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4 Tips to Attract the Right Clients

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Attract the right clients|4 Tips to Attract the Right ClientsMany business wonders and freelancers think that attracting any clients they can is a good strategy for business success. However, casting a wide net might not always be the most optimal way to do things.

Why? For one thing, you might get a lot of inquiries from people who are not looking for the specific services you offer, and you may end up wasting a lot of time on determining that, and for another, not all clients are good clients who are easy to work with and who pay on time.

With all that in mind, here are some top tips to help you attract the best possible clients for your business:

1. Use niche SEO

One of the best things you can do to attract the right clients in the first instance is to use sector-specific SEO like this service that focuses on search engine optimization and the law. By using the right keywords, you can be pretty sure that you will attract the people who genuinely require your services to your website in the first instance which will make life a bit easier when dealing with inquiries.

2. Set up a questionnaire lead form

Compiling a questionnaire that you hand out to all of your business leads in the first instance will give you a better idea of what they are looking for, so you can further determine if they would likely make a good client or if you are not a good fit. Ask them everything from the services they require to how much they are willing to pay and it should be easy to identify clients you can work with.

3. Charge more

This may sound strange, but if you have been getting a lot of low-quality clients who are difficult or who do not value the work you are doing for them, try raising your prices. Many clients think that people who charge little for their work are inexperienced and not very good, so they will treat them accordingly. By upping your prices, you can send out the message that you are professionals who know what you are doing, and you are more likely to attract better clients that way.

4. Focus on referrals

If you can incentivize the good clients you already do have to refer you to their friends and colleagues who may need similar services, this can work out really well because if a client is good to work with, pays on time, and does not cause any difficulties, chances are their friends will be similar, and you won’t have to worry about betting them so hard. It’s not a foolproof method, but more often than not, it will work in your favor, and you will find more good clients without having to spend a lot of time and effort.

By taking your time to better choose your clients, you can avoid misunderstandings, timewasters, and clients who are simply not a good fit for whatever reason, so why not put these tips into action in your company today?

5 Ways Contact Center Software Tends to Fail

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Contact Center Software|5 Ways Contact Center Software Tends to FailGood contact center software works in the background. The best solutions are so low-key that the average consumer doesn’t even notice they exist.

In most cases, the only sign of the software is that the experience was better and more streamlined than the customer expected.

We actually think the average consumer is more likely to notice call center software when it fails than when it works properly.

With that in mind, here are five signs that the contact center software you’re interacting with isn’t working as expected.

1. You have a long wait

Nobody likes to wait on hold, and the best contact center software keeps wait time to a minimum.

It does this in many ways. Call routing, self-service, and automation shorten call time and maximize agent availability.

And even when there is a queue, good tools offer some form of virtual queuing. This feature lets the caller hang up and opt for a call back rather than waiting on hold.

Next time you have a long wait when calling a contact center, it’s probably because the software doesn’t have this feature.

2. You can’t get through to an agent

The next sign of failing call center software is when you can’t get through to an agent.

This is usually due to a frustrating IVR experience. This is the technology you probably know as the automated solution that answers your call before transferring you to an agent.

A good IVR asks useful questions to help connect you with the right agent. But if the IVR isn’t programmed in a user-friendly way, it can stop you from accessing the help you need.

Common problems include the reason for calling not being listed or lists that are long and time-consuming to listen to. These issues mean you’ll struggle to get through to relevant help.

3. You keep having to repeat yourself

Good contact center software connects with other business technology, such as CRM, helpdesk, and multiple communication channels, to improve agents’ access to customer information.

When set up well, all agents can see your account information and contact history. This means you can speak to people on different channels without repeating yourself.

An example of this is what happens when you contact a support team via website chat.

The agent who answers your request inputs the details of your query into the software. Then they can contact you via email or phone when the problem is fixed.

The person who contacts you doesn’t even have to be the same person who answered the query, as everyone can access the data.

4. You’ll speak to the wrong person

A clear sign of failing call center software is when the person who answers the phone is not someone who can answer your problem.

This could be because they are in the wrong department, location, or even speaking the wrong language.

The best contact center tools have powerful features that automatically route people to the right agent.

For example, the software can:

  • Look at your phone number to see where you are calling from and direct you to a local agent
  • Look at the country you are calling from and send you to an agent who speaks your language
  • Match your phone number to an existing customer profile and send you to an agent based on your account status
  • Match your phone number to a recent order or booking and send you to an agent who can provide further information

5. The agent doesn’t know who you are

Good call center software matches your phone number to customer profiles. It can then send information to the agent before they answer the phone. The agent can then personalize their service to your needs.

On a basic level, this means greeting you by name. But it could also be having information about recent purchases or reservations on hand so they can preemptively answer your question.

If the agent doesn’t know who you are when they answer, there could be a problem with the call center software.
Good Contact Center Software Streamlines Support
Ultimately, good contact center software streamlines the support experience. It removes barriers, improves UX, and ensures agents can provide fast, relevant help to customers.

This benefits both customers, who get better support, and businesses, who can answer more queries in a shorter amount of time.

The Benefits of a Business Plan Service

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StrategyDriven Strategic Planning Article |Business Plan |The Benefits of a Business Plan ServiceNot every business has a business plan, not because they don’t need one but because they don’t have the skills or knowledge to create it. That’s where a business plan service can help, these services offer a professional solution to business planning, so you get it right first time.

More Clarity

Not having a business plan doesn’t mean you can’t run a business, but the chances are your business will miss out on efficiency and a host of other benefits that go with having a core plan. For one thing, you will have more clarity which can lead to better decision making in key areas.

Whether it’s an investment, personnel, leases, or resourcing, you can make decisions faster and better when you can look at your business performance over a period and see how it aligns with your business goals. A business plan service can help you develop or update a business plan.

Better Marketing

If you have an excellent product, you need to get it in front of the right people; this requires some industry insight and proper planning. If you want to improve your marketing, then identify your target market and ideal customer persona; you also need to carry out market analysis.

All of this goes into your business plan, so you know exactly who to target and when. A quick glance at your business plan during key periods of the year gives you the solid information you need to make intelligent marketing decisions. This also helps when needing to secure funding.

Funding Support

Whether it’s a bank loan or outside investment from a venture capitalist, you need a business plan with some solid numbers to support your pitch. An investor will need to know your valuation of the company, how you arrived at that valuation, and why you need funding going forward.

Although this section of the business plan is important, not every business owner knows how to calculate the finances of the business and write it out in a way that’s suitable to investors. That’s where a business plan writing service can be useful; they can assist with outlining the numbers.

Better Structure

Without a business plan, a company might suffer from structural inefficiencies that can affect the bottom line. A good business plan should include who works in the business, what departments they manage and what their key skills are, which creates a useful framework for the business.

Not only does a business plan create a structure that helps to strengthen the business internally and flourish, but it also helps to create clarity from the outside. Investors can then look at the business and understand how it works, giving them more confidence to part with their money.

Better Hiring

If you don’t have a business plan, chances are you will bring in the right people at the wrong time leading to inefficiencies that can be avoided with some proper planning. Get it right, and a business plan can assist with hiring the best talent to take the business forwards when required.

Top Tips to Juggle Your Business Responsibilities

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Business Responsibilities|Top Tips to Juggle Your Business ResponsibilitiesAs a business owner, it is likely that you will be in charge of more than one element of your business and that you will have to oversee the rest of your business’s processes. Rather than always feeling flustered and disorganized, here are some of the best ways that you can juggle your business responsibilities in 2022.

Get Management Technology

Rather than try to juggle all of your responsibilities alone and remember every single task that you need to perform, you should use management technology. This technology has been specifically designed to help business leaders to better control what happens within their business. If you are a landlord or run a property business, you might decide to work with a property management company that uses the most modern technology, as this can help you to manage repairs and maintenance, find tenants, and handle fees and inspections. You will then be able to run your business flawlessly without constantly having to think about what task you need to complete next.

Delegate

A great business leader will be able to delegate certain tasks to other members of their team, rather than trying to do every single activity themselves. By loosening control on your business, you will be able to ensure that you can focus your full attention on the aspects which are important to you or which are your strengths, while allowing your employees to handle the elements of your business that are their forte. By doing this, you will be able to ensure that every single part of your business runs smoothly and simultaneously and that you do not have to run from place to place trying to do everything at once.

Stay Organized

There is nothing that can help you to juggle all of your business responsibilities more, though, than staying organized. Organization is key to your leadership strategy as it can allow you to feel in control at all times and to know exactly what is on your to-do list. Staying organized can also help you to handle tasks more quickly as you will not have to spend hours looking for the resources or paperwork that you need. So if you struggle to stay organized, you should invest in a good storage unit for your office, go entirely paperless, and consider downloading organization apps that may be able to help you.

Have a Plan

One of the top steps that you can take to juggle every single one of your business responsibilities, though, is to have a plan in place, whether this is only a plan for the day or one that encompasses a longer period. Having a plan will allow you to ascertain what task you need to do in what order and can ensure that you never feel that what you are doing is aimless or will not contribute to the success of your business. This will also ensure that every single person knows what they are meant to be doing at any given time.

Free Advertising: Does It Exist & How To Do It

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StrategyDriven Online Marketing and Website Development Article |Free Advertising|Free Advertising: Does It Exist & How To Do ItIf something is free, that means you haven’t paid for it. So, are there ways to advertise your business without spending a penny? Technically, there are. However, there are also ways to achieve ‘free’ advertising in another sense.

You see, advertising usually works as such: you pay to get your adverts placed somewhere – this can be online, on TV, in a newspaper, on a billboard, etc. There is another type of free advertising where you do spend some money, but the actual advertising of your business is done for free. Effectively, this is done by using your customers to advertise your business for you.

With that in mind, here are some ways to take advantage of free advertising:

Social media comments

Social media replies and comments are easy ways to advertise your business. All you have to do is pick viral tweets or celebrity/influencer accounts and comment on their posts. Comment normal things – don’t actively advertise your business or post links! It’s completely free to do, and you have a huge chance of multiple users clicking your name when they see you’re a brand. As a result, this might drive traffic to your site.

Who knows, you may even get lucky and see one of the influencers contact you asking for free stuff. So, you can start influencer marketing as well!

Social media giveaways

Another tactic that takes advantage of the power of social media. This is one of those things that you do spend money on, but the advertising is free. Host a giveaway on social media where you give free products or money to one person. As part of the giveaway, everyone has to share the post, add it to their story, like it, follow you, and tag a friend.

Simple requirements, but it means that your post is getting shared around loads. Thus, it’s free exposure and advertising for your brand. A small upfront cost leads to excellent advertising benefits.

Free gifts

Handing out free gifts to consumers and customers will also help you advertise for free. Give people things like custom stickers, bags, coffee cups, lanyards, etc. All of these products are branded, meaning your customers will literally be walking advertisements for you.

Make the free gifts as functional as possible to encourage your customers to use them. They’ll go about their daily life advertising your business to everyone that sees them. It is such a smart and effective way of spreading brand awareness as far as the eye can see.

There you have it; free advertising does exist and it is really effective. You can see from the final two ideas how the act of advertising your business is free. You spend money on the giveaway or the free gifts, but after that the advertising and promotion you receive come with no costs at all. Ideas like these are really helpful for emerging businesses with small marketing budgets. You can’t afford to keep paying for online ads or massive TV adverts. So, you need to think of sneaky ways to expose your business for free.