2 Secrets To Making Your Customers Happy

Stephen Covey said it to great applause. That you're most effective when you properly prioritize refinance my mortgage time. And the birth control patch I remember it, his proposition seemed intellectual and complex...that big box divided into four sections with all those pages of explanation for each! But the gist was, Secret #1--do important and urgent things first.

He's right, of course. And all good things flow therefrom--including excellence in customer service. You'll find several intriguing formulas in this new book for maximizing high personal effectiveness (note: not high efficiency, which just means doing more stuff). It's called The 4-hour Work Week. Author Timothy Ferriss suggests if you truly want to become more effective, ONLY do the quadrant I stuff. And that means learning to delegate...and outsource.

Among other things, Ferriss says you must write your employees an email saying, Keep the customers happy. If it is a problem that takes less than $100 [you pick the amount based on what your time is worth] to fix, use your judgment and fix it yourself. Do you recall the times when a service person said something like, "Oh, I'm sorry, sir/madam, let me fix that for you right now"? Of course you do. Those are the golden customer service moments of our lives. You tell all our friends. You might even blog about it...

Assuming of course youve hired the right peoplesupervisors and employees with brains who care about the company and the customersthis alone should gain you a significant amount of time...time that you would have spent answering questions and giving permission. I love this quote, Its amazing how someones IQ seems to double when you credit card apply them responsibility and indicate that you trust them. If it doesn't work that way with everybody, hire people it does work with.

Great advice: Set yourself up as information-free as possiblea huge challenge in todays multimedia-ed assaultive world. Do you read newspapers and/or watch television news? My long-time personal favoritestop. Youll gain that time every day. And youll discover that if theres anything you should know, youll find it out anyway. Set up specific times when youll read your email and check your voice maillet people know what those times are, and then stick to them.

He also suggests outsourcing parts of your life and mentions a TARGET="_BLANK" www.smartmoney.com/esquire/index.cfm?Story=20050909-outsourceSmart Money article that talks about using an overseas resource for outsourced virtual assistance Brickwork, based in Bangalore, India. I havent tried it yet, but this book gives a great case study.

The point is that your customers get better service when youre not the bottleneck. And you can apply this principle to your blog Cialis an expertif you follow certain mandates:

1. Make sure the person knows how to listen carefully to youas much as possible it should be your voice out there.

2. Do a bit of painless student loan consolidation interest rates research. Ask your customers, vendors, colleagues, what they would like to hear/read in your blog.

3. Develop an A-list of sources for your writersources you personally read and those your colleagues, vendors and customers read.

4. If yours is a complex industry or there are areas that require extreme care and/or privacy, work out a general list of topics and cautions so that the writer can research and create without consulting you every time.

5. Email your own thoughts for the blog as they occur to you. Youll never remember to tell your writer unless you pass it on as soon as you think of it.

Theres no more powerful online public relations tool than a blog that reflects your voice and gives readers valuable information. Since the presence of a business blog has also now become an accepted part of a solid search engine marketing strategy, theres no reason not to get started. Questions? Want to start one now? Email me href="mailto:barbara@reallygoodfreelancewriter.com" target="_blankhere.

Barbara Payne, managing principal of a ReallyGoodFreelanceWriter.com, LLC, helps professionals and executives find their true voice and use it effectively to build market share, increase sales and strengthen customer relations. Shes a member of NAWBO, NEOSA and the Direct Marketing Association. Contact her at href="mailto:barbara@reallygoodfreelancewriter.combarbara@reallygoodfreelancewriter.com or by calling 312.416.7965. Learn more at www.ReallyGoodFreelanceWriter.comhttp://www.ReallyGoodFreelanceWriter.com