Business Coaching: How to Resolve Customer Complaints

Unsatisfied customers are a bad news to any business. In fact, it only takes one unhappy customer to ruin a perfect day at work for everyone, and to steer away many potential customers from your company. Thus, it is very important for business people to pay attention to what their customers need, particularly the angry ones.

Whatever their reason is for being unhappy, they are still your guests and are potentially the ones you will do business with in the future. Thus, you should want to make them happy once again. While your customers are not always right, they will always be who you want and who you need. In short, you should be on top of your customer complaints, and find a way to turn them to your advantage.

Below you will see the different ways by which you may resolve customer complaints. It is important that you not let time lapse. You’ve got to approach the customer as soon as they express dissatisfaction.

1. Listen to your customer intently. You’ve got to listen to your customer and avoid interrupting them. It’s important for them to have someone who would listen to what they have to say.

2. Don’t forget to thank them. Be sure to thank the customer for letting you know about their problem. Knowing what’s wrong with your products or services is essential for the growth of your business. You also cannot resolve an issue if you’re not even aware of it.

3. Apologize sincerely. Make the customer feel how apologetic you are for how the situation has affected them or made them feel. There is no room for making excuses or justifying things – all you need to do is apologize.

4. Find the best solution. Figure out what the customer wants as a solution. You may be surprised with how simple their request may be, especially when they feel how sincere you are in admitting your mistakes and apologizing for the situation.

5. Come to an agreement. Your goal now is to reach some sort of an agreement with the unhappy customer. The solution should be one that will satisfy them. No matter how sincere you are, this will be of no use unless you can give what the customer wants.

6. Act on the solution quickly. Once you have determined what solution will be good enough, take action immediately. Customers will always appreciate your effort to respond immediately to your needs.

7. Don’t forget to follow up. The only way you can ensure the customer is satisfied is when you follow up.

In business, problems are inevitable, and customers will always have a reason to be unhappy. By joining a business coaching program, you will realize that what really matters is that you acknowledge them with honesty and do your best to give them what they need. This is the best you can do so they won’t stop doing business with you.

Business Coach Advice on Avoiding Hiring Mistakes

Building a great team is never an easy thing to do. This is true not only in sports, but in business as well. In fact, even big and established companies also make some huge mistakes when it comes to hiring and team-building. This may not be a huge problem for big companies, but for startups, a hiring mistake can be quite costly.

Here are the most common hiring mistakes you should avoid:

1. Getting someone on board just because you know them.

We are talking here about friends, family members, previous coworkers, and everyone you may know. While there is nothing wrong about hiring your spouse, your brother or even your child perhaps, this can make it difficult for you to practice objectivity and impose accountability in the workplace. Of course, your family and friends would expect that you treat them differently compared to your other staff, but this is something that can eventually ruin your business.

2. Hiring someone who badly needs a job.

You may seriously consider hiring an applicant because you want to be his or her savior. You can’t hire someone because you want to help them have a job. You should hire someone because you believe they can be a valuable member of your team.

3. Inviting someone to become your partner because you can’t hire them.

If you’re a sole proprietor, there are many problems you will face in running your business, especially in terms of your finances. But this should not be the reason for you to look for a partner, and you shouldn’t do this simply because you don’t have the means to hire them.

Getting someone to be your partner means giving away 50 percent of your business to someone who may not be as enthusiastic as you are when it comes to running a business. If you can’t afford an employee yet, you can go for a freelancer instead.

4. Hiring someone who will do everything for you.

While it’s convenient and more practical to hire a “jack of all trades”, you also need to hire a person who has the specific skill sets that your business needs. What you should do is first figure out what specific tasks you need help with, and get someone with an expertise on those things.

5. Hiring someone who will do the job you hate the most.

When it comes to hiring employees, you should get people who have complementary skills. These are the skills that you lack perhaps. Hiring someone for a task that you hate is a total waste of money.

Hiring is a crucial part of running a business. Making wrong decisions in terms of choosing the people to hire can be very costly for your business. Consult a business coach if you want to be sure it’s the right time for you to bring on someone who will help you run your business.

Career Planning and Dealing with Conflicts in the Workplace

Having tight deadlines, being overworked and underpaid, and keeping the balance between personal life and professional life are some of the most common challenges we all experience in the workplace. But there is another thing that causes many of us to have a really hard time at work – conflict with coworkers.

While there are no perfect relationships in the workplace, we should continue to strive for at least a peaceful coexistence with our colleagues. Aside from the fact that having misunderstandings and personal conflicts with others can be very stressful, you also don’t want such negative relationships make your job less enjoyable.

And while it is possible for you to influence someone through your behavior, the only thing you can control is your own behavior. You cannot dictate how another person should respond to a situation, but you can choose your reaction. Every situation will require a unique response, but you can do something to determine what response is appropriate. Follow these tips:

1. Listen to what they are saying about you.

If someone keeps saying something about you and how you perform at work, you may just ignore it to avoid conflicts, but you shouldn’t ignore what is being said about you. Be honest to yourself and think whether there is truth to what they are saying or not. If they have basis for saying that about you, then use this as an opportunity to be more self-aware so you can change for the better.

2. Try to know the source.

We all know that the only way we could stay employed is to impress our managers with our quality performance and high value. However, it is also a fact that some people just can’t contain their jealousy, and so they opt to make you look bad or magnify the small mistakes you have. In this case, you have to make sure that the opinion of others will not affect your confidence and self-concept. What’s important is that you know who the source is. This way, you may find a way to deal with the person who seems to be threatened by you.

3. Weigh your options.

After you have considered the source and the feedback, you’ve got to make a choice as to how you are going to respond. Again, both your mental and outward response in such situation is all up to you and controlled by you. You can simply ignore these conflicts, and have no interpretation of them whatsoever, or you can use them for your own personal growth.

When it comes to career planning, it is not only about finding the job that suits your qualifications and pursuing a career that gives you self-fulfillment. More importantly, you have to be prepared to deal with different kinds of people and situations that will challenge your belief in yourself.

The Importance of Career Planning Is One Reason Your Employee May Leave You

Managers know so well how costly employee turnover can be, and so they work really hard to keep their prized employees inside the fence. The truth, however, is that not every worker intends to stay in the same company even though they are treated fairly. But then again, it is important for managers to know and acknowledge the things that cause employees to quit their jobs and find somewhere else to work.

The following are some common reasons employees leave their job:

a. They feel undervalued. Those who finally decide to leave their job are not actually looking to be praised every time they do something good at work. They just want to be reminded once in a while that they offer valuable contributions to the company. Ignoring them repeatedly will have them seek their value elsewhere.

b. They are not properly compensated. The issue of whether an employee is being compensated fairly is common in many organizations. This is also something that you have to address immediately as it can affect the morale of your team.

c. They don’t have enough time off from work. It is a huge mistake on the part of employers to give additional workload to employees in order to do more with less. Doing this can have a negative effect on employees’ health and well-being, and can eventually lead to high turnover rates.

d. Change in management. Changes are a necessity, especially if it’s going to be for the better. But employers have to understand also that a change in management can affect employees in many ways. Thus, it is important for companies to have a transition plan in place to address whatever issues or problems workers may face during the change.

e. Unreasonable and unrealistic goals. Setting quotas and others goals is vital to maintain productivity levels, but such goals need to be realistic and actually attainable. Otherwise, employees will always be pressured to produce something, and this can make them think that working elsewhere is a better option.

f. They need to be challenged. Effective leaders know for a fact that employees these days are not only after the money they can get from their companies. More importantly, they want career advancement. This is not always about promotion, though. Employees are more likely to stay in an organization that offers different opportunities for skills and career development.

g. They don’t see any clear path to success. Employees of today put so much importance into career planning and career building. Thus, it matters a lot to them to see a pathway to success in their jobs. If they don’t feel that their career is going in the right direction in the job that they have, they will not hesitate to find it somewhere else.

Career Planning: Resume Objective Mistakes to Avoid

To be competitive in the job market, most job seekers revise their resumes and make sure they don’t make mistakes in writing their resume objective. The objective statement is actually considered as the most difficult part of writing a resume. This is because of the fact that a well-written objective can easily get the attention of hiring managers, while writing a bad one can lead to your resume being ignored.

As you craft your resume, you’ve got to start on the right foot, and you can do this by coming up with a good career objective. Here are some mistakes to avoid:

1. Being too simple.

In writing your resume objective, think from a hiring manager’s perspective. It won’t help if you use a very simple one, like “To have a full time job with a stable company”. Obviously, this is your goal, but it’s way too obvious and uninteresting for potential employers.  What you want is to have a statement that clearly describes your interest in that particular job.

2. Leaving out details.

In your resume objective, make sure it contains some of the talents and skills that you possess and will give value to the company. For instance, you could say “Would love to be part of a growing company where I can utilize my 10 years of customer service experience to better serve customers”.

3. Not mentioning your goal.

You want your resume objective to state what you really want to achieve through the job you’re applying for. If you want career stability or career growth, then don’t hesitate to mention it in your objective. This will have hiring managers think that you’re looking for a long-term employment, and not just full time employment.

4. Being generic.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make in writing your resume is to create one that will be used to apply for different types of jobs. Yes, this method seems convenient and efficient on your part, but it is something that hiring managers really don’t like. Hiring managers read hundreds of resumes and application letters every single day, so they know which ones are specific and which ones are generic.

5. Being unrealistic.

There is no way you should exaggerate facts in your resume. If you’re a new graduate, for instance, you can’t say that you have extensive experience in a certain field. While it could be true that you have some real work experience from doing internships or even part time jobs, you shouldn’t claim to be someone you’re actually not.

Writing a resume is much like career planning. There are steps to follow, and things you should and shouldn’t do. You also need to dedicate some time in making your resume to make sure it represents you well as a professional and an individual.