Loyalty More Important Than Satisfaction Which is worth more: Client satisfaction or client loyalty? A happy, loyal client might find a lower price elsewhere, but they are more likely to stay with you than a client who is merely satisfied. A loyal client will drive the extra miles when a competitor opens closer to home. They’ll be willing to work virtually or some other way. A loyal client knows that when you make a mistake, it’s not typical. Loyal clients are more likely to tell you when they’re unhappy and allow you the chance to make things right. If your
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A Heartwarming Story in Honor of Thanksgiving I thought I would deviate a little bit from our “normal” type of blog article this week in honor of the Thanksgiving holiday. So, enjoy! Emma came home from work one Tuesday evening with no idea how her life was about to change. Mixed in with her daily mail was a handwritten note addressed simply to “neighbor.” The handwriting on the envelope and the note inside was in a shaky hand that reminded Emma of her late grandmother’s penmanship. The return address on the envelope was for a house across the street that
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A Solid Online Presence, Your Target Market Can Find You Direct marketing efforts can be expensive, and a lot of potential clients in your pipeline might drop off as passive leads without making a purchase. Instead of just reaching out to clients, make sure your potential clients can reach you. Create a solid online presence so people with specific queries, local traffic, and interested parties can find you. Create a business blog that answers specific questions. People turn to the Internet for help. While your business might not be able to fight for the basic keywords in your niche, you
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Knowing Your Goals Will Ease Succession Planning Process Succession planning is very important for accountants and other business owners, especially those with a family-owned business. Before you sit down with your legal advisors to draw up a succession plan, you should think through three important issues: Who: The question of who will succeed you in the business can be the toughest of all. Most accountants want to pass the business on to the family. But are your children willing to take on the business, and if so, are they capable of running it? Resolving these types of issues may take
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Increase Productivity With The Right People No matter how good a leader you are, you can’t do everything yourself. You can get more done with the right help from the right members of your workforce. Follow these three steps: Identify your strengths and weaknesses. Get feedback from those around you to find out where to put your energy productively. Determine what fuels your passion. Where do you excel? What is your brilliance? Then work these strengths and delegate the rest of it. Recruit and retain people who complement your weaknesses. Find employees with the natural strengths to add value in
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Dressing for Success Gives You Confidence Many people working in small offices tend to pay less attention to the way they dress. After all, you’re meeting the same people every day. So what’s the point of dressing up? Who do you need to impress? You might also think that, after a while, your work is going to start speaking for itself. And ideally, that is the way that it should be. But unfortunately, that’s not how it works in everyday life. Even if you are doing great work, people do judge you by the way you look. Different Styles of
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Positive Attitude Does a Body Good A positive attitude isn’t just another empty phrase. While having a positive attitude can make it easier to get along with your coworkers or stop negative emotions from amping up right before a deadline, those reasons have to deal with other people. That doesn’t mean that being known as upbeat and positive won’t affect your work relationships. It will, and it will for the better. But there are a few cold, hard facts on why having a positive attitude is good for your own state of mind. Here are three: Positivity actually helps you
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Focus on the Positive Literary legend J.D. Salinger described himself as “paranoid in reverse.” “I suspect people of plotting to make me happy,” he said. If you shared his brand of paranoia, just imagine how much you’d look forward to meeting with clients. Sadly, clients don’t plot to make us happy. Some are downright difficult and hard to deal with. All people are different with unique personalities. It’s often said that the ones who bug us most are the ones most different from us. Learn to accept and enjoy that diversity. Remember that everyone’s needs are typically the same. Treating
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Client’s Value Can Mean Lifetime of Repeat Business Businesses today face increased competition, increasing — and increasingly expensive to comply with — regulations, increasing advertising costs and skyrocketing health care costs. Boosting your business’ bottom line is more important than ever. According to the Harvard Business Review, if you are able to keep only 5 percent of your clients from going elsewhere, you can boost your profits by anywhere from 25 to 95 percent. That’s a challenge since a study from U.S. News and World Report revealed that each American business, on average, loses more than 10 percent of its
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Clients Don’t Give A Second Chance To Make A First Impression There is no second chance to make a first impression. That’s the takeaway from this story, shared by a friend. Jim needed some repairs done on his vehicle and tried a new auto repair shop based on a friend’s referral.  He was told his truck would be ready for pickup on Friday. Because he was headed out of town for the weekend, Jim asked if he could leave the truck at the shop over the weekend and pick it up on Monday. Imagine Jim’s surprise when his wife dropped
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