Archive for the ‘10 Quick Tips’ Category

1. Keep the review positive. While there may be some negative points to discuss, keeping the overall tone of the review positive will relieve a lot of possible tension after the review for the employee.
2. Stick to a schedule. Whether it’s yearly depending on when the employee was hired, or whether you hold everyone’s reviews at the same time, keep to this schedule.
3. Don’t substitute the performance review for regular feedback. You should be regularly communicating with your employees with, and they should have an idea about what areas you would like to see improvement in before they head into the review.
4. Schedule a review in advance. In order to prepare both yourself and your employees, make sure you both know when exactly the review is going to happen – and stick to the proposed date and time.
5. Educate your employees on the system that you use. They will understand what you are doing and why you are doing it.
6. Don’t be confrontational. Remember that you are evaluating the job performance, not the person.
7. If you’re implementing a review system for the first time, find inspiration from other review systems. Whether it from different departments in your company, with assistance from HR professionals, or from online resources, there are many places where you can draw inspiration from as far as how to hold a performance review and what to discuss in them.
8. Be consistent. If you are evaluating two employees who do the same job, measure their job performance on the same standards.
9. Listen to your employee. This is an opportunity where you can discuss with your employee how they can improve their skills and performance, but it can also be an opportunity to get their feedback.
10. Follow up with the review. Follow up with the employee covering the main points of discussion to make sure that you and your employee are on the same page after the review.

Positive word of mouth is essential if you own a business. There are many ways to use your mouth in positive ways to ensure your business employees communicate effectively. This can have a large influence on the environment in which your employees work. If your employees are not happy their work will not be done to the best of their ability therefor having great effects on the success of the company. Not only will word of mouth affect your business directly, but it will influence the way other small businesses view your company.
So what can you do to get and keep that good word of mouth spreading? These 10 ways to promote positive word of mouth in the workplace will help you and your business increasingly succeed in the future.

1. Provide good customer service.
   There is no secret to this one! Work continuously at maintaining a good relationship with your clients. Make your customers feel like the well-being of their business is important to you. Provide them with the utmost respect and courtesy that you would want to experience in their position. These pointers are not tricky, but can make a huge difference in the positive word of mouth you receive whether you run a retail store, a manufacturing company, or a website.
2. Make it easy for your customers to contact you
   Not only will customers feel frustrated when dealing with businesses with poor communication, but this frustration will travel from business to business warning companies of the poor treatment they are receiving, and poor publicity will result. Make sure that your answering machine is set up and that your website is fully updated with proper contact information. Get all of the necessary phone services installed and have someone by the phone making sure that each call is being answered and directed appropriately.
3. Maintain a positive image
   For small businesses specifically, remembering that your actions will most likely always have some kind of effect on the company you work for. It is important to treat everyone who you encounter on a daily basis with the respect they deserve, not just clients. If you have a big logo on your car with your company’s website, and you’re driving like a maniac and cutting people off, chances are that this will not reinforce good publicity for your company. People love sharing stories about the jerks they came across that day, and bad publicity is definitely something you want to avoid!
4. Make sure that the areas where people visit are clean and tidy
   Appearance is the first thing people see when visiting your store or office. If your shelves are messy and unorganized and there is garbage everywhere, potential customers will not be eager to work with you, nor will they say anything nice about your business. Although this is true, positive word of mouth also occurs in this circumstance. People will talk about how neat your shelves are, how clean your bathrooms are and how pleasant your waiting area is. Your customers must have a positive experience in your facility to ensure that the positive word of mouth continues to grow. Another way to spread positive word of mouth is on the web. Make sure your website is clear and concise and make it easy for people to find information about purchases, shipping and returns.
5. Ask for testimonials
   Testimonials are short written statements praising your service, products, or both. Testimonials from satisfied customers are powerful endorsements that can really trigger positive word of mouth. Post these testimonials with the company name that wrote it on your website or Facebook page to ensure that people are viewing them. Wherever these testimonials are advertised, the growth of positive word of mouth for your business will progress.
6. Give lessons or seminars
   Although time and money will have to be dedicated to achieving these seminars, it can really make a difference in how your customers feel they are being treated and in turn what they tell other people about their experience with your company. Make sure that your presentation fits in the time slot provided to ensure that potential customers don’t leave annoyed because the presentation went too long, or did not provide enough information. This approach can work towards growing positive word of mouth and increasing good publicity.
7. Engage clients within social media (twitter, facebook)
   Word of mouth is all about people saying good things about you and your business. Social media is one area where people communicate a lot more these days. Set up a twitter page or a business account on Facebook. This will get your name out there and make it easy for other businesses to learn about you. Develop a social media strategy that will let you engage customers and entice them into saying good things about your small business.
8. Monitor your online reputation
   Many conversations about your businesses service and product are occurring all over the internet within Twitter, Facebook, and blogging, and it is vital for your company to know what is being said. Independent online reputation monitoring tools such as Social Mention, lets you receive free daily email alerts about your small business.
9. Get positive publicity for your business
   Whether a picture of you is taken handing over a check to a local charity, or your name is listed as a sponsor for the Brain Tumor foundation, when people see this they will be more likely to think of your company when deciding where to take their car for their next oil change. They will also most likely suggest your company when their neighbor is also looking to get work done on their car.
10. Visibly contribute to your community
    Community building and social responsibility and involvement in your community can be a good tactic to promote positive word of mouth. Sponsoring community or charitable events is one way of doing it. Another is to take an active role in community organizations, such as sitting on hospital, school or other boards. Be a person who’s willing to work to get things done and support community organizations and others will take notice.

Word of mouth will happen whether you pay attention to it or not. It is however, an extremely helpful marketing tool and would be silly for any business to ignore it. You’ll gain more clientele and achieve more success in all areas of your business.

1. Shop around for the best prices. The service provider that you have always used, or the product that you have always purchased, may not be the most cost effective one out there. There are times when you can find something of comparable quality at a better price. You should be shopping around for better prices about once every year.
2. Ask new customers how they heard about you. And keep track of their responses – after a while, you will begin seeing a trend as far as what advertising and marketing efforts worked, and which ones didn’t.
3. Buy furniture second hand. Are there any companies in your area going out of business or moving? They may be looking to sell some of their current furniture. You can also easily find used furniture online.
4. Train your employees for the tasks they are doing. If your employees are properly trained, they will become more efficient at what they are responsible for.
5. Pay off your credit card as soon as possible. In order to avoid paying interest, pay as much of your credit card bill off as you can as soon as you can. The interest on purchases on credit cards can grown very quickly, and paying as much off as possible will reduce the total amount of interest that you will need to pay.
6. Lease or sublet extra space that you aren’t using. This will help reduce any rent or property taxes that you pay, as well as reducing the utilities that you currently pay.
7. Look for alternatives to traditional advertising. Try looking for people who will be brand ambassadors, or try using social media.
8. Hire temporary help in your busy season. Instead of having permanent staff who don’t have enough to do in the off-season, try hiring temporary staff when you do get busy.
9. On accounts where you are charged interest, work out a payment plan. Whether it’s paying more frequently, or paying larger amounts, getting the total amount owed paid off sooner will reduce the total amount of interest that you owe.
10. Keep receipts for items paid by petty cash. By keeping track of all of the small things you purchase, you should be able to see what is necessary and what can be eliminated from those small purchases – a lot of small things can quickly add up to a lot of expenses.