Leandro Eclipse

Disclaimer: This is a guest post. Revisions were made to improve the quality of the content.

When you’re running your small business, customer support is one of the most crucial things you should focus on. Satisfied customers can make all the difference.

For this reason, we wanted to post these 5 Useful TIps for outstanding customer service for small businesses.

 

Outsource Basic Support

On our ‘Top 5 Tasks to Outsource for Small Businesses’ video,  customer support can be the difference between retaining customers or driving them away. But a full-fledged customer service effort is difficult for a lot of small businesses to run, especially when you have to do almost everything. 

So, when it comes to basic support like answering calls, addressing minor issues, or even running a website, we recommend outsourcing if possible. 

Related read: Five Tips For Successfully Hiring Remote Customer Support

From independent customer service reps, to call centers, to automated solutions, you may have a few options that will enable you to take advantage of professional customer service. 

It gives you more time to focus on business decisions that can rapidly grow your business.

 

Offer Perks

On the surface, the idea of offering perks can seem expensive for a small business. But the truth is going out of your way to provide superb service can go a long way in making customers happy and loyal. 

A Verizon Connect piece by Taylor Fasulas discussed customer service in terms of “going the extra mile,” and included the idea of perks — with the example of providing bottled water or mints to passengers in a car service. 

It’s just one example, but it speaks to how small a “perk” can be while still making an impact. 

Whether it’s a little treat, a means of providing comfort, or even a small discount on a customer’s next purchase, this is always a low-cost, high-impact concept worth considering.

 

Invite Feedback

Customer feedback is vital in today’s businesses. It tells you what customers want or what they think you could improve on. 

Now, larger companies are able to gather this information less directly, through robust data analytics operations that tell them everything they need to know about their customers. And it can be costly.

A small business doesn’t necessarily have that capability, but gathering feedback is still a must. Megan Totka wrote about the topic for SmallBizDaily and pointed out various methods for collecting feedback, including surveys, emails and contact forms, online reviews, and comment boxes, among others.

 

 

Collect Customer Information

Alongside inviting feedback, you should understand who your customer is. You can collect information about customers so that you can at least set up limited profiles for them. 

Knowing basic information such as purchase history, stated preferences, or how often they visit can give you insight that might come in handy and make customers feel seen and cared for.

Related read: Ten Customer Service KPI’s You Should Keep An Eye On (And How to Act on Them)

Embracing these options can give you invaluable insight into your own customer base.

 

Consider Interpersonal Skills When Hiring

Finally, remember that it’s not all about strategy and information. Sometimes, good customer service just comes down to making a good impression! It’s for this reason that you should consider interpersonal skills when hiring. 

The benefits of this idea are perhaps most clearly on display in the restaurant industry. Consider Clarissa Cruz’s write-up on restaurant hosts for Inc., in which she surveyed chefs and restaurant directors about the qualities they value. Over and over again, answers included various takes on grace, wit, confidence, and even great smiles. 

Indeed hosts who demonstrate these qualities can often make a restaurant feel successful and inviting, and to some extent, the same is true of any business. Hiring people who can make others feel welcome, and generate a positive atmosphere, can go a very long way.

Conclusion

With the tips above, I hope you can build your customer base with outstanding customer service!

 

Article was exclusively written for remotestaff.com.au

Authored by Rita Jamilla

Managing a remote team is quite challenging at first. It’s a drastic change in the environment. You need to adapt as an owner or manager to create a system that allows your people to be productive. Your old ways might not be compatible with the new work environment.

With that, here are 6 mindset shifts when managing remote workers. 

 

Stop Micromanaging

The biggest worry of newly transitioning businesses is productivity. How can you check if your employees are actually working? So you micromanage their every move. You install software that measures their app computer usage who notifies every time they stop typing, or they are idle. 

It’s too much. No one likes to be micromanaged. How can your employees be productive if you’re snooping their every move? There are even studies that micromanaging could be killing your employees.

You should systematize trust. It’s alright to install time tracking tools to promote productivity. But don’t abuse it to the point of micromanaging them. 

 

Focus on the Output

When handling a remote team, the important thing is the quality of the output. Instead of focusing on what they can do per minute, why not just concentrate on the output they can do? Idle time is also crucial for creatives. 

After all, being busy doesn’t mean being productive. 

 

Empower them to be Independent Decision Makers

With remote work, you are not available all the time. You might be busy doing your work yourself. Or you might have an asynchronous setup. 

Don’t control their every move. Give them the creative freedom to decide for themselves. 

Trust them to decide on things.  At first, it can be simple things like the color of the font or where they should place their files temporarily.  Just in case they made a mistake, or you want to change something, just inform them after — no need to be that past prying eye at the back of their workstations. Once you build trust, it builds their confidence as well to take on more crucial tasks.

After all, in a remote work environment, you don’t want to monitor them forever, right?

 

Put More Emphasis when Communicating

Communication in the office is easier compared to a remote setting. You can see them face-to-face, read their body language, and facial expressions. In the remote workspace, you can’t do that. 

How will you know if what their typing is really what they mean? How can you know if your employees understand what you’re saying?

There are different communication nuances! You need to communicate a lot. Express your instructions with as much detail as possible. 

 

Be Flexible

When people are working-from-home, you can’t expect everything to be foolproof. For example, in a meeting, the children of your kid might suddenly steal the scene, like in this video.

The internet might be faulty, and they might need to log in at a different time. Or some other “emergency” that can disrupt their personal workflow. And this can happen to you as well, like this boss turning his Zoom avatar into a potato.

 

It’s good to be flexible with your team. When mistakes or emergencies happen, it might be good to step down your tyrannical wrath and be understanding and find a solution or compromise instead.

 

Respect Their Personal Time

People working and living in the same place have problems disconnecting with work. Boundaries between work and personal lives are blurred. Employees get emails and work notifications while doing household activities. It can take a toll on their work-life balance. And later, it can affect their productivity.

As the boss, you need to draw the line. People work-from-home, but they still have personal lives to attend to. 

Be strict in using the time allotted for work hours. If you are scheduled to work at 6 AM to 3 PM, your employees should only be working at those times. Know your employees’ schedules so that you can manage expectations. It’s good to use a time tracking tool to help you know their schedules.

Work-from-home setup should give more value to both your business and your employees’ lives.

 

Conclusion

With these changes in thinking, you can be guaranteed to get the most productivity out of your remote team. Cheers to your successful remote team!

 

Collaboration is essential for remote working companies. You need to find a workflow that can manage the tasks of your team well, even if you don’t see each other physically. It’s quite tricky at first, but with the right tools, you can be even more productive than before.

One tool you can use is Trello. Trello is a project management tool that allows you to see the big picture and trickle down the tasks needed to be done to get it.

How to Install

First, sign-up your company email to the Trello website.

You will be asked to name your “Board.” Basically, this board is a bigger perspective view of the overall project. You can have a bird’s eye view of what is happening to your company, and who is assigned to do what.

Under a Board, you will have Lists in place. You can customize a list depending on your needs. 

 

And each list has “Cards.” After these steps, this is how your board will look like:

Inviting Your Team to your Trello Board

The next step is to invite your team members! 

 

You can do this by simply clicking “invite” at the top part. Or you can just send a link to them.

Assigning and Customizing Your Cards 

These Cards are specific tasks or to-dos that are needed for the list. But you can further define the tasks and assign them to people by clicking it. 

If you are assigning the task to yourself or you want to get notifications for it, click Join.

Add team members to the tasks by clicking “members” so that they know they are assigned to it.

Next, you can create a checklist and due date for subtasks and deadlines. After the customization, your card will look like this:

Team Privacy

You might be wary of the privacy of your boards. You can set your team boards in private.

Just choose either “Private or Team” so that it will only be accessible to the ones invited on it.

Conclusion

Trello is highly customizable and can be further personalized depending on your needs. Explore the platform and see how you can collaborate better with your employees.

Skype is one of the first online messaging software used by professionals and remote workers around the world. It paved the way for streamlining online communications for business. 

And it has numerous features that you can take advantage when starting your remote working setup amidst the COVID19 quarantine period.  Here are the key features you can use for online communication and affordable offline calls.

Skype Setup

First, download Skype and register your email. 

Afterwards, you can add your employees by searching their emails at the top search box.

Organizing Your Chat Feed

Skype can be used to contact anyone who registered, even people outside your organization. And your chat feed can be crowded in an instant.

You can simply use the “add to favorites” option. Right-click the name of the person or the group chat and click add to favorites. 

With this, you can see the top people or chat groups that you need to pay attention to.

You can also use the “split view” mode to have separate windows for your chat.

Just click the “…” and choose “enable split view mode.”

Group Calls

Skype is known for video conferencing. And you can use the group video option to have your meetings in place. 

In your group chat, just press the video or call button at the upper right corner. 

You can also add people not in the group chat by clicking the “add icon.” 

If you need to meet with a lot of employees, you can use the share a link option instead. But remember, Skype has a 50 person limit per call (although a 50-person meeting might not be that productive anyway).

Call-Recording

Not everyone might be available to attend your online meeting. Or sometimes, you might forget specific points that were discussed. In every meeting, you can just record the session on Skype!

Just click start recording at the bottom-right corner.

Share Your Screen

Sometimes, it’s easier to show how things are done. It might be how to use a particular program or how to solve a client’s concern. Whatever it is, you can use the Skype share screen option. 

Just click the share screen tab at the lower right corner.

Local Call Feature

Some businesses still call landline or cellphone numbers for certain concerns. Or maybe, they don’t have reliable internet connections for online calling. If you’re located in Australia, how can you call someone from another country? With Skype, you can contact them using skype credits. Here’s how to do it.

First, click the “New Call” option under the call button. 

Click Dialpad.

And enter the phone number you are calling. With this, you can contact your suppliers or team members in Australia or abroad.

Conclusion

We all need a reliable way to communicate with our employees and customers. And Skype can be that important tool for your communication needs.

COVID19 heavily affected businesses that require foot traffic or person-to-person service companies or freelancers. How can you earn income when everyone is staying at home?

Doing business will never be the same again. It’s time to adapt and thrive in these trying times. Here are some practical ideas to transition your business online.

Online Restaurant Ideas

Partner with Food Delivery Services

No one is allowed to dine out during the quarantine period. If you can’t bring the people to your food, it’s the time to bring it to their homes instead. If you’re a local restaurant, try partnering up with:

• Uber Eats
• Deliveroo 
• Menulog 

Related read: Restaurant Owner’s COVID-19 Survival Pack

Currently, the delivery services have a “No contact delivery” policy for the safety of both you, the customers, and the drivers. 

 

Frozen Food Option

Aside from your normal menu, you can have a “frozen food option.” 

People want to stock food for the quarantine days. Who doesn’t want to have a supply of their favorite local fried chicken or that ribs infused with your secret recipe?

Or maybe you have a secret sauce that the locals really crave for. Check your menu and be creative with what frozen or packed food you can offer.

Online Tutoring, Coaching, and Consultation Services Ideas

The tutoring, coaching, and consultation services are hit heavily with the cancellation of sessions and classes across the board. But with technology today, you can offer online classes and consultations!  

You just need the following applications Zoom & Calendly. 

Zoom is a powerful video conferencing tool that allows you to conduct online classes, create breakout sessions, and more! (Check out our Zoom guide to take advantage of its features.) 

On the other hand, Calendly is an online platform that helps you schedule meetings automatically. You just need to set your parameters. And let the client meetings fill up your calendar. Check this video to get an idea on how it can be synced in your sales efforts.

 

Related read: Service Provider’s Guide to Going Online

Marketing Your Services

Now that you have a basic idea, it’s time to market your services. 

If you haven’t already, create a Facebook page or Instagram account and show the world that you are offering services online! You can also create your own website.

If you don’t know how to manage and create from scratch, you can outsource these services online.

 

Financials and File Management

As to payments, you can take a look into payment platforms like Paypal to integrate cash and credit card payments to your business. Time trackers are also essential to compensate your employees working-from-home properly.

In terms of collaboration with your team, a combination of Skype, Slack, and Google Drive is an economical way to handle your new remote team. Click the links for a detailed guide on how to use them. 

Conclusion

As the saying goes, tough times don’t last, but tough people do. Let us all toughen ourselves up and adapt to the situation. It will drastically change our operations, but the results can be something better in the long run. 

Remote work is the future of work! Companies right now are preparing themselves, especially with the numerous lockdowns across the world. When done right, it can provide benefits as to more productivity and lower overhead costs. 

But it is easier said than done. One aspect you should build in your system is file management and sharing. Luckily, Google Drive can be a powerful tool for your business.

 

How to Set Up

When you register a Gmail account, you are automatically given a google drive account you can use with a 15GB storage limit.

This 15GB is shared across all your files in google, including files and attachments in your Gmail. 

 

Creating Folders and Uploading Files

To start, you can upload your files using different methods. 

 

Just click New.

 

And create “Folder” to organize your files in. If you already have folders in place, you can just use “File Upload” or “Folder Upload.” You can also upload files by just dragging the files to your Google Drive. 

 

Share Links

When you handle remote teams, you share certain files to collaborate effectively. But sometimes, files are too big to be shared multiple times. 

Imagine sending a 2 GB file back and forth every time you need feedback for a video project? With Google Drive, you can just share links to files every time you need to send them. 

 

Just right-click the file. And choose “Get shareable link.”

 

Choose Link Sharing on. And copy the google drive link. You can send that link to your employees or colleagues, and they can see the file directly from your google drive.

 

Restricting Access

You might think, anyone with the link can access the files. Our company files need to be private. With google drive, you can also restrict access by choosing the sharing settings.

 

First, click the sharing settings. With this, you have two options. 

 

You can either restrict by changing what anyone can do with the link. The options are edit, comment, and view.

 

You can also just choose certain people to access the link. Just include their email address in the text box above. Take note: Google Drive also has advanced encryption. So you are protected against hackers.

 

Commenting on Files 

Sometimes, not everyone is available for your comments or suggestions in real-time. Your team might be working in a different timezone or schedule. And you don’t want to wait for tomorrow just to wait for a reply. Google drive has a comment function that can address that.

 

Just highlight the text and click the icon on the right side.

 

You can type your comment. And even assign it to your employees so that they can be notified via email. You can use the comment function in most of the google suite programs.

 

Google Workspace

Probably the biggest advantage, Google drive is integrated with Google Workspace. These are free programs you can use for Word Documents, Spreadsheets, Slide presentations, and more. 

 

What’s good is that you can just share the link with your employees, and you can edit the files simultaneously. All changes are saved in real-time. You can collaborate with your team with ease.

After the October 2020 update, it became more powerful with seamless integration between all Google programs. It minimized switching between different Google workspace programs providing a more fluid experience.

Here are some of the nifty updates you should take note of. (Some features might be available only for subscribed customers.)

 

Mentions

In the latest update, you can now mention your teammates in a specific document. This allows them to be tagged for information they need to review or to work on.

 

With this, you can smoothly inform your teammates for collaboration within the software.

 

Document Previews 

In an office setting, it’s easier to review documents together because you can literally hold it. How can you do that online? And if you do use programs, you have to switch between programs to corroborate data, which eats up time. 

You can now do it with document previews.

 

You just have to paste the URL. And click “replace its URL with the title.”

 

You can now review the documents simultaneously within the main file without opening separate Google files.

Create Chat and Rooms in the Gmail Interface

Gmail is a power app for emailing clients and colleagues. But what if you need something instant? Or you want to discuss a certain project. You can now do instant messaging with Google Workspace.

 

Just create a group conversation or create a room.

 

Afterwards, you can check multiple threads in a collaborative manner.

 

Create Documents Together in Chat

Ever wanted to work on a document while chatting online? Google workspace now has this nifty feature. While on a chat meeting, you can choose to create a document and work on it right there and then. Sweet!

 

Work on Files Together in Google Meet

Whether you are preparing for a business meeting with your colleagues or presenting to clients, it’s great when you can see them in person. You can know their body language non-verbal cues while you show your points.

But that might not be possible because your screen will be blocked with your presentation when you talk to them. And for collaboration, it’s not really easy to simultaneously discuss while you all edit the files.

Well, now you can!

You just need to “share the tab” while the Google meet video call is going on. It will effortlessly show the document you’re working on while you conduct the meeting together.

 

Google Drive for Project Management

With all the powerful features above, you can use a combination of the programs to create a file management tool. It can look like this:

You can combine a central google sheets file. And link all the file-sharing links for task output. It will all depend on your needs.

Conclusion

Remote Collaboration might be hard at first. But with the proper tools, you can make remote communication effortless. With that, I hope you can use Google for seamless collaboration and file transfers. Good luck!