Записи с меткой «survey»

How To Effectively Communicate With Your Boss

Check out the video version of this guide on Howcast.com:

How To Effectively Communicate With Your Boss

For more tips on business and finance on Howcast.com:

Business & Finance

You Will Need

• Timing
• A good attitude
• Listening skills

Step 1: Talk early

Schedule chats with your boss between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Research shows that’s when employers are most open to requests and suggestions—plus they’re just plain friendlier in the morning.

Step 2: Choose your seat

Seeing the boss? If it’s a woman, sit directly across from her. If it’s a man, subtly park your chair at a right angle. Studies show women feel more comfortable face to face, while men are more relaxed at a 90-degree angle.

Step 3: Don’t make excuses

Never make excuses—even if you’re in the right. Evading responsibility is employers’ number one pet peeve, according to surveys. If you’re criticized, just say, “It won’t happen again,” and let it go.

Step 4: Don’t mumble

Don’t mumble. It makes you seem indecisive and will just plain annoy the boss if she has to strain to understand you.

If you’re in the habit of saying “um”—break it! It makes you appear both insecure and stupid—not traits your boss wants to see in an employee.

Step 5: Be positive

Be positive—even when you have a beef with the boss. If you approach your employer with a “here’s how we can improve this” attitude, rather than from a whiney, “this isn’t working” standpoint, you’ll win major points.

Step 6: Listen

Talking less and listening more is the best thing you can do to impress the boss. And, hey, you just might learn something.

Did you know?

Only 36% of workers say their boss is honest and has integrity, and only 29% believe management cares about them.

How to Turn One-off Customers Into Long-term Clients

Business relationships are not that different from personal relationships because in both situations, people prefer to deal with someone they like.

However, you can’t move from being a stranger straight to being a best friend or customer.

So it’s important to put at least as much effort into your plans for keeping in touch with existing customers as you do for attracting new ones.

One of the main advantages of developing long-term relationships is that it’s typically six times more costly to sell to someone new than to an existing customer.

But, of course, it’s one thing to know the value of building long-term relationships and another to follow the steps required in order to do so.

Here are seven steps to turning one-off customers into valuable client relationships.

1. Concentrate on getting the second sale

Ultimately, people are only customers if they buy from you regularly. And many people will buy from you once and never again. So, to turn someone into a genuine client, the most important thing is getting the second sale from a new customer — and getting it as soon as possible. Following the second sale, you are more likely to keep them as a long-term customer.

2. Always act in their best interests

According to Kevin Hogan’s book ‘Psychology of Persuasion’, people are more likely to do what you ask if they believe you have their best interests in mind. This is the ‘Law of Friends’. So, to build a business relationship, you need to show clients that you are looking after their interests. You can normally only do that over a few weeks or years, in the same way as in a personal relationship. One step is to stop worrying about getting clients to like you and focus on looking after them. As ‘Built to Last’ author Jim Collins says: «Don’t be interesting. Be interested.» That helps you think of them as individuals.

3. Keep in touch regularly

You can build trust through a regular newsletter which gives valuable information — rather than simply promoting your services. You can also build regular contact through articles, podcasts and teleseminars.

4. Make your contact personal

To make your contact with customers personal, you need to learn about them. You can start by just listening to them — for example by posting a survey on your website or sending out a customer questionnaire. The more you know about their likes and dislikes, the more personal you can make your services — for example sending them clippings you know will interest them or recognizing their personal achievements and family events.

5. Recognize that satisfaction is not enough

People will not stay with you and build a long-term relationship because they are satisfied. They expect that. You need to deliver exceptional service — some describe it as ‘customer bliss’. You need to go beyond what they expect — give them even more; care about them more than they are used to being cared about.

6. Ask your customers to help you

Once you have built a good relationship, you’ll often get help from your customers. For example, they’ll give you feedback on what needs improved or they’ll provide referrals and testimonials to use promoting your services. And, not only that, the laws of psychology mean they are more likely to buy from you again after they have helped you in some way.

7. Focus on your most profitable customers

Typically you will find that 80% of your profits come from 20% of your customers. So you need to understand which 20% are most profitable by looking at the Lifetime Customer Value, which is the total amount somebody would spend with you over their time with you as a customer.

Building long-term relationships is no easier in business than in your personal life. But it can be extremely rewarding.

Is Commercial Real Estate a Wise Investment?

Are you looking for a good return on your money?  A better return than you can ever get from a bank or money market investment?  Why not invest in commercial real estate.  Although the residential real estate market has pretty much bottomed out throughout most of the United States, the commercial real estate market is thriving.  If you have always wanted to invest in the real estate market but are hesitant about the current residential market, invest in commercial real estate.

When you invest in commercial real estate, you need to understand that there is a vast difference between commercial real estate and residential.  Not only is the market different, but so are the laws.  Due diligence in commercial real estate is different than that in the residential market.  You still want to make sure you get an inspection of the property prior to the settlement as well as a survey of the property.  You also have to make sure that you get any easements included in the sale if they are needed.

Most people think of easements as those that burden the property, such as those for utilities and sewer.  With commercial property, there are often easements that benefit the property.  In some cases, in order to get to a property people have to drive their vehicles over other property owned by other people.  In such a case, the person who purchases the commercial real estate will want to make sure that they get the easements needed for parking or entering and exiting.  These can be included in the deed or in an easement agreement.  

The only way to see if you need easements is to get a survey of your property depicting not just the property but any easements that pertain to the property.  The title insurance commitment should also reflect a legal description of the easements.  The title company needs to search not only the commercial real estate property that you are purchasing but also any other property in which you are receiving an easement.  The reason for having this property searched includes the following points:

1.You need to know that the person who signs the easement agreement or deed is legally entitled to convey interest in the property;
2.You need to know that there are no burden on the easement property that would prevent you from using it;
3.You need to know that the taxes on the easement property are current.  It would be unfortunate to purchase commercial real estate property that is dependent on easements and discover that the property is in a tax sale.  A person who purchases the property could insist that you pay money to use their property; they may even erect a fence to prevent you from using the land.

When you invest in commercial real estate, make sure that you have an attorney who is well versed when it comes to commercial real estate, not just residential real estate.  Commercial real estate is an entirely different than residential real estate and your attorney should be knowledgeable in this aspect of the real estate industry.

Information On Paid Surveys

Online surveys have been proven to be the best method for companies to gather research as its quick, simply and cost effective. They offer people the chance to fill out a survey and get cash on completion — told you its simple! These forms can range anything from five minutes to thirty minutes and the price you receive depends on that factor. In today’s world its said more then 50% of consumer research is carried out via online surveys as there proven to be the most effective and efficient rather then carrying out on site surveys which takes more staff, time to prepare, more effort, etc.
Companies have been using surveys to do their research and find out consumer needs based on a product or to find out peoples buying habits since the very beginning as the only way to find out what people think is to ask them! By inventing paid surveys or giving incentives to complete them will benefit everyone as people like us get paid for lending a few minutes of our time and the company gets its cheap easy research so they can improve the product to make it more desirable — therefore boosting sales and revenue.
There is definitely money to be made by taking on paid surveys; you can do this full or part time to suit yourself. The main beneficial concept would be that you work as much as you want because you are your own boss and you have the capability to earn as much or as little as you want to.
Paid surveys aren’t for everyone however, some people find them boring and mundane but in a way they can be exciting and interesting for some people as your involved in new products and get to put your opinion to use and make a difference. On some you will actually get a product to test physically before it’s even introduced to the public and then simply give initial comments on it so that can be quite cool.
When taking these surveys you’re not discriminated in any way as everyone’s opinion counts. It doesn’t matter on your experience or education; you’re a consumer so you’re eligible to take part. The hardest thing to do with this method of money making is to find the legit companies out their, they can be found by looking at user reviews and usually if someone gets scammed they will report and comment so you know to stay away from them. There is also a comprehensive database full of legitimate paid survey companies available so if you have the motivation to find it, it shows that you will be successful in this money making chance of a lifetime. Failing that you can just ask around as someone you know may have the database or maybe you already know people in the paid survey industry.
You can read up on articles about the scamming companies and what to look out for, having a quick five minute read can save you loads of time and money so its well worth doing before you start — you’ll thank us later.

It Workers Hit Hardest by Offshore Outsourcing, Survey Finds

Based on the data collected from a sample of 10,000 people, the article finds that 8% of IT workers have been displaced by offshore outsourcing which is twice the rate of workers in other occupations.
The researchers at Stern and Wharton Business Schools found that because IT jobs are purely technical jobs involving little or no customer interaction they are the most at risk from outsourcing. The base rate of offshoring across all industries is just over 15%, but some 40% of all tech and telecommunications companies are doing some type of offshore work, according to the research by Dr. Prasanna Tambe, an assistant professor at Stern Business School.
By occupation, more than 30% of the survey respondents said they were offshoring software programming and development jobs, but only about half, or 15.5%, reported offshoring systems analysts, who typically interact more with others in a business. Of those displaced by offshore outsourcing, 70% lost their jobs, with older workers more likely to be displaced. The researchers did not predict what future displacement rates might be, but claim that as offshoring grows, tech workers without jobs that don’t require interpersonal skills are being replaced more rapidly.
IT workers worried about displacement must develop interpersonal skills and find IT careers that involve face to face interactions. Since IT workers have been more severely affected than other types of workers, Tambe argues that policy-makers could focus on tech workers to provide help, including job training and government compensation to offset wage losses. Educational institutions will have to react as well, with «increased emphasis on the development of interpersonal and management skills within the IT curriculum.»

Sources for this article can be referenced by contacting the author or by accessing the links found in the bio section of this article.