Diane Gardner Archives - Get Off The Wheel

Out Of This World Customer Service When Managing Stressed Customers

April 14, 2020

Smart executives who look forward to a long and happy life for their companies know two things about customer service: 100% of your customers won’t be 100% happy with you all the time. Interactions with stressed customers are critical to the strength of a business. A company’s reputation for poor customer service spreads quickly, especially in a time when social media has such a powerful effect on shaping public opinion. Even before the days of social media, the rule of 10 applied. A bad night’s sleep and a cranky morning that results in a negative interaction with a customer spreads to the next 10
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Get on the Same Page Quickly with New Employees

February 4, 2020

When meeting new employees, you should get to know them as quickly as you can. Don’t rush things, but sit down with them one by one for a conversation. Here’s what to talk about: Ask them to describe their job or role as they see it. Ask what they enjoy most about their work and what they don’t like. Ask about their personal/career goals. Ask how you can help them perform their job better. Ask what their expectations of you are, and explain your own expectations of them. You might want to exchange some personal information about each other, as
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3 Tips to Simplify the Hiring Process for Accounting Firms

September 24, 2019

Hiring someone can be an arduous process. Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you might know of someone who will be just right for the position. Maybe that person is among your circle of friends or a friend of a friend who is doing a similar job at another company. But this kind of situation only occurs once in a while. Most of the time, you need to go into your hiring process blind. You’ll need to post a job listing, scan resumes, interview candidates, negotiate salaries etc. Here are some tips to help you do so: Job Listings Nowadays, most people
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Build a superstar team with these 3 tips!

June 18, 2019

The question on the mind of small and large accounting firms in this job market is: where is the top talent that I’m looking for to fill my open position? The fact is that in this day and age, the candidate is in the position of power during the interviewing process. With the unemployment rate at a level we haven’t seen in quite some time, businesses are now more than ever in a desperate race to reach qualified candidates before they receive offers from competitors. While a strong candidate may be an asset for your company, without the right dynamic
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3 Ways to Maximize Client Retention

June 12, 2018

Customer Retention is Easier than Getting New Business All your marketing is paying off. You have tons of new clients at your door. You want to make sure they remain your clients. Repeat patrons are how you build a successful business. Retaining happy clients is far less expensive than constantly earning new clients. You don’t want them going to the competition, you want them to be loyal to your business. So, how do you retain your valuable repeat business? Keep close tabs on the competition: Being a business owner is a tough job. It is easy to get absorbed in
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Suffering from a Messy Workspace? Five Benefits of Being Organized to Boost Your Potential

June 5, 2018

Declutter Your Messy Workspace to Save Time & Money! Being surrounded by clutter is unpleasing. Maneuvering around your office is like participating in an obstacle course, you have business updates tucked into the contact book, and you can’t locate the flyers you swear you already printed. Let’s face it, being unorganized puts a damper on more than just your workspace appearance. It affects your time, you mood, and your wallet. Being exhausted after a long day is understandable, but taking the time to straighten things out will benefit you more than crashing on the coach with a frozen dinner to watch the premiere of
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Want a Successful Business? Delegate

May 1, 2018

Delegating is Key to Running a Successful Business It’s easy to get in the mindset that if you want things done the right way you have to do them yourself. But that isn’t always the best approach at work, even if you firmly believe you’re the best person for the job. There simply isn’t enough time in the day, especially if you have a business to run. Like it or not, you must learn how to delegate work to your employees. Here are some helpful hints: Develop a game plan. Start by deciding which tasks to delegate and which employees
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Build a Strong Business by Retaining Clients

April 24, 2018

Customer Service is #1 One very important aspect to the success of any business is building strong customer service relationships. It does not matter how great a product is, if customer service is poor it can affect your business in a negative way. Building a strong relationship with your clients is more than just being courteous. You have to keep them coming back. Why is this so important? Keep the Competition in Mind Your clients will not hesitate to visit another establishment if they feel they were treated unfairly. A business has to work hard enough as it is to
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Customer Service: Using Hospitality

April 10, 2018

In Any Business, Customer Service is Key Customer service is extremely important, no matter the niche. It’s what helps you to gain and retain clients; after all, no one is going to want to encourage people to go to a place with poor service. However, it isn’t just customer service that is important; hospitality plays a key role as well. Some people might argue that both are the same, but in truth, they differ greatly. Customer Service Customer service is defined as the “assistance and other resources that a company provides to the people who buy or use its products or
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Keep Your Focus on What You Do Best

April 3, 2018

Focus on Your Strengths! Practice management is one of the hardest parts of running a small business. All of the infrastructural elements that large corporations have to manage, such as data security, finance, customer service, and legal documentation, are still on your to-do list. But managing all of those elements without the large employment force that big businesses can bring to the table is a challenge that seems unending. If you started an accounting practice because you wanted to focus on certain types of accounting services, you can still do precisely that. Here’s how: Make a list of what requires
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