To grab your customers attention, surprise them

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Ways to grab your customer’s attention  in a distracted world

Who doesn’t like a surprise? The best way to form an instant connection with your customers is to surprise them. Creating a sense of delight among your customers can help them in staying connected with you for a longer span of time

Target the right audience

If you choose the right audience, it ensures that your brand has a higher probability of success. You need to begin with narrowing down your potential audience. This can be done by analysing current customers and studying demographic trends.

Thereafter, you could study the market and figure out the kind of people that would use your product or service. Once you have done this, you could look at the marketing activities of your competitors in order to identify gaps in the market. Finally, after identifying the gaps, you need to create a compelling brand copy that can grab the attention of your customers and hold it.

By choosing the right audience, you are ensuring that your campaigns are reaching customers that are already interested in the product. You just have to form a connection with them. They are also more likely to share your campaigns with others, giving you free publicity.

Keep it simple

Any campaign that you design needs to be simple. This is because complexity can often prove to be a turn off for your customers. You do not want that to happen, especially in today’s world.

Nowadays, people are exposed to brands all the time. Be it in the online world, or in the real world; brands have become omnipresent. This means that there is a lot of competition that needs to be dealt with. Often, simplistic brand campaigns can work like a charm.

People do not have the time to go through elaborate product descriptions and features. Instead, they tend to look for something that is much more simplistic and yet serves the purpose. By keeping things simple, a brand can ensure that it can appeal to the masses and grab their attention for longer periods of time.

Simplistic campaigns also help your customers in making a quick decision. This can prove to be a game-changer in today’s competitive environment. Once the customer begins to feel that they have seen what they want, they are ready to make a decision. This helps your brand in quickly realizing sales and building your customer base rapidly.

Feuding Employees: How to mediate conflict between employees

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 How you can tactfully turn conflict into consensus between feuding employees

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How to mediate conflict between employees – Customer service mediator

It’s natural to try to avoid conflict, but as a manager, you’re going to eventually have to deal with a conflict between employees. It is inevitable that there will be some amount of conflict on a team with a variety of industry experts and leaders. Some amount of conflict can be healthy, as long as it is discussed and a conclusion is reached. Clashing personalities or opposing viewpoints can actually bring new thoughts and discussions on aspects of a project that had not been imagined before.

Use the following methods to create harmony in your team and your project.

  1. Be Aware That Conflict Occurs. …
  2. Set the Ground Rules. …
  3. Learn About Destructive Conflicts. …
  4. Stop Conflict When it Happens. …
  5. Get the Whole Story. …
  6. Meet for Resolutions. …
  7. Discuss Both Sides of a Perspective. …
  8. Make Compromise a Goal.

The type of conflict you have to worry about more is unspoken resentment that can erupt in an outburst, or even more deadly, in quiet mutiny or deviation from agreed upon roles, tasks and goals.

So first be aware that conflict occurs

Knowing that conflict may and will occur is the first step to resolving it, especially if you know that certain team members may disagree with each other. By recognizing that there will be conflict, a project manager knows what to expect.

Secondly, set the ground rules

At the beginning of your project set some ground rules in your first meeting. Be sure to address what process will be taken to address conflicts, as they are bound to rise and will need to be taken care of before they spiral out of control. Tell team members that everyone’s ideas are valid and that they shouldn’t be dismissed, even if you do not agree with them.

Then learn about destructive conflicts

Conflict becomes destructive when no resolution is in sight or the issue cannot be resolved. A psychological model for explaining destructive patterns is the persecutor-victim-rescuer triangle. The persecutor would be the bad-guy or bully in this scenerio, but the rescuer is also placing him or herself in a position of superiority over the supposed victim. Stop yourself if you see yourself slipping into any of these roles and also try to recognize it in your team.

How you can tactfully turn conflict into consensus between feuding employees
It is inevitable that there will be some amount of conflict on a team with a variety of industry experts and leaders. Some amount of conflict can be healthy, as long as it is discussed and a conclusion is reached. Clashing personalities or opposing viewpoints can actually bring new thoughts and discussions on aspects of a project that had not been imagined before.Use the following methods to create harmony in your team and your project.

  1. Be Aware That Conflict Occurs. …
  2. Set the Ground Rules. …
  3. Learn About Destructive Conflicts. …
  4. Stop Conflict When it Happens. …
  5. Get the Whole Story. …
  6. Meet for Resolutions. …
  7. Discuss Both Sides of a Perspective. …
  8. Make Compromise a Goal.

The type of conflict you have to worry about more is unspoken resentment that can erupt in an outburst, or even more deadly, in quiet mutiny or deviation from agreed upon roles, tasks and goals.

Painless way to Free Yourself of Problem Clients

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Letting go of your first “problem client” can be an emotionally charged experience, but honestly it’s one of the most important milestones in your businesses.

It’s important because with each problem client, you’re able to get clearer view on what your “deal breakers” are and which customers are your ideal customers. So while you’ll never be able to filter out every “problem client” regardless of how good your client intake process is or how fine tuned your contact form is, letting them go does get easier with experience.

Here are things you should remember when ending the relationship.

  • Politely explain the situation
  • Focus on their interests
  • Be professional, you never know where people will be 5, 10, or 15 years in the future.
  • Set expectations of what next to expect.

Why You Should Be Radically Transparent With Your Customers

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Always set yourself up for success with your customers

Being more open about your products, prices and results will set you up for success. For example when you say, ‘we list our fees on our website and level with potential clients about what they can realistically expect from us’. It makes them feel relaxed and willing to do business with you. 

When it becomes clear that a potential client is hoping, then you will deliver incredible results in an exceedingly short time-frame, be frank with them about how achieving their desired results could require more time. Contrary to what you might think, this level of honesty isn’t killing your sales. Potential clients respond well to straightforward talk about what you can and can’t do for them. Since you don’t over-promise, you are less likely to under deliver. 

In an effort to stay under the radar, sometimes it’s easier for employees to keep concerns to themselves. Given how uncomfortable some companies are with transparency on the inside, it’s not hard to imagine how afraid they’d be of being transparent with their customers.

But as scary as the idea of transparency might seem, in the long run, it’s good not only for your customers but also for your business. In addition to attracting new customers, transparency allows you to better serve your current ones, ensuring they stick with you.

Easy way to tell customers they aren’t right – without saying, ‘You’re wrong’

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Let’s face it: Nobody likes to be wrong. But sometimes clients aren’t as receptive to the bad news as we may hope. When it comes to opinionated clients, at times, they have an idea of what they want, but we, as the agency, have the market knowledge and experience to know that these expectations may be unrealistic.

 Be Diplomatic and Communicate Effectively

Diplomacy is crucial when it comes to communicating with your clients. Your clients are entitled to their opinion and (many) suggestions, which is why you can’t tell them that they are flat out wrong. To avoid belittling them, make sure to provide reasons why they are right, first.

Give honest and Constructive Feedback

Nobody wins with dishonest feedback. Always remember to give the valuable feedback that you would like to receive. A survey revealed that 92% of professionals agreed that negative feedback can improve performance if presented appropriately. And when applied to client relations, by letting them know what isn’t working, your team can follow that up by providing a solution that will provide results that better fit with what your clients originally had in mind.

In summary: 

  1. Stick to the facts. Avoid pointing to what’s been said, and focus on what’s been done and is documented. …
  2. Bring up “miscommunication.” When using the word “miscommunication,” you don’t point blame. …
  3. Change his perspective. …
  4. Offer alternatives.

Five ways to eliminate customer service friction

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The biggest friction point of all with customers is making them wait and disrespecting their time. So the basic ways to eliminate frictions are as follows: 

  1. Duration: How long do we make customers wait? It could be on hold for customer support or in the waiting room of a doctor’s office. Waiting is friction. Wasting our customer’s time is friction. That little recording you hear when you’re on hold should say, “Your call is NOT really that important to us. Otherwise, we wouldn’t make you wait!”
  2. Memory: I’m always frustrated when I call a customer support number that I’ve called in the past and have to retell my story. Same goes for when I’m transferred to another person. There is no reason for this. Employees should be armed with information about the customer’s past calls, purchases, and any other interaction they have had with the company. Making a customer repeat their story is a waste of time. It’s friction!
  3. Consistency: Consistency isn’t the problem. It’s lack of consistency. Specifically, I’m referring to inconsistent information. One day I called my cellular provider with a question about an international calling plan. I didn’t like the answer I got, so I called back and a different agent gave me a different answer. My assistant asked me which plan I thought was correct. I jokingly said, “the one with the lower price.” Inconsistent information derails confidence and trust.
  4. Empowerment: When we talk about empowerment, we’re usually referring to empowering employees to take care of the customer. In this case, it’s empowering the customer to take control of their situation. Self-service tools are a powerful way to take care of the customer’s questions and problems quickly and efficiently. Customers like a good self-service solution.
  5. Proactiveness: With today’s technological capabilities, why should a customer have to reach out for help to begin with? In many instances, companies can know a customer is having problems before the customer does. Predictive support will soon become a customer expectation.

In truth, there are lots of ways we can eliminate friction for our customers. The above list is a reminder of the most painful points of friction, meant to give you an idea of where to start. So, take a look at your business. Listen to your employees and, most importantly, your customers. Where do they encounter friction? And what can you do to eliminate that? Give your customers the experience they expect and deserve—one that is easy, convenient, and friction-free.

Is Your Focus on You or Your Customers?

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Having a customer focus is usually a strong contributor to the overall success of a business and involves ensuring that all aspects of the company put its customers’ satisfaction first. Customer service is a series of activities designed to deliver customer satisfaction. The process of providing customer satisfaction is based on an understanding of what customers want and need. Effective businesses aim to anticipate and meet or exceed these needs.

Complete focus on customer simply means the orientation of an organization toward serving its clients’ needs. Having a customer focus is usually a strong contributor to the overall success of a business and involves ensuring that all aspects of the company put its customers‘ satisfaction first.
So to maintain customers focus on your customer and not necessarily you, you will need to do the following: 

  1. Get aligned with your customers’ wants and needs. A customer focus should go beyond product, to the way a customer prefers to do business with you.
  2. Work with your customers to fully understand their business model.
  3. Provide value-added services to establish a direct relationship with customers.
  4. Make the Effort to Follow-up: Some customer service situations require a follow-up contact. The big question is who should take responsibility?Let’s say a customer calls to check the status of an item she ordered. The customer service rep verifies the order is in production and is scheduled to ship the following day for a Friday delivery. A transactional customer service rep might say, “Give me a call if it doesn’t arrive by Friday and I’ll track it down for you.” While a customer-focused rep might say, “I’ll monitor the status of your order and follow-up with you on Friday to make sure it arrived in good condition. All you need to do is, make sure you follow-up. 

Customer-focus is a powerful skill. It helps you better understand your customers, which in turn makes it easier to meet and often exceed their expectations. I encourage you to try at least one of these exercises right now and see how they can make a difference!

Misconceptions About Customer Feedback and Complain

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The feedback you get from customers is of utmost importance to you. A lot of companies consider market research and customer interaction at the start of their developmental process, they often fail to incorporate feedbacks and complains at later stages mainly because they see both as the same thing.

No! They are not the same thing. We will define the two for you to truly understand the difference. 
Customer Feedback describes the process of obtaining a customer’s opinion about a business, product or service. It could be either praise or criticism.

Customer Complaint can be described as a report from a consumer providing documentation about a problem with a product or service, or “an expression of dissatisfaction on a consumer’s behalf to a responsible party”.
Feedback is great for your company and you might even find negative and frustrated remarks or complaints in your feedback.

However, when a customer has a complaint, it is as a result of dissatisfaction with your company, product or service. With customer complaint, your primary aim is to resolve the complaints as soon as possible.


Nevertheless, customer feedback is equally important and every bit of feedback must be accounted for and acted upon. Always thank customers for their feedback and inform them about any changes implemented as a result of their feedback.

Think about it: if a customer’s feedback has helped you make a change and they aren’t receiving a response, they’d believe that you are ignoring their opinion and not giving them any credit at all. 


This would only result in customers who don’t want to give you their feedback: not something you want, is it? One method of interacting with customers that is underused is a personal ‘thank you’ or follow up note. Whether you’re a small or a large company, this opportunity must be used! After all, your customers are the ones taking time out of their day to give you feedback on why they do business with you.


In conclusion, listen to customer feedback with such care that customers truly see the changes that they suggested and want to keep coming back and aim to gather customer feedback throughout the life-cycle of the company.

Working too much can cause heart disease and diabetes – Janine Morgan

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Steps companies can take to avoid employee burnout

A survey presented on Pulse shows that companies are facing an employee burnout crisis. In a hyper-connected world, it’s very easy for employees to work longer hours. The rise of instant messaging makes work-life balance increasingly rare. If not managed properly, employee burnout can lead to unproductive workers and even the loss of talent. It can also cause numerous health issues such as heart disease, diabetes, high cholesterol, and gastrointestinal issues.

1. Get Regular Feedback

It’s important for managers to regularly get feedback from their employees. We suggested that through feedback sessions management will learn what their workers need to stay engaged and productive.

At the same time, it’s a way of saying that you value your employees enough to listen to them and adjust office policies to meet their needs. Studies have proven that getting honest feedback can do wonderful things, such as reduce turnover rates, create higher sales, and improve customer relations.

2. Encourage Teamwork & Connections

Employees are less likely to burn out when they are able to lean on their officemates for support, and it is recommended that managers set collective team goals. When an office is working towards something together, it’s more likely to foster collaboration and strong employee relations.

Another way to encourage teamwork is to set out-of-office bonding sessions where employees are able to get to know their team members outside of a working environment.

3. Support Employee Vacation Leaves

Encouraging your employees to take days off is important in keeping up good office morale. Holiday leaves help employees get the rest they need to come back to the office refreshed and ready to work. Some companies are apprehensive about encouraging employees to go on leave because of the pending work that gets left behind.

This is especially important if your employees are managing valuable clients who require regular coordination. Temporary workers ensure that operations continue while your employees are getting the proper time off to avoid burning out.

4. Set Realistic Goals

Computer World reminds office managers about the significance of setting realistic goals. This allows employees to work at a reasonable pace while still meeting the necessary deadlines. Unnecessary pressure will not do anything for your employees, and could actually be detrimental to them.

Remember that missed deadlines can be very stressful for employees. During times when management does need to push in order to get something accomplished, be transparent with your staff. Help them understand that the extra work is not normal, nor will it be an ongoing demand.

Workers who know that the intense grind won’t last forever will take on the task more efficiently than those who think the daily grind is never-ending.

Consumer Responsibilities

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Consumer responsibilities help ensure customers make informed purchases and use products the way they were intended, both safely and lawfully.

  • Holistic consumer protection is a collective effort. Its actualisation requires input, not just from manufacturers, service providers and government, but also the consumer.The consumer has the responsibility to:
  • 1. Be Aware: Gather all the information and facts available about a product or service, as well as, keep abreast of changes and innovations in the market.
  • 2. Beware: Be alert to the quality and safety of products and services before you purchase.
  • 3. Think Independently: Make decisions about well-considered needs and wants.
  • 4. Speak Out: The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has said, you are expected to Inform manufacturers and government of your needs and expectations.
  • 5. Be an Ethical Consumer: Be fair and never engage in dishonest practices which affect other consumers negatively.
  • 6. Complain: Inform businesses and appropriate regulatory authorities about your dissatisfaction with a product or service, in a fair and honest manner
  • 7. Share Experience: Inform other consumers about your experience with a product or service.
  • 8. Respect the Environment: Avoid waste, littering and contributing to pollution. Promote sustainable consumption by ensuring that what you consume does not impact on the environment negatively.