrome. With these great businesses, it is only logical to expect great solutions to the teeming world challenges. Nevertheless, there is a huge gap between individuals with the idea-power and those with the financial strengths necessary to drive in the capital that would translate these ideas into real solutions. It is why investors exist and why you have a responsibility of presenting your business idea in a manner that would appeal to investors for the support you need.

You must understand that your business pitch is a great step in the life of your business. You must give it all the preparations and seriousness it needs to drive home the urgency of your demand. For some entrepreneurs, the pitch is some kind of an interview, structured to produce the life of the business. Approach it with absolute importance.

DETERMINE YOUR ADDRESSEES (DYA)

The DYA system enables you to determine the type of investors you are pitching to. Different investors respond to different business solutions and at different levels. You don’t want to spend a considerable length of time speaking to people who are outright not interested. While some investors may not even agree to meet at all, others who show up may do so just to adopt your idea and suit it to meet their style, fund it in a way you may never be able to compete against and leave you struggling with fund and capital raising. Determine who you are addressing and structure your pitch to meet their demands. You may well know if you need just an angel investor or a registered network of investors.

CHOOSE A PREFERRED STYLE

The objective in a pitch is to appear as one who has all facts, ideas and the minute nitty-gritties pertaining to the business you’re professing. Be that person. In that respect, you may want to adopt a story-style narration, or a crisis resolution approach. Whatever the case is, make sure your thoughts are well organized and your ideas flow sequentially. Don’t forget to smile when necessary, but stay on top of the issues.

BE BOLD, ASSERTIVE, SIMPLE, INCISIVE AND CONTENT-DRIVEN (BE BASIC)

At KCC, we say be BASIC. Put up a courageous outlook and do not be intimidated by a hostile bunch of investors. Being BASIC means you are resourcefully utilizing your self-worth while projecting a tough impression of someone determined to make business bloom. This would come in handy when you must prove why an investor would benefit from indulging your business or identifying with your organization.

EMPHASIZE A SALES DRIVE

At every point, you must show a zeal for reaching a large pool of customers in order to drive in increased sales. This is to show your would-be investors that they are about to venture into an avenue with direct sales inlet and outlet. It gives an assurance that you are in the capacity to make profits and subsequently pay back the loaned or invested amounts. In this regard, use all resources at your disposal to market yourself and your business as profit-oriented. This provides a guarantee that you are capacitated to work out full expectations and churn out appropriate results.

Understand your business needs and what drives it. The passion so identified would translate into what content you present to your potential investors and that is the marking point for any success your pitch would chalk.

Talk to us at KCC today, we are willing to guide you through this phase. Click here.

Author: kccadmin