Cultivating Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty for Your Brand

Customers are the lifeblood of any healthy business. Whether you’re a freelance entrepreneur working independently or a larger company with a massive client base, keeping your clients and customers happy should be a top priority.

From offering next-level customer service to being strategic about how and when to engage with them, putting customers at the core of everything you do can make a positive impact in many important ways.

These articles from the Hiring Headquarters—Upwork’s resource for businesses, freelancers, and entrepreneurs—offer valuable insights into the minds of your customers and how to best serve them while getting the biggest benefit for your business.

Tailor Your Customer Service For Excellence

In today’s hyper-connected digital age, happy and satisfied customers are a powerful asset for your business. Leaving customers with a five-star experience can potentially turn them into brand ambassadors who can spread praise for your products and services.

Conversely, customers who have a bad experience with your brand won’t hesitate to share their woes with the world. As such, it pays to be proactive in building positive relationships with your clientele.

“6 Ways to Happier, More Loyal Customers (with Less Work)” offers useful tips to help shape your operations to create happy customers from the ground up. The piece explores what customers want—speedy and quality service are high on the list—and the value that comes from offering first-rate customer service.

If you’re eager to identify how you can best meet customers’ needs to help ensure they walk away from every interaction feeling satisfied, these four insights are a great starting point.

1) Make customer service a core pillar of your company’s brand identity. Making a commitment at the highest level of your business to put customers first and do what it takes to deliver a great product or service can sets a positive tone that trickles down through your organization. This also makes it easier to put standards and best practices in place to maximize all facets of your customer service efforts.

2) Give customers different ways to interact with you. From phone and email to social media and instant messaging, not all customers prefer the same method of contact. Consider offering numerous channels for them to use; this will encourage more customers to reach out when the need arises.

3) Boost your efficiency with CRM software and other tools. Quality customer service takes time, attention, and manpower to tackle effectively. Customer relationship management (CRM) software and other helpful tools can allow you to streamline the process and handle greater customer service capacity with fewer resources.

4) Go above and beyond whenever possible. Any opportunity to exceed your customers’ expectations can be a big win for your reputation. Aim to create a “wow factor” by over delivering in high-value areas your customers will appreciate.

Optimize How Customers Engage With Your Brand

Courting customers is an evolving process that changes as people transition from leads to new customers and beyond. Looking past traditional methods of attracting and retaining customers, many companies are turning to data-driven approaches to identify common trends and determine the most opportune time to connect with their target audience.

For many, customer lifecycle management (CLM) is the key to crafting an effective strategy.

“Understanding the Customer Lifecycle” explains the value of CLM as well as the different stages of the customer lifecycle—from potential customers all the way to lost business. The article looks at why CLM matters and positive the impact it can have on your customer base and reputation.

Here are a few of the ways CLM can benefit your business.

1) You can use real-world data to identify your most valuable customer profiles. Knowing your audience, and having information to drive key decisions about how you engage them, can be a powerful way to shape and improve your business marketing strategies.

2) It helps you connect with potential customers at the most opportune time in the cycle. Not only does CLM give you actionable insight into the ideal time to engage with customers, it can help you choose the best way to approach them with unique offers and targeted strategies.

3) It lets you get more value and loyalty from each customer. This long-term approach is designed to maximize customer value and retention over short-term tactics.

Looking for more resources to boost your customer base and satisfaction levels? The Hiring Headquarters is packed with articles to help you out.

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How The Hathersage Group Built a Global Development Team

Hang gliding and paragliding are exciting but dangerous sports that require a lot of detailed records to support insurance and licensing requirements. When the U.S. Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association (USHPA) contacted my company, The Hathersage Group, to build their management system, we jumped at the chance to help.

The USHPA is the main licensing body (called “ratings) for hang glider and paraglider pilots in the U.S., and their system is quite complex, tracking various details like ability and experience levels, as well as different types of skills and equipment. To manage this data, they needed a set of web applications that would be easy to use, reliable, and affordable to build—and we needed talented pros to make it happen.

Several years ago, I hired two engineers through Upwork — one in Siberia and the other in Cambodia — to help with a different database marketing project. The experience was amazing. The geography was odd; while Irkutsk and Phnom Penh are close together in time zones, the weather difference was stark. But each night the three of us would talk on the phone about the day’s work, and the next morning I would get up to see what progress they made. The project was resoundingly successful.

The Hathersage Group is a small development shop, so we work with a lot of subcontractors on an as-needed basis; many are people I know through my own network, but at other times I’ll turn to Upwork.

The USHPA project called for a range of different systems : a CMS for a new website, accident reporting for researchers, and a management system for the memberships and ratings that form the backbone of their organization. By considering scores from skill tests on Upwork, client feedback, and other indicators displayed on freelancer profiles, we narrowed our list of contenders to three developers. When we noticed that two of the three were in the same city in Pakistan, we decided to give them a try.

Tap Into the Benefits of a Professional Network

A few months later, those two engineers had introduced us to a number of their colleagues — all of whom were on Upwork — and we had a small community of developers working on our project. They live in Lahore, a city in Pakistan just across the border from India. While they work independently in small offices, they all know each other and are able to help us get the right projects to the right people.

They are highly skilled and experienced developers who bring a level of expertise to the table that is useful. We don’t always know the best way to solve a problem, but with their strong technical skills we often rely on the team in Lahore for their expertise and advice.

In fact, it felt a little as if we had an office of our own in Lahore, even though none of us ever went there. And we got to know the developers personally. One of them took a few weeks off to go on the Hajj (pilgrimage) in Saudi Arabia. He also had a baby girl. And while I’ll probably never meet him or his wife, I’m excited for them. When I worked with a programmer in Cambodia, I’d hear his kids running around in the background. He was one of the best programmers I’ve ever worked with, and I had this opportunity to catch a glimpse into his life and into a different culture. A side benefit to working through Upwork is getting to know people and cultures in other parts of the world by collaborating with them remotely.

That really became clear to me at Easter, when I awoke to learn of the bombing in the park in Lahore. I immediately emailed the team, asking whether they were OK. It took almost 24 hours to get responses back from them, but fortunately they were all fine.

Keep Your Focus On Your Core Business

Some of the developers from Lahore have helped us with other projects now. Upwork takes care of all the administration — including, most importantly, the invoicing and payment process. Instead of calling the bank about international wire transfers to Pakistan, we can focus on the technology and making each project a success for our customers.

But even more importantly, there are really talented people who are just looking for the right opportunity to help on interesting projects. Upwork allows ordinary businesses to tap into the latent capability and energy all over the world, whether in a basement in Siberia, a family house in Cambodia, or a small office in Pakistan.

This story was submitted by The Hathersage Group and does not constitute the views or opinions of Upwork.

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APIs and the Future of Your Business [Free eBook]

Meet the Winners of the $10K Home Office Makeover from Upwork and Intuit!

This summer, Upwork and Intuit Quickbooks Self-Employed partnered up to give you a chance to win a $10K home office makeover and help you get more done in style. Over the course of three weeks, we were awed by how many of you posted your favorite work-from-home tips and opted to try Quickbooks Self-Employed for a chance to win the posh setup.

We are pleased to congratulate the three lucky winners and share a bit about them with you. Here is a look at who they are, what projects they’re working on, and their favorite work-from-home suggestions.

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Week 1 Winner: Carissa Andrews — $500 Cash

Carissa, a mom of six, left a full-time job to freelance full-time from her home in the small town of Crosslake, MN.

Type of work: Graphic design, marketing, social media, and writing

Recent project: Social media, blog, and newsletter writer for a family photographer in Washington, DC.

On why she loves freelancing: “The job I was doing full time just wasn’t fitting with what I really wanted to be doing. I think there are a lot of people who are transitioning from the traditional 9-to-5 for a myriad of reasons. Being able to spend time with my kids while doing work I love is just one of mine.”

Work from home tip: “Don’t get wrapped up in just the money or the time slot you think you’re meant to work. Prioritize time for yourself. Get a workout in. Read a book. Play with your kids. It’s okay to take some time in a day for you, too. Trust me, when you work from home the lines blur quickly and it’s easy to forget to live your life, too. Find balance and embrace it.”

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Week 2 Winner: Lauren McCafferty — $500 Cash

Lauren, a freelance writer from Toledo, OH, left her full-time job due to health reasons. Now, Lauren is able to do work she loves comfortably from home.

Type of work: Editor and copywriter

Recent project: Editor for technical book.

On why she loves freelancing: “My favorite thing about freelancing, of course, is the flexibility! It’s a great option for someone like me with poor health, but I’m sure it is also great for parents, caregivers, people with disabilities, and all sorts of people who just don’t work well in a 9-to-5 setting.”

Work from home tip: “Don’t work from your bed!! Beds are for sleeping. Not sure why it’s taken me 24 years to figure that out.”

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Grand Prize Winner: Lydia Wieberg – $10K Home Office Makeover

A high school mathematics teacher from Burlingame, KS, Lydia started freelancing in her spare time to gain experience and earn extra income.

Type of work: Math education expert, accounting guru and customer service specialist

Recent project: Proofread and edit math bowl questions for academic competition.

On why she loves freelancing: “My favorite part about freelancing is that I can work from anywhere with an Internet connection. I am not limited at all!”

Work from home tip: “Make sure to prioritize your day and don’t forget to take care of yourself! Use a calendar or something to make sure you are getting everything done by the deadline, but don’t forget to block out time for you and your family. Remember the most important things in your life, and always find a way to be happy. If you are not happy, make a change.”

Thank you to everyone who entered the sweepstakes. We enjoyed hearing your tips about how to be successful working from home and hope your free trial of Intuit Quickbooks Self-Employed has improved your ability to keep your finances organized so you can maintain focus on building your freelance business.

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Upwork Newswire: 4 Tips for Leveraging Teams of Freelancers

This biweekly column features the latest freelancing trends and Upwork’s role within them.

4 Tips for Leading Teams of Freelancers (Fast Company)

By 2020, it’s estimated 40 percent of the U.S. workforce will be freelancers or other contingent workers. Already, this rising freelance economy is creating challenges as business leaders learn how to manage costs and obtain the best output from a changing pool of talent.

“The gig economy demands different and more precise calculations on the cost of alternatives to get given jobs done within an organization. And it’s up to managers to track all that continuously, lest companies create waste in the pursuit of efficiency.”

One suggestion involves prioritizing your own tasks to prevent spending your days caught up in coordinating others’ projects. If it’s difficult to keep up with your growing freelance network, consider hiring freelance help: If you’re a startup in the growth phase, hiring a contract operations expert frees you to focus on core areas of the business.

Click here to see all four tips >

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Where Do I Go To Find A Good Realtor?

 

 

 

How would you know if you found a good realtor?

What are the qualities of a good realtor?

Why do we need a realtor?

 

A right realtor can help you purchase your fantasy house or sell your current home rapidly. The wrong agent can mess up the exchange, abandoning you with egg all over and no place to call home.

Regardless of the high stakes, numerous purchasers and dealers give little thought to picking an realtor, whether they’re purchasing or offering.

When you’re looking for a realtor, you clearly need the best. In any case, with realtors introducing themselves through yard signs, online advertisements, standard mail postcards etc., how would you slice through the offers?

So it is really critical to whom you will entrust your lovely homes.

If you want more information on how to prepare, feel free to email or call me.

 

 

 

 

The post Where Do I Go To Find A Good Realtor? appeared first on Gary Wong Realty Vancouver, BC.

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Building a Log Home on a Slope: Pros and Cons

Here in British Columbia and around the world, most of the land is far from flat, and you don’t have to travel at length to see countless homes seemingly floating on mountainsides. Even so, you may be feeling wary when considering whether to build your home on a slope or not. To help you with your decision, we’ve laid out the pros and cons of building on a slope, what to look for, what to avoid and the alternatives available to you.

Build in Log Home on a Slope Pros

• Stunning Views – Whether building in a forested area or on more open land, a log home built on a slope can provide a sense of being immersed in the forest or provide breathtaking views of mountains or lakes.

• Maximized Natural Light – Building on a slope allows you to economically increase your home’s square footage with a walkout level, thus allowing for more daylight throughout, as opposed to the typical darkness of a basement. Additionally, log homes built on a slope can be done so in such a way that they are better able to capture sunlight in general.

• Less Excavation – Typically, a log home built on a slope will require less excavation as it is built into the land; especially on slopes with a gentle grade of less than 10%. Working with a professional designer can help ensure that your home utilizes the natural landscape while at the same time maximizing the view and key design details of your home.

• Co-Existence – Building into a slope offers numerous opportunities to co-exist with the environment. Building close enough into a hill can provide easy roof access to build a roof-top garden, effectively replacing the footprint taken up by the house. Terraced strips of vegetation can be placed throughout the site to pay homage to the original lay of the land.

 

Build in Log Home on a Slope Cons

• Added Costs – Creating the foundation for a log home on a slope can become much more costly than one built on flat land. Retaining walls may be needed to keep soil in place, transportation of materials may be more complicated if trucks cannot access your home’s site and driveway construction can be more complex, especially if local building codes require your driveway to have emergency vehicle access.

• Added Time – Any additional excavation (i.e. to deal with water flow issues and general foundation development) will add time to your home’s construction as opposed to that of one built on flat land.

• Excavation Complexities – Although building on a slope requires less excavation for the most part, if the site is on a particularly steep slope, additional grading around the side may be required to gain access while also requiring the use of more specialized equipment for operating in rougher terrain. It may be worth seeking out a local builder to gain expertise on excavation, soil matters and rocky ledges in the area.

• Equipment – Overall, building on a slope will likely require much more complex equipment and machinery, such as backhoes, loaders and rammers that are key to excavation.

No matter the grade of the slope, the design of your home can play an exceptional role in emphasizing the beauty of its natural surroundings. Contact us today to learn more about building you a home that co-exists with the natural environment to help you feel more connected to the earth too.

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