When it comes to PPC advertising, there's never a shortage of optimizations you can make to your PPC account... Geographic targeting Bid adjustments Ad schedules Ad copy But, one of the more important PPC optimizations you should make is: adding and managing your negative PPC keywords. This is especially true during the early stages of creating your PPC account and launching PPC ads. That's because—if you're just getting [...]
Building a business is difficult. It requires a lot of hard work, time, money, and energy. Building a great business requires even more effort and several special ingredients. Among these ingredients are things like a healthy profit margin, durable competitive advantages, operational efficiencies, and scalability. That covers the "what" you need to build a great business. But, how do you build a great business? As any businessperson will [...]
We'll give you a hint. The best way to keep track of your passwords is not: A Word document titled "passwords.doc" An Excel spreadsheet named "p4sswords.xls" A series of Sticky notes pasted all over your office Only using one password, so you have less to remember No, no, no, and no! Please don't use any of these methods to keep track of your passwords. The best way to keep track [...]
Our first customer spotlight also happens to be my favorite hair salon in Austin, Texas — Method Hair. I have been a long-time customer of Method Hair and over the years I've come to appreciate their unique personalities, attention to detail, and above all — their superior customer service. Customers who participate in our Customer Spotlight program are asked a series of questions and we share the answers to three of those [...]
Over the weekend, I called my mobile phone service provider to remove two unused lines from my account. The process took over an hour, which is ridiculous. As a customer, I should be able to "manage my account" with very few roadblocks. In other words, make it easy for customers to get what they want — even if that means breaking up with your business. Companies focused on the customer [...]
I started working in the BPO (for those of you that don't know, BPO = business process outsourcing) industry when I was 23 years old. Almost always working the "graveyard shift" for customer service outsourcing. Looking back, I can honestly say it was the best "time" of my life. Allow me to explain... I met a lot of people. I did what I do best (provide kick-ass customer service). [...]
Our social media policy at COMNIO is simple. We share what we like and talk very little about ourselves. Like you, we didn't join Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc. so every business and brand in the world could advertise to us. We're here to increase customer engagement rates on social media. In order to increase customer engagement on social media, you should share more of what your audience likes (and less of what [...]
Free trials are a great option for many businesses and can be great way to get new customers, but only if done correctly. Free trials attract new customers, increase brand loyalty from existing customers, and are a great source of good reviews and testimonials (when you're trying to get your name out there). A free trial helps many businesses generate user/customer feedback on new products and then make any necessary improvements before a big product launch. A [...]
Like everyone else, I’ve been dreading Mondays! It’s 7:30 p.m. and my shift starts in 30 minutes. I swiped my ID as I entered the building, white walls and bright lights welcomed me as if smiling and telling me that they missed me. I went straight to the coffee machine to get myself two cups. The first two cups out of my eight cups every evening (don’t judge me, I have to endure nine [...]
An important part of owning a business is effectively managing your online reputation. What is online reputation management? Online reputation management involves the following: Finding all online profiles associated with your business Updating and maintaining a consistent identity across all profiles Monitoring and moderating everything people say about your business online To re-phrase: online reputation management is actively monitoring, managing, and moderating what people say about your business (or brand) on [...]