Company Culture

Meeting Customer Expectations: Importance, Strategies to Exceed Them, and Management Tips

Mary Kyamko — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 04:32:08 +0000

Will your business idea succeed? Take our quiz - completely confidential and free! Customer expectations are often tough to meet, especially for small businesses. These expectations evolve with the times and are sometimes impossible to meet. After all, customers can switch businesses whenever they want if these expectations aren’t met. But no matter the challenge, you must equip your business with the tools to meet and exceed these expectations. You must continue to learn various strategies to keep matching these expectations. This guide will discuss the ins and outs of meeting customers’ ever-changing needs, strategies for addressing them best, and tips to keep you guided. What are customer expectations? Customer expectations are the service standards that customers expect from businesses, such as fair pricing, top-notch support, and more. These expectations shape your brand’s customer service to match these demands. Many technological tools exist to help match customer expectations. Customer service tools such as live chat, discussion forums, SMS text support, and more help businesses cater to their customers. But these tools don’t guarantee quality customer service. Many brands make the mistake of relying too heavily on these tools for customer support. As a result, brands fail to meet or exceed people’s expectations. Essential Branding Toolkit for EntrepreneursBuild a stronger brand with our free guides. Get actionable insights to define your brand’s unique voice, understand your market, and stand out to customers. The guides are concise, actionable, practical, and tailored for the busy entrepreneur. The Ultimate Branding Checklist Crafting Your Unique Value Proposition Build Your Brand Pillars Worksheet Market Research Kit

13 Essential TED Talks You Must Listen to When Starting a Business

Katie Lundin — Mon, 05 Apr 2021 17:42:36 +0000

Launching a startup isn't for the faint of heart. But, these 13 TED Talks share insights and actionable tips that can help you succeed.

5 Tips for Running a Successful Remote Agency

Katie Lundin — Thu, 30 Jul 2020 19:20:26 +0000

With so much to gain, how can an agency be more efficient and effective with a remote team? Here are 5 tips to help your agency master remote work.

4 Biggest Challenges of Working Remotely and 13 Strategies to Overcome Them

Ashlee Brayfield — Wed, 27 May 2020 23:52:20 +0000

We look at the 4 biggest challenges of working remotely and offer 13 strategies to work through those challenges.

3 Big Challenges Of Remote Work and How To Overcome Them

Ashlee Brayfield — Wed, 06 May 2020 19:49:56 +0000

Here are three of the most common challenges managers and companies face when managing remote teams and ways you can overcome those challenges.

The Small Business Guide to Attract and Retain Great Employees

Katie Lundin — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 22:07:38 +0000

Without the right employees, it's hard for small businesses to grow and thrive. We take a look at five proven ways your small business can recruit and retain top talent.

Why Side Projects Are Important (And How You Can Get Started)

Amanda Bowman — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 14:55:17 +0000

Here's why you should invest your time in developing and pursuing a side project. It may be the most important thing you do this year.

Ten Ways Leaders Can Help Employees Find Meaning at Work

Katie Lundin — Thu, 30 Nov 2017 17:33:46 +0000

Here are 10 proven ways you can help your employees connect with and find meaning in their work.

How to Revive a Toxic Work Culture in 5 Steps

Katie Lundin — Thu, 24 Aug 2017 12:55:37 +0000

Here is a step-by-step practical strategy guide to help your business tackle tough cultural issues on your team.

How to Build And Preserve A Strong Company Culture

Amanda Bowman — Tue, 30 May 2017 20:42:19 +0000

One of the most important things you can do to ensure the success of your business is to create and maintain a strong company culture.

6 Tips to Help You Build a Great Team For Your Small Business or Startup

Arielle Kimbarovsky — Wed, 17 May 2017 19:56:54 +0000

You can build a winning team that will set your company up for success. Here are six tips to help you build a great team for your small business or startup.

How to Find and Hire Highly Effective Employees

Ross Kimbarovsky — Tue, 14 Mar 2017 20:30:32 +0000

Will your business idea succeed? Take our quiz - completely confidential and free! We’re fortunate to have built a great team at crowdSPRING. What makes one employee highly effective and another average? For some of our job postings, crowdSPRING receives hundreds of resumes. How do we find the most effective people to join our team? Contrary to the way most companies hire – we never hire the best candidate from a pool of candidates. We hire only when a candidate is the right fit for us. We’ve had hiring cycles where after reviewing hundreds of applications for a position, we elected not to hire anyone. We’ve also hired multiple people when looking for only a single hire. Ultimately, for us, it comes down to finding great people who we believe would be effective and who will make our team stronger. Free Business Startup KitReceive six actionable guides, including a how to start a business checklist, detailed comparisons of LLCs, corporations, sole proprietorships, and partnerships to determine the best fit for your business, plus insights on crafting a compelling pitch deck to attract investors. How to Start a Business ChecklistStarting a Corporation Guide Is an LLC Right for You? Starting a Sole Proprietorship Starting Business Partnerships Creating a Powerful Pitch DeckGet your free startup kitFree Business Startup KitReceive six actionable guides, including a how to start a business checklist, detailed comparisons of LLCs, corporations, sole proprietorships, and partnerships to determine the best fit for your business, plus insights on crafting a compelling pitch deck to attract investors. How to Start a Business Checklist Starting a Corporation Guide Is an LLC Right for You? Starting a Sole Proprietorship Starting Business Partnerships Creating a Powerful Pitch DeckGet your free startup kitFree Business Startup KitReceive six actionable guides, including a how to start a business checklist, detailed comparisons of LLCs, corporations, sole proprietorships, and partnerships to determine the best fit for your business, plus insights on crafting a compelling pitch deck to attract investors. How to Start a Business Checklist Starting a Corporation Guide Is an LLC Right for You? Starting a Sole Proprietorship Starting Business Partnerships Creating a Powerful Pitch DeckGet your free startup kit When interviewing, I look for the following seven habits – every highly effective employee with whom I’ve worked (at crowdSPRING and elsewhere) possessed most of these habits: 1. Strong Self-Discipline 2. Welcome criticism 3. Embrace opportunities 4. Persistence 5. Decisiveness 6. Listen first 7. Know their limits Watch the video for more detail on these seven habits and interview tips for identifying effective employees: Want a free brand review?Answer 5 short questions and we will send a custom report with actionable insights and specific actions you can take to build a stronger brand. We just emailed the info to you. Email Address

6 Women Entrepreneurs Share Their Most Important Advice About Starting And Growing A Successful Business

Arielle Kimbarovsky — Wed, 08 Mar 2017 22:44:34 +0000

We spoke to 6 female entrepreneurs about their experiences with starting their own businesses, raising families, and their overall journey as female entrepreneurs.

5 Strategies To Increase Productivity In Open Offices

Ross Kimbarovsky — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 13:57:46 +0000

Will your business idea succeed? Take our quiz - completely confidential and free! More and more companies, especially startups, are adopting open office floor plans. Today, nearly 70% of all offices have open floor plans. Companies of all sizes see open offices as an opportunity to reduce real estate footprint and costs – you can put more people into an open layout. In fact, as more companies embrace remote work, the need for dedicated private offices diminishes. The trend has been fueled in large part by startups. Some startup teams are nimble, energetic and productive, and people assume that open offices are, at least in part, responsible for those traits. Despite this trend towards open offices, there’s a growing body of research casting doubt on the benefits of open offices. Researchers have found, for example, that the benefits of easy communication in an open office layout don’t outweigh the lack of privacy, and other disadvantages. The chart below, from Harvard Business Review, summarizes the biggest complaints about different types of office layouts (based on a study of more than 42,000 U.S. office workers). As you can see, people complain the most about open offices and cubicles. The researchers, Jungsoo Kim and Richard de Dear of the University of Sydney wrote: Our results categorically contradict the industry-accepted wisdom that open-plan layout enhances communication between colleagues and improves occupants’ overall work environmental satisfaction. The open-plan proponents’ argument that open-plan improves morale and productivity appears to have no basis in the research literature. Should you sound the alarm and build private offices for your teams? No, unless there are specific reasons that private offices are necessary. I’m a big fan of open offices, but I believe it’s extremely important to create an office plan that overcomes the many real challenges of open offices. Here are five strategies to help you get started: 1. Build a culture of quiet. Many companies encourage (or don’t discourage) open and loud communications in an open office. This builds a dangerous culture. After all, open offices have few sound-reducing walls. A study found that workers exposed to open office noise for three hours can experience an increase in adrenaline levels associated with the fight-or-flight response. From the start, build a culture of quiet – encourage people to talk in private rooms or common areas, and to use chat tools like Slack or HipChat. Encourage people to use headphones – especially noise-canceling headphones. These can help cut out background noises and distractions and can also boost productivity. Free Business Startup KitReceive six actionable guides, including a how to start a business checklist, detailed comparisons of LLCs, corporations, sole proprietorships, and partnerships to determine the best fit for your business, plus insights on crafting a compelling pitch deck to attract investors. How to Start a Business ChecklistStarting a Corporation Guide Is an LLC Right for You? Starting a Sole Proprietorship Starting Business Partnerships Creating a Powerful Pitch DeckGet your free startup kitFree Business Startup KitReceive six actionable guides, including a how..