First of all, Happy New Year to you all Hope 2012 is just as you have imagined it to be and then some! Now it’s back to business..

A while back I told a good friend of mine selling career and business related products and services that December will be an awesome month for him. He’d sell more, a lot more than in the previous months. He did not believe me, not entirely. He then told me December had been an amazingly pleasant surprise.

The truth is I drew a very obvious conclusion. Whenever a year ends and a new one starts, we start reviewing our lives and somehow see the negatives, then decide to do something about it. We start working on our resumes in December, we start planning, in our head or on paper, we buy products and services to help us achieve our goals, from business to weight loss and so on.

I suspect the seasonal extended family reunions play a decisive part, that’s why most of our planning effort happens between Christmas and New Year’s Eve! We go to face our loved ones who somehow are our biggest critics as well, tell them about our lives and have them point out where we went wrong. Or they don’t, but they start talking about their accomplishments and all we have to do is compare notes and figure where we need to improve. 

I believe there is nothing wrong with using whatever it takes to motivate ourselves. The problem is we plan and buy in December, start pushing hard in January, and by February we’ve already allowed ourselves to tone it down and take it easy, we’ve already found ways to accept the reality of our life instead of trying to change it. Things might pick up some speed around our birthday, whenever that is, but then we wait for Christmas again to find motivation to go on with our plans.

What’s wrong with new year resolutions is that we should not use holidays and the generally accepted calendar to boost our efforts and decide what our lives should be like. It applies to our personal lives, our careers and our businesses. We should always work on improving everything about us, on getting where we want to be.

As Yvonne DiVita of Lip-sticking puts it,

Here’s the skinny – your business needs to thrive all year long. Your business needs to be on the leading edge all year long. Your business should be launching new ideas and new projects throughout the year. You can time them to specific holidays, if you like, or specific calendar events. But, don’t plan them according to an ‘end’ or a ‘beginning.’

Today is a beginning. It presents overwhelming opportunity to wow your clients/customers. Tomorrow will be the same. Monday will land on your desk and do the same. The only similarity in them is… that they are all open to creative ideas that will make your customers stand up and cheer.

If you need an end and a fresh start to motivate you, try to do that every morning, or every week, or even every month. Don’t let the December-powered January fever fade away! And try to decide for yourselves what your lives should be or where your business should be a an hour, a day, a month, a year from now! Just keep at it and start fresh every day.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting more. We should appreciate what we have, but wanting more and better is not such a character flaw. We actually all do it: we want to travel more, run faster or further, get more clients, sell more products, touch more people with our words and so on.

What will you do today to achieve your goals?

When introducing potential customers to a product or service, PR professionals know they need to focus on benefits. Features are there to create some sort of gain for those who purchase whatever a company or individual is selling. Ideally, when a new product or service is launched, those behind it think in terms of benefits, be it real ones or just apparent ones – making people feel cool when they need to is just as much of a benefit as helping them grow their business.

We do consider benefits, and those clearly stated, to be a way to help sell more, increase brand awareness and get all the recognition a company deserves. Simply put, benefits return benefits – monetary gain, image boosts, new opportunities. Therefore, to become successful, you need to help your customers become successful. 

A happy customer  makes for a good review and a few recommendations. A successful customer, recognized as such by the industry or the entire world, that makes for a successful company, plenty of reviews and plenty more buying customers.

A big success that is directly linked to your product or service is quite the stroke of luck, the gold mine every company and their PR team dreams of. But it’s not really something you can focus on, is it? You cannot just review your customers and think about who has the biggest chances of becoming successful. So what can you do?

First of all, make sure you think in terms of success when you launch something – product or service. A useful product that helps reduce costs and saves time means more of a client’s resources invested in making themselves a hit. More so if your product is instrumental to their success.

It happens – a piece of software helps create another one that becomes world renown. This 14 year old that took a startup to stardom is not a unique case.

The second thing you need to consider is that you must be able to identify success related to your products. You have to keep an eye on your customers and their achievements and determine which were given a helping hand by your product and services. Taking their spotlight is not your best move, but pointing out you got them there is a great tactic. The caveat is that you must be tactful about it and not try to make it all about you. In the end, it is really about that customer that was smart enough to turn your product or service into something awesome!

Success stories are convincing. The fame associated with someone quickly becoming known to the world can be easily turned into future benefits, simply because we all like to think we could be a great success, if only we had the right tools and the right state of mind. Potential buyers need to know you’ll help them solve their problems, but they also love to know you could change their lives in certain circumstances, help them achieve everything they wanted.

The truth is, with the right product or service, targeting the right customers, you actually can! The right technology can help a struggling business get ahead of their competition and make it big. The right advice can help another position themselves better, identify opportunities and run a profitable business. The right equipment can certainly make the differece at times!

Success is something every business should desire for their customers. It leads to the provider’s own success. It is not so much a dream to catch naive potential buyers with, it’s a desireable possibility we all hope for and work towards.

Now, over to you – what products or services helped you succeed? Who are those brilliant people that showed you the way to your dream? Who did you help achieve greatness? Let’s talk!

CEOs are fired or forced to resign. It happens, as in business, as well as in private life, some relationships are not bound to last forever. Even Steve Jobs, who will always be one of the archetypes for CEOs for a long time from now, severed his connections with Apple at a certain point.

Being fired or having rumors spread about having been forced to leave a company is a crisis for a professional’s personal brand. Other potential employers will be influenced by some other player’s decision to fire their CEO and not want to hire that very same person to lead their company. So how one handles their personal brand while and after being fired is not something that should be taken lightly.

I had a conversation on this topic with a CEO that left a tech company very suddenly, and the details of the event were never fully talked about. At least not in the open! The person in question was commenting on the Yahoo – Carol Bartz breakup and said that was the way to do it: let everyone know what’s going on instead of protecting the interests of a company that just got rid or you. I asked why they had taken a different approach and the answer was that immediately after the event, they were unable to separate their own interests from those of the former employer. 

My opinion is that once you are fired, your interests and goals are the only ones that count. You have been fired and when word gets out, you will have a reasonably hard time finding a new job, unless you have a good explanation, backed up by somewhat verifiable facts to back you up. Taking a strong stand and explaining your reasons would certainly help your brand of a competent professional.

But there are caveats, as in everything that has to do with communication. First of all, it does matter who has the stronger voice and who’s got more trust. In most cases, the media is one of the sources of information, but actually your ex-team, your partners and clients are as good of a reference. If they believe you, they might vouch for you and help spread the information you need to ensure your brand is still bright and attractive in the end. Secondly, the tone is paramount. A fired CEO having they say on a matter needs to appear honest, smart and with a good sense of business. If the opposite happens, you’d be labeled vindictive and getting a new job will be worse. Third issue you need to keep in mind is that the audience you’re addressing needs to be thought of as a small world. Not all companies will hire hot shot CEOs and the medium and big ones in a market and those connected to it are not so many. They are a handful and their opinion is the one that matters, the rest of the world might be buzzing about you, it still does not matter.

So should a fired CEO take the stand and speak their mind? They should certainly give it a try if they are not at fault in any way. If their performance was less than impressive and they cannot prove it all happened despite their inhuman, best possible effort, it’s better to lay low and let it all pass. In most cases, companies don’t make a fuss about it, they just announce a new CEO and move on to the next order of business. So if the beehive is quiet and relax, one needs to carefully consider their actions before taking a stick and poking it. Also true, a company would not have much to gain from a public scandal involving a former CEO, so their retaliation to your attack might not be strong or might not come.

If you’re still wondering what to do in such a situation, the road to your answer is simple: remember your interests and objectives. See how you can best go about obtaining everything you want. If exposing the short mindedness and errors of your former employers helps, then do it. Talk to the audience that interests you – potential employers or the whole world. Then get ready to face any storm that might trouble your personal brand.

Photo source

Public relations is not always an easy-peasy walk through the bark. A lot of times getting results from a PR campaign involves a lot of effort: thinking it through, brainstorming, drafting and then reviewing everything you need, choosing the right channels to communicate, reaching out to the media, bloggers, fans, evangelists, friends and partners, monitoring and measuring your progress, fine-tuning and starting again, right from the beginning.

It takes time and resources to make PR efforts work for a certain company, person, non profit or cause. But there are also times when an opportunity to make your story known just lands on your lap. An interview request , an invitation to speak at a conference, a friendly request to take part in a high profile online debate. Everyone would smile and cheer just thinking of such a possibility. But the reality is, a lot of companies just don’t find the time to make the most out of these opportunities. 

I know both from the stories of others and personal experience that companies, especially small ones, often ignore such requests due to lack of time or lack of resources (a person able to properly respond to such invitations). Some of you might be surprised, but it happens. Money is not the only resource that’s often lacking in the business world. Bare in mind I am not referring to companies that get media requests 10 times a day, but those where such events are not frequent at all and they could use the publicity.

If you find yourself in a similar situation, what can you do? Here are a few ideas:

• Try harder to find the time. Offer overtime payments to your employees, free up a few hours in your own schedule, even if it messes up your weekend, but don’t ignore an opportunity to get some awareness for your brand and possibly reach some potential customers.
• Find someone to do it for you. An agency, a PR freelancer, they are not that hard to find and for such a small project it won’t cost you a fortune. It would definitely cost you less than advertising in the same publication and also would be cheaper than paying someone to generate such an opportunity for your company.
• If you just need more time, contact the journalist or conference organizer, or site owner and ask them for a few more days. It works a lot better than ignoring them. Even if they don’t have enough time, you can start a conversation with them and maybe convince them to keep you in mind the next time they cover your industry or an issue where your expertise is an asset.

Actually finding a solution for a problem is sometimes easier than it seems at first. Opportunities are not something to take for granted or ignore, they are something you need to spot and make work in your favor.

Have you ever been in such a situation? Do you regret missing an opportunity to get your business known?

This year’s edition of The Business Growth Summit, an online event bringing together leading experts to share their strategies on how to grow a business, leverage opportunities, and increase profits starts today and will continue until September 23rd. What the summit actually offers is free, on demand access to videos by well known experts in the social media, marketing, PR and business development fields to help small businesses promote themselves more effectively and sell more.

Chris Brogan, Guy Kawasaki, Dan Schawbel, Amy Cosper, Carrie Wilkerson are only a few of the people you must learn from through the Business Growth Summit. If you’re a small business owner, entrepreneur, work-from-home professional or thinking of making a career switch to become either one, you should register for this online event and start watching the 5 to 20 minute videos the best and brightest of today’s business minds have to offer.

Yours truly, on behalf of the Mirror Communications agency, is also part of The Business Growth Summit. The video I have contributed is titles “How to Get More Business from the Social Media Clutter” and will help you decide what’s worthwhile and efficient from the huge social media world, what will help your business achieve better results.

After attending this business online event, please share your experience, your questions or your feedback either here, in the comment section, on Twitter, Facebook or via email.

Wish you all a great week and enjoy the summit!

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.

Do You Need All the Equipment?

Social media and the internet have become increasingly important in PR work. We have to be connected at all times; however, being connected doesn’t mean that you need to have every type of hardware known to man. Traditional offices generally use multiple electronics including copy machines, desktops, and intricate phone lines which all require frequent check-ups and maintenance. With a virtual office, all you need is your phone and your laptop, and you are able to stay connected and conduct business from where ever necessary.

Do You Need to Be Tied Down?

In PR, we are frequently on the go. We have to show up at events and make appearances all over town to keep up our images. If we aren’t making appearances for the sake of appearances, then we are in meetings with other professionals or in offices strategizing marketing campaigns. We are rarely in our offices, so why be tied down to one? No one wants to feel like they need to go to their office simply because they are paying monthly for it.

If you are a PR professional, there is no need to have a traditional office space. The cost of keeping one simply isn’t worth it. If you have a larger firm, a traditional office may be necessary, but generally PR professionals can save a substantial amount of money by forgoing the traditional office. Even better, they can still keep up professional appearances by signing up with a virtual office firm that will not only give them a high end business address but allow them to use meeting and conference rooms whenever necessary. So what have you got to lose besides a monthly rent and utility bill?

About the author
Susan Daniels is an internet marketer for 43a.com. In her spare times she likes to write guest posts for marketing related blogs.

Sponsored post brought to you by Office Genie

Working from home is all well and good when you’re starting out in business, but it does have its limitations. Despite being a cheaper alternative than renting an office initially, running a new venture from a spare bedroom, study or even the garage can be a rather solitary experience, although admittedly there’s no daily commute to worry about.

What’s more, with a business growing by the day then the home workplace isn’t always a practical solution to your expansion plans either. After all, how many of us occupy our spare bedrooms and other space around the house with all manner of other household items that tend to cramp our style? In short, working from home is easy, but it’s certainly not the be all and end all.

Time to expand

At one point in time a lot of people building up a new business would have baulked at the thought of moving into rented office space. Today though, thanks in part to the recession and a wealth of available property, it is now quicker, easier and cheaper than ever to rent good quality working areas.

Of course, one of the most advantageous aspects of renting an office is that it will allow you much greater networking opportunities, which always means the possibility of garnering a lot more business. You’ll find that there is a wealth of different office rental options available these days too, including desk rentals, which are very cheap and simple through to whole offices.

If you’re looking to expand then there is also the likes of the serviced office route, which allows you to enjoy many more frills, such as receptionists, post and IT support facilities. With all of these rental options you’ll also find that contracts are much more flexible than in the old days. In fact, many of the deals currently available work on short-term rolling contracts and that is perfect for the fledgling business that does not want to commit itself too far into the future.

Move on up

In addition, many office and desk rental options are up for grabs in prime locations too, such as city centres or purpose built business parks. You’ll be able to pick a location that is suitably close to home too, thanks to the office rental comparison websites that are now in existence.

Getting an office or desk in a locale like this will give your business an added sheen, with a professional shop widow that will enable you to meet clients without having to feel awkward about them coming to your home. Having a decent postcode and a front office that looks the part will speak volumes about your professionalism and, theoretically, make potential new customers warm to both your charms and whatever it is you’re selling.

What’s more, due to the relatively short-term nature of these rental schemes you can also enjoy and exploit the potential of them and then expand if you find you need more space further down the line. If you’ve grown your business sufficiently enough to add more desk space then taking this direction for expansion could be the most productive thing you’ve ever done. And it needn’t cost a fortune to do it either.

About the author: Rob Clymo writes on behalf of Office Genie, the first proper online marketplace that helps small businesses and start ups find desk space and shared office space in the UK.

The Sony PlayStation network hack and the millions of customer whose private information might have been accessed is one of the prominent headlines this week. So was TJX and their security breach at its time, being considered the largest data breach in history as over 40 million credit cards had been stolen throughout their stores in the US and Canada. So was every big financial data breach.

For those of you who don’t know, one of Mirror Communications’ clients, CoSoSys, develops endpoint security and data loss prevention solutions. Since I fist started to work with them, more than three years ago, I have been reading about data breaches every single day. I cannot remember the number of hospitals exposing patient data, financial institutions having client details stolen by employees, laptops and flash drives with important databases being lost or stolen, or the number of instances where military units (in the US or other countries) where either broken into and having data stolen or lost because they either weren’t paying attention, or because they did not care to properly dispose of it.

What lacks more than the obvious protection against such security breaches is knowing how to deal with the PR crisis that follows the data loss or theft. So after personally reviewing so many PR fails when it comes to data breaches, here’s a quick guide made up of useful tips to help you better deal with the consequences:

1. Don’t waste time and make the security breach known

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard of data breaches being revealed months after happening. The press sometimes gets hold of the news before the customers, creating panic and distrust. The moment you know something happened, let customers know and let the press know. Being the source of information prevents distortions and assumptions.

2. Own it!

It is your fault it happened. Not the hacker’s, not the air-headed employee’s who thought leaving company property in a car in a random parking lot was OK, not the IT guy’s who you fired that put all that project details on the Internet, not the thief’s you let into your company network so easily. You are to blame, it is your fault and the sooner you admit it the better. Employees can be trained, security can be tightened, data can be protected. If anyone can prevent something like this, it is the company in question through their policies and practices.

3. Apologize for it the right way

Yes, it’s good for your customers to know you value their privacy and wouldn’t want them exposed to data theft, fraud and other such individual disasters. But their data has been stolen, lost, or just temporarily made available to anyone with a malicious intent. So while you cared about it, you certainly did not value it enough. You screwed up and you have to apologize. Fast and properly.

4. Explain what happened, but don’t make excuses

Understanding what happened is important for your customers, and seeing you are willing to reveal the details might save some of their shattered trust. While letting them know which circumstances led to the breach, make sure it does not sound like you’re making excuses. They have entrusted their data to you, so you are responsible for what happened to it. Remember, it’s your fault, don’t go looking for escape goats in your version of how it all went down.

5. Be very clear about what you are going to do

Your next actions are extremely important and you have to be clear about new measures being taken. The fact that you’re offering free credit monitoring and investigating the issue is not enough. Your customers need to know that you will invest in improved security solutions and practices, in personnel training and overall business process monitoring. Your goal is not only to solve the current PR nightmare, your main goal should be to do everything you can to prevent a similar event from happening.

6. Keep your customers informed

The press will go on and on about it if this is a high profile case. If the malicious hackers or thieves are caught and go to trial, they will cover it. They will cover any move you make that has to do with the breach. Therefore, it is better to send updates to your customers and present your progress and your point of view. Remember the assumptions and distortions you want to keep under control!

7. If there is a class action suit, don’t start a witch hunt against customers

Some might feel free credit card monitoring and an apology is not enough. If their bank account was wiped clean or some very sensitive information has been revealed, their position is understandable. Don’t start bashing plaintiffs, they are former customers and how you treat them will take its tool on how your remaining customers see your brand and your company.

The truth is, in most cases, companies affected by breaches try to settle lawsuits fast and cut their brand image losses. That is the right way to go. Even if you pay less at the end of a long court battle, it will definitely cost you more to counter the negativity that will surround your brand afterwards.

This is just a quick guide to get you through the immediate PR crisis yielded by the data breach. After handling the immediate consequences, you will have to invest PR and marketing dollars into repairing long term effects, such as losing part of your customers, a general distrust from potential ones and getting enough positive stories out to balance all the data breach coverage.

You might think that if you are a smaller company and less people worry about your security breach means you’re better off. The truth is the press might not give you that much attention, but losing half of your customer base is a bigger blow than it is for a big corporation. Also, when you’ll want to make your positive messages known, you will deal with the same attitude from the press – lack of interest.

The best way to deal with data breaches and the PR disasters they cause is… to prevent them, of course. But allthough they happen more often than we even want to know, companies still have the wrong attitude - it only happens to others, it cannot really happen to me. So they postpone their investment in proper network protection, endpoint security and data loss prevention. They never get around to that training for their staff. They only remember it when the data breach hits the news or their customers and they’re flooded with angry messages.

What’s in your resume is not all that matters in today’s highly competitive world. How it looks, how easy it is to find and to share add up to its effectiveness and its cool factor. Our web design partner, QBLK  (also responsible for this site’s design, that of Mirror Communications, Argophilia Travel News and many other wonderful works), have released an online CV/Resume template that will sweep you off your feet!

The Bold CV/Resume Template is easy to customize and has many different color templates to choose from, it has a mobile version to show it off on your smart phone, it can be printed to PDF and downloaded, to then be emailed in a second, and it also features a contact form, allowing all those interested in your work to get in touch.  And these are not all the features you will find use for! It also comes with thorough and comprehensive documentation, to help you adjust the template to fit all your needs.

The Bold template is designed by QBKL’s Alex Cristache, the blogging tips expert of Blogsessive.com. It can be purchased through Theme Forest and you can get all the above features for only 10 USD (8 if you are a registered user).

If you’re looking for a cool, sharp, minimal and very smart CV or resume template to fuel your professional image, I suggest you head over to Theme Forest and check Bold out. The truth is you can never look too good for a potential employer, client or business partner!

Your company has an innovative product, a flashy and attractive website, a bevy of investors on board, and a technical support staff consisting of one intern that you spent five minutes training via email. What’s wrong with this picture?

How Tech Support Affects Your Company’s Image

In many cases, your tech support representatives are your only employees that regularly interact with your customers. When your support reps also happen to be your lowest paid, worst informed and (understandably) most short-tempered employees, can you expect your company to build a positive reputation among your target audience?

Tech support is under-utilized. Far too many companies treat their tech support teams as a last line of defense between angry customers and imminent organizational failure, and consider the idea of sending their tech team leaders to management schools as completely ridiculous . You should have two primary goals for your technical support services, both of which will improve your company’s image when accomplished:

• Solve the problems posed by your customers in a timely, efficient and (this is important) friendly manner. It may sound simple, but it often requires more creativity than simply asking the customer to check his system settings or unplug and reconnect a few cables. Your customers want a fast solution, which might involve providing suggestions to use your product or service in a way that you hadn’t previously thought about.
• Use the information gathered from customer support calls to improve your products or services. In their fits of anger, disappointed customers often reveal the weakest points of what you sell. Fixing the problem permanently will lead to satisfied customers who have no need for a tech support call.

How to Use Available Tech Support Channels Properly

Live Chat – This is a relatively new and increasingly popular technical support method utilized by many sites, including giants like Amazon.com. Unfortunately, many companies feel that simply offering live chat will distract users from the fact that the service itself can be woefully poor. Most of the live chat services I’ve used were staffed by support reps who barely understood my simple questions, let alone were able to sufficiently answer them. Live chat is ideal because it’s fast and it allows the customer to save the conversation for later reference. However, live chat reps that make grammatical and spelling errors can damage the user’s perception of your company’s competency.

Email – This is a standard tech support method that no company should sacrifice, even when offering a plethora of other support channels. Many users who have grown weary of real time support methods such as live chat and phone prefer email, simply to avoid the confrontation they expect when they complain about a product. Email has similar benefits to live chat in that it effectively records the conversation for later reference. The same general rules in regards to grammar, spelling and tone apply to email support as well.

Phone – The preferred tech support channel of most customers, phone support also calls for the highest level of competency on the part of your tech support staff. It can also make for the shortest successful support calls, especially when the problem is technical in nature and requires constant feedback (Try this. That didn’t work? OK, try this but change this first.).

How to Approach Your Customers

The basics are obvious: be nice, be respectful, don’t blame the customer, know what you’re talking about, say you’re sorry even if you’re not, etc. Following these common sense guidelines will, in most cases, lead to satisfied customers who will continue to use your products and services. However, that’s probably where the effects of the customer support inquiry will end.

Provide a customer support experience that’s so positive and so beneficial to the customer that he or she will be compelled to talk about it with friends and post about it online (blogs, social media sites, forums related to the types of things you sell, etc). In most cases, this will involve a monetary benefit for the customer, usually at the detriment of your own bottom line. Offer free return shipping, even if the customer ordered the wrong thing (Zappos, an online shoe retailer, has seen enormous success largely because of this single policy). Issue a full refund past the warranty period. You’ll generate such a positive buzz around your company that the initial financial burdens will be more than mitigated in just a few months.

How to Use an FAQ Effectively

An effective FAQ can intercept customer complaints and resolve problems before a tech support inquiry is even made. Follow these tips to write a good one:

• Don’t think of a clever name for it. Angry customers aren’t in the mood to spend time determining whether that cutely-titled link on your navigation bar will have the answers they’re looking for.
• Only include questions that you frequently receive. Technical details are better left to product manuals, though this can partially depend on the nature of what you’re selling.
• Keep it updated.
• Make it easy to navigate and scannable. If you do feel the need to post a lengthy FAQ, users should be able to find the answers they’re looking for without resorting to ctrl-F.

How to Bolster Your Tech Support with Social Media

Although social media sites like Twitter and Facebook can be used to beef up your tech support operations, they don’t replace phone and email. However, you can use social media to keep more customers happy and eliminate some would-be customer support inquiries. Search around on social media sites and see who’s talking about your company. Don’t like what you see? Interact directly: tell the angry customer to call your company, and promise a resolution to their problem. Don’t get defensive, and don’t use it as an opportunity for a cheap sales pitch.

With nearly 600 million users on Facebook and 200 million on Twitter, people are guaranteed to see how you respond, and it won’t take them long to make a judgment about how you handled the situation. Mobile Internet devices are constantly reducing the time it takes for word of mouth to travel.

How Not to Implement Tech Support

• Don’t give your support staff less power than is necessary to do their jobs. If you don’t trust your tech support reps enough to allow them to authorize a return, for example, you either need to find more competent, trustworthy reps or rethink your customer service model entirely.
• Don’t ignore your support reps. If they report receiving calls about the same problems every day, fix the problems even if your reps seem to be handling them easily.
• Don’t take complaints personally. When a customer complains, it means that something is definitely wrong – maybe with your product or maybe with the way your customer is using it. Tactfully correcting the situation in either case is what separates good tech support from the mediocre tech support seen at many companies.

About the author

Kevin Lenton works with companies to build and maintain their online relationships with clients, as well as prepare content geared at high conversion rates. In his spare time he enjoys playing the harmonica – an activity he’s been involved in since the age of 12.