Guest post by Susan Daniels

Due to the slow economy, businesses and professionals alike are looking for ways to save money on day-to-day operations. One of the highest expenses of any professional is that of the office. With a traditional office, businesses and professionals have to worry about rent, utilities, office supplies, and generally a staff. To reduce these costs, many are turning to the virtual office.

However, if you find yourself not wanting to relinquish your traditional office just yet, ask yourself the following questions. Your answers may just sway your opinion:

Do You Need All the Staff?

Having a traditional office generally requires you to have a small staff – even if it is just a cleaning lady or maintenance guy. However, with a virtual office you don’t necessarily need some of the staffers that you have. Keep your personal assistant, but do you really need a receptionist if you don’t have a front desk? Better yet, with a virtual office, you can hire a receptionist to be on-call so that you don’t have to pay anyone’s salary. You simply pay a minimal hourly fee. Continue reading

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Companies screw up. Intentionally or not, they at one point do something wrong. That’s easy to understand, as they are opperated by human beings who are extremely prone to error. After they screw up, they do damage control: try to fix the issue and engage in crisis communications. This damage control PR campaign might go either way: it may help present the company in question as human, but trying to fix everything quickly and make amends for their mistake; or it may end up portraying a greedy, careless entity that makes matters worse by improperly handling the crisis they have created.

Once the issue is solved, the press stops buzzing about the error and its consequences, there is no guarantee the company won’t screw up again. The downside is that this strike two will bring to mind the initial booboo they are known for. Doing damage control for this second PR crisis is ten times harder, especially if it’s close enough to the first incident.  Continue reading

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Enhancements drive more business. Doing something better, smarter, faster makes current customers happy and attracts new ones. An improvement to your website, a new system in your store, a new customer care infrastructure, easier online buying programs, it all is implemented to help grow your business.

While the intention is commendable, many companies fail to cash in on their improvements because they fail to communicate what’s going on properly. What some business owners don’t understand is that in most cases, people don’t like changes. They require time to learn, adapt and create new habits. In some cases, failing to show them the benefits, but most of all, to explain how things work, turns your efforts into a big hassle that only generates frustration, anger or the sudden desire to go to the competition.

Before you make the change, make sure you announce it. Then setup tutorials, videos,  FAQs or dedicated personnel to help your customers through the change. Pau extra attention to explaining clearly what the benefits are: how does the new system you’ve implemented help them? How does it solve their problems faster, how does it make their lives easier? Make the change about them, not you or your future profts.

No matter how much you prepare for it, no matter if you believe your communication plan for the changes you are about to implement, there will be issues you haven’t considered. Therefore you need to have someone appointed to addressing them.

Renenber! No matter how good, change is still a nuissance for your customers. Communicate your intentions and the newprocess to them and welcome their questions, xoncerns and suggestions. That’s the only way to make sure your efforts pay off and you don’t invest time and money in annoying your customers.

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A few days ago, I was walking with my mom on the streets of my home town, Ploiesti. Out of nowhere, it poped in front of my eyes: QUICK! The name of a very particular shop that used to make all my money disappear since I was in 8th grade. They soled notebooks, pens, pencils, anything someone with a passion for writing would definitely be into. They retailed foreign brands that I was addicted to: Schneider, Parker, Staedtler, Rotring with their very suscessful Tikky pencils. I used to save everything I got from my parents and grandparents, along with the money I got from school for being such a good student, and spend it all to enlarge my pen, pencil, marker and notebook collection.

When I rediscovered it, I couldn’t help smiling and being extremely happy it was still in the market. They had changed locations a few times and I thought they had closed down years before. I did not love Quick just beacause of what they sold. I loved the shop’s smell, how the items were displayed, the fact that most of the staff was nice and probably the fact that I had to work hard for every little treasure I got from there.  Continue reading

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Guest post by Susan Daniels

Being in public relations today is by no means an easy task. With the internet becoming an increasingly popular avenue for spreading the word about a business, event, or product, PR specialists have to be more on the ball than ever before. In fact, the position now practically requires a PR specialist to also be a novice web developer.

Unfortunately, very few PR specialists received training which included social media and web development, and now may need to seek additional training through an online college class or two. The way in which the public interacts with businesses and organizations has changed dramatically. The common public has greater connectivity than ever before, and no longer does it look to the newspapers or TV news anchors for the latest information. Instead, individuals get online and find the information they want and need themselves without having to wait until the next day or the 5 o’clock new for the latest events. Continue reading

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