Client Engagement – How Can You Achieve It?

Even if you are completely satisfied with your products and pricing, it counts for very little without the right promotion. Engaging your clients in a manner that converts interest into sales is one of the most important aspects of the whole business operation. While every business tires, only a small percentage actually succeed.

Creating a winning plan of action is vital, and focusing on three main situations will serve you extremely well. Here’s all you need to know.

In-Store

Attracting passing trade relies heavily on location. But you also need to ensure that the storefront appeals to the desired demographic. However, you cannot fall into the trap of thinking that getting them in the store is all that matters. In truth, there’s so much more to consider.

Promotional ideas like running competitions or tasks related to your products can work wonders. Equipping staff with Square Up mobile POS terminals can allow them to offer a far more personalised shopping experience. This, combined with friendly staff, ensures that they remain engaged with the business in a positive manner.

Quality products and value will always be the priorities. Still, when those interactions are of a positive nature, it can only leave a positive impression.   

Online

There’s no escaping the shift towards online transactions. In fact, many businesses now rely massively on their digital revenue streams, even when they still maintain offline stores. A well-designed website that is optimised for mobile is vital. This can also include an App.

However, it’s imperative that you go the extra mile by gaining engagement through other platforms. Participation and regular interactions are vital for all demographics. Using Instagram stories to spark a big response is ideal. Meanwhile, blog posts and product links promoted through social media can work wonders too.

If it promotes the personality of the brand along with the products you sell, success is assured. Moreover, many of those users will spread the word on your behalf.

Exhibitions

As with online methods, your domains are only one area where success can be achieved. With regards to offline marketing, exhibitions and networking events can work wonders. They open the door to audiences and opportunities that would otherwise be kept close. Make sure you take them.

Yours won’t be the only business trying to win over those potential clients, though. As such, you need to know that your event will stand out from the crowd. Experts at Open Exhibitions can design winning stools and presentation facilities. Meanwhile, using videos and visual aids can work wonders as you bid to engage visitors and lead them to the intended response. Again, some of the in-store ideas can be used to great effect.

This is a particularly popular option for gaining B2B clients, although it can also win over consumers.   

The Final Word

Keeping customers engaged is one of the key steps en route to gaining the sales figures needed for success. While mastering this aspect alone won’t be enough to achieve sustained profits, it will certainly go a long way to helping. Underestimate its importance at your peril.

Quick Tips to Get Your Home Office Performing Better

There are a few things that will make your office space a much more welcoming environment. Working from home full time or as a side earning project is brilliant, but it does mean we need to pay particular attention to what is surrounding us. It should be somewhere that hypes you up for the day, where your creativity and productivity are maximized. So what can you do to make sure you’re getting the most from it? Let’s take a look

Firstly make sure you space is clean, and not just ‘dusted the shelves a bit’ clean, but calling some commercial cleaners and get the job done correctly.

Add some green to it. Having plants in your working vicinity is proven to make you more productive. While you might be tempted to assume it’s just for aesthetics, it isn’t. Having them in your office space will help reduce stress, the green color also has a relaxing and calming effect. They help keep your air clean too. They suck up all the carbon dioxide that we don’t need and turn it into oxygen. They also clean up some other chemicals in the air, making our space a much more pleasant area to be in.

Get organized. While it might be tempting to keep putting off paperwork organization – don’t. Carve out some space in your week to make sure you get it done. Pick up some folders, some labels and get it all in good order. Then, take the same care of the folders on your desktop or laptop. Pick up a hard disk drive with plenty of space and any folders on your computer that are more than a year old and unlikely to be recalled soon put them all on the HDD. While we never know when individual files will have a use in the future if you have a high client retention rate the chances are you might need them again – so keep them.

Get a pin board with a whiteboard attachment, and use it every morning. When you get up each morning write your to-do list on it. Write the time of day you want to finish your work and make that list a priority. Anything that you haven’t completed by the end of the day is not likely to be significant so put it in the Weekend Bucket.

Get yourself a Weekend Bucket – While it is lovely to have time off whenever you like, some jobs need to tackle more than you need to binge-watch Scrubs. Your Weekend Bucket will be filled with tasks that require attention but aren’t of the utmost importance. You can take your time and work through them slowly. By taking them off of your to-do list but making sure they are tackled their mental stress load becomes a lot less.

Clean out your desk drawers. Any lonely pen lids, rubbish, notes that make no sense now, bits of junk – take out and reclaim the space for notebooks, pens with caps and things that you use on a daily basis.

Giving Your Office Space The Ultimate Makeover

Is it time to redesign your office space? There are lots of factors to think about when creating the perfect work environment. Practicality should always come before aesthetics – there’s no use having an office that looks pretty but has a negative impact on productivity. Of course, that isn’t to say that a practical workplace can’t still look stylish. Here are just a few ways to get the balance between practicality and style right, whether you’re redesigning your current space or moving into a new property altogether.

Let there be light

A good level of lighting is important as not to cause eye strain. If your office is too dim, employees could be getting headaches staring at a bright screen. Mood is also affected by brightness – we generally feel happier in a well-lit environment.

Adding more artificial light is the simplest way to brighten your office up. This could include adding some extra lamps around the room. Alternatively, you could upgrade your overhead lighting such as adding extra panel lights or track lighting. LED bulbs are often the brightest and are also more energy-efficient than regular bulbs, so consider switching to LEDs if you haven’t already.

You can also brighten the office up by making use of natural light. This may be costlier as it could involve adding extra windows (skylights are the perfect option for letting more natural light in). Take care when removing obstructions from your windows – whilst this can let in more light, it can make it easier for people to look into your office, which could pose a security risk unless you have tinted glass.

You may also want to consider repainting the walls with a bright colour to help reflect light. High-gloss paints are the best for reflecting light and are also often the easiest to clean.

Cut down on clutter

Too much clutter can make an office feel cramped and disorganised, negatively affecting concentration. Think about going more minimal and getting rid of items you don’t need. Consider looking into bin hire – this can be a good incentive as it forces you to throw away things so that the hired bin gets its usage.

Going paperless is a great way to clear up space. It’s also eco-friendly and can save you money. You can scan any physical documents you have in order to create digital copies and then get rid of the physical copies. This could allow you to get rid of entire filing cabinets and shelves full of paperwork. Going paperless also reduces the need to have appliances such as printers and scanners. You can even outsource a company to collect your physical mail before scanning it and emailing the copies to you, cutting down on your need to keep hold of letters and documents that have been posted to you. On top of this, you can embrace e-books as a way of freeing up space taken up by physical literature.

Go green

Going green can have lots of benefits such as saving you money and improving your company’s reputation. Doing away with paper is just one way to become an eco-friendlier business. You can also look into desks made out of reclaimed materials and encourage staff to recycle their waste by placing a recycling bin in the office.

There may also be ways of cutting down on your energy consumption such as insulating the office or upgrading your old power-hungry appliances to newer cleaner ones. A smart energy meter could be worth installing to let you know exactly how much your spending on energy as you’re using it. You could even go off-grid altogether and opt for a sustainable power source such as solar power. Whilst solar panels can cost quite a bit to install, you’ll make your money back on them by never having to pay an electricity bill again. You can even run your heating off solar power, although this could require installing a lot of solar panels.

Improve communication

Good communication is key in a business. More companies are opting for an open plan layout rather than having cubicles – it’s cheaper and does make communication between employees much easier. When it comes to communication with clients, make sure that there are enough phones within the office so that everyone has one in reach. A cloud phone service could be cheaper than having multiple phones connected to a landline, especially if you’ve got lots of employees.

When it comes to meetings, make sure that you have a suitable space in which everyone can gather around. You may even want to consider a projector or digital screen to save people having to congregate around a small computer screen when displaying data. You can help inspire meeting topics by setting up a whiteboard in the office which employees can write down queries and issue they’re experiencing.

Maintain concentration

As much as you want to encourage conversation, you may also want to have moments of concentration. The drawback of an open office is that employees can get distracted. One solution could be to have a private work zone on top of an open plan zone – those that need the concentration can work here, whilst those doing general work can stay in the open plan zone (it depends largely on the nature of your work as to how much concentration/communication you need).

There are lots of other ways that you can increase concentration. Loud noises can often be distracting so consider opting for low-noise tech where possible and considering glass that blocks out noise for private meeting rooms or for exterior windows if you’re based in a busy and noisy area. Good ventilation can also keep the place oxygenated, whilst plants have also been observed to help boost concentration.

Think ergonomically

Considering ergonomics can improve productivity by making your office a more comfortable and practically designed space. It can also prevent RSIs (repetitive strain injuries) developing in the future.

Think carefully about the position of the desks – be careful of placing a desk in the corner of a room where there may not be enough legroom or elbow room. You can also make life easier for you and your employees by opting for cordless phones, keyboards and mice that offer more free movement. Desks with adjustable heights and ergonomic office chairs can also improve comfort.

Use colour correctly

Different colours can have practical psychological benefits. Monochrome colour schemes have long been used in offices – whilst these can improve brightness and create a sense of clean organisation, many people can find black and white dull and demotivating. Think about adding a splash of colour here and there to help inspire people. Blue can be a good calming colour that is good for concentration perfect accountancy firms and counselling companies, whilst red is an energising colour that’s good for areas where physical work is carried out such as store cupboards or sales call centres. Green meanwhile has been found to inspire creativity and is great for meeting rooms and companies involved in marketing and design.

Safety first

Health and safety is an important factor to consider when designing your office. When it comes to fire safety, it’s important to keep the fire escape clear of clutter. A fire extinguisher should also be easily accessible.

Make sure that any hazards are removed where possible. This could be something as simple as a rip in the carpet which could pose as a trip hazard or a desk with a sharp corner. There may also be hidden hazards worth looking into such as dangerous substances in the walls, radon leaks and deteriorating piping and wiring in old buildings. A health and safety inspector may be able to help spot these hazards, potentially preventing future incidents.

If a hazard can’t be removed, you may be able to safeguard against it by putting up signage warning people of the dangers. This could include a ‘mind you head’ sign above a low doorway or a ‘caution hot water’ sign by a tap – some of these dangers may be obvious, but you should still point them out to protect yourself legally in the event someone gets hurt and want to sue you.

Stay secure

Security is also important. Whilst much of this can be done digital, there may still be some physical forms of security worth implementing such as adding a burglar alarm or a safe for storing sensitive documents or cash. You can also add features to deter burglars such as exterior motion sensing lighting, CCTV cameras and tinted windows to stop thieves from peering in.

Treat your employees

It could be worth also adding a few luxuries and home comforts as a way of treating your employees. Happier employees are likely to be more productive, so long as these luxuries aren’t distracting. One way of treating your employees could be to buy a premium coffee machine so that your employees have more than instant coffee. You could also allow employees the freedom to personalise their desks with personal belongings. Some offices have even set up leisure areas for their employees to use when on their break – this area could include a TV, couches and even games. Leisure areas should be placed away from general work areas so that they’re not a distraction.