It's a competitive market out there and many people are turning to some form of paid marketing as a solution to their revenue woes.
I think there are smarter and cheaper ways of becoming more competitive and generating revenue than wasting money on Google or Facebook advertising. In fact I'd suggest that the best way to improve your opportunities is in fact free, and that way is to level up your customer service.
After some recent travelling I had the good fortune to experience many instances of both good and bad service from which I've now taken many lessons.
Let's start with a bad experience. This involved an airport transfer to a hotel upon arrival. In the arrivals hall I couldn't find the driver with my name so I had to call the company that had arranged the transfer. I was eventually directed to a local contact who placed a call to the missing driver. While waiting for my driver to appear I reflected on how distainfully I had just been treated.
After my allocated driver appeared, we walked to his car and I began the journey to my hotel. During this there was no attempt at conversation, no small talk or welcome, just stoney silence. Every corner we arrived at we seemed to only just avoid an accident and at every opportunity I seemed to have been flung around in the rear to point where I actually started to become motion sick.
When we did finally arrive at the hotel I was keen to get inside and complete my long journey. When I thanked the driver his response halted me in my tracks. He told me flat out that my thanks meant nothing to him! Basically he was looking for a tip. There was no consideration for my state of well being, the amount of travel I had just completed and whether I even had change. Nope, Mr Gumpy wanted a tip and if he didn't get one he was going to try and send me on a guilt trip.
To my way of thinking a tip is a bonus for service above beyond the norm. All I received this case was really a sub par service. I'd paid the standard fee, what was my reason for paying more? There was no effort was made to improve on the standard let along go above and beyond. How hard would it have been to maybe play a bit of tour guide along the way and welcome me to the location?
Now let's compare that to a completely opposite experience I experienced. I had returned mid afternoon to my hotel room to unwind a bit before taking an evening tour. I had only been in my room a matter of minutes when there was knock on the door from someone wanting to 'freshen' the room. Why would you need to do that? I've only just walked in, I thought?
I allowed them to proceed and straighten up the stuff I had just strewn across the room, turn down the bed, add some sweets by the bedside and more. After asking me whether there was anything further I needed they headed out all the while refusing any tip that I was desperately trying to give them.
Do you see the difference between these experiences? One was so good that I felt obliged to offer more, while the other left nothing but a sour taste in my mouth that remains burned into my memory today and is a story I recount regularly.
The cost of providing good customer service is nothing more than a little bit of effort but how many businesses that you know actually make that effort? The impact is stark when you come across an instance of great customer service, so much so that it stays out like a beacon.
Not all customers will pay a premium for service but those that don't aren't the ones that you should be looking for. The transfer business that employed Mr Grumpy is clearly in the volume game, relying on a large number of customers paying a low price. However, you can't really do this while providing good service because you are clearly not paying your drivers enough given their burning need for a tip.
However, the second experience was targeted in such a way that factored in the service without the requirement for a tip. The point being that the perception becomes that the service is so good it is worth the premium to a customer like me. Best of all, I'm going to refer that on to others.
Good customer service can be a challenge because you have to divorce yourself from your beliefs and examine the realities through customers eyes. That can in some cases be difficult to endure but the rewards can be substantial.
Sure, some buy purely on price but I'll bet that most desire a memorable 'experience' and are more than willing to pay more if their needs and desires are met. Thus, to obtain that revenue, all a business needs to do is provide good service. But like I said, if you honestly think about it, few, very few businesses really make much of an effort when it comes to customer service.
That lack of effort means there is an opportunity for any business willing to make the effort to benefit, with the pay off generally being far more than the effort invested. The great thing is that this effort is not limited in avilability to large businesses, it is in fact most effective when adopted by a smaller business.
Thus, in an age where traditional business competition is fierce, good customer service becomes the differentiator that smart businesses are using to succeed. Best of all, it costs nothing but a little discipline to implement and maintain, however the payoff can be substantial. Why? Because good customer service, like bad, generates leverage thanks to referrals. Think about it. How many people do you tell when you have a good experience? What about a bad experience? Importantly, people you share your experience with are highly influenced by your personal recommendations. The flow on effect of good or bad experiences is quite profound.
Thus, if you want to generate more income for your business focus on improving the customer experience. Invest in finding out exactly what the customer wants and then provide it at a premium price. You'll have no trouble generating the revenue firstly because no one else is giving this level of service and secondly, those who won't pay the premium price are probably customers you don't want and would actually end up costing you more.
Great customer service doesn't magically appear, it requires a consistent process to improve but to me it is well worth the effort and has no upper limit on what can be implemented. The better your service, the more you can charge and the more you can focus on the right clients instead of falling into the trap of believing that servicing greater numbers of clients is the path to increased revenue. As I can attest, thanks to my experiences with Mr Grumpy, customer service in a commodity focused market actually decreases to the point where not only will I never use that business again but I will tell as many people as I can about how rotten it was.
Before you spend another red cent on marketing, ask yourself whether you can improve the service your deliver your customer. If you look at those who already do it well you'll find that you'll never need to waste money marketing any more, the business will come to you, all because you invested in great customer service. How much simpler could it be?
Marc and I review all the latest news from the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference. We also dive deep into a raft of recent Azure updates as well a swag of Office 365 news. If you want to keep up to date with the Microsoft Cloud then there is no better episode to listen to.
As you can see above I have taken something from my Power BI and embedded it in this post. Here's how I did that.
Firstly, I logged into my Power BI Dashboard and selected a report that I wish to publish.
Then from the File menu at the top of the report I select Publish to web.
I then receive an embed code for email that I can then paste into a web page.
That's it. Pretty simple eh?
The great thing is the Publish to web features is available for all Power BI plans, including the free version. This reinforces how there is really no excuse to be using Power BI in your business and the product just keep getting better.
One of the major limitations I find with many who have an Office 365 Suite is that they are only using it for email, and basic email at that! This means they are failing to make use of get services like OneDrive for Business, SharePoint, Yammer and more!
In many cases this is because they are no aware of the products and services that are available to them as part of their Office 365 package. A while back I did a webinar with Greg Plum from plumuc.com where we focused on helping attendees understand the value that the Office 365 suite contained that they were most likely not taking advantage of.
Hopefully, this webinar gives you a better idea of many of these 'undiscovered' Office 365 features and how they can be used to solve business problems. If you have Office 365 I'd urge you to take a deeper dive into the product and understand everything that you are paying for. Once you've done that you may be surprised at how many of the features within Office 365 can be used to make your business and users more productive. Investing a little bit of time up front to gain the knowledge pays big dividends down the track.
To kick things off I'll look at the differences between OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online and how you can make the most of each one of these technologies.
Not only will we cover this topic but I'll bring you the latest Office 365 and Microsoft Cloud news as well as open up the floor for an open Q & A session at the end. The main session will take no more than 30 minutes but I'll hang around as long as required afterwards to answer any questions people may have.
I'm now aiming to run these webinars once a month and cover a specific topic as well as news and events from the Microsoft cloud to keep you up to date with the fast changing world of products like Office 365. Come along to the inaugural event and let me know what topics you'd like to see covered. Also feel free at any stage to email me directly at director@ciaops.com with your webinar topic suggestions.
I look forward to seeing everyone on the webinar.
This means you can easily view and report on your business accounting analytics using Microsoft's free Power BI dashboard reporting tool.
More and more software vendors are moving to using Power BI as their reporting tool rather than attempting to building their own reporting engine. Why? First, because Power BI is such a great analytics tool and secondly because Microsoft have made the base Power BI offering free.
That therefore means there is little reason not be using Power BI to analyse your accounts but there is also the massive opportunity for IT resellers to sell services to customers using Xero now thanks to Power BI.
and then start getting into the opportunity Power BI provides!
It is free and allows you to connect your desktop Windows 10 directly to your Delve.
Don't forget that this Windows 10 Delve app is still in preview, so expect to see plenty of new improvements and enhancements coming soon.
In this episode Marc is joined by Steve Hosko to talk about the latest with System Center. You'll also get the latest news om Azure.


text:
Adobe Fresco- A new Drawing and Painting App for iPad users
by H2S Media Team/Last Updated: June 18, 2019/news/No Comments/
The gist of doing painting and drawing on canvas although couldn't replicate, however, the accuracy and style can. Recently, on the blog, Adobe has given a glimpse of its upcoming Adobe Fresco, an app for iPad to express imagination anywhere at any time on a digital screen. Fresco means 'Fresh' in the Italian language.
As per Adobe, artificial intelligence will take over all the redo and monotonous work of a human being in future which ultimately offers us enough time to think and show our creativity to this world.
Adobe has been working on this new app since last year to give artists a new way to be creative. And now the company eventually announces, the Adobe Fresco app will be released later this year for the iPad and later on for other devices with stylus support.
Before finalizing Adobe Fresco name, the company was working on this application under the codename- Project Gemini.
To get pre-release of Adobe Fresco, the user can register at the official product page of Adobe's website to try it before the final launch.
Adobe Fresco offers the possibility to work with so-called live brushes. Even colours overflow and mix, just like oil paintings and watercolours possible, thanks to the artificial intelligence of Adobe Sensei. Thus, colours should also be deliberately diluted to produce other shades.
Of course, along with new tools, users can also use tools like the layers, masks and a selection tool, thus, Fresco is designed to work seamlessly with Photoshop, so you one could move his works back and forth between apps. Likewise, the drawings should be converted into PDF format so that you can edit them in Adobe Illustrator and more…
H2S Media Team
H2S is a group of tech enthusiasts those are passionate about latest technology developments. They always like to solve own technical problems and share the same solution with others through this Website.
How to Install and use Samsung Smart view on windows 10 & Smartphone
by H2S Media Team/
Wechat web login without phone not works: Use these two WeChat app login methods
How to play JAVA old games on Android smartphone
Using screen rotation on Android phones like a pro to lock the orientation to user defined modes

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Safety awards finalists announced
SafeWork NSW today announced the finalists in the 2016 NSW SafeWork Awards.
SafeWork NSW Executive Director, Peter Dunphy, said 20 businesses across NSW were selected from a pool of 125 entrants across six categories for outstanding achievements in work health and safety.
The Awards also recognise workers who have recovered and returned to employment after a workplace injury and many entrants showcased their return-to- work programs that have delivered mutual benefits for the injured worker and wider business.
"All of the entrants were of a high calibre and it is encouraging to see the significant inroads made to reducing risks and injuries in individual workplaces," Mr Dunphy said.
The 2016 finalists represent small and large businesses from a range of industries including construction, health, communications and administration.
"I commend all of the finalists and entrants for their outstanding contribution to improving safety to reduce injuries to help ensure every worker comes home safely at the end of the working day," Mr Dunphy said.
The finalists have the opportunity to become ambassadors for workplace safety and return-to-work among their industry peers.
Winners will be announced at an Awards ceremony and dinner on October 27 at Doltone House Hyde Park.
Visit safeworkawards.com.au or call 4321 4444 for more information.


Earlier this year, the IRS finalized Treasury Regulations under Section 965, as amended by the 2017 tax reform legislation. The finalized Regulations address the 'transition tax' which imposes a tax on previously untaxed post-1986 foreign earning and profits of certain foreign corporations owned by certain US shareholders. As the amounts due could be significant, Section 965(h) allows a taxpayer to elect to pay his or her Section 965 tax liability over a series of eight instalments. However, the Regulations state that certain events following a Section 965(h) election accelerate the tax liability immediately on the occurrence of such event. The Regulations provide that an acceleration event includes an event that results in a person no longer being a US person, such as a resident becoming a non-resident. Although not explicitly stated, this seems to apply to individuals who renounce their US citizenship. Therefore, when advising clients who may be considering expatriation, it is important for advisors to enquire into whether the individual has been impacted by Section 965 and whether a Section 965(h) has been made. Failing to do so could result in an immediate and unexpected US tax liability.