January 2015 Archives

Why Franchise Software is Moving Into the Cloud

In interviewing our customers, I found that there were several things they value.

Things they want even before the product or the service.

They boiled down to three basic wants comprising of what we now call the R-T-C factor: Relationship, Trust and Consistency.

Let's go over them:

1. R - - Relationship Building rapport is an overlooked art.

Call many companies and the first word shouted at you is: "Name?" No "nice to meet you by phone" or even a "good morning."

There's very little rapport building found in today's customer service. Relationship starts within the first 4 to 6 seconds of a phone call or within 30 seconds for an in-person visit. That sets the stage for the rest of the transaction.

Plus, it lays the groundwork for possible future business. Rapport building and relationships are vital to every communication exchange. It's a simple basic process.

2. T - - Trust If the customer is unable to trust what you say, the relationship will melt to zero.

Gaining the trust of your customer is the KEY to relationship. From following through when you promise to call or fulfilling the company's guarantee statement, creating trust is vital.

If those trusts are broken, it's a big fence to mend. Keep your word to gain the trust of your customer. They need to know they can count on you. Before any sale, a customer must buy "you."

3. C - - Consistency The McDonald's hamburger in Cancun, Mexico tastes the same as the one in Des Moines, Iowa. Why? Consistency. The taste will be the same in each of the stores.

A business should run with the same consistency. It shouldn't matter who the customer talks with. Personally, I'm skeptical when someone tells me to, "Be sure to talk to Joe. He's the best there is." I'd rather hear, "You can talk to anyone in our office."

In summary, the R - T- C Factor is what customers look for and deserve in any of their transactions. So, I ask you? Do you provide enough R-T-C to keep your customers satisfied? As we like to say, this is not rocket science, it's not major surgery. . . it's plain old common sense. Do it.

A recent IFA Annual Conference speaker, Nancy speaks at franchise meetings across the country.

Her passion for the small business is second only to her techniques on sales and customer service.

Her reviews at IFA were off the chart. Contact Nancy personally about your meetings.

314 291 1012 [email protected] or www.nancyfriedman.com

For a complimentary copy of Nancy's eBook, Hidden Gems of Customer Service, please click here.

This is a very simple question.

It was recently asked in a LinkedIn Franchise Group.

And I bet we all want to know the answer.

It would make it easy to build next years franchise marketing budget for franchise buyers if we just had a short-list.

Even better if it had a performance ranking.

There were almost 50 answers and comments to this important question.

Here's a selection of what franchising people said -

"I speak with franchise development departments every day and have found that they can fork out as much as 60% of the initial franchise fee in order to secure qualified franchisees (using franchise consultants, recruiters, etc.). Are there any databases of open territories for potential franchisees to search? Vice-versa are there any databases of franchisees in the market to open a new location?" Mike Mackin

"It has been my experience that you can "catch the bigger fish" through today's portals. The secret is working with your portal vendor and let them help you on the franchise investment levels that you post on the site. The best experience I have had has been with Franchising.com. There numbers are a little lower, but the quality is very good. And don't forget that most consumers are not going to tell you what they really have in the bank until you get further down the sales process." Phil Mettra

"Portals are just another outlet for reaching your target, I don't think you can narrow down a specific vendor that does better than another. If the opportunity on the portal is attractive enough, the portal also ranks highly on Google for top keywords and it has healthy traffic stats (which the portal vendor can provide to you) then you have a winning vendor. You should always do your due diligence and ask those vendors to provide you monthly traffic to the page you will be listed and can even go as far as asking for the top 3 IP locations to ensure they are based in your market. Remember that candidates can come from anywhere but your digital presence, especially social and reputation, is what will give you the edge in higher investment brackets." Brendon Major

"My experience with the portals is that they sometimes work beautifully and other times they just dont. The exact same advert on one site delivers 10 leads and on another none. To be honest although I have met many "experts" I have never found one that has been able to unravel the mysteries of the portals." Sean Goldsmith

"Just wondering if there are other portals more likely to reach and succeed with the higher investment prospects? I believe in a strategy of creating presence and buzz for your brand, with a wide digital presence probably now being the top tactical priority" Kevin Kruse

"I may have a bit of a different take. If a company is looking for "high dollar" candidates, I suggest the you will find them better using highly target public/media relations campaigns, instead of portals. As noted above, using portals to find YOUR candidate is a bit like fishing in the Atlantic Ocean with a single line, a bobber, a safety pin, and a piece of corn as bait. They simply are not designed to find a specific type of candidate. They have tens of thousands of names/inquiries, but they simply cannot be targeted to YOUR candidate. It is MUCH better to design a PR/MR program that targets YOUR candidate BEFORE the person even starts looking for a franchise. By the time a potential candidate hits a portal, you are already competing with hundreds of other franchise companies. Right? Portals have a role, but not for finding a specific type of candidate." Dr. Michael (Mick) Riddiough

"Before you start your campaigns, it is good if the portal can offer statistics for the locations where you are listing in, because different categories work in different locations. The categories can change every 3 months, so it is important to keep on top of the statistics and results. Another point which might help, is that franchisees don't always come from franchise portals, our web portal is a business and franchise for sale portal, mainly because some people are looking for any business opportunity and inquire about the franchise opportunities on the website. It is a larger net to catch enquirers. I hope this is helpful in understanding web portals and how to run a more successful franchise recruitment campaign." Paul O'Brien

"That is great advice, and I like your approach to testing adverts and then placing the most highly effective ones. The big stumbling block is how forthcoming the portals are with their stats. I know in the UK you would have an easier time asking the Pope for his hand in marriage. Are the US portals more forthcoming?" Sean Goldsmith

"I have sold several franchises for clients with an investment level of $400k-$800k by using portals.Granted, there will ALWAYS be the prospect that overstates the amount of capital they have available and you have to just move on and keep on dialing. There hasn't been one portal that seemed to bring in more qualified leads on a more consistent basis than another. I do seem to spend a lot of time chasing credits for pay per lead sites that claim they "verified" leads before sending them, but by and large every portal site seems to do a fairly decent job for me." Tom Parks

"The biggest issue which all Franchisors are facing about this approach is the cost. Some websites in Australia are offering packages which help Franchisors to do this at a more cost effective price. Keep an eye out for this. Otherwise the only other advice I can offer on this is to keep track of leads and quality of leads which are being generated by the website. One of our clients mentioned to me once, from 1 website they had received heaps of leads, but didn't generate any solid leads, while from another they received only a hand full of leads in the month, but 2 of the lead had converted to solid leads" Paul O'Brien

"How helpful are portals in generating qualified leads? My experience tells me that really depends upon your brands investment range. Generally speaking the top 5 portals basically cost the same amount to advertise on them. However because of my sector "automotive" vs "food" the portal is unable to generate me enough leads to make the potal investment worthwhile. I understand the ratio on portal leads to be 200:1 or even 250:1. It would take years for a portal to drive me that much traffic. At which point I would have spent far more than the inital franchise fee in marketing dollars." Lee Oppenheim

"Portals definitely "had their day", i.e. in the late 1980's through the early 1990's. They were THE way to market one's franchise. Today, however, they have become quite common place in our industry, and while there definitely are differences among the wide range of portals, overall, the range of inquiries to sales, as Lee mentions, is in the 200 - 250 to 1. In some ways, portals have become today's franchise "classified ad" section of the Internet. And, it gets very expensive to hire high quality sales people to field these return phone calls. As Franchise Update points out in its 2013 annual marketing survey, the total advertising placement cost associated with one sale these days(for their surveyed companies) was around $13,000...not including personnel costs. Is it the same today?" Dr. Michael (Mick) Riddiough

"Something to be careful with which you might not know about. Make sure that the website which you are using doesn't use a technique called lead thinning. This is when the website generates 1 lead and farms it off to multiple franchisors on their website. Usually the person making the enquiry doesn't know that this is happening either. The way to identify this is when you start calling a lead, the person will say something like "I didn't inquire about your franchise or business". This makes the website look good because of the number of leads generated, but the quality of leads is decreases dramatically." Paul O'Brien

"Terrific dialogue everyone....... portals? To use or not to use...... I heard a lot of "casting a wide net" as well as "be specific in your targeting, e.g. Veterans" , which leads me to a conclusion I've reached before: we are in a challenging, competitive environment for sourcing qualified leads which turn into franchisees. At least we have a forum for discussing our strategies and tactics. Thanks for the insights....." Kevin Kruse

"The specific answer to Kevin's specific question is "No"...at least not by design and not very productively...and it is likely to be quite expensive for the franchisor. I once had a franchisor client in which the "all in" cost was $1.4MM. We did quite well with it. Did we use portals? Yes, as one avenue, and it was truly "dialing for dollars". We did much better with highly focused PR/media relations in terms of finding "high value" candidates." Dr. Michael (Mick) Riddiough

"I disagree. Portals work. You already used portals for your client, even in light of the reality that it's 'dialing for dollars.' Hey, it still takes 35 tons of ore to smelt one ounce of gold--all you have to do is make 200 enthusiastic dials. Big deal. Get with the idea that selling takes concerted effort, and plenty of money. If the average cost of sale (not including commissions) is around $12,000 or so, the obvious path is easy: pick 3-4 top portals;" Paul Stewart

"Your approach works for you, and that's great. I take a different route, and that works for me and my clients. I don't think one is right and one is wrong, just different...in many ways. I prefer more targeted and efficient ways of finding the right candidates. "Dialing for dollars" is simply not my preferred way" Dr. Michael (Mick) Riddiough

"Yes, absolutely, portals work for generating some quality leads that result in Franchise sales for the Franchisor at the investment levels stated" Ronald Silberstein CPA and CFE

"Portals are only as effective as the sales team that are working them, and the matrix you use to measure. Keep in mind the higher the investemnt the fewer the leads you can expect so it is important that your team devote the necessary effort into follow up with each and every lead that comes through." John Byron

"I would say the portals are only as good as the marketing team who works them and and the adverts. If the proper research hasn't been performed before the advert goes up, there is no guarantee of success" Paul O'Brien

"Simple answer to a simple question.. The answer is yes, you have to be in portals. You can add filters to any portal to try to catch the investor you are looking for. Portals are one leg of a triad that you need to build to reach your target customer." Dale Waite

I am glad we solved the riddle of getting high net worth franchise web portal inquiries.

Franchise inquiries from web portals are minimal expressions of interest.

They are not leads.

You can't designate an Expression of Interest a Franchise Lead until you've qualified them.

The most reliable way to qualify them is to talk with them.

Franchise-Info has some ideas for you to work on this problem.

If you call me we can discuss two things -

1. What to do with all your inactive inquiries who have expressed an interest
2. How to attract Franchise Buyers online

I am easy to reach at 443.502.2636 and [email protected]. I answer my own telephone. And I call people back.

For the 5 Most Fascinating Stories in Franchising, a weekly report, click here & sign up.

It's no secret that finances are considered one of the most important parts of anything, especially a business. After all, if you want your business to really be successful, you need to keep track of the amount of money you're earning versus spending so you can make good decisions for your business.

How can you decide whether or not to upgrade equipment, or whether it's a good time to tighten your budget, if you're not financially informed? Dealing with finances can be difficult however considering your business spends and earns money on a daily basis, and it's hard to know exactly how much money you have.

From invoices and utility bills to checks and bank transfers, businesses deal with quite a bit of money flow and they need a good way to keep track of all of those finances. That's where bookkeeping comes into play, strictly keeping track of every financial transaction your business makes, incoming and outgoing.

That way, businesses not only can see trends in how their spending and earning goes, but they also get to know their company's current net profit/loss at any given time. This data is extremely essential for the success of your business, as accountants use bookkeeping data to allocate any and all funds appropriately and help you determine whether you have funds to spare or you have to tighten your budget.

Financial allocation is very important in the overall growth of your business, but affording these financial services can be incredibly difficult considering both of those are financial services that cost full salaries. Looking at services like outsourced bookkeeping is very important, as remote bookkeeping businesses can save you money while providing you the best possible services with no real catches.

Process of Remote Bookkeeping

Hiring an outsourced bookkeeping business is simple and convenient for you as you get your pick of various services that are offered, making life easier for you. With an outsourced bookkeeping business, you get all of your information handled by a team of professionals who put all of the resultant data on a secure server that you can readily and easily access.

With outsourced bookkeeping, you get your fill of services as well, being offered much more than just the bookkeeping services. You can get accounting and payroll services as well, like getting your bills paid for you, getting preparation for your taxes, getting your reconciliations completed and checked, getting financial reports sent to you on a weekly/monthly basis, and more, all for your convenience.

You can even get some rarer services as well like bankruptcy services and audit/forensic accounting in case you'll ever need them, and all of these services are run down with you to add up to your very low quote. Once you get a quote, the outsourced bookkeeping company copies all of your data down and, in turn, gives you a file or multiple files.

For your convenience, these files give you direct access to the server pending some kind of password system, and you get to choose how many of them you want or where they go. You can restrict access to a work computer to keep your data safe, or you can make access as convenient for you as you'd like.

You can get access off a home computer, laptops, get an app for a smart phone or tablet, or even give an employee access pending their own security system. Once you set up services and access, the rest is up to the remote bookkeeping company, which completes services for you and gives you immediate, 24/7 access to your data which is constantly being updated.

Outsourced Bookkeeping with Cloud Security

There are many reasons to hire a remote bookkeeping business, but one of the bigger advantages is you get heavy security setup for your data and overall efficiency in the process. With outsourced bookkeeping with cloud services, your data is stored and transported efficiently without any loss of security.

The servers used by outsourced bookkeeping businesses are designed to keep your data as safe as possible, also upholding cyber security laws in the process.

Plus, outsourced bookkeeping businesses are so concerned with the security of your information that they create different countermeasures to ensure that even if the worst were to happen, your data will be kept safe, mainly through backups and a cyber insurance policies.

With an offsite backup, your data is protected virtually and physically as the backup is stored on a different data center that runs a different server from the original. Plus, many businesses will set up their outsourced bookkeeping with cloud as a form of backup as well.

Cloud is considered one of the oldest and most reputable forms of online storage, known for security and quick, efficient transportation.

Affording the Best Outsourced Bookkeeping with Cloud Business

Many business owners want that good outsourced bookkeeping with cloud but worry that when the time comes, they won't be able to afford the service. Luckily, remote bookkeeping is easily affordable, and actually saves you tens of thousands of dollars compared to most other services.

With outsourced bookkeeping with cloud, you save quite a bit of money while getting a full team of employees that offer you a wide range of services, quite a few more than you'll get through hiring in-house workers. An in-house bookkeeper can cost you up to $43,000 a year, and accountants will generally cost more, with some CPA's costing over $50,000 a year.

That means to hire a bookkeeper and an accountant for your business, you'll end up paying almost six figures, far more than smaller and even mid-sized businesses can afford! On the other hand, outsourced bookkeeping will cost you between $3,600 and $19,500 a year, depending on the range of services you get.

That means you can get bookkeeping, accounting, payroll services, and much more for half of what one in house bookkeeper would charge you! With remote bookkeeping, you can save quite a bit of money on a yearly basis while getting the best possible services and you can get the best outsourced bookkeeping with cloud business as well.

Remote Quality Bookkeeping™ of Bridgewater, Massachusetts offers you decades of experience through their outsourced bookkeeping with cloud experience. To learn more about outsourced bookkeeping with cloud through RQB, click here.

The post Why Should you get Outsourced Bookkeeping with Cloud? appeared first on Cloud Bookkeeping Services|Remote Quality Bookkeeping.

Everyone has some field they are experienced in, and eventually they reach that point where they would like to take their skills to the next level and run a company.

After all, it's one thing to be a high-ranking worker in your company, but it's quite another to completely control what direction you want to take your business in.

Running your own business means you get to determine your own success and build yourself a legacy, but the initial work with a business is another matter entirely. Starting your own business is incredibly challenging because you need to build up a good reputation as a business that can deliver, and do so while having the best financial setup possible.

Getting this setup can be another matter entirely considering all of the expenses companies have to deal with and the lack of capital they have to pay for them all. From the location you get and the utilities attached to the employees you hire, stock you acquire, equipment you purchase/lease, and more, businesses need so much in order to be successful, and they want the best quality possible.

That means allocating your finances by saving as much money as possible while still getting the best setup, so you can provide the best services while making a profit.

All of your finances tie back into financial services that you employ, which keep track of all of your spending and earnings and use that data to help you determine when and how much you can spend for your business.

However, getting financial services for your company can be another matter entirely, especially considering how much capital smaller and mid-sized businesses make.

Employing Financial Services for your Business

It is a complete necessity for businesses to get financial services, as they use these services to help them determine their day-to-day decisions. Every day, your business spends and earns quite a bit of money, and you need to know how much you have at any given time so that way you can decide on making smart decisions that are based on your finances.

For instance, say you're looking to upgrade equipment, or improve stock, and need the funds to do so; your financial services help you determine whether or not you can do that. Also, what if you're low on funds and need to tighten your budget so your business can not end up losing money?

Your company needs to know how much money they have at any given time, which is why both bookkeeping and accounting are necessary for the success of your business.

With bookkeeping, every transaction related to your business is recorded and added up so you have a final total of where your business is financially as far as profit or loss. From invoices and payroll to checks and utility bills, your company spends and earns quite a bit of money and all of that data is used by an accountant.

Accounting involves allocating all of your finances appropriately based on your bookkeeping, allowing you to get taxes done, pay bills, and make other financial decisions for your business. You need both of these services for your business to run appropriately, but affording them is another matter entirely.

Smaller and mid-sized businesses generally don't have the funds for these services, which is why companies are sometimes stuck trying to do their own bookkeeping.

Doing your own bookkeeping and running a business at the same time can be extremely challenging, which is why business owners oftentimes seek an alternative to getting their bookkeeping and other financial services taken care of.

Hiring an Outsourced Bookkeeping Service

Many businesses will seek out the alternative of hiring a remote bookkeeping business, not only because the outsourced bookkeeping rate is so much more manageable, but the service is also extremely convenient and beneficial for a business.

When outsourcing your bookkeeping, you get the ability to get any and all financial services you need at a reduced price in a very convenient way. All of your information is handled by a team of professionals, who complete any and all financial services you require and putting the data on a secure server that you can easily and readily access.

You can even choose how you get access, restricting access to your precious information to one work computer or setting it up so you can access your information using a smart phone, tablet, laptop, and more. With remote bookkeeping, you also get the convenience of both security and efficient workers completing any and all services that you request.

The server used is extremely secure as remote bookkeeping companies follow cyber security laws to ensure everything is in place, and they also use countermeasures as well to assure that nothing goes wrong with the security of your data.

They use cyber insurance policies, offsite backups, and even back up data on the cloud to ensure that no matter what happens, your data is safe. Plus, all employees hired have some previous experience with handling financial services and are cleared as far as security before they are hired.

All workers work together to complete tasks for you, so you always have multiple employees doing work for you at any given time.

Is the Outsourced Bookkeeping Rate Affordable?

For most business owners, as great as a service is the bottom line always ends up being the cost and whether you can afford a service or not. The same is the case with remote bookkeeping, as the outsourced bookkeeping rate is much more manageable for business owners while providing you a lot more as far as services.

With outsourced bookkeeping, you don't just get bookkeeping services; you also get accounting and payroll services, and any other financial services your business could possibly need. In house bookkeepers will generally cost up to $43,000 a year, and accountants will cost even more, with some CPA's costing over $50,000 a year.

This means you'd pay almost six figures just for financial services, a price many smaller and even mid-sized businesses cannot afford. The outsourced bookkeeping rate, on the other hand, will cost between $3,600 and $19,500 a year depending on what services you get, saving you tens of thousands of dollars a year!

With the outsourced bookkeeping rate, you get the best service at the best cost, making life easier for you when running your business. To learn more about how you can get the best outsourced bookkeeping rate through hiring companies like Remote Quality Bookkeeping™, click here.

The post How does the Outsourced Bookkeeping Rate save you Money? appeared first on Cloud Bookkeeping Services|Remote Quality Bookkeeping.

Apple products are immensely popular with people.

And with me too.

You can't help but admire what Steve Jobs did with Apple the first time he built it.

Even better the second time when he was brought back and he re-invented it.

The products are great and easy for people to use.

I've had an iPhone for quite awhile and I moved to a MacBook Air in June 2013.

It's the best computer I have ever had.

• Super easy to use
• Very fast
• Great design
• Long battery life
• Weighs just less than 3 lbs
• Terrific telephone support

There's a lot of fun and useful things about the MacBook Air.

In June this year I had a problem with my MacBook.

The left speaker crackled intermittently. Which is not something you expect from an Apple product.

So I called AppleCare for help and they are almost always very good over the phone. The Apple tech agent walked me through the computer to do a reset and a computer share which didn't resolve the speaker problem.

AppleCare made an Apple Store appointment for me for the next day.

At the Apple Store it's an onslaught of hip Apple employees all dressed in official Apple tee-shirts with a super cool and relaxed demeanor.

After you get handed off to 3 very nicely trained people who can't help you then wait for the on-site tech who can.

Anyone who has been to the Apple Store knows it's loud. The decibel level has to be very high.

So I have a crackling speaker problem on a MacBook Air and the technician needs to hear it. Very lucky for me he does and they don't think I am imagining the problem.

That was good news.

The bad news was that they needed my MacBook for 3 days once the replacement speakers came in to the store. This meant I needed schlep back up to the Apple Store which is a 62 miles roundtrip and about one and 45 minutes of driving time if you catch a traffic break on I95. So my one trip to get my MacBook speakers up to speed would take 3 separate trips.

It was under warranty and Apple techs confirmed that there was a speaker crackling problem.

I followed the Apple servicing process and they fixed my MacBook Air's speakers. We tested it at the Apple Store and everything was as it should be.

Or so we thought.

Mid-September the same thing happens all over again. Speaker crackling and I call Apple Support. We run through their diagnostic process and reset. That fails. We schedule a visit to the Genius's at the Apple Store and I schlep up their once again. Where the Apple Genius wants to replace the speakers again and go through the MacBook to see if there is another problem.

They order new parts. And I go through the 3 trip drop off and retrieve Apple Process once again.

Not 4 weeks later speaker is crackling again.

I do the Apple Care telephone support and Genius Bar scheduling dance where I asked that a manager meet with me. I get to the Apple Store and go through the phalanx of Apple Tee-shirted people who can't help me and after waiting I meet with Helen the manager.

I explained to Helen that this now the 3rd time for my MacBook Air's speakers to fail. And I said that as good as the Apple Geniuses are they can't get my MacBook right and that it was a waste of my time to keep trudging back and forth to the Apple Store. Was it time for Helen to replace my MacBook Air with a new machine that fully functioned?

Helen convinces me to let her send the MacBook out to Apple's service center for better diagnostics and to a place that would have any part my computer would need. I agreed to it.

5 days go by and I receive my notification that the repairs were done.

This time Apple replaced the speakers (the 3rd time) and in addition a new Logic Board.

It didn't take but a few days and the speakers started to crackle again.

So I make the appointment and go to the store. I ask for Helen and I get Eileen. I tell Eileen the speaker story and she gets a Genius.

Let me take a break and tell you some of my observations of the Apple Store and the Apple Way. When things are easy to fix or user error the Apple Way works. And if you're buying something they have that down to perfection.

Apple team members have no last names and you can't tell a manager from a janitor since they all wear the very same hip Apple Tee-shirt. My thinking is you should not trust a company whose employees have no names. Apple has a reason for this and it's not to help you.

The Apple Way is designed to control you.

The hand off from employee to employee and queueing to wait for the Genius or manager.

The assault on your hearing with the noise levels and super bright lights.

The presence of uniformed and armed police.

The Stepford Wives trained all too nice staff.

Eileen and the Genius can't get the speaker to crackle and hear the noise. I suggest to Eileen that it is time to replace the MacBook. She wants the Genius tech to look it over.

The Genius complete's his inspection and another hip Apple employee tells me my options. Well there was only one option. Get a 4th set of speakers. To which I object ( the Apple hipsters do not like objections) and am told that maybe there really isn't a speaker problem.

Now I have been more than reasonable about a product that I love. But my Apple hipster has gone too far and I step it up a notch and she does not like it. She feigns a righteous indignation and runs off to get Eileen since she refuses to deal with me any longer if I am going to be difficult.

Eileen and I recap my MacBook speaker adventure and she now thinks it's a good idea to replace my MacBook right then and there. So back to the Genius Bar to set up the new MacBook and move my data.

So I won. I beat Apple. Just barely.

They were never going to offer a replacement Macbook. And they will make you earn it. The Apple Way is designed to suit Apple it's not about you.

After over 30 hours of my time and having driven 700 miles on this problem I am back to where I started with the exact same computer I originally bought.

If you haven't tried a MacBook Air I recommend it.

There is a huge difference between a problem and an inconvenience. You know it, I know it and your customers know it.

Listen to what happened to me the other day. We ordered a new copy machine at Telephone Doctor.

Gentleman brings the machine into the office. As he's installing the machine, one of the ladies sees the screen has a rather large crack on it and tells the installer. The young man who wheeled in the machine came looking for me to tell me and proudly exclaims, "Mrs. Friedman, we have a problem."

Because I am a problem solver I asked, "What is it?"

"Well," he says, "the screen on the copier machine is cracked."

I say, "Can it be fixed?" He says, "yes ma'am."

"Well, then," I tell him, "we don't have a problem, we have a minor inconvenience." He thought about that and then smiled.

"When can it be fixed?" I ask. "Oh, today for sure," he says.

Then I assured him, "We don't even have an inconvenience."

Why even use the word 'problem?' Why alert the customer to that? If you really need to let them know something isn't right. Use the word "inconvenience" and then to really simplify it, slice it into 'minor inconvenience' or 'major inconvenience.'

Customers are able to handle 'inconveniences.' Minor or major. They do not like problems. So avoid that word.

When you have a major inconvenience, be sure you have a major answer.

Remember Sales 101: When you're part of the problem, you need to be part of the solution.

Replace the word 'problem' with 'inconvenience.' Watch what happens - the entire situation goes down much better.

# # #

Nancy Friedman is a featured keynote customer service speaker covering communications skills and showing you how to capture & navigate the call.

Want Nancy to speak at your meeting? Call for a speaking demo & full information packet of Nancy - 314.291.1012, visit www.nancyfriedman.com or email [email protected].

Nancy is president of Telephone Doctor Customer Service Training and has appeared on OPRAH, Today Show, CNN, FOX News, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning and hundreds of other radio and TV shows.

The author of eight books on sales and customer service, Nancy is the spokesperson in the popular Telephone Doctor customer service training programs.

For a complimentary copy of Nancy's eBook, Hidden Gems of Customer Service, please click here.

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