Expanding Your Business to a New Market

Expanding Your Business to a New Market

Success in the business world affects different companies in different ways. As your business starts to grow, you should think about branching out into different markets. Use the following tips to successfully expand your business into a new market:

Make Sure You Have the Manpower
You do not want to take on a completely new market until you are absolutely sure that you have enough staff to handle it. You might want to enlist the help of a call center to take over some of your phone needs so the rest of your staff has more time to help you focus on the new market.

Stay True to Your Business
Even as you start to expand your business, it is important to always remember the foundation of your company. Focus on your business model as you work toward expanding to new markets. Your business model has already proved that it is successful. Make a plan before you start your expansion efforts so you can figure out how to incorporate your current model into them.

Find Your Audience
Before you start to expand to a new market, it is very important to decide what that market is. Look at your current customers and decide what kind of market you want to go after with your expansion efforts. Having a particular audience in mind makes it easier to focus your attention on how to get them to accept and utilize your business.

Start Small
Trying to expand too much too fast can cause a lot of problems for your company. When you decide it is time to expand, you should do it slowly to be sure you have the resources to do it right.

Contact One Call Center can help you expand to a new market. We offer answering services, secure messaging, live chat, order taking, and e-commerce services that give you the assistance you need to focus on your expansion. To learn more about our services, visit us online or call 800-278-3347.

Public Relations Tips for Your Business

Public Relations Tips for Your Business

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The way you interact with your customers in positive and negative situations directly reflects your company and how the public views you. If you want to put more focus on public relations, use the following tips to improve the way you communicate.

Follow Up
Whenever you have an interaction with a customer, you should make an effort to follow up with them after the situation is rectified. Whether you assign someone to call the customer to ensure they were happy with your services or you send an email, this follow-up shows that you really care about how they feel about the situation.

Take Advantage of Social Media
Communication is essential for good public relations. One of the best ways to communicate in this technology driven world is to use social media. Websites like Facebook and Twitter allow you to open up the lines of communication with your customers so you can automatically respond to any questions or concerns that they have about your company.

Build Your Brand
The more you can spread a positive image about your brand, the more successful your company will be. Start using services like blogging and other online tools that help you drive traffic toward your website. Increasing your web presence by working on your brand helps people see why they should be working with your company. It also gives you a chance to put out more positive information about your business.

Talk to Journalists
If you can get your name in the press, it helps you improve your public relations even more. You should make an effort to create working relationships with certain journalists that can help you draw more positive attention to your company.

Contact One Call Center can help you improve your public relations by increasing your customer service efforts. We offer answering services, order taking, appointment setting, and live chat services to help you interact with your customers. To learn more about our services, visit us online or call 1-800-278-3347.

Small Business Success Stories to Inspire You

Small Business Success Stories to Inspire You

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If you are a small business owner, you have probably faced some difficult situations that might have affected your confidence in your company. Even when it gets hard, you have to continue offering the best services you can so you can finally find the success you deserve. Keep reading to learn about some small business success stories that help you keep your faith in your business.

Tasty Brand
Liane Weintraub and Shannan Swanson were two Los Angeles moms that were having a lot of problems finding organic food to feed their babies. They started pureeing their own to make food that they felt was safe enough to give their children. They created the Tasty Brand that is now sold in grocery stores throughout the country and started earning a profit just four years after they started.

Zane’s Cycles
Chris Zane started fixing bikes when he was just 12. By the time he was 16, he talked his parents into letting him lease a bike shop that was going out of business. He borrowed money from his grandfather and recruited help from his mom. At the end of his first year, he earned $56,000 in sales. This year, he should make closer to $21 million.

Oak Street Bootmakers
George Vlagos spent his Saturdays during middle school shining shoes for his father. Vlagos bought himself a pair of nice shoes with his earnings and quickly discovered how hard it was to find a quality pair of shoes. He started designing his own shoes and now owns a company with a 6-week waiting list.

Contact One Call Center is here to help small businesses find success in their industries. We give you the customer service help that you need to inspire your clients to continue using your services. Whether you need help answering phones or placing orders, we can help you communicate with your customers and show them that you care about their business. To learn more about our services, visit us online or call 1-800-278-3347.

Recruiting New Employees for Your Startup

Recruiting New Employees for Your Startup

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When you are just starting out with a startup, it is important to find employees that can help you achieve success in business. Use the following tips to recruit new and reliable employees.

Look for the Skills You Need
You do not want to hire an employee just to fill your staff. It is important to look for people who possess the skills that you need to gain customers and earn profits. Do not rely on someone’s ability to learn new skills quickly and hope for the best. Instead, you should hire people who already possess those skills.

Look for Experience
Along with certain skills, you should also look for specific kinds of experience. This does not mean that a potential employee has to have worked in an industry for a certain number of years, but they should have some experience with the kind of work you do. Develop poignant questions for interviews that help you determine if a candidate has the experience for which you are looking.

Look for Competitive People
Starting a new business is hard. If you want the best chance of succeeding in the industry, you should make an effort to hire people with a strong competitive drive. With their commitment to the company, you have a better chance of surviving the difficult first years and eventually earning a profit.

Look for Performance
Even if you do not have many employees at the beginning, you should not feel like you have to work with certain people if they are not performing to your standards. Enlist probationary periods that allow you to let someone go if they are not performing well enough.

The answering services and live chat services from Contact One Call Center can help you maintain good customer service as you try to build up a credible staff. We are here to help your small business gain success in your industry. To learn more, call 1-800-278-3347.

When to Expand Your Business

When to Expand Your Business

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As you start to gain success in the business world, you might begin thinking about expanding. If you expand too quickly, though, it might cause problems for your company. Keep reading for some tips on when to expand your business.

You Are Having Trouble Meeting Customer Needs
If you are getting more customer requests than you can handle, you might start to lose customers before you can accommodate them. If your staff is no longer able to meet all of your customer’s needs, it might be time to start expanding your business. Customer service is one of the most important aspects of any business and it should be the foundation of yours.

You Have Consistent Profits
Financial success can also be another indicator that you should think about growing your business. If you have consistently brought in profits, it might be time to add on to your current business model so you can increase your profits even more.

Your Competitors are Expanding
It is important to remain competitive with other businesses in your industry if you want to remain successful. If the other businesses in your industry are starting to expand, it might be time to consider how doing the same can benefit your company. Do not try to grow your business if you are not in a place to do it, but try to stay as competitive with other businesses as you can.

You Have New Visions
Sometimes companies expand to incorporate new products or services into their business models. If you are thinking about adding new services to your business, you might want to think about expanding your company.

Contact One Call Center is here to help you simplify the transition of expanding your business. We offer services like answering services, live chat, e-commerce, and appointment taking to make it easier to interact with your customers during your transition. To learn more about our services and how they can enhance your business, visit us online or call 1-800-278-3347.

Stepping Up Your Customer Service

Stepping Up Your Customer Service

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Good customer service is essential for any company that wants to succeed. Whether your business is large or small, you have to show your customers that you care about their business. If you feel like your customer service has some room for improvement, keep reading to learn how you can make it better.

Improve Communication
Nothing is more frustrating for a customer than trying to contact a business and not being able to speak to someone when they need them. If you really want to show your customers that you care about their time, you should look into ways of improving your communication. Whether you decide to hire an answering service or implement live chat features, these small improvements can make a huge difference for your company and your customer relations.

Offer Incentives for Loyal Customers
The customers that have been with you since the beginning deserve a little bit of recognition. Loyalty incentives do not cost a lot, but they can keep certain customers returning to utilize your services in the future. Think about offering customers a small discount after they have worked with you for a certain amount of time or a gift certificate to a local restaurant. When you make an effort to show your appreciation, they will make the effort to keep giving you business.

Streamline Your Customer Relations
Every single one of your customer service representatives should use the same tactics when they deal with customers. A client should not get one answer from one person and a completely different answer from another person. If you can streamline your customer relations, you know that everyone gets the same treatment when they call into your company.

Contact One Call Center is here to help you step up your customer service. We offer answering services, order taking, appointment setting, and live chat services to make it easier for you to interact with your customers. With our help, you can improve the way your customers look at your business. To learn more, visit us online or call 1-800-278-3347.

Staying Competitive in the Business World

Staying Competitive in the Business World

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As a business owner, it is important to constantly find new ways to stay competitive in your industry. Keep reading for some tips that can help you best your competition and continue to get new customers.

Use Technology to Your Advantage
Anything from an answering service to live chat features can help you show your customers why they should use your services. If you are not currently using a lot of technology to run your business, you might want to look into some programs that can help you get ahead in your field.

Give Your Customers What They Want
Customer service is another important facet of succeeding in the business world. You have to maintain strong lines of communication with your customers in order to understand what they expect from your company. If you do not know what your customers want, there is no way you can give it to them. Find ways to improve your customer relations so you can always keep them happy.

Evolve with the Industry
The most successful companies are those that grow and change with their industry. If all of your competitors are increasing their online marketing efforts and you pay more attention to paper advertisements, you could be missing out. Spend some time researching the current trends in the industry and find a way to incorporate them into your own business model. If you can evolve with the industry, it gives you a much better chance of succeeding in the business world.

Turn to Contact One Call Center for help staying competitive in your industry. We offer a lot of services that can help you improve your customer relations and get more business. From answering services to order taking, we make it easy for you to stay in contact with your customers at all times. stay in contact with your customers at all times. To learn more about our services or how they can help you, visit us online or call 1-800-278-3347.

Tips for Growing Your Business

Tips for Growing Your Business

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The best ways to enhance your business growth depend on the type of business you own, your available resources, as well as how much you are willing to invest. For example, choosing the best business growth strategy largely depends on what stage of growth your business is currently in. Even though you need to choose a plan that best suits your business needs, here are some basic tips for helping your new business blossom.

Open another location.
Like many business owners, you may be tempted to open a new location if your current business is doing well. This can be a great option if you are confident in the level of control in your current location. However, it is crucial that your current location is running smoothly with the right staff before you begin opening in a new spot. If you don’t want to personally manage the new location, you may want to consider franchising. This allows you to grow your core business while maximizing your time spent improving your business in other ways.

License your product.
Licensing is an effective, minimum cost growth option, especially if your product or service is branded. Compared to starting your own company or business, licensing allows you to minimize your risks while still profiting from your brand or product. If you are interested in licensing, you should first find a licensing partner by researching types of companies that provide services similar to yours.

Diversify.
Diversifying allows you to acquire multiple income streams, which leads to increased sales and profit margins. Common ways to diversify include selling other products that complement your core product or service and importing or exporting your products. If you found success in your current market, you can also begin looking toward other markets that might use your product.

Contact One Call Center provides businesses with answering, live chat, and other customer services. Our technology links to yours, so you can conduct business at the speed of the current marketplace. For more information about answering services and after hours support systems, please call 1-800-278-3347.

Retaining Your Hardworking Team

Retaining Your Hardworking Team

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Keeping your best employees requires ongoing, two-way communication based on trust. Not only should you discuss assignments and deliverables with your employees, but you should also learn about their career goals and aspirations. Otherwise, you won’t be able to tailor opportunities at your company to their professional growth goals.

Focus on communication.
Communication is an equal combination of the words you say as well as how you say them. This means your tone of voice, eye contact, hand gestures, and body positioning play a crucial role in shaping your communication. Your employees will gather meaning from what you say by assessing your non-verbal cues. As a result, much of your communication message may be lost if you only meet virtually with the team. Even if it’s difficult to secure face time, it’s very important for establishing trust with your employees. You should try to schedule in person meetings with those who work in remote locations at least two to three times a year.

Use performance reviews to discuss growth opportunities.
Performance reviews aren’t just an opportunity to discuss your expectations for your employees. They are also a great time to discuss your individual employees’ career goals. This input can help you create new opportunities for them to succeed, in their current job positions as well as in new company roles.

Provide something tangible with positive feedback.
Rewarding employees for superior performance doesn’t always require bonuses, raises, or promotions. Your employees will also appreciate small gestures of appreciation such as dinner on the company or performance awards. You can also emphasize how much your employees mean to you by recognizing their start-date anniversaries. These tangible signs of appreciation are better ways to enhance employee loyalty and commitment than verbal feedback alone. Creating a work environment where people feel valued is an important step in retaining your hardworking employee base.

With Contact One Call Center, our technology links to yours, so you can keep up with the speed of the marketplace. Call 1-800-278-3347 to learn about our nationwide answering service and call center services. We also specialize in bilingual services.

Improving Your Customers’ Experiences

Improving Your Customers’ Experiences

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Your final product may be highly impressive and your staff may be incredibly skilled, but this becomes meaningless if your business lacks good customer service. It may seem obvious, but many managers overlook the importance of improving or maintaining high quality customer service. Meanwhile, your customer service team is the face of your company and your customers will define their experience with your product based on their interactions with your customer support systems.

Manage your customers’ needs.
The first step in any customer service plan is to ensure your team has the right skills for your customer base. For example, you need to secure services that provide empathy, patience, and consistency. Some people who call will be very irritable while others will have a multitude of questions. Your customer service center needs to be equipped to handle all types of personalities.

Ensure clear communication.
When it comes to customer communication, you need to make sure your customers completely understand your message. You don’t want your customers to be mistaken about the price or product they are receiving because of ambiguity in communication. However, your customer service representatives should use authentically positive language and maintain a positive attitude in every interaction. Most importantly, your representative should never leave a conversation without understanding your customer’s needs.

Prioritize good time management.
Even though customer service representatives should work through each problem, they also need to be able to manage time spent with each customer. Failing to allocate time appropriately will lead to customers waiting while only one customer’s needs are met. What your customers are ultimately searching for is knowledge of your product or service. Make sure your representatives are equipped to field the most common questions about your product. However, if questions become too technical, your representatives need to be honest about their extent of knowledge.

Call 1-800-278-3347 to learn about the answering services available through Contact One Call Center. Even though we are based in Tucson, we provide after hours support and customer service to businesses across the country. In addition, each one of our representatives is bilingual.