Issues Managers Can Anticipate at the Holidays

Written by Susan Dunn, Professional Coach


Here are some issues that most managers will need to be addressing this time of year.

1. Depression. While depression is prevalent throughoutrepparttar year, seasonal depression will exacerbate withrepparttar 106213 holidays and with less daylight hours.

2. Drinking onrepparttar 106214 job.

3. Increased absenteeism. Time off for shopping, to recover fromrepparttar 106215 weekend, from general exhaustion, etc.

4. Upper management with their ample accrued time-off will all be out ofrepparttar 106216 office. Owners, CEOs and others who have 4 weeks or more to take off during a year may save it for this time of year intentionally or will have to work it in to use it so they don't lose it.

5. Shopping online.

6. Budget problems. This is a difficult time of year where money is concerned. There may be either no money because it's all used up, or money that needs to be quickly spent.

Is the Customer Really Always Right? No!

Written by Pauliina Roe


How do you handle a customer who is clearly inrepparttar wrong? People always tell you "the customer is always right" - but that is not always true. However,repparttar 106212 way you treat your right or wrong customer is what will make a world of difference to your business success or failure. Remember - it's always a numbers game - and you have to deal with a lot of no's and a lot of turkeys sometimes to get torepparttar 106213 golden client.

Here are some very recent dealings my associate and I have had to deal with, and how we handled it:

1. I got heavily chewed out because I didn't receive a fax reply from someone to whom I faxed paperwork to TWICE. She didn't check to see if her lawyer received my fax - only asked me if I had receivedrepparttar 106214 reply. I told her I hadn't, and it became "my fault" that her lawyer didn't reply to me. I faxed repparttar 106215 papers out again, and she again chewed me out for her lawyer not replying. I was not givenrepparttar 106216 lawyer's phone number to follow up with, so I could never follow through to see ifrepparttar 106217 fax got through. It isrepparttar 106218 client's responsibility to "push" her lawyer to act, however, and not mine. So she said she will take her business to another company.

I let her know I did fax outrepparttar 106219 papers more than once, and I had no phone number to follow up with - if she would provide me withrepparttar 106220 phone number I would call, but ultimately it is her responsibility to get her lawyer to act. I told her I would work with her if she chose, but if she felt she needed to go elsewhere, so be it. I would be here if she ever needed my services. I supposerepparttar 106221 client may be difficult to deal with, so perhaps I am better off. But I didn't try to burn any bridges inrepparttar 106222 matter. If she findsrepparttar 106223 same situation withrepparttar 106224 next company, maybe she'll forgive me (or just get angry at one more person). Whether she refers me to anyone else is not a goal at this point -repparttar 106225 goal is to appease her enough that she won't try to tell people to stay away from my business - to try to cool her anger.

2. I emailed a reply stating that I was sorry I took awhile (6 hours) to reply to an email. I toldrepparttar 106226 person I had an emergency with my daughter and had to go torepparttar 106227 hospital. I figured this person would perhaps understand that it was serious. Guess what reply I got? The email said "WHAT?? I'll just find another source."

OK, now I was taken aback by that. I thought a family emergency was a legitimate reason to excuse a less than prompt reply. I guess I will have to just say I was "out ofrepparttar 106228 office." Or say nothing and just reply. Is 6 hours really that late a response? I think not, to tellrepparttar 106229 truth. But, I did email back and tell this person that I can work with im if he would like, and will give him my full attention inrepparttar 106230 case. Again, I am just hoping I won't get him telling others not to use my service. (He obviously doesn't have kids or feelrepparttar 106231 same way.)

3. I had a potential client who was very happy with my attention and said he was going to use my services if I could matchrepparttar 106232 price of a competitor. I gotrepparttar 106233 "go ahead" to do this. The client got allrepparttar 106234 way torepparttar 106235 signing process and suddenly decided to go with another company - and didn't haverepparttar 106236 courtesy to let me know. I know he got a "one up" better offer atrepparttar 106237 last -repparttar 106238 other company wanted his business, so they scraped in order to make a better offer. It could have worked to his advantage to tell me - we might have been able to outdo that offer, as well.

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