In the current economic climate your customers have less money to spend. They want to buy the cheapest products and services. Unfortunately, for the majority of businesses, overall costs and overheads are increasing and so freezing or even cutting prices to compete is not an option. If your increased costs are not passed on to customers, your profits are reduced.

In addition, consumers are becoming more demanding, and so businesses that wish to remain competitive in 2012 will have to reduce costs while keeping service levels high.

Luckily, the majority of customers are still prepared to pay for good service. It’s proven that happy and satisfied customers have increased brand loyalty and are also less price sensitive. So rather than thinking about slashing prices, you should be aiming to differentiate from your competitors by providing better service.

One of the easiest ways to improve customer services is simply to be available when they need you.

From the very start of the sales process, potential clients will expect you to be reachable. If they phone you and get a recorded message, or even worse, no answer at all, they will probably go elsewhere. For the customer, every penny counts these days, and when they choose to spend it with your company they will want to believe that they are getting value for money from you. Even for long term ‘loyal’ customers, there is nothing like the pressure of a tightening budget and an unanswered phone to encourage them to check out the competition.

If you’re often away from your phone, or even if you just want your customers to hear a real human voice when you’re out of the office, call handling solutions from CSnotepad could be the answer.

Our highly trained Virtual Receptionists pride themselves on providing outstanding levels of service to our customers and your customers. We’ll even provide you with a dedicated Account Manager to make sure everything runs smoothly.

Leaving you free to do the same for your business.

A new year means a great opportunity for making new plans for your business. But this is also the perfect time of year to organise your workplace, meaning that you really can make a fresh start in 2012.

Here’s the CSnotepad guide to getting your workplace in order:

The key to getting your workspace organised for the year ahead is to break the job down into smaller tasks. It won’t take any longer but will seem a lot less overwhelming.

Start by clearing your desktop. There’s nothing more disheartening on a Monday morning than a teetering pile of paperwork. File any important papers and recycle or shred anything that doesn’t need to be kept. Allocate folders or box files for things like receipts that have be kept to hand, (you don’t have to organise them at this stage if you’re short of time, but you will always know exactly where they are). If you don’t have any files, just use large, clearly marked envelopes.

If you already have a filing system, now is the perfect time to go through and remove anything that really doesn’t need to be kept any longer. And remember, your filing system exists to help you to do your job. Don’t be afraid to amend it to suit your business and the space available to you.

Don’t forget to clean up your computer desktop too! Remove old programs and make sure that your virus protection is up to date. Remember to do the same with your mobile phone too. Make sure that the information on both devices is backed up safely.

Take that pile of dusty business cards and put the contact details into your phone or computer. Then recycle them!

Clear out your email inbox– delete them or deal with them – and put any that need to be kept into clearly labelled folders. If you work with others, ask them to use a similar system so that electronic mail can always be easily found. And while you’re at it, unsubscribe from all those unwanted mailing lists to reduce inbox clutter next year.

Start your 2012 diary, whether paper or electronic. Remember to transfer anything you need over from last year’s diary. Get recurring appointments set up in your calendars.

Don’t forget walls and notice boards! Take down anything that’s out of date and no longer relevant.

If storage is a problem now’s the time to think about sorting out drawers and cupboards. You might find that a quick clear up frees up a lot of space and means that you don’t have to splash out on new office furniture to stay organised.

Finally, take a long hard look at old office equipment. If you’re not using it, recycle or donate it to charity.

But if after all this you still don’t have enough room, why not consider virtual office or call handling services from CSnotepad. All the benefits of an office and fully trained staff, without taking up any of the space.

Happy New Year!

The clocks have gone back and most of us enjoyed an extra hour of free time. Sometimes we all wish for a couple of extra hours in the day. But if this is a regular occurrence for you, you may need to work on your time management.

Time management is an essential tool for keeping work levels under control, achieving goals and minimising stress levels.

In theory it’s simple – create a schedule of priorities, and work on the highest priority task first. Unfortunately in the real world it isn’t always that easy.

Here’s our quick 5 point plan to help you manage your time more effectively – without taking up very much of it:

1. Set Goals.

First things first, decide what you want to do with your time. Set goals. Once you know where you’re going you can work out the quickest way to get there. Make the effort now to set clear, achievable goals and then work backwards from them.

2. Priorities, priorities!

Once you know what your goals are, decide exactly what you need to do to achieve them. Then list all of the other daily tasks that you need to do too. List all of these in order of importance. In other words, what would be the consequences if you didn’t do something? This should make it easier to prioritise. It’s important to not just make a generic ‘To-do’ list. You’ll be overwhelmed and probably won’t do any of it.

3. Scheduling.

So you have a list. You know what’s important. Now you need to make sure that you have the time set aside to complete the things that need to be done first. Avoid procrastinating. Putting things off until later will leave you firmly back at square one, overwhelmed and short of time.

4. Be Realistic

If you know something takes two days, don’t try and finish it in one. If you need help to complete a project, ask for it. If you know you work best in the morning, don’t start your most important project at 5pm. Avoid distractions where possible. Allow for interruptions in your schedule and plan accordingly.

5. Managing Interruptions

Interruptions are a fact of life. It’s how you deal with them that makes the difference. Try the two minute rule. Allow yourself two minutes to deal with anything urgent that crops up and no more. Then return to the task in hand. If you’re really up against a deadline, switch off email notifications and check them once an hour (or less). Get someone else to act as receptionist and screen your calls.

With telephone answering services from CSnotepad you can manage your time more effectively.
Let our Virtual Receptionists help you to get the job done.