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How to run a conference call

With the new innovations more people are working from home, or working from the road.  All of this work is done through the internet and through the phone.  And a lot of times people don’t know how to run a phone conference.  Trust me; I’ve set in on a lot of those meetings.  So, I decided to write some steps that will help with organizing a phone conference in a more structured way.
Send out the agenda before the meeting
The key to an effective meeting is an agenda — this applies to any kind of meeting, not just a conference call. Make sure you send out the details of the call in number in advance, and make sure it stands out, so the participants will not miss it.  If you using Outlook send out meeting using the tools that are built in, it will help you track and be aware of who is attending your meeting, and it will do all the work for the participants for them by filling in their calendar slot with your meeting.

If the conference call is a regular status update, ensure you also send out the meeting notes from the previous call.  In that case the first item on the agenda should be checking in with people up for the actions they’ve agreed to be responsible for in the previous meeting.
Introductions and details
At the beginning of the call introduce any newcomers to the rest of the group and invite them to spend a couple of minutes describing themselves and their role on the call.

Next, ensure everyone has a copy of the agenda. I suggest recording the conversation, so later one you can hire a transcription services company to transcribe the entire conversation. This serves two benefits: firstly, everyone will be more careful and accountable for what they say, and secondly, a single set of meeting notes will be distributed after the transcription of the meeting is complete.
Finally, lay out the rules for interaction on the call. Because it’s audio-only, the usual cues we use to indicate that we wish to take a turn at speaking are not present.  Since you recording the call ask people to say they name before they speak so it is easier for the transcriptionist, and your notes are clearer. Clearly it’s unrealistic to expect people to stick to the interaction rules for the duration of the call, but laying them out at the outset will help ensure things run quickly and smoothly.

Keep it short

Studies have shown that people start to suffer a number of unpleasant side-effects after holding a telephone receiver to their ear for longer than about an hour. In any event, forty minutes is about the limit of most people’s concentration span.
If you find the call is starting to drag on beyond an hour, it’s a good idea to wrap things up and continue at another time. If you find this is a regular occurrence, it may be an indicator that you need to revisit the agenda, or possibly split the group up into separate, more focused groups. A particular time-waster is having engineers and businesspeople on the same conference call. A better way to handle this is to have three shorter meetings — one with just the engineers, one with the businesspeople, and one with single representatives from each group to present the results and take any feedback to the next department meeting. Remember practice makes perfect, so get on the phone and schedule some meetings.

HOW CAN OUTSOURCING LIVE CHAT SUPPORT SERVICE INCREASES SALES?

Today, e-business has become a popular trend to promote business online. To meet the competition of online market, it is obvious to promote your business using e-marketing tools. A number of business activities are commonly being outsourced to have the benefits of online world. A competitive field that is successfully being outsourced is customer care.

Customer care works to add a personal touch in your business activities and now, it has become a significant part of organizations. Online businesses also offer customer care to provide solutions online. Live chat support is a comprehensive part of customer care.

Surprisingly, the e-customer care support industry has become largely dependent on live chat facility. Here are some important points that emphasize on the perception that live chat outsourcing increases sales.

•    Live chat support outsourcing increases sales to 25 to 35 percent. That is because, live chat operators not only provide solutions to the problems , but also, suggest using newer services or goods that provokes interest in the customer
•    Live chat operator can deliver 70 percent of the information with the help of  previously answered queries and can simultaneously deal 4 recipients
•    Through live chat outsourcing, it is obvious that productivity is affected positively. By having operators all the time for clients, it is a best practice to build confidence and credibility which is directly related to sales
•    Live chat outsourcing can bring in huge sales by cutting the cost of the expenses previously usd for telephonic communication
•    Live chat outsourcing offers 24/7 access to your clients’ world wide that means having a global market with in your approach
•    Live chat outsource enables easy access to trained and efficient operators that means no more wasting money on training an e-team or live chat operators staff.

Businesses are not about making money, it’s about building credibility among your clients and potential customers, it merely depends on profit generation, it depends on how satisfied your customers are from your services?

Live chat outsourcing is a tool that can help your e-business to groom and flourish, by meeting the needs of e-marketing.

Learn How to Get Free Ads and Publicity

Advertising and publicity is a very important factor in getting information out about your product or services — those who supply products and services are very well aware of this. In order for your business to stand out, you need a strong advertising campaign and all the publicity you can manage to acquire. Even if cost-cutting is part of your business scheme, do not skimp on publicity and advertising as they are important to your venture succeeding. Discover some innovative methods to obtain complimentary publicity and advertising for your business below.

Step 1:

Issue a release to the press. Writing a press release about your business will get some PR for your new business or venture. Getting free advertising is a snap if you write and publish an article about your company in the local newspaper or an appropriate trade magazine. Including the words «For Immediate Release» at the top of your article will get you the publicity quickly. Give them details on your business: what you do, who you are, and why you’re great to work with. Then it is easy to fax or email your press release to your chosen media outlet. They will be thankful for the pro bono work you have done for them. If you write for free, you will profit from the intensified interest in your business.

Please include your contact information, including an address and website.

Step 2:

Decorate your vehicle with your company logo. Free publicity and advertising can then be gained by driving wherever you wish. People ask more than $400 / month to put advertisement on their personal vehicles, regardless of the size of the logo. You can generate a ton of publicity by covering your car with advertising for your business, and you are likely the best representative of the business when answering people’s queries.

Step 3:

Use articles to advertise. Business websites receive a great deal of traffic from individuals who were nonchalantly reading articles that pointed them to a company website. This advertising tool helps you get more traffic and, as a result, more profit. You should provide information about your company, your products, and your experiences to a wide variety of websites and databases online. Be sure to include other keywords in your article so that people can use these words when they are looking and you can get as much traffic as you possibly can. In technical terms, this is known as SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. As long as you are able to devote a couple of minutes to writing about your company, you can use your writing ability to publicize your company for free. It’s a no-lose situation. (Also, it is an established fact that people look at articles more than they look at ads, so you can see the reason this is a very effective method of publicizing your company.)

Step 4:

Reach out to local media. Media such as television and radio are accessed by quite a large population. Share your experience with any reporter you find, from rookies to media veterans. You will be more likely to approached by people who see or hear you through these media as they will regard you as the expert in your field. Make use of this complimentary advertising by making a solid attempt to get your name and face out to the media.

Promotion and advertising can be done without spending a lot of money. A lot more business owners are using these and other creative methods to promote their businesses.

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.