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
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
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
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
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
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
"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
