Competing In Business On The Fourth of July

It goes without saying that the Fourth of July weekend is a very busy one.  In fact, it is second only to Christmas for activities and travel for the American families. Other business are also vying for your customers business. 

With outdoor activities, sports, parades, community celebrations, fireworks, traveling, vacations  and family get-togethers there is little time for people to think about shopping.  Unless of course you are the one selling the party and barbecue supplies. 

How busy will your customer service desk be for this upcoming holiday weekend? Will the extra time off allow folks to catch-up on problems they have been too busy to get to or will they be so busy that the holiday will stop them from calling or contacting your business?

Traditional newspapers are already full with 4th of July specials. Not just for the weekend supplies but everyone is trying to sell what they have from clothing to cars and beyond.

Late planning (or none at all) will mean anyone trying to plan a last-minute vacation will find prices on airfare and hotels extremely high.

Commemorating our country's independence need not require luxury digs in a remote location by the beach, however. A good old-fashioned barbecue with family and friends is a fun way to enjoy the holiday while keeping things reasonable priced.

You can turn a traditional backyard barbecue into an all-out block party with friends, family and neighbors. Assign each participating household a certain style of food or drink and keep the party moving between houses. Keep things festive by requesting hot dogs, burgers and beer as inexpensive, all-American celebration staples and test your creative skills with DIY decorations. You can make star-spangled ice buckets on the cheap that are sure to impress your neighbors.

Take your family or significant other on a picnic, either on top of a mountain, by a lake or at the park near your home. Prepare your own finger foods and side dishes like coleslaw and pigs in a blanket to resemble traditional 4th of July grub. Download a few printable games to pump up the fun, which may include Independence Day trivia and a scavenger hunt for kids.

So what has your business planned to tackle this holiday weekend?

SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software is a great start to creating your very own customer service legends. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk
600 West Ray Road
Suite D-3
Chandler Arizona 85225
602-235-0975
info@smartservicedesk.com
http://smartservicedesk.com

Is Your Business Promoting the Fourth of July?

Well, the Fourth of July is here again. Happy long weekend, everyone! To celebrate, many American businesses have spruced up their websites, emails, and social media posts with patriotic spirit. Some brands go a little overboard with holiday marketing (especially around Christmas), but some of them really nailed it for the Fourth of July. Of course they started planning this many months ago.

What does excellent Fourth of July marketing look like? From an interactive guide to watching fireworks in NYC, here are some brands we think have done a great job.

Lowes
Lowes continues to impress us with their DIY- and tool-related Vine videos, but Lowes took the cake for their firework videos last Fourth of July. The accompanying text simply reads "Happy 4th of July!" -- no promotion; no link to their website. Just a simple, personable, well-wishing message for the holiday, and a very nice break from company-focused promotions we're used to seeing. Classy move, Lowes.

https://youtu.be/eb3tOZ62zE8

Spread the Word about your Deals and Promotions

July 4th is huge for retail sales events, which means you’ve got a lot of competition for those consumer dollars. These techniques can help your coupons and promotions go viral.

Create a Twitter campaign around a special offer — like 25% off all items on your site. Using, Viral, give followers the chance to unlock the discount if a certain number of them retweet the offer. Promote the contest via a dedicated email to your customer base. You’ll see your discount go viral fast!

Choose a holiday hashtag, which you promote across all of your marketing channels and through in-store promotions. Prompt fans to share photos, Vines and stories. Set up an automatic response to posts with an coupon code they can redeem on your site or in-store.

Curate social collections of your July 4th sales items (or all the red, white and blue items from your site). Create a themed Pinterest board and a Facebook Look Book. Social collections are not only highly shareable, they’re super easy to set up. Make sure to link back to relevant items to drive commerce.

SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software is a great start to creating your very own customer service legends. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk
600 West Ray Road
Suite D-3
Chandler Arizona 85225
602-235-0975
info@smartservicedesk.com
http://smartservicedesk.com

What ITIL Compliant Software Will Solve Your Problems

There is no question that there are many choices of customer service software for you to choose from. But, like all categories of products they all aren’t created equally. One thing is for sure they have many different price points.

Another area that you have to consider is how much it costs to implement the solution. There are two other related factors.  How long it takes to implement the different products and how long it takes to train your staff (or new staff) to be able to successfully use the product.

There is a solution that is both robust and easy to implement and use. SMART Service Desk is that solution. It is scalable in cost so that no company is too small to benefit from our solutions.

Increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. Our SMART Service Desk Solutions can be adapted very quickly, easily and economically to meet your exact business needs. Achieve faster implementation, successful change management, and lower total cost of ownership with our 100% configurable, intuitive and affordable solutions.

Here is what one of our customers said about SMART Service Desk; "We needed a tool with automated workflow and easy to use interface. SMART Service Desk’s built-in workflow has made big improvements in our Service Operations - especially having online approval."

Your company can benefit from improved customer satisfaction and life time value from initial contact to post-sales support. SMART Service Desk provides a detailed 360 degree view of your customer interactions. You can improve customer service and delivery operations, maximize revenue opportunities and delight your customers with our affordable and mobile solution.

SMART Customer relationship management (CRM) software, offered both on-premise and cloud-based CRM, help businesses reduce costs and increase profitability by organizing and automating business processes to ensure customer satisfaction and loyalty in the sales, marketing, and customer service fields.

Through SMART CRM solutions we deliver outstanding ROI through automation in customer service, and sales force automation. We also offer mobile apps that allow you to manage your customer relationships on your mobile devices, and software integration adaptors that integrate data and reporting from social media directly into your CRM application.

With our solutions your business can foster employee engagement, retention and productivity. Your satisfied employees can help create more satisfied customers and Improve processes, products, and services, and ultimately your organizational profitability.

SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software is a great start to creating your very own customer service legends. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk
600 West Ray Road
Suite D-3
Chandler Arizona 85225
602-235-0975
info@smartservicedesk.com
http://smartservicedesk.com

SMART Service Desk Asks: Are You A Boss Or A Leader?

While a leader can be your boss, not every boss is a real leader. Although leaders and bosses have nearly identical definitions, in effect, they are different in today’s competitive business world.

While a boss is concerned with only outcomes and bottom line, a leader feels responsible for the process of that outcome and the people who see it through.

Bosses just give orders; they expect their employees to listen and to obey. However, leaders always listen to the opinions of their colleagues and regard them as important to the process and the outcome.

Leaders are always expect and welcome both feedback and more importantly feedforward, discussion and any advice the team has to offer. This reciprocity makes any individual employee feel stronger and gives him or her confidence to follow the leader and think outside the box.

While working on projects, people have their ups and downs. Through this roller coaster, bosses are more likely to intimidate workers into action while leaders will motivate people to action.

One of the best things about leaders is that they offer empathy and work to prepare their group for the tasks at hand. This is very important, seeing as whenever colleagues are not prepared for certain duties, leaders are there to support, teach and back them up. Leaders know that each employee is on the team for a reason and they have faith in every concerted effort.

When necessary, a leader offers constructive criticism. However, a leader never scolds or shouts at any individual, especially in public. They do understand that they are dealing with people and no one has right to humiliate others. Rather, the leader talks to the person individually and without any spike in temper.

Throughout our past, the best chiefs lead their troops in fights, battles or campaigns. The troops were motivated because their leader was right there with them. Leaders are there to lead the team forward and to move together.

The problem: there are too many bosses, but too few leaders. The difference is simple: leaders do whatever it takes to maximize their employees’ engagement; while bosses just want to enjoy the privileges of their position. While most organizations offer leadership training, it’s usually formulaic, and based on competency models and copy-cat role plays.

SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software is a great start to creating your very own customer service legends. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk
600 West Ray Road
Suite D-3
Chandler Arizona 85225
602-235-0975
info@smartservicedesk.com
http://smartservicedesk.com 

What Problem Solving Skills Do You Need?

 A “Problem” can be described as “a matter or situation regarded as unwelcome or harmful and needing to be dealt with and overcome.”

Everybody can benefit from having good problem solving skills as we all encounter customer service challenges on a daily basis; some of these problems are obviously more severe or complex than others.

It would be wonderful to have the ability to solve all problems efficiently and in a timely fashion without difficulty, unfortunately there is no single way in which all problems can be solved.

Often interpersonal relationships fail and businesses fail because of poor problem solving

This is often due to either problems not being recognized or being recognized but not being dealt with appropriately. Solving a problem may involve a certain amount of risk - this risk needs to be weighed up against the result of not solving the problem.\

Customers want to be your number one priority when it comes to solving their problem.  You must make sure that the appearance you give to their problem makes them feel exactly that way.

From the information gathered from the first customer about the problem and them moving into a problem solving framework it is now time to start thinking about possible solutions to the identified problem. In a group situation this stage is often carried out as a brain-storming session, letting each person in the group express their views on possible solutions (or part solutions). In organizations different people will have different expertise in different areas and it is useful, therefore, to hear the views of each concerned party.

Next comes implementation of your planned solution.  Implementation means acting on the chosen solution. During implementation more problems may arise especially if identification or structuring of the original problem was not carried out fully.

The last stage is about reviewing the outcomes of problem solving over a period of time, including seeking feedback as to the success of the outcomes of the chosen solution.

The final stage of problem solving is concerned with checking that the process was truly successful. Is your customer satisfied? This can be achieved by monitoring and gaining feedback from people affected by any changes that occurred. It is good practice to keep a record of outcomes and any additional problems that occurred.

SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software is a great start to creating your very own customer service legends. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk
600 West Ray Road
Suite D-3
Chandler Arizona 85225
602-235-0975
info@smartservicedesk.com
http://smartservicedesk.com

Treat Customers Like You Are The Owner

Owners tend to care more about their business than the employees do. The ownership changes a perspective of how they relate to their customers. They care because it matters to the future of their business. 

Can you train employees to feel the same way? Can incentives be put in place to help this process?

Does lead by example feature into this style of management?

You Can Do Well By Doing Good

Acts of kindness are powerful. They resonate with your customers and have the potential to create a huge ripple effect through social and mainstream media.

Captain Gerhard Brandner bought 38 pizzas for his passengers on his Frontier Airlines plane. Their flight to Denver, already delayed one hour, was on the way from Washington Dulles Airport when it was forced to land in Cheyenne, Wyoming due to bad weather. After a couple hours on the tarmac, Brandner dialed up Dominos, met them outside airline security, and hand delivered the food to the plane.

Not only did this leave a positive message with the affected passengers it played well on the media and social websites.

Go the Extra Mile

There are only two ways to beat the competition; lower your price or increase the quality and quantity of service you provide to your customers. Customers who buy from you because of a low price are not loyal and will jump ship when your competition offers them a lower price. One of the biggest reasons most salespeople fail to succeed is because they view customer service requests as unpaid, administrative burdens rather than golden opportunities. By going the extra mile, you will stand out from the crowd because most salespeople are unwilling to even go the first mile let alone the extra mile. Consumer surveys underscore the fact that customers don’t mind paying a higher price for a product if they’re satisfied with the service they receive after the sale.

Developing the habit of going the extra mile and rendering service above and beyond your customers’ expectations is a smart business decision that pays big dividends. Going the extra mile enhances customer loyalty, increases sales, and promotes positive word-of-mouth advertising within your marketplace. 

One happy customer who is given exceptional service can influence more prospects to do business with you than $10,000 worth of traditional advertising.  

Do you reward and support thinking outside the box solutions?

SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software is a great start to creating your very own customer service legends. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk
600 West Ray Road
Suite D-3
Chandler Arizona 85225
602-235-0975
info@smartservicedesk.com
http://smartservicedesk.com

Biggest Business Challenges You Face Everyday

In the Social Media World businesses are challenged with inconsistent IT service execution affecting customer experience and cost control due to process inefficiencies. Technology organizations within the business are struggling with a greater demand for flexibility as well as IT environment complexity that is at odds with increasing transparency and compliance.

With the use of SMART Service Desk business process automation tools, our customers increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience. SMART Service Desk solutions can be adapted very quickly, easily and economically to suit the customer's systems and business process.

SMART Service Desk is an effective solution for automating ITIL® processes, such as incident, problem, change, asset, service level, configuration, and service catalog / request fulfillment. From simple help desk to service and business line operations — from basic tasking to out-of-the-box ITIL processes — SMART Service Desk has the breadth and depth of choices to affordably meet your needs today and in the future.

Available both as an on-demand (SaaS) and on-premise solution, the SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Suite is a perfect fit for organizations wanting to mature their capabilities. Incorporate ITIL best practices into network, database, application, availability, and performance monitoring, as well as configuration management and workload process automation such as:

Automated ticketing based on monitored events that are prioritized based on impact to the business.

Service catalog that includes provides visibility to cost of service with chargeback and/or show-back capabilities.

Fully-controlled cloud lifecycle management.

Foundation For A Flexible, Scalable, And Controlled Cloud

Our cloud-based SaaS solutions enable IT organizations to build and run a flexible, controlled cloud that meets business needs and sets the foundation for intelligent, policy -based ongoing operations. With these solutions, SMART Service Desk combines the benefits of IT management — operational excellence, automation, and service delivery models — with the dynamic power and scalability of cloud architectures. Based on the same common, shared platform, our integrated modules can leverage your investment in SMART Service Desk to ensure that you manage your cloud using the same ITIL best practice processes you have established for other business services and infrastructure. 

SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software is a great start to creating your very own customer service legends. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk
600 West Ray Road
Suite D-3
Chandler Arizona 85225
602-235-0975
info@smartservicedesk.com
http://smartservicedesk.com

SMART Service Desk Wishes You Happy Father’s Day

"Fathers young, fathers old
Remembering good times are our gold.

Value earned through guidance given
Helping us go forth in livin'.

Each father adding to our trove
A treasure chest of love untold.

Remembering fathers in our lives
Taking time to realize.

Fatherly love brings wealth to living
Remembering this, we go forth in giving.

Fathers young, fathers old
We remember you all
As life unfolds."

~ Susan Kramer

This very special holiday is honored on the third Sunday in June and goes back more than 100 years as a U.S. celebration.

SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software is a great start to creating your very own customer service legends. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk
600 West Ray Road
Suite D-3
Chandler Arizona 85225
602-235-0975
info@smartservicedesk.com
http://smartservicedesk.com

What Are The New Customer Service Solutions?

Customer expectations for service are rising every day. Being able to meet these new needs often means providing a type of personalized service that goes above and beyond what your competitors can deliver.

Customers expect things to go as expected with your products and services. But when they don't, they want fast and easy resolutions. While that may sound simple, you know that it's incredibly difficult for companies to deliver to those expectations consistently and cost effectively, in the customer's preferred channel.

The latest and most desirable customer service platforms are those that feature robust solutions that can be deployed via Purchased On-Premise, Subscription On-Premise or Cloud Subscription, with the portability to switch as required. That style is simple, yet comprehensive; highly configurable ITSM Suite developed in alignment with the ITIL best practice framework to manage the entire service life-cycle across.

Give your customers the answers they need, whenever and wherever they need them. Today’s customers expect to have access to customer service on their terms. And that means providing them with options to access 24/7 support.

Your firm needs to find the solutions that maximize customer satisfaction and loyalty, and at the same time reduce cost to serve, and increase revenue with solutions designed to address complex customer management needs across the entire customer life cycle, from acquisition through retention.

Your customers and clients will thank you by staying when you avoid self-serve transactions that are completely void of any human interaction, Those using Interactive Voice Response or IVR, sometimes  known as phone trees (better known as customer hell), once seen as innovations in customer support, are now the bane of customers. And as the world feels smaller and customers get more vocal due to the unstoppable rise of social media, organizations must change gears and create a customer experience more reflective of how people are interacting today, which is ironically similar to the customer experience of yesteryear, the one our grandparents remember: personal, human, and available.

Consider SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software as your solution. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk
600 West Ray Road
Suite D-3
Chandler Arizona 85225
602-235-0975
info@smartservicedesk.com
http://smartservicedesk.com

SMART Service Desk Asks: Do You Miss Customer Communications

Now more than ever, customers just want to be recognized and understood. We live in the personalization era and technology will only take it further. At the same time, the lack of efficient customer engagement methods in place at companies worldwide and the number of ‘impersonalized’ processes in contact centers and beyond have left many customers wondering when it will all improve for them.

As with the smart phone edging its way in to the world of the desktop will the smart watch help or hurt future communications and marketing efforts?

Most customers actually use multiple digital channels, devices and sessions during a typical journey. Yet, most companies and organizations are blind to what customers are doing online or on certain digital channels. They don’t see interactions the same way customers do – as one continuous conversation.

A company can no longer expect to get their complaints via phone and email. Social media has become a sounding board for your customers. With the many different channels it can be difficult to monitor them all. Every printed piece you handout to all contacts can contain your expected channels by including your Facebook, Twitter, email and phone number. These should be prominent on your web site as well.

If possible you need to identify and channel upcoming customer inquiries and situations before they happen.  A sudden rise in negative feedback around your brand indicates you need to take immediate corrective action when customer engagement goes awry. Effective monitoring and tracking across digital channels enables you know which customers and individual influencers to engage, leading to a better anticipation of customer needs, before they try to contact you.

By combining customer contextual and behavioral information with a real-time view of the resources available in the contact center, you can offer proactive assistance at the right time, on the right channel and with the right service representative to secure effective customer conversations.

Is your company ready to communicate with all of your customers where they expect you to be?

SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software can be your answer. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk
600 West Ray Road
Suite D-3
Chandler Arizona 85225
602-235-0975
info@smartservicedesk.com
http://smartservicedesk.com

SMART Service Desk Asks: What Makes A Business Successful

Should we first look at the definition of the word success? “A person or corporation that achieves desired aims or attains prosperity.” Read on To discover the six tips to a successful business.

To succeed in business today, you need to be flexible, make successful plans and have great organizational skills. Some folks start a business thinking that they'll turn on their computers or open their doors and start making money - only to find that making money in a business is much more difficult than they thought. You can avoid this in your business ventures by taking your time and planning out all the necessary steps you need to reach to achieve success. 

Using the Risks and Rewards
The key to being successful is taking calculated risks to help your business grow. A good question to ask is "What's the downside?" If you can answer this question, then you know what the worst-case scenario is. This knowledge will allow you to take the kinds of calculated risks that can generate tremendous rewards for your business.

Be Better Than Your Competition
Competition breeds the best results. To be successful, you can't be afraid to study and learn from your competitors. After all, they may be doing something right that you can implement in your business to make more money.

Learn To Be Creative
Always be looking for ways to improve your business and to make it stand out from the competition. Recognize that you don't know everything and be open to new ideas and new approaches to your business.

Stay On Task
The old saying that "Rome was not built in a day" applies here. Just because you open a business doesn't mean that you're going to immediately start making money. It takes time to let people know who you are, so stay focused on achieving your short-term goals and give the rest time to come together on its own.

Keep Detailed Records
All successful businesses keep detailed records. By keeping detailed records, you'll know where the business stands financially and what potential challenges you could be facing. Just knowing this gives you time to create strategies to overcome the obstacles that can prevent you from being successful and growing your business.

Have The Right Software
SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software is your answer. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk
600 West Ray Road
Suite D-3
Chandler Arizona 85225
602-235-0975
info@smartservicedesk.com
http://smartservicedesk.com

More Essential Customer Service Skills

What should your workers bring to the table when dealing with your customers? Here are some more customer service skills that are part of the basic set needed to deal with your Brand's clients.

Ability to Implement Company Protocol and Guidelines

Most customer service positions are within companies that have official ways of handling calls. You will need to be able to not just look over the rules, but actually internalize them. You need to understand the guidelines and then use them the way they are intended. Those who follow the rules best usually end up working at a company the longest.

Situational Evaluation and Analysis

Many times, in customer service work, you will encounter a problem that is not covered in the company’s guidelines. When this happens, you are going to need to evaluate the situation and decide whether or not you need a supervisor present. One of the most important customer service skills to have is being able to decide whether or not a person is being honest or trying to deceive you. To do this, you have to be able to analyze data and, preferably, do this quickly.

Organizational Skills

An important aspect of good customer service is good organization skills. If the customer is operating to a time schedule then the ability of the person dealing with that customer to organize themselves and respond quickly is crucial. This may involve gathering information from a number of sources so the employee needs to know exactly where to get each piece of information from.

Ability to Identify and Anticipate Needs

If a good relationship is built up with a customer then this will enable the employee to offer the customer relevant products or services that will be of benefit to them. These recommendations should be based on their past purchases and knowledge of customer needs.

Product Knowledge

Good product knowledge is important because it will give the customer confidence in the product and in the company as a whole. If the customer is experiencing a problem with a particular product then a good working knowledge of the product can resolve the problem quickly. Employees will be better placed to make recommendations to customers about which product will best suit their needs if they are aware of the different benefits of a range of products.

SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software is your answer. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk

600 West Ray Road

Suite D-3

Chandler Arizona 85225

602-235-0975

info@smartservicedesk.com

http://smartservicedesk.com

Consider SMART Service Desk Solutions?

Is your company or your business in search of IT Service Management Software to help with your internal and external IT management?

SMART Service Desk is a robust and highly flexible IT Service Management (ITSM) application, built on ITIL best practices that help customers and users meet the dynamic needs of a growing business and achieve the highest level of service quality, delivery and performance. We offer the best location or cloud based experience you’ll find in the industry.

Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, SMART Service Desk Software, is a vendor for ITIL Best Practice & ISO 20000 Standards Service management (ITSM) Solutions, Service Desk, CRM, EAM and support software for medium to large enterprises. SMART Service Desk has key customers, such as Toyata, Mitsubishi Motors, Saudi Credit bureau, Tamer Pharma and Oman Arab Bank. Founded in 2008, SMART Service Desk Software is a privately held firm with offices in the United States, India and Partner offices in UK, Saudi Arabia, Oman, UAE and Qatar.

SMART Service Desk is the leader in Help Desk, IT Service Management, Quality Management & Customer Relationship Management Integrated Solutions, which are applicable to a wide range of different service organizations. SMART Service Desk of software solutions can be adapted very quickly, easily and economically to suit the customer's systems and business processes. Many our customers have got head start in process definition, to Fast-track your ITIL V3, ISO 9001, ISO 20000 & Other ISO Standardization, initiatives to enhance quality of services and customer satisfaction.

SMART Service Desk will help you to improve service quality and resource utilization across your entire IT infrastructure. With SMART Mobile Custom Applications can access applications from SMART Phones for faster and better-informed business decisions.

Our SaaS solutions on Cloud let you seamlessly manage services, customers and quality improvement programs. Available through any Web browser, our solutions are designed to help you shorten deployment times, reduce risks and lower costs, including support and maintenance expenses.

Is your company looking for customer service solutions to help you deal with customer interaction? SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software is your answer. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk
600 West Ray Road
Suite D-3
Chandler Arizona 85225
602-235-0975
info@smartservicedesk.com

http://smartservicedesk.com

Does Your Customer Service Add Up?

Or should I restate that question as, “Does your customer service add up in the mind of your customers?”

When it comes to building a remarkable brand, business owners often overlook the customer service experience.

When you think of high levels of customer service, what brands come to mind?

The first names to roll off people’s tongues are usually Apple, Land’s End and Virgin. Why? Because outstanding customer service methods are more than a mantra in these organizations. It’s part of their company brand. Yet poor customer service can also be the demise of your company if you don’t do it well.

Many businesses continue to treat great customer service as a cost center, despite the fact that it drives business and profitability. What do you think would happen if you took a different view of customer service and treated it more like a profit center?

The phrase “customer service” evokes different images in people’s minds. One image could be that of friendly, smiling, helpful employees who go out of their way to serve you Most people can recall many examples of poor customer service. Whether it’s the help desk employee that puts you on hold for 20 minutes or the store cashier who engages in a personal conversation instead of ringing up your purchase, poor customer service can make people feel frustrated and vow never to do business with that company again.

No matter what industry you’re in, chances are that you interact with customers at some level. Realize that customers can be shoppers at a store, patrons at a bank, patients of a doctor, clients of a lawyer, or even other businesses as a whole. Because customers have their choice of where to obtain goods or services, the business has to convince the customer that they truly care. An engaged, caring employee raises the customer’s confidence that the business is looking out for the customer’s interests. When that employee suggests a new product or service, the customer trusts that his or her best interest is at heart. On the flip side, if the customer senses a lack of caring, they may question the motives behind any recommendations.

SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software can be your answer. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk
600 West Ray Road
Suite D-3
Chandler Arizona 85225
602-235-0975
info@smartservicedesk.com
http://smartservicedesk.com

Seven Tips To Build Customer Service Skills

Clear Verbal Communication
You need to be able to communicate effectively with the customer. While written communication is another of the customer service skills you’ll want to master, it is verbal communication that is most often used in today’s call centers. The purpose of this kind of communication is to not just repeat a spiel or information to the customer, but to make sure that they understood what you said. You will need proper speaking skills, good grammar and the ability to choose the right mode of speaking for the person on the other end of the line or across the counter from you.

Ability to Empathize
This is an ability that will most likely be honed over time and it is one of the customer service skills that can actually erode for some who have been in this industry for a while. You need to be able to listen and actually involve yourself in what the customer is telling you about their situation. Empathy is sensing and understanding the emotions of others and of all the customer service skills, some will argue that this is most important. Those who are good at empathy can often win the trust of even the most dissatisfied customers because those customers will feel they have someone on their side at last.

Understanding of Human Psychology
While everyone is certainly different, there are commonalities among us as human beings. For those who take the time to study at least some basic psychology, the job of helping people over the phone is much easier to do. This can often help you defuse tense situations and anticipate what a customer wants before he or she verbalizes it. This is one skill that can impress customers and your superiors alike.

Situational Evaluation and Analysis
Many times, in customer service work, you will encounter a problem that is not covered in the company’s guidelines. When this happens, you are going to need to evaluate the situation and decide whether or not you need a supervisor present. One of the most important customer service skills to have is being able to decide whether or not a person is being honest or trying to deceive you. To do this, you have to be able to analyze data and, preferably, do this quickly.

Practice Respect
Being respectful to customers is another key skill. It should go without saying that simple manners should be used at all times but other factors that can make the customer feel respected include addressing them by their title and only using their first name if they have indicated that this is what they prefer. Customers should not be interrupted when they are speaking and the employee should wait until they have finished before responding.

Problem Solving
If a customer has a problem then this should be resolved as soon as possible. The customer should be made to feel that any concerns that they have are valid and that everything is being done by the employee in order to solve the problem quickly.

Thinking Outside the Box
Sometimes, a creative solution to a customer’s problem is needed. A degree of creativity (within company guidelines, of course!) can be of benefit in these circumstances.

SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software is your answer. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk
600 West Ray Road
Suite D-3
Chandler Arizona 85225
602-235-0975
info@smartservicedesk.com
http://smartservicedesk.com

Planning Your Next Customer Service Move

Customer Service call centers are a dizzying array of old and new technologies. How should you plan to update your legacy infrastructure to keep up with customer demands? 

How can you orchestrate these systems to improve your customers’ experience? What role can SMART Service Desk play in this process?

Servicing your customer is a part of every purchase and interaction with internal and external business contacts. It can last a few seconds up to hours. So if we all do it and experience it everyday in almost everything we do, why isn’t great customer service the norm?

We all have stories about when we were treated exceptionally well or extremely poorly. We tend to share these extraordinary stories with others. We all know that word of mouth marketing can be the absolute best advantage, or the worst drawback for a company.

Warren Buffett may have said it best: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and just five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do customer service in a whole different way.”

The Basic Rule About Customer Service

Honesty is the Best Policy. Integrity – Be honest and own up to your mistakes. Communicate what you plan to do to change or prevent the same mistake from happening again. Don’t be fooled into believing that a regular ‘mea culpa’ will get you off the hook. At some point the plan to fix the problem must take effect!

Everyone in your company should really love your customers. Without them, you have no company. 

This doesn’t mean you won’t have difficult customers who will push the limits and try everyone’s patience. But if you don’t have a company philosophy to respect and appreciate your customers, the opposite tone will infect customer interactions from all departments. 

All departments, customer facing or not, should care about customer satisfaction as though their job depended on it. Since, in fact, it does.

Is your company looking for customer service solutions to help you deal with customer interaction? 

SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software is your answer. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk
600 West Ray Road
Suite D-3
Chandler Arizona 85225
602-235-0975
info@smartservicedesk.com
http://smartservicedesk.com

SMART Service Desk: Talks Customer Relationship Management

SMART Customer relationship management (CRM) software, offered both on premise and cloud-based CRM, help businesses reduce costs and increase profitability by organizing and automating business processes to ensure customer satisfaction and loyalty in the sales, marketing, and customer service fields.

With SMART CRM solutions we deliver ROI through automation in customer service, and sales force automation. We also offer mobile apps that allow you to manage your customer relationships on your mobile devices, and software integration adaptors that integrate data and reporting from social media directly into your CRM application.

Business Challenges

The challenge of effective IT Service management is to analyze to causes of incidents and permanently remove them by providing solution for recurring incidents. Lack of effective problem management techniques will cause high costs and low motivation for both users & Support staff, since similar incidents have to be resolved repeatedly without anyone able to provide permanent solution.

How SMART Problem Management Can Help Your Business

SMART Service Desk Problem Management extends Incident Management by providing workarounds and temporary fixes, until it has found the root cause of Incidents. Problem Management depends on reviewing all the accurate information of Incidents to enable reactive and pro-active analysis of the underlying root cause. SMART Problem Management allows IT Staff to become pro-active & helps them to get solely out of the fire-fighting mode, by identifying Problems & Known Errors before the Incidents occur.
SMART Service Desk Problem Management enables

Identify, register and classify the problem.
Perform investigation & diagnosis.
Provide workaround.
Identify known errors.
Resolve and close the problem

Is your company looking for customer service solutions to help you deal with customer interaction? SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software is your answer. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk
600 West Ray Road
Suite D-3
Chandler Arizona 85225
602-235-0975
info@smartservicedesk.com
http://smartservicedesk.com

SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software

What is IT Service Management Software? Software that is a process-based and intended to align the delivery of information technology (IT) services with needs of the business, with emphasis on benefits to customers.

IT Service Management involves a paradigm shift from managing IT as stacks of individual hardware and software components to managing the delivery of support and customer retention services that help an organization achieve its marketing or information goals. The IT department in a large organization should create service level agreements so that services can be measured, justified and perhaps compared with those of third-party providers.

IT Service Management Software brings the benefits of cost savings, alignment with business, and operational efficiency and these benefits are encouraging more businesses to embrace ITIL service management practices. SMART Service Desk delivers IT service management (ITSM), business and workforce enablement with the goal of customer service excellence.

Increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. Our SMART Service Desk solutions can be adapted very quickly, easily and economically to meet your exact business needs. Achieve faster implementation, successful change management, and lower total cost of ownership with our 100% configurable, intuitive and affordable solutions.

SMART Service Desk - IT Service Management Suite is a flexible and robust solution that can be deployed via Purchased On-Premise, Subscription On-Premise and Cloud Subscription, with the portability to switch between different solutions. It is simple, yet comprehensive; highly configurable ITSM Suite developed in alignment with the ITIL best practice framework to manage the entire service life-cycle across. We offer an integrated and modular solution that is designed to support multiple languages.

It should come as no surprise that nearly 90% of today's customers will stop doing business with any company based solely on a single bad customer experience. News of these negative experiences will spread rapidly through social media.

The challenge of effective IT Service management is to analyze the causes of incidents and permanently remove them by providing solutions for recurring incidents. Lack of effective problem management techniques can cause high costs and low motivation for both users and support staff, since similar incidents have to be resolved repeatedly without anyone able to provide permanent solution.

In order to help you and your business we need to open a dialog we can best understand how SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software can be your businesses’ solution. We look forward to meeting your business needs and providing cost effective solutions.

SMART Service Desk
600 West Ray Road
Suite D-3
Chandler Arizona 85225
602-235-0975
info@smartservicedesk.com
http://smartservicedesk.com

SMART Service Desk: When Do You Put Employees First?

Richard Branson has built Virgin into a global powerhouse by focusing on two simple words. And those two very key words are… customer service.

From Virgin Atlantic to Virgin Mobile, each new Virgin venture has shared the brand's unrivaled commitment to their customers. In fact, the famed entrepreneur refused to place the Virgin brand on any company he acquired, until it had been brought up to the proper caliber of customer service.

Surprisingly, Branson recently revealed that Virgin does not put the customer first. In fact, Virgin employees are the company's top priority. That may sound counter to decades-old business wisdom, but it has worked so well for Virgin that Branson says he's surprised more companies haven't adopted an employee-centric management strategy.

To make sure his employees are well taken care of, the founder even goes so far as to collect feedback by walking around the cabin and talking directly to the staff during his Virgin flights. As Branson sees it, the formula is very simple: Happy employees equal happy customers. Similarly, an unhappy employee can ruin the brand experience for not just one, but numerous of the brands customers.

"If the person who works at your company is not appreciated, they are not going to do things with a smile," Branson says. By not treating employees well, companies risk losing customers over bad service. To this end, Branson says he has made sure that Virgin prioritizes employees first, customers second, and shareholders third.

"Effectively, in the end shareholders do well, the customers do better, and your staff remains happy," Branson says.

Becoming an employee-centric company isn’t easy. You have to believe that motivated staff make a difference, and you have to invest in them. You must change your entire approach to recruiting, training, compensation, motivation, strategy and culture. But the results can be worth it.

When your employees are well led, properly compensated and challenged to do their best, they’ll look after your customers – and then shareholder value will look after itself.

Is your company looking for customer service solutions to help you deal with customer interaction? SMART Service Desk IT Service Management Software is your answer. We know that your satisfied customers will return again and again. Let us help you increase productivity, reduce operations cost and improve customer experience with our ITIL compliant solutions. No matter the size of your business we have your customer retention solutions.

SMART Service Desk

600 West Ray Road

Suite D-3

Chandler Arizona 85225

602-235-0975

info@smartservicedesk.com

http://smartservicedesk.com