Inevitably, every business will deal with unhappy customers.

The truth is that business, of all sizes, should both expect and welcome complaints. Your most unhappy customers are ideally a great source of learning and further developing your customer service strategies and techniques. It’s said that customers are five times more likely to share a bad experience than a good one. So at some point you are likely to deal with angry, rude or dissatisfied people.

Remember, you’re in business in the first place to serve your customers. Here are seven tips to diffusing a customer service issue, dealing with a unhappy customer in the short-term while delivering on long-term customer service:

Remain calm.
When a customer is angry or rude, there is nothing to be gained by reacting in a similar manner. It will only inflame the situation. Remain professional with customer service in mind.

Don’t take it personally.
When a customer is dissatisfied with a product or the quality service, remember that it’s not about you. Don’t shy away from problems, get in front of them.

Really listen to customers.
Most unhappy customers don’t complain, they simply walk away. Chances are if you are hearing about a problem, others have experienced it as well. Listening patiently can diffuse emotions and make the customer feel their concerns have been acknowledged.

Be sympathetic instead of defensive.
This stance can quickly diffuse anger as well as demonstrate your concern. Show sincere interest and concern, be sympathetic to show you understand, and even take the blame instead of making excuses.

Find a solution.
Find out what the customer really wants so you can work toward that instead of something they do not want. Offer up a realistic solution or ask what they think is fair. In most cases that’s all the customer wants, and they want to be be done with it as quickly as you do.

Deal with it quickly.
There is nothing to be gained by dragging out a negative situation; deal with it quickly and efficiently. You can’t always please everyone all of the time, but you can respond – to phone calls, social media messages, or customers on your sales floor – in a timely manner.

Maintain great customer service.
Even in the worst of circumstances, a customer will remember when you overwhelmed them with great customer service while fixing the issue. Your unhappy customers can be turned to become your most loyal customers.

It’s simply not enough for your business to have a website. Your online presence is often the first touch point with customers and potential customers of your brand, and we know how much first impressions can mean to your business.

Far too often, business websites are neglected and left to languish with no clear objectives in place for how they will be optimized to grow and develop your branding, marketing and sales goals. If your website is in dire need of help or just needs to be tweaked, you should be thinking about how it can be utilized both in the short-term as well as the future to turn prospects into customers.

Here are six tips to upgrade your website for the future:

Content Is Still King
Yes, content is still king. Featuring content that is useful, interesting and captivating is still the best way to get customers to your site and keep them coming back. Update and edit your site consistently, and start by getting rid of out-of-date content that is difficult to keep current. Keep it simple and easy to find, because users spend a few seconds scanning your homepage before leaving.  Statistics show content is 61 percent more likely to drive a purchase than an advertisement. 

Optimize For Mobile
If you haven’t heard already, mobile is where it’s at. People want what they want when they want it, and in 2013 mobile smartphones account for 15.2 percent of online traffic. By 2015, 48 percent of Americans will be using mobile devices to go online.

Ready and Responsive
Think about the future and get ahead of the game by utilizing responsive web design (RWD). With the percentages of web traffic from mobile devices – smartphones, tablets –  due for dramatic increases, make sure your site works across all platforms on various sized screens. 

Get Rid Of Flash
People hate to wait online. That’s why 40 percent of users leave a page if it takes more than three seconds to load. Make sure your site loads quickly, and while you’re at it, get rid of Flash. These days Flash is a sign your website is out of touch, and while it loads slowly, it also doesn't play nice with mobile devices.

Develop a strategy
Regularly review your online strategy and how it helps your business. Add pages or sections as your business grows, and get rid of content that isn't helpful or current. Utilize online metrics to know what parts of your website customers use and understand why they use it, and make sure your site is upgraded for SEO to reach the maximum number of customers. If these backend topics are above your knowledge level, consult a professional who can help determine how to optimize your site.

Engage Your Audience
Make it easy for your customers to interact with your business by providing a platform for feedback. Many customers use social media to directly contact a business, so utilize those one-on-one relationships to learn what they like and don’t like. Optimize social media to send out in-store coupons, instant promotions and product upgrades, updates or specials to create relationships and loyal customers.

Your business intranet doesn’t have to be a thing of the past. In fact, research shows that employees will frequently use an intranet that functions properly, provides information, shares tools and helps them do their jobs more effectively.

So build it – well, build it right – and they will come.

Intranets, for companies big and small, have been around for a while. They are supposed to be a source of information, but due to neglect, poor management and underfunding, have in many cases become outdated, ineffective and finally unused. Here are some tips on how to evolve your intranet to a resource that will engage employees and increase productivity:

Content organization and navigation
A successful intranet still relies on useful, updated information that is easy to find. Employees won’t really care about what technology is used as long as they can find what they need – phone numbers, tool sharing, pay statements – quickly. Put a premium on easy navigation, such as a search function, especially on the homepage.  If you use the intranet for company news and corporate communications, update it frequently with short updates or even an external news feed for industry news and information.

Personalization and optimization
Adapt your intranet to serve the needs of executives and employees who are on the go and utilize mobile device to do business. Optimize the content so it can be consumed on mobile devices, supports multiple browsers and automatically detects new device types for those in the field. Another key is to connect the intranet to data and applications used throughout your business to deliver on functionality. According to the International Data Corporation, companies on average waste $11,000 per year per salesperson because of activities like searching for information. More than just a place to house documents, these intranet upgrades are all part of the personalization process for each employee.

Social media
As a technology, social media can augment the purpose of an intranet – to share information. The next step after information is engagement, which will foster communication, collaboration and productivity. Utilize social media capabilities with tools like discussion forums, instant messaging, wiki sharing, Twitter feeds and comments/ratings features.

Strategy
Above everything else, an effective intranet serves the needs of your company and employees. To that end, have a strategy and commit company leaders to help guide it to increase support and continuous improvement. Provide a mechanism for employee feedback to help drive engagement and buy-in from all levels of the company.

There is no shortage of information written, analyzed and debated when it comes to business-to-business content marketing. But converting your prospects to customers through content conversion is the name of the game, and there are some critical points not to undervalue in the noise of information overload.

Many businesses have turned to content as the key tool in which to interact with their customers, but it’s simply not enough that prospects “like” your content. Customers need to buy into the overall experience, which engages, creates value, nurtures the relationship and ultimately influences their purchase decision.

Solving Needs
The first thing a business buyer will determine is how a product or service will help solve their need or issue. What’s in it for them, and how is your product or service helping? Validate the value of your products and solutions and pitch new approaches to the problems business face.

Keep It Simple
According to The CMO Council, 87 percent of businesses say that online content has a moderate or major impact on vendor selection. So learn how to not undermine the value and impact of content. The same survey indicated the top four dislikes in B2B content is too many requirements, non-substantive, overly technical and blatantly promotional content.

Understanding Customers
Appeal to the personal side of the people behind the businesses, and highlight your ability to understand their issues. It’s not about you; it’s about knowing your prospects well enough to anticipate their reactions accurately. Challenge your own assumptions, introduce fresh thoughts and ideas, and focus on a presentation that appeals to the solutions your prospects need.

Call To Action
Create a sense of urgency with your prospects that makes them feel they need to make a decision, moving from prospect to customer. It could be through a product review, software demo, white paper or any other lead generation piece. According to The CMO Council, 67 percent say professional association reports and papers are among the most trusted content. Endorsements by industry peers are far more effective than touting your own products.

Creating engaging B2B content is a significant challenge for many companies. Creating B2B content that stands out from the crowd, grabs attention and cuts through the noise of an increasingly crowded online marketplace is a much bigger challenge.

According to a report by the Content Marketing Institute, 90 percent of B2B organizations use some form of content marketing. At the same time, The Content Marketing Institute reports 54 percent of small B2B and 58 percent of enterprise organizations find the idea of creating engaging content a serious challenge.

So what exactly is “engaging” content? And what are the successful, outside-of-the-box content tactics that you should embrace and can separate you from the competition?

What do they really want to hear? At the base level, think about what your customers really want to hear about, and then figure out how to deliver it. Beyond being informative and accurate, have fun with your content and keep it light. Strive to be creative, informal, and most of all yourself as you showcase your firm. Offer opinions and insight of current events and industry happenings, and springboard your content of daily news. Remember that clients are coming to you for information about how to run their businesses.

The power of infographics. Infographics offer a fun yet informative way to package data and a wide range of information to your customers that is quick and easy to digest. They have a long shelf life and are great on social media platforms because they can be reposted and shared easily without much effort.

Why not video? The popularity of video shouldn’t be a surprise. Who wants to read 1,000 words online when you can watch a two-minute video? Beyond posting video on your website or embedding it in a blog, utilize social media to push video content and create a video channel on YouTube that is easily found in Google search results and is more engaging than text-based content.

Think about eBooks. Adding a new, complimentary media channel will only improve online integration, engagement and visibility. Create a centerpiece of all your content – much of which you likely already have produced – with embedded slideshows, galleries, videos and infographics in one interactive space that highlights your content.

Truly interactive content. Quality content is a conversation and a two-way street. If done right, interactive content can be a dynamic space to solicit, capture and hold attention. Think about interactive product demos, facilitate engagement on your mobile apps or offer free trials of your product. Take it one step farther by creating a community page of all your social media platforms that feeds in from all your accounts and products to serve as an interactive hub for your customers.

Your business intranet doesn’t have to be a thing of the past. In fact, research shows that employees will frequently use an intranet that functions properly, provides information, shares tools and helps them do their jobs more effectively.

So build it – well, build it right – and they will come.

Intranets, for companies big and small, have been around for a while. They are supposed to be a source of information, but due to neglect, poor management and underfunding, have in many cases become outdated, ineffective and finally unused. Here are some tips on how to evolve your intranet to a resource that will engage employees and increase productivity:

Content organization and navigation
A successful intranet still relies on useful, updated information that is easy to find. Employees won’t really care about what technology is used as long as they can find what they need – phone numbers, tool sharing, pay statements – quickly. Put a premium on easy navigation, such as a search function, especially on the homepage.  If you use the intranet for company news and corporate communications, update it frequently with short updates or even an external news feed for industry news and information.

Personalization and optimization
Adapt your intranet to serve the needs of executives and employees who are on the go and utilize mobile device to do business. Optimize the content so it can be consumed on mobile devices, supports multiple browsers and automatically detects new device types for those in the field. Another key is to connect the intranet to data and applications used throughout your business to deliver on functionality. According to the International Data Corporation, companies on average waste $11,000 per year per salesperson because of activities like searching for information. More than just a place to house documents, these intranet upgrades are all part of the personalization process for each employee.

Social media
As a technology, social media can augment the purpose of an intranet – to share information. The next step after information is engagement, which will foster communication, collaboration and productivity. Utilize social media capabilities with tools like discussion forums, instant messaging, wiki sharing, Twitter feeds and comments/ratings features.

Strategy
Above everything else, an effective intranet serves the needs of your company and employees. To that end, have a strategy and commit company leaders to help guide it to increase support and continuous improvement. Provide a mechanism for employee feedback to help drive engagement and buy-in from all levels of the company.

As many in business know and have likely experienced, acquiring clients is just one piece of the marketing puzzle. Retaining them is entirely another. 
Client retention is defined as the activity that an organization undertakes in order to reduce customer defections. The average business experiences 20 percent client attrition annually. So in order to achieve a growth of 10 percent, you must cover client attrition first, thus making the real goal closer to 30 percent annually. 
The inability to retain clients has true costs that shouldn’t be undervalued. Not only is it 50 percent easier to sell to existing clients than new ones (per this article by Forbes) , one statistic shows it will cost your company five times more to attract a new client than to keep an existing client.


Many businesses know that market research can be costly and a time-intensive endeavor. Knowing what you want is only part of the equation. Getting the data, analyzing it and then leveraging it to your benefit to gain practical insight is another matter.

The proliferation of social media data has added some complexities to market research. Most pertain to the proper capture of data, its accuracy, and the gaps that exist between online behavior and the private reality of users. At the same time, many businesses have turned to social media as a cost-effective and in-depth tool for insight into many aspects of market research, including customers, market and brand awareness.

The key for many businesses is how to utilize the real-time social media data in their market research methods, creating a campaign plan to deliver targeted, efficient and measurable results.  The additional insights garnered from social media can provide marketers the added perspective they need to better appeal to their customers as well as deliver better results to their business or clients.

Here are three tips to leveraging social data:

Explore real-time social data. Research the industry, vertical or groups of your customers to uncover emerging trends and gain insight into what they care about. Uncover the motivations and what drives their decisions to better target your audience, build deeper relationships, and close more sales. This makes your research increasingly more specific.

The benefits of efficiency. In most cases utilizing social data in your research is a matter of minutes or hours, remarkably efficient compared to standard market research practices. Free tools exist for nearly every platform, allowing for many ways to test and explore what your target audiences will respond to the most. The social sphere is a perfect area to test out messages, types of content and campaign themes with minimal time or monetary commitment.

Gain perspective and engagement. The interactive nature of media data allows you to gain information through both engagement and simple observation. Checking the quick pulse of your segment or vertical through interaction, engagement and participation to obtain useful and accurate data, and you might discover additional insights than typical research methods. Leverage those insights to feed your customers timely information they care about, and over time the relationships will develop.

In many ways, public relations firms suffer from a public relations problem of their own.

There are many active misconceptions of what PR agencies do and do not do. Some view public relations as simply publicity or spin, while others see it as public speaking, schmoozing and dealing with the media. Each of these, however, are actually public relations tactics, representing a narrow interpretation of what firms provide for their clients.

The true focal point of public relations begins with strategy. Public relations is a management-level function, defined by PRSA as “a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.”

There are several reasons why myths about PR firms prevail. One is that public relations firms deal with organizational strategies and intangibles – ideas, images, reputations, branding, opinions – that are difficult to visualize and quantify. Another is that many who consider themselves as public relations professionals are actually conducting advertising or other paid communications. And then there is the irony that the PR industry does a poor job of letting others know what exactly it is that they do.

With all of that in mind, here are a few of the common misconceptions of PR firms:

Public relations is just publicity. Publicity is just one of many tools used by PR Firms, one that needs to be strategically managed. In many cases publicity is not the most effective public relations solution.

Public relations is the same as advertising. The job of a PR firm is to gain favorable coverage through relationships in the media because of the newsworthiness of the information, not by paying for it.

Public relations firms are really party planners. As much as this image exists thanks to Sex in the City, much of what professionals do is work closely with clients to determine which strategy and tactics will help meet their communications and business objectives.

Public relations firms are unethical. The best public relations professionals prioritize their clients’ long-term reputations. Anything short of proper ethics would be counterproductive and firms can’t afford to lose their reputations with the media.