Consider These Factors in Writing Your Service Business Plan

In a service business, proper definition of the factors that will make it successful is a must. A service business plan needs to consider these important factors in order to make an outline that will be necessary in achieving customer satisfaction.

In a service business, it is important to note that its success is greatly dependent on the experience that each client will have upon availing their services.

The factors in making an effective service business plan include these things in particular:

1. Service offering. As service businesses are bound to provide quality service for their selected market, it is imperative to provide them with favorable experience. Say for example, a friendly interaction, convenience, lower prices, and extended hours. Customers have the tendency to compare you to other service oriented companies which makes it necessary for you to give them an advantage when it comes to offering.

2. Employee management. This is an integral factor that will affect your business plan. The ways that you will employ in managing your employees is important in making them effective in their roles within the organization. By proper supervision and motivation, employees will be more engaged to provide customers with the satisfactory service that will be a plus factor for your business.

a. Delegation. One of the things that you need to learn is not to do all the work all by yourself. In a business organization, delegating is important. In employee management, assigning the tasks allows your people to take up responsibilities that make them feel that they belong in the setup. In this way, you will be able teach them how to do the job right and in the process, make them more useful in providing satisfaction to your clients.

b. Motivation. You can easily do this by giving incentives. Better performances are commonly a result of a good reward system. You can also start by showing them by example the right attitude that they should have in providing service to clients.

3. Customer management. It is not only your employee management skills that you will need to consider in your business plan. Your ability to manage your clients will also play an integral role in the achievement of your business objectives. Here are some tips that you can use in improving customer management:

a. Keep existing clients. This is easier that soliciting for new ones. You can achieve this by providing them with satisfactory service that will surely make them patronize your company.

b. Listen to clients. If you want to get to know them, listen to them. If you want to get their feedback, listen to them. The best way to gain customer confidence is by listening to them.

c. Follow through on promises. If you already know what your customers are really craving for, it's right about time to execute them. Giving them results that you have promised to give is important in keeping them satisfied.

d. Prioritize customer interests. In a service company, it is important to put the customer's needs on top of your priority list. Remember that your business will greatly benefit on customer satisfaction, and besides, the customer is always right.

The proper mix of these factors can ensure the success of your service business. By finding the right combination through the creation of your service business plan, you will be able to maintain your competitive nature in the market and provide customer satisfaction at its best.

Dealing With Online Business Service Frauds

Many people have gone through it. Pesky emails offering you a job at an online business service, promising obscene amounts of money a month for receiving and shipping packages at your home, or buying programs to make money. There have also been business service scams offering people money to do stay at home telemarketing, a job that many people in the marketing field legitimately do. How can you tell the difference between scams and the real thing? Can you make money at home doing business service? What can you do if you give your information to a scam? These questions and more can be solved with a simple answer. The BBB.
 
- What is the BBB? How Can You Tell the Difference Between a Scam and The Real Deal?
 
The Better Business Bureau holds information on most businesses on and offline. Many business service scams place a BBB A+ rating sticker on their websites to make buyers more comfortable. If a BBB sticker is seen on a site, most would think that the business is trustworthy. This is sadly incorrect. Any scam or fraud site can place this sticker on their page and seem legit. The only real way to tell if the business is legit or not is to do your research and search the BBB for information on the business. Also, looking for information posted by real people who have worked with certain businesses and their experiences can be helpful as well.
 
- Can You Make Money at Home Doing Business Service?
 
There are many work from home business service opportunities posted on the internet. In order to find the real ones, you have to do your research and know what you are looking for. Most jobs you won't have to pay for in order to start working. That's something that you should remember when searching for employment. A good way to make money from home is by doing data entry or freelance writing. There are a many sites where employers post jobs and allow multiple people to apply for them at once. If selected to complete a certain job, you will be paid for your work.
 
- What Do I Do If I Give a Scam My Information?
 
If you have been subject to a scam or feel like you are being scammed, first contact the company, person, or business service you feel is a scam and request that your information be discarded, that you receive a refund, and/or let them know you feel that their business is flaky and you will be reporting them to the BBB at your earliest convenience. After you have attempted contact, you do not have to wait for a response before you report them to the BBB. Visit the BBB website and file a report giving them all the information about your interaction with the said company, person, or business service and allow them to review your information. Many people use the BBB website daily so expect to have to wait a little bit for a response.
 
Sadly, in instances such as these, where people are falling susceptible to scams, very little tends to be done to help scam victims. By reporting any suspicious business service or company, you are able to save perhaps thousands of people from being taken advantage of. If you have been a victim of scams and frauds, do your part to make reviews, posts, and blogs about your experience and the business to prevent others from falling into the same trap.

Sourcing Strategy - How to Define Your Business Requirements

If your sourcing strategy is to deliver a breakthrough result in terms of cost reduction and service improvement, it is vital that you accurately define what it is that your strategy aims to source. This is done using a Business Requirements Definition or BRD.

In addition, your sourcing strategy will not sit in isolation - there will be a number of groups of people who have an interest in the outcome. These are called stakeholders. The Business Requirements Definition sets out what your sourcing strategy needs to deliver if all stakeholders are to be satisfied. It is a structured description of what you need to source from supply markets and covers the full range of stakeholder needs.

Defining your business requirements is a team game in that you must involve the appropriate stakeholders in your organisation. This will mean that the full set of needs is taken into account and an agreement reached on any trade off that is needed between conflicting requirements.

These requirements are critical to a successful sourcing outcome because they are a key input to a number of steps in the sourcing process. These include:-

o Deciding on the evaluation criteria to be sued in selecting the preferred supplier

o Testing your sourcing options so that the one that most closely meets your organisation's overall needs is chosen

o Developing the most relevant performance measures to include in the contract

o Deciding whether circumstances have changed so much that the sourcing strategy needs to be re-visited

You can develop and document your business requirements using the framework below.

Top tips:-

o Gather as much data on the future direction of your organisation as you can so that you can test that your business requirements match the needs of the organisation. This includes corporate and business unit strategies, policy statements, business plans and technology plans.

o Identify and meet with all of the stakeholders to understand and challenge their perceived needs in order to separate needs from wants and to understand their priorities.

o Challenge the needs to make sure that you are not just replicating the previous solution.

o Consult with as many people as possible who have a role to play in the acquisition or use of the product or service and make sure that there are no changes that they know about to technology and processes that may change the requirement.

o Share the summary of all of this analysis so that a consensus can be reached that accommodates everyone's need and buy-in can be achieved.

All About Franchising: Types of Business Services Franchise

One of the profitable types of franchise you can choose is rendering a service. In this type of franchise, you don't have to worry about manufacturing and marketing a product. What you have to focus on is the service that you must provide for the customers using the methods provided by the franchisor. There are different types of business services franchise available nowadays, namely: direct mail, cleaning, shipping, printing, staffing, and financing.

Direct Mail

Simply put this type of business services franchise refers to the delivery of advertising materials through mail. Direct mail began in the 1950s and has survived the recession pretty well. Compared to other forms of advertising, direct mail is relatively more affordable. E-mail advertising can also be considered as direct mail which has lower costs than print advertisement. Franchisers of direct mail can make their business more cost effective by using recycled paper and employing cheap printing technology.

Cleaning

This type of business services franchise is considered labor-intensive, because it relies on the work of employees for success. Although you won't be doing the mopping yourself, you have to supervise a team that will do the job. You have to train them according to the methodologies provided by the franchisor. As of July 2011, cleaning services franchisors can earn as much as $36,000 per year.

Shipping

Businesses who require shipping of products are the usual clients of a shipping franchise. This type of business services franchise uses carriers for picking up the goods and bringing it to its destination. Shipping franchisers may negotiate with existing carriers to give their customers better rates on shipping.

Printing

Also known as commercial printing or quick printing, this type of franchise became popular since the introduction of quick printers in 1960. Printing franchises use large printing technology to print commercial photos and graphics mostly used for advertisement. As of 2010, there are 6,640 quick printing franchises in the United States, generating annual revenue of $2.9 billion.

Staffing

Considered as the largest sector in business services franchising in the United States, staffing generates $170 billion as its total annual revenue. It usually comes in three types, namely: temporary help services, professional employer organizations, and placement agencies. Among the types of staffing franchise, temporary help services account for 40% of the total revenue.

Financing

Also known as cost reduction franchise, financial service franchise may cater to individuals, small businesses, or large corporations. One of the services offered by a financial service franchise is financial planning for retirees. The franchise employs a team of financial advisors who will provide financial information to customers regarding different types of investments.

Trademark International Class - Class 35 - Advertising and Business Services

All goods or services are categorized within International Classes (IC hereafter). Goods run from classes IC 1-34, while Services are in IC 35-45. Let's take a closer look at one of these trademark classes - class 35.

What is International Class 35 All About?

Each class has a short title heading that gives a snapshot of what that class is all about -- IC 35's short title is advertising and business services. Pretty vague, eh?

The first part of IC 35's description, advertising, is straightforward. If it's advertising, marketing or promoting services that are being offered, then this is the class. Now there are going to be some exceptions, as with anything related to trademarks.

Tangible advertising goods, such as signs, flyers, brochures, are NOT going to be in IC 35 as those items are not technically a service though are definitely part of a service; tangible paper-based advertising goods are in IC 16. Training, coaching, educating, etc. about advertising, marketing or promotion is NOT going to be in IC 35 but rather in IC 41, which is the educational class.

The second part of international class 35's description, business services, is not straightforward at all. Semantically, all services could be considered as business services, yes? No way says the trademark powers that be; at least no way if those services can fit within a different international classification.

The USPTO has about 1500 accepted descriptions that fit into IC 35; check them out here.

So What Business Services are in International Class 35?

Ooh this is a tough nut to crack as there are definitely some discernible patterns within this class but there's a whole lot of slap-dash in here too. Here's a general breakdown:

o If your services consist, in part, of the word business, you're likely in trademark class 35. This includes consulting, advising, administration, management, development, information, organization, research, planning, etc.

o Employment services are in this class, which includes hiring, recruiting, placement, staffing and career networking.

o Retail services selling ANY products under the sun, which means a brick and mortar store, online retail sites, mail order, catalog, wholesale, etc.

Get Freelancers for Your Business Services Needs

While running a business, there are many essential services that are required on a day to day basis. Business services are an important element of any business that ensures its survival. For small business that struggle to hire full time staff, outsourcing these services to freelance providers could be the ideal answer. If you decide to get freelancers for your business services needs, there is no doubt they would turn out to be reliable and a necessary part for your business processes.

Once the company has found reliable freelancers, results will become obvious that the business will start to develop and grow into successful entity. There are many freelance websites which offer opportunities for both businesses and the freelancers to find each other and work together. One can find a lot of different business services offered by freelancers and it is these diverse resources that businesses will be able to leverage and improve their current situations.

Whether it is accounting services, financial services, IT services or any other required service by the business, one can find experienced freelancers for all business service requirements. Once you get freelancers for your business you will find out how reliable, convenient and cost effective they are. To get freelancers whenever they are required, employers find they soon become a necessary investment. Freelancers have the ability to do anything in their chosen fields, it won't take long before they become an integral part of the companies processes.

To get freelancers is not a very difficult task; there are many freelance websites where one can find freelancers for every kind of business service. Freelancers can really make a big difference in the development and growth of a business through their efficient services. In today's world, businesses are worried about their profit margins and are always on the verge of contracting their budget and expanding their profits. Hiring a freelancer for business services is a great way to cut costs effectively.

Hiring freelancers for performing various business services has become a trend for many companies. It is a cost effective way to run a business, but make sure that the services you acquire from the freelancers are up to the mark. But overall it is a very effective way of running a business. The only thing required is to keep a close communication with the hired freelancer to make sure there are no misunderstandings along the way.

It is well known that to get freelancers for business services is quite advantageous, especially for small business. Once the business founds a reliable freelancer, it has been proven that the business would benefit a lot from the services provided by a freelancer

Business Online Service - Why It's a Great Idea

There is a lot of money to be made online. But that money is only made when there is work done that will earn the money. That's why a business online service that completes work for people is such a great idea. It's an excellent idea for the person providing the service and it's a great idea for the person taking advantage of the service.

First of all, when a person is particularly good at something that's useful to others, it's a great idea for them to use their talent and provide a business online service. If you're good at writing, or designing web pages, or writing code, or doing any number of other things then you should provide an online business service. It's a great way to make some quick money. You're able to do what you love and what you're good at, and you get paid for doing it.

Of course, if you're interested in making a lot of money then you should take advantage of business online services as much as possible. The more work you can get done by someone else, the more money you can make. Allowing others to complete your work will also free you up to do more important things.

Successful Internet Marketers know that a major key to their success is using other people to complete jobs that they themselves aren't good at, don't like to do, or simply don't have the time to do. This is why it's a great idea to take advantage of a business online service. Hiring one or more people to provide a service is worth a lot more than the money that has to be paid for the actual service.

Offering a business online service really is a winning situation for both parties. The person providing the service can make money doing something they are good at and something they enjoy doing. The Internet Marketer gets to have a task (or more than one task) completed and done well. And then they can concentrate on other things that will make their business even more successful.

There are many different types of business online services. Two of the most popular services are writing and web design. If you are good at a particular service then you should definitely work for other Internet Marketers and make some quick and easy money. If you are an Internet Marketer then you should definitely take advantage of these services. Doing so will allow you to take your business to the next level and become successful.

Home Based Business Services - Do You Really Need A Bunch Of Stuff?

How many times have you seen the ads pop up during a web session browser, "Make money fast online" with home based business services? How many times have you visited the same type of site, only to find it was just another way to make a website, with all the same old fees involved? Or, perhaps the fee was all inclusive? All one knows, is that after doing enough research on these sites, it's easier than ever to run your own home based business.

So, how do you start? Well, the best way is to list the services you will offer. Keep in mind that this will need to be a pretty comprehensive list, especially if you are offering multiple services. After you have a good list, post it on your website and then it's just a matter of providing contact information so that would be clients can contact you. With all the many, many ways to create a home based business service, how can one really distinguish what's important to such an endeavor? There are at least two things that you will need.

First, you're going to need an auto-responder, to answer all the incoming emails for your home based business services, something along the lines to let people know that you will follow up with them at some time in the future. What is really going to be the time consuming part, is actually going through each email and adding that personal touch to it by answering that "soon to be" client. This way, you can generate your own leads, without having to pay someone else to find your new clients. This will cost about $20.00 a month, but it's worth every penny. You'll have a readymade list of clients that have been answered by your auto-responder. This also will enable you to answer each person individually, at your own leisure. This allows you to start a rapport with a client that ultimately will decipher whether or not you wish to work with that person.

There will also be a need for a custom domain name, so that people can visit your web link, which will cost about $10.00 a year. After all, how will people find out about your services, if they can't visit a link that lists the services you offer? There might be other fees that you will find along the way that are included as a business expense. However, a domain name fee, and an auto-responder are two fees that are essential to a home based business. Of course, all of it is useless without a computer, which you already have or you wouldn't be reading this.

Once you have your home based business services set up, the next step is to get to work. Don't go out there and buy leads, generate your own. When you generate your own leads, you're positioning yourself as the expert, rather than someone else. At that point it becomes about your relationship with your audience AKA your potential customers.

Understanding Customer Service

Does your organization share the same view of customer service? Has service been defined or is it a generic term? Having an organizational philosophy around customer service is as important as having a mission and vision statement. Many times I have been a customer and have gone into a store or called a business and received nothing more than a representative being neutral in demeanour and reactive to my questions, yet believing good service had been provided. A business cannot gain a competitive advantage through mediocre transactions with customers. What does customer service mean to you? Do you want transaction or interaction experiences?

"Being on par in terms of price and quality only gets you into the game. Service wins the game." (Tony Alessandra)

Here is our customer service definition.

Customer Service is a philosophy of being customer-focused, put into daily practice by all employees. It includes a series of defined principles:

Perception is reality.
Taking the customer perspective in every situation and asking yourself "how do they think I acted/responded, what kind of feeling are they leaving our interaction with". It is understanding that your perceptions influence the type of interaction with the customer. For example: if you think that a customer who is having a problem or is being difficult is a nuisance, your ability to solve the problem and listen with empathy will be negatively affected and will affect the outcome of the experience.

The customer is always right.
This does not mean the customer is always right, but it means we take the attitude that the customer has a right to be served, has a right to their needs being listened to, understood and our best attempt to meet those needs.

Interaction vs. transaction.
Our behaviors and how we interact with customers need to focus on building relationships (strategic, proactive, organization-initiated) versus having a transaction with a customer (reactive, customer-driven, situational).

One size does not fit all.
Customers are unique and want to be treated as individuals, versus having a one-sized fits all approach where employees are enforcing policies. Businesses have guidelines, which support employees in making decisions and understanding workflow, but during an interaction, the customer wants to feel like their unique need is being addressed (even if the need isn't unique at all).

"You never get a second chance to make a first impression".
Consistent strategies employed across an organization to ensure the customer is receiving a positive first impression are critical.

Define your story.
Customers in every business are telling a story about their experience with you once it is over. The question is what kind of story they are telling. Customer focused organizations define an experience based on what their customers want and then create processes, enable technology, train and support people to action.

Service is a process, not an event.
Being customer focused means having a system for continuous quality improvement to ensure the standard can never fall to mediocre or comfortable. By encouraging and acting on customer feedback, employee feedback and a desire to carve out a different experience versus catching up with the competition, customer focused organizations find ways to be innovative, reduce barriers, solve problems at the root, find new ways to wow, encourage complaints, change processes, etc.

Happy employees = happy customers.
Our customers will only be treated as well as our employees. Part of customer service initiatives must include strategies around hiring, retention, and motivation of our most valuable internal assets.

Activity:
Here is an activity you could use to define customer service. Place two flip charts in a room, one labelled "what to do" and one labelled "what not to do". Ask participants to consider past personal experiences as a customer, and brainstorm behaviours illustrating what we should do if we are in the business of service, and what we should not.

Since you are in the business of customer service, using the flip chart "what to do" and adding answers to it, brainstorm a list of behaviours that answer the statement "Customer Service means..." You might have responses like: Customer Service means doing what you can for the customer, answering their question on the spot, following up on promises, asking strategic questions to understand the customer need and motive, etc.

Go back through your brainstormed list and pull out common themes. Use these to write a definition (one or two sentences) and/or series of principles. Use these to guide you in understanding the concept of what service is, related to your business.

It is not enough to just create the philosophy, employees need to buy into it and understand what it means to them (i.e., how do they implement and execute this daily)? This requires your philosophy/principles to be defined in terms of actions and behaviours.

Home Based Business Services - Stop Throwing Money Away!

If you're looking for more home based business services to help you quickly and efficiently build your business, then you are going to want to read this article from top to bottom. In it, I am going to show you how to stop throwing money away, and how certain types of home based business services are not "serving" you or your business...and are basically serving only to drain your bank account.

Most people when they look for home based business services, end up spending their money for business card services, vehicle magnets and related things. So the very first thing I want you to do, is to stop throwing your money away by constantly putting your money into things which, from a long-term perspective, aren't going to benefit you or your business.

Although these types of techniques can build a business, the process is painstakingly slow and full of constant rejection. Think about the numbers associated with utilizing these techniques and this type of home based business services.

Even if you used these home based business services and they garnered you 10 calls and 1-2 closes a week (translating to you recruiting 7-8 people per month). Not only are you working your tail off to get them, but you have to worry about retention issues. After a few months, these prospects are likely to be dropping off faster than you can get new ones.

When you are encouraged to use these kind of home based business services - the ones that by nature have you marketing your company (instead of you) and leading with the business opportunity (instead of with the benefits) -- that is the half of the equation that they never seem to tell you. While these things may work to recruit people, they are MUCH more likely to recruit people who are likely to drop out within a month or two. It makes it so much harder to get to your goal, because you are spending so much energy having to recruit enough people to make up for the number of people who are dropping out each month.

You need to understand how to take advantage of much larger marketing platforms than these home based business services can create for you, so that you can expose your business to a much, MUCH larger pool of prospects. This is best done using the Internet.

With that said, there are a couple of things that must be in place for that to be effective. First, you need some sort of lead capture page. The ONLY objective with that lead capture page should be to get the contact information (the email) of people who are already looking for what you've got.

Second, you need to drive traffic to this page, so that you can build relationships with these people (so that they ultimately WANT to buy the things you have and WANT to be in business with you). In doing this, there are really only a couple of home based business systems you need.

Pick up a GoDaddy or HostGator account. Either one of these options will be fine, and the only fees you will be looking at incurring are ~$12.00 a year for the hosting package and ~$15.00 a month to host an unlimited number of websites. The other service that is really essential to get the process moving is an autoresponder. Good ones to check out are GetResponse and AWeber. Both run about $20.00 a month.

In conclusion, stop spending money on various tools and home based business systems that are likely not to provide you any great or long-term results. Take those funds, and instead apply them to the part of your business that will give you a great return on your investment.

If you're looking for the home based business services to avoid, and what to do instead, grab my FREE REPORT titled: "How To Create YOUR First 6-Figure Month In Network Marketing" by clicking on the link above.