Photo courtesy of: Hawee.

The Lowdown:

In simple terms, the act of Pre-Pack administration is when a new company is formed by the management team of a struggling business. The new company then proceeds to buy the assets, contracts, goodwill and even the rights to the old company name – all for a reasonable market rate. The legacy of debt is left with the old business, which is subsequently liquidated, allowing the new ‘Phoenix’ business to trade on - debt free. Generally speaking, a Pre-Pack involves the management drawing up a scheme to break up a company well in advance of it actually going bust. In fact, creditors, staff and customers will generally not know anything about the deal until the deal itself has been done.

Any creditors who have outstanding balances with the old company are paid as far as possible from the proceeds of the liquidated assets, but these amounts often fall well short of what they are actually owed. However, creditors have no claim over the new company for any outstanding debt. Pre-Pack administration deals are increasingly used by the directors and owners of under-performing businesses as a way of abandoning the loss-making parts of their business (not to mention its debts), whilst maximizing the profitable areas of the operation. Understandably, this murky practice is wide open to abuse, and the Press have started to seize on its more dubious elements. With insolvency experts estimating that up to 100 businesses may arrange a Pre-Pack administration this year, ToFind.co.uk takes a closer look at the specifics of this increasingly popular practice…

Key Examples:

Pre-Pack administration has featured prominently in the business news in recent months thanks to an assortment of high-profile company failures – all of which have made use of a Pre-Pack deal, and allowed the existing bosses to maintain control. A key example is the recent sale of the assets of Cobra Beer to Coors, immediately after Cobra Beer entered administration. This Pre-Pack deal preserved the much-loved brand and saved under-threat jobs, but also left suppliers out of pocket to the tune of roughly £75 million. Last year companies such as Whittard of Chelsea, the USC fashion chain and clothing retailer The Officers Club were all sold back to their original owners using the Pre-Pack technique. In addition, many Woolworths stores were almost sold under a Pre-Pack deal to a property company last autumn, but banks pulled the plug at the 11^th hour. On the other hand, MFI sought to re-launch itself in a similar fashion, only to implode pretty much straight away.

However, without a doubt the most controversial example of a Pre-Pack administration is the case involving Greek Telecoms group Wind Hellas. Bertrand des Pallières saw the entire investment of his hedge fund - SPQR Capital - wiped out when Wind Hellas registered as a UK company two weeks before entering into the largest Pre-Pack administration that this country has ever seen. Mr des Pallières refers to the case as a “blatant and offensive abuse of the law”, and insists that many more struggling companies are planning to relocate to the UK in order to exploit the very same restructuring tool. He claimed: “If nothing is done, London will become a bankruptcy brothel for low-life businesses to come from all over and take advantage of the British system to dump some of their debts and move on.” Mr des Pallières and other investors lost a combined €1.5 billion (£1.3 billion) and are currently preparing a landmark lawsuit that will accuse Wind Hellas of “bankruptcy tourism”.

Advantages:

Where the core business idea remains viable, logic suggests that setting up a new company using the lessons learnt from the old business is a prudent course of action. The positive aspects of the old business can be retained and/or developed, whilst the unproductive elements can be hastily discarded. By leaving the legacy of debt behind, the new business is arguably maximizing its chance of success, and can resume trading very quickly. Generally, if a business is liquidated under these circumstances, any assets will be sold as distressed (not to mention below market price), leaving any creditors with a comparatively meagre return.

Instances of Pre-Pack administration allow businesses to change hands remarkably smoothly, and work out far cheaper than using insolvency practitioners. Pre-Pack administrations also prevent liquidations and fire sales, which are frequently of no real benefit to anyone. An additional benefit of using a Pre-Pack administration is that it allows an administrator to sell the business in question before it is damaged by negative publicity – a particularly important concern for any otherwise viable businesses that have been hit hard by short-term cash-flow problems.

Disadvantages:

Without a doubt, the loudest complaint about Pre-Pack administration is that it leaves the creditors ‘high and dry’. With scant regulation in place, Pre-Packs leave themselves wide open to abuse, and there is a common perception of barely-legal deals being hammered out by shady characters in smoky rooms! As some prominent examples have shown us, a bad management team can devise a Pre-Pack arrangement months in advance, line up an administrator and then find themselves back at the helm almost immediately. Critics point out that these rules reward failure, and allow failed businessmen to secure their assets at a knock-down fee, rather than being held accountable for their mistakes. Jon Moulton of Alchemy Partners assessed: “It means when retailers fail they are often being kept with the same directors when it would be much healthier if new management arrived and with fresh money to invest. It is not a procedure that has any legal basis. It has grown up as a practice and no one has yet had the enthusiasm to contest it.”

With unemployment figures still on the rise, any kind of measure which saves jobs is bound to be a popular option. However, with Pre-Pack administration, saving jobs in the short-term takes precedence over doing right by suppliers and creditors - even if jobs may be lost further down the line as a direct consequence. According to the Association of British Insurers, Pre-Packs happen “behind closed doors, with no advance warning to unsecured creditors. Suppliers are blindly trading with these companies right up to the point of administration – in the end they could be risking their own company going under.”

The ToFind.co.uk Verdict:

The world of Pre-Pack administration is a real ethical mine-field, and without a set of solid rules in place, the procedure is wide open to abuse. If the very nature of Pre-Packs leaves a bad taste in the mouth for hard-done-by creditors who find themselves deliberately excluded from negotiations, then the ill-feeling that is generated is far worse in the cases such as the Wind Hellas fiasco. The fact that a foreign company was able to relocate to British soil solely to exploit English bankruptcy law is astonishing, and as in many cases, the Wind Hellas deal was driven through by the existing owners, who went on to retain control of the business. Unsurprisingly, these deals are often little more than a stay of execution for the doomed companies involved…

R3, the trade body for insolvency practitioners, says that the likelihood of a second insolvency rises from 38% to 45% if the business is sold to a connected party. Now-defunct retailers such as Mk One and MFI are prime examples of this type of poor business acumen, and neither managed to go the distance after staving off the creditors the first time around. The figures tell their own story, and it is abundantly clear that not everyone deserves a second bite at the cherry.

A Pre-Pack administration is a great idea in principle, but when management teams with demonstrably poor business track records are given the green-light to ride roughshod over their creditors and come out the other side smelling of roses, it is clear that the current system has a gaping loophole that desperately needs to be filled. Despite big talk about saving jobs and safe-guarding employment, the only parties to truly benefit from a Pre-Pack administration are the shadowy figures behind the initial business’s collapse. Even worse, for every legitimate case there will always be a company like Wind Hellas lining their pockets at the expense of others…

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Has your business been affected by Pre-Pack Administration? If so, please have your say in our Comments section below:

As any business owner will testify: cash is king. In simple terms, without cash, your business couldn’t survive. You need cash to operate and improve your business. Without cash you would struggle to purchase supplies, pay your rent, advertise your business, hire employees or take care of the wide range of additional business activities that require money. Small business finance is arguably one of the things that owners dread the most. Far too many business owners have the mind-set that if they have more money in their bank account than they did last month, then they must be doing something right!

However, business finance is rarely this clean-cut, and a combination of late payment, cancelled overdrafts and extreme lending cut-backs have led to some of the worst business conditions in well over a decade. Nowadays, business finance cannot be dictated by your gut instinct alone - you need to keep close tabs on how your business is doing at any given moment. Only by truly understanding your company’s finances will you be able to maneuver your company into a healthier business position.

Here are ToFind.co.uk’s Top Five Tips to Help Manage your Business Cash Flow:

1. Keep Track of your Finances.

            It may sound deceptively simple, but the first step towards good cash flow management is understanding the precise flow of money through your business. To understand cash-flow you will need to ensure that you have accurate, up-to-date information at your disposal at all times. However large or small your business is, you should ensure that you receive a regular stream of financial data, specifically: debts, budgets and cash flow forecasts. Now that the ‘new’ VAT rate of 17.5% has been reintroduced, it is essential to keep a keen eye on your finances, and ensure that all of the relevant figures are adjusted accordingly.

Although you are likely to fret over your incoming cash-flow (or lack thereof), you should make sure that you aren’t distracted from taking proper care of your outgoings, too. If you make sure that you have a reliable system in place, missed deadlines should be a thing of the past. Regular late payment is a bad habit and could have a serious impact on your long-term credit rating. The failure to plan ahead for incoming and outgoing costs is key contributor towards company liquidations – so make sure that you’re kept in the loop.

Action Task: Proactively manage your budget. As a business owner you should already have a reasonable idea of your company cash flow. This can sometimes lead to a casual approach towards your finances, and your day-to-day distractions may well discourage your from itemizing cash flow and putting things ‘down on paper’. This casual approach can be a dangerous tactic, and it is crucial to recognize that you need to make proper cash flow analysis a focal point of your time. Analyze your finances and you will be well-prepared to save money on unnecessary expenses, and regain control of your long term business survival. In short: manage your budget - don’t let your budget manage you!

2. Keep a Close Eye on Customer Credit.

For any small business, supervising your customers’ credit is an important part of cash flow management. If you are keeping a close eye on your customers’ finances then you are likely to have a firm grasp of which customers are erratic or unreliable when it comes to paying their invoices on time. It is likely that some customers might actually be costing you more money to maintain than they are actually adding to your business. If this is the case, try to weed out unprofitable customers, and impose stricter credit terms on them. Technically you do not have to extend credit to anyone, and if a customer has a history of slow payment, altering their credit terms or even abolishing credit completely may be necessary steps.

The longer you have been in business, the better you will understand that providing too much credit can be very risky, and can quickly erode your company’s financial position. By extending credit to less-than-creditworthy clients you run a serious risk of accumulating bad debt and jeopardizing the future of your business. In addition, if you already offer certain customers preferred credit terms, make sure that you are able to ‘tighten’ these terms without damaging the working relationship.

Action Task: Scrutinize your customer base, and flag those customers who have a history of slow payment. If you are familiar with their payment patterns then you will be better prepared to spot any worrying trends. When dealing with new customers, many firms get into the habit of using credit reference agencies. This invariably involves a longwinded, detail-heavy application process. A more immediate approach would to only extend short credit terms to new clients, a move that would reduce financial risk significantly.

3. Always Invoice Promptly.

No matter how busy you are with workplace distractions, delaying sending out an invoice can often give the customer the impression that you don’t really care how long it takes to get hold of your money. This could lead them to prioritize other payments and inadvertently make life difficult for you. Even if you are regularly bogged down by encroaching deadlines, you should always make time to implement a regular billing strategy. Before you mail out an invoice, call up and confirm that your client was satisfied with the work you have completed - as this is by far the most common excuse for non-payment. Once the invoice itself has been sent out, contact the client again and check that there aren’t any disputes over the bill. Administrative work such as this can be very time-consuming, but it goes a long way to preventing future problems.

If postal invoices are generating a lacklustre response, ascertain whether or not email invoicing would be a more preferable option? Emailing an invoice is a faster, more immediate tactic that may well prove harder for your clients to ignore. However, all businesses are structured differently, and your client might already have a preferred routine for managing their own cash-flow. Furthermore, if you are taking on clients who are working on longer-term projects it is a very good idea to negotiate a set of regular payments in advance, instead of allowing the amount due to build up until the project has been completed. This type of forward planning can spare you a big financial headache in the long run.  

Action Task: If invoicing is becoming a problem, why not consider creating incentives as a means of generating faster payment? In the USA it is becoming increasingly popular for small businesses to offer a small discount for quick payment. This strategy can significantly cut the time spent waiting for payment.  You may be uneasy about slicing off a small proportion of your profits, but by offering a discount of 1% or 2% for payment within 7-10 days, you could potentially improve cash-flow dramatically. Not only will it aid your business’s cash-flow, but it will make your customers more receptive to your concerns. In the short term at least, everyone’s a winner. 

4. Introduce a Debt Collection Strategy.

When times are tight, payment is always likely to become more of an issue for struggling clients. This means that it is doubly important to have proper terms and conditions in place regarding the collection of overdue funds. However, before you proceed, make sure that all of your paperwork is in order. Research from PricewaterhouseCoopers indicates that 85% of non-payment is down to “invoice queries or poor administration”. If you later decide to take action in order to recover debt, and you have the wrong name (for example the company might be trading under a different name) then you may well have difficulty putting together a case.

Before you do anything drastic, it is a good idea to arrange for someone else to make a collection call on your behalf. People are often very embarrassed about not paying on time, and if you get your assistant to call them instead, you can preserve your relationship and spare them any awkwardness. After all, a friendly reminder is far better than a threatening phone call. If all else fails, then you may need to hire a third party to chase up your debts for you. (See below for details.) In simple terms, the longer a debt remains unpaid, the harder it becomes to collect.

Action Task: PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) research indicates that nearly one in five companies regard current debt levels as the ‘biggest threat’ to survival.

If your cash flow is suffering due to large quantities of cash being tied up in client debt, a collection agency is often the only solution. Collection agencies have a notoriously mixed reputation, but figures cited by the Credit Services Association (CSA) indicate that its members recover up to £5 billion each year.

Credit control and debt recovery are staples of good cash flow management, so don’t select a collection agency randomly, try to use one you know personally, or have had recommended to you by a trusted contact. If you are hesitant to take stronger action, consider this: a recent poll by advisory firm Tenon Recovery found that last year, 70% of entrepreneurs admitted to chasing debtors more vigorously than ever.

5. Negotiate With Your Suppliers.

Client/customer relationships work both ways, and although it is easy to dwell on your incomings, it is important to verify exactly what credit terms your own business suppliers allow. You are probably used to the concept of developing customer relationships, but better supplier relationships can pay dividends too. Most suppliers allow thirty days to pay but you may be able to get them to extend that term to sixty, allowing you to keep the money in your “cash-flow pipeline” for longer. As we suggested in Action Task #3, check with your suppliers to see if they can offer you any early payment discounts?

Action Task: If you are having a tough time meeting your own invoices, consider re-negotiating payment terms with your supplier – either permanently, or as a one-off. Longstanding relationships are highly conducive to flexible terms, and if you ask for a slight delay in order for one of your own invoices to clear then you will be in a healthier position all round. Naturally, it is better to ask in advance, rather than confront suppliers with an impossible situation after the due date has already passed.

We hope that you have enjoyed reading ToFind.co.uk’s Top Five Tips on How to Manage your Business Finances More Effectively. As with all business-related problems, it is important to tackle tricky financial situations head-on, rather than wait to see if they will blow over. The future of your business is at stake, so you need to ensure that you have total control over your finances at all times. Tip: Business cash flow will not take care of itself – like anything else it needs managing, and that means keeping a close eye on bank statements and other paperwork. If you keep abreast of your situation you can manage your finances proactively, not reactively - and take the appropriate action to ensure business survival.

Photo courtesy of: goXunuReviews.

The Lowdown:

After poor sales figures over Christmas, the HMV Group - owners of Waterstone’s – have taken the decision to dispense with the services of Waterstone’s Managing Director Gerry Johnson. With British high streets already in a perilous state, the problems facing Waterstone’s could signal more bad times ahead. It is easy to blame the dreaded ‘Credit Crunch’ for Waterstone’s woes, but in truth, their reduced sales figures are more likely to be a sign of the malaise that has been affecting the bookseller for some time – namely their inability to compete on a level playing field with internet book giant Amazon. (Waterstone’s revealed an 8.5% fall in like-for-like sales in the five weeks covering the Christmas period.)

Johnson was unlucky to pay with his job – the HMV Group have all but admitted that they neglected Waterstone’s as they sought to halt the dramatic slump affecting HMV – a trend they successfully reversed by introducing Smoothie bars, concert ticket sales and other assorted ephemera. In addition, Waterstone’s felt the squeeze as its chief rival Borders collapsed, leading to discounts of up to 90% in the run-up to Christmas. Regardless, Chief Executive Simon Fox is anxious to introduce a new business model that will dispense with the lowest common denominator sales tactics that have crept into the company in recent years. Fox surmises: “It’s not about going back to dusty old bookshops. This is about building a specialist chain that is relevant in a Google, Amazon world.” We take a look at the issues surrounding the rise and fall of Waterstone’s, and examine whether the retail mainstay still has a place on Britain’s high streets in an era when e-commerce rules the roost…

Lost in the Supermarket:

In hindsight, the rot set in back in 1991, when Waterstone’s (alongside the now-defunct Dillons) became one of the first British booksellers to start discounting book prices. For the previous 91 years booksellers had been bound by the Net Book Agreement, which meant that retailers had to sell books at the prices recommended by the publishers. In 1995, the NBA went into meltdown when Harper Collins and Random House backed out of the agreement, and two years later it was outlawed altogether.

Although customers benefitted from lower prices – UK book prices have barely increased during the last decade - the abolition of the Net Book Agreement has had much graver repercussions for the UK book market. During this period, approximately 500 independent bookshops closed down, giving Waterstone’s and their cohorts a gradual stranglehold over the market. In the ensuing years, Waterstone’s expanded massively, but what should have been a cause for celebration was tempered by public displeasure, and Waterstone’s fast became the bookseller that book lovers loved to hate.

Unfortunately for Waterstone’s, the honeymoon period was well and truly over when new, relaxed pricing rules allowed supermarkets to muscle in on their territory, and take a huge bite out of their market share. Waterstone’s struggled to compete with the unprecedented discounts offered by Tesco et al, and started to dilute its brand identity as it followed in their slipstream…

The Amazon Onslaught:

However, the worst was still to come for Waterstone’s. Whilst the supermarkets were winning the affections of casual readers with their low prices and undemanding choice of products, true book lovers continued to remain loyal to the much-loved chain. Unfortunately, the slow death of the NBA had revolutionized British bookselling in more ways than one, and it wasn’t just the supermarkets who capitalized on this new demand for cheaper books. The NBA’s demise encouraged American firms to look across the Atlantic and cast a greedy eye over the rich pickings on offer. The initial pressure came from Borders who set up large, American-style bookshops with on-site coffee shops. However, with the internet gradually insinuating itself into the lives of the British public, it was Amazon that really surged to prominence.

Amazon’s central idea was that if a book was in print, they would be able to supply it to you – very quickly. Their veritable online database made Waterstone’s impressive stock seem measly in comparison, and Amazon was able to trump Waterstone’s USP effortlessly, and offer consumers an unprecedented range of stock. Competing with Amazon was unimaginable. As a ‘bricks and mortar’ retailer, Waterstone’s had a clear disadvantage: it had to pay to run over 300 bookshops across Britain. In contrast, Amazon only had operational costs for its four UK processing centres. It’s only viable way of competing was to turn its back on small publishers, obscurities and niche products and embrace the mass market.

In 2009, Waterstone’s belatedly followed in Amazon’s footsteps and established a new central distribution system called The Hub. However, even this gesture back-fired, and merely ended up reducing Waterstone’s branches of their previous autonomy, and increasing the amount of common stock. Chief Executive Simon Fox admits: “The supply chain has consumed a large amount of time and resources, to fix the back end of the business. I think we have been somewhat focused on the nuts and bolts and mechanics of the business rather than the customer.” One key aim was to free up staff and let them spend more time with the remaining customers. It hasn’t panned out that way, and instead staff have found themselves bogged down unpacking enormous deliveries from The Hub! Recent reports suggest that Waterstone’s intends to cut 10% of its 4,500-strong workforce, reducing customer interaction even further. Rather than using The Hub to compete with Amazon’s stock-heavy warehouses, it seems like Waterstone’s is merely using The Hub as an easier way of shifting ‘products’…   

Technology Takes Over:

If the last decade can be characterized by a succession of missed opportunities and mistaken priorities, the future looks similarly bleak for Waterstone’s. The chain has barely survived the dual onslaught of both the supermarkets and Amazon, and now a fearsome new adversary has emerged in the form of Amazon’s Kindle e-reader. Last year, Waterstone’s became the first British bookseller to stock the Sony Reader, which is the chief rival to Amazon’s popular Kindle. When asked by The Guardian what this move meant for the company, Nicholas Spice, publisher of the London Review of Books assessed: “A financial analyst would say: ‘We have to sell e-readers because they make money’. But they may destroy Waterstone’s. Remember what happened to Tower Records or Zavvi? They were reduced to selling the MP3 players that were destroying their CD business. And then they closed. In five years, Waterstone’s may not be selling books at all. It may not even exist.”

The ToFind.co.uk Verdict:

Book-lovers are faced with a dilemma – they want bookshops to survive, but they don’t necessarily want to support them themselves – preferring to source their own books cheaper online. Indeed, Waterstone’s are suffering from thrifty customers who prefer to pop in and check out the latest titles, before returning home and scouring the internet for the cheapest prices. There have even been reports of customers taking photos of books using their mobile phones, so that they can use them as memory aids when they return home! Although this phenomenon is well-known in the world of high-priced electrical goods, the recession has seen consumers go further than ever in their pursuit of bargains, and the habit of comparing and contrasting has now crept into the book trade as well.

Last year Waterstone’s made profits of just £10m on sales of £550m, so it evidently has to claw back a lot of customers if it wants to significantly improve its prospects. Unfortunately, Waterstone’s has come to resemble a supermarket masquerading as a book-shop – and not a very good one. It’s “Pile ‘em high” philosophy hasn’t sat well with customers of a sensitive disposition, and these customers have increasingly abandoned the bookstore and its garish tables full of celebrity biographies. Tim Coates, former Waterstone’s MD, asserts: “They decided to take on the supermarkets and Smith’s by discounting prices and celebrity biographies. It was a strategic error. What they should have done was take on Amazon by offering something Amazon can’t – the lovely, serendipitous experience of being in a really good, big bookshop.”

Casual observers dismiss suggestions that Waterstone’s are going the same way as Woolworths and Zavvi, but industry insiders beg to differ, and suggest that Waterstone’s next move is likely to be the last throw of the dice for the ailing company. Revamping its sister brand HMV was a comparatively simple task, as the home entertainment chain could easily embrace the new technology buzz, and stay relevant. Business analysts have come to refer to HMV as “the last man standing” in entertainment retail, after it scooped up the market share of its fallen rivals. The music industry has had a rough ride in recent years, after reacting sluggishly to modernization, and HMV did well to weather the storm. Unfortunately, change might not be quite so easy for Waterstone’s. Chief Executive Simon Fox stressed: “I think it would be a tragedy if this country didn’t have a chain of specialist bookshops.” Only time will tell if Waterstone’s has the spirit and ingenuity to halt its decline and regain a foothold in this increasingly slippery marketplace.

Recently the Harvard Business Review assessed that poor hiring decisions are directly responsible for 80% of employee turnover. Suffice to say, with a figure this high, bad decisions can prove to be very costly mistakes. According to their 2009 statistics, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) estimated the cost of replacing an employee at anywhere between £6,125 and £9,000 – approximately 1/3 of the departing employee’s salary. These rather exorbitant sums include: money spent on recruitment and training, not to mention costs accrued by decreased productivity - as other employees reduce their own workloads in order to take up the slack. Depending on the nature of your business, staff turnover can also have a drastic effect on customer retention and low employee morale. Even worse for businesses, the higher you move up a company, the higher turnover costs start to creep, with mid/upper–level managers costing approximately twice their annual salary to replace! Of course, if the world of recruitment is too daunting you can always invest in the services of a good recruitment agency to go through the hiring process on your behalf. Whatever you do, don’t let poor hiring decisions eat into your profit margins – follow our tips and make sure you hire the best staff for the job.

Here are ToFind.co.uk’s Top Five Tips to Recruit the Best Staff for Your Business:

1. Write a Person Specification as well as a Job Description.

It stands to reason that a job vacancy can’t be filled successfully unless the job itself is accurately defined to begin with. Less obvious is the Person Specification. Think about the skills, knowledge and experience you are looking for, and divide them into qualities that are essential and qualities that are merely desirable. By outlining the skill-sets that you need to make the position work you are less likely to hire an employee who quickly finds themselves out of their depth. Suffice to say, this isn’t a legal requirement, but it gives you a huge advantage when assessing which prospective candidates are capable of improving your company’s productivity and profitability. The correct blend of attributes in a person can boost your prospects considerably, whereas the wrong person will merely end up costing you dearly. (At this juncture it is well worth drawing your attention to the myriad of discrimination laws that affect the UK job market. When working on a Person Specification, make sure that your description can’t be misconstrued as discriminatory, or you could find yourself hauled in front of a tribunal before you’ve even hired anyone!)

Action Task: In simple terms, make sure that you ‘understand’ the job.

Finding the right person to hire is much easier when you have analyzed the specifics of the position that you are trying to fill. If you already have someone working in a similar role try to use them as a sounding board. If you are creating a new role, try to establish exactly what characteristics you are looking for in your applicant. A job analysis is the most neglected aspect of hiring. By outlining what kind of person you need for the job, you will find that the hiring process is quicker and more effective than ever. Whether you have a whole HR department at your disposal, or you are a sole trader - prioritize common sense and analyze the vacant position as thoroughly as possible.

2. Advertise Wisely.

When it comes to advertising a job vacancy, you have numerous options at your disposal. You can advertise in the national, regional, local or trade press; on one of the many UK internet job sites, or use an employment agency to recruit staff on your behalf. Whereas newspapers can reach a specific audience within the area of your choice, websites can reach a wide audience quickly, and some even have a ready-made database of candidates for you to scrutinize. If your budget is an issue, make sure that you check the costs before selecting your option – you will probably find that websites are generally cheaper than newspapers. (Another key consideration is timing – don’t make the mistake of running your advert over a holiday period when applicants are likely to be sidelined by other distractions.) 

As with most things, job advertisements work both ways, and the medium used to advertise a job can tell potential employees a lot about the job on offer. For example: if you choose to place an advertisement in a national newspaper then jobseekers will assume that you have the resources and finances to cast your net as wide as possible in search of the right candidate - thus indicating broader scope. On the other hand small, rudimentary classified advertisements will tell applicants that the company is comparatively unsophisticated in terms of recruitment. If your advert is at the humbler end of the scale, try not to overcompensate - you may end up sounding too good to be true!

Action Task: If you are keen to find a simple-but-effective way of boosting your job search, try the old-fashioned word-of-mouth approach – and pass the information about the vacant position on to your current employees. Word travels fast – especially in an era dominated by online social networking. Your staff may well be able to initiate an instant connection to hundreds (maybe even thousands) of potential candidates. Encourage your employees to mine untapped networking resources like Facebook and Twitter, and you might be pleasantly surprised at the outcome. In addition, it is a good idea to try and use your website to “sell” potential employees the vision and values of your company. Your website gives you a platform to run a more unique advertisement – one that exudes personality and sets your business apart from its competitors. If you can make potential candidates think that your organization is suitable for them, then you will be well-placed to attract top-level candidates.

3. Choose a Suitable Method of Application.

Your advertisement will specify how you want candidates to apply for your vacancy. In this respect you have two key options: the application form and the CV. Both have their benefits, and both have their drawbacks.  Firstly: the application form. With an application form you can decide exactly what information you need to know, and slant it towards your own sensibilities. By having a standard form you will find it much easier to compare and contrast the skills and experience of different applicants. An official application form will definitely help you to put across a professional image, and you can re-use the form for future vacancies.

On the down-side, application forms can be seriously time-consuming for both parties. If you are dabbling in recruitment for the first time, you might struggle to get to grips with the application design. If the instructions are confusing and the form seems tricky to fill in then you run the risk of alienating would-be candidates. Long-winded, detail-heavy applications are notoriously off-putting to busy applicants, and you may suffer a lacklustre response if you insist on using one.

On the other hand, a CV is likely to give you a better insight into an employee’s own personality. Although they may choose to omit some of the details that you would have included in an application form, a CV will give them a platform to sell themselves with confidence. A CV offers greater convenience for the employee, and provides a slightly less formal introduction to the recruitment process.

Action Task: Don’t let all of your hard work go to waste. Make an effort to maintain contact with any interested candidates. Don’t let these potential employees submit their CVs and never hear from you again. By nurturing a network of capable future employees you could save yourself a major head-ache next time you dip your toes in the murky waters of recruitment. If you begin by following up all submissions with a personalized thanks, you can go on to send any interested parties periodic updates about your job openings. Establishing a professional, ongoing contact with talented people will ensure that you are well-prepared for the future.

4. Draw up a Well-Balanced Short List.

After the deadline has passed take time to compare the job applications to the Person Specification that you drew up earlier (See Step 1). You can begin by eliminating any obviously unsuitable applicants who do not match up to the basic job requirements. If you have been inundated with applications then you have to be careful not to bite off more than you can chew. However you proceed, you should always take the time to contact unsuccessful applicants and explain why they weren’t successful on this occasion. If a large number of applicants match the essential criteria, then you will have to judge candidates by the desirable qualities set out in the aforementioned Person Specification (See Step 1). Limit your short-list to a manageable number, and only contact those people who you actually have time to interview. Forward planning will save you a lot of unnecessary bother and make the selection process as quick and painless as possible!  

Action Task: Take a look at the bigger picture. Business Consultant David Meyer urges companies to: “Hire for Today’s Need and Tomorrow’s Vision”. In other words, remember that you’re hiring for the future. It goes without saying that a new employee has to make economic sense in today’s market, but your best ‘hires’ will arguably be those people who will have even more to offer in the future. If your new employees are merely capable of matching today’s job demands then you are doing yourself a grave disservice, and holding yourself back in the long-run.

5. Ask Unusual Interview Questions.

Some people believe that the traditional job interview is afforded too much power in employee selection. Nevertheless, it is still the best way of establishing whether or not the candidate in question will be able to fit in with your company culture. However, quirky, well-thought-out questions will yield more interesting responses than a traditional line of questioning, and illustrate just how well your candidate can think on their feet. If you can catch them with their guard down, and they are still able to demonstrate quick thinking and a sense of humour, then this will tell you far more about their personality than a list of tired, predictable questions.

Think outside the box. A traditional job interview can be a highly subjective process, and interviewers are likely to have an unconscious tendency to favour people who display similar characteristics to themselves. Nowadays a half-decent desktop publishing programme or a professional CV-writing firm can make almost anyone look good on paper, so you need to dig deeper to find out what makes your candidate tick. A cursory internet search on ‘passing a job interview’ will throw up thousands of articles full of advice on how to impress an interviewer. Make sure that you don’t just hire a limited, but well-rehearsed applicant who knows how to give good interviews! Perceptive questions will help you unearth an engaging applicant whose strengths and personality suit your company.

Action Task: Define the qualities, talents and skills you’d most like to have in a new employee. Then, devise a series of interview questions that allow your applicant to demonstrate that he or she has said qualities. Behaviourally-based questions are a good way to pin-point the kind of people that you want in your organization, and if you factor in a selection of quirkier questions to keep the interviewee on his/her toes you should comfortably avoid the pitfalls of interviewing. Finally, in an era of increasingly useless references, suggest that any short-listed applicants arrange telephone calls for you to speak to their former employers directly. This last step will help to ensure that you are hiring the right person for the job! 

We hope that you have enjoyed reading ToFind.co.uk’s Top Five Tips on how to Recruit the Best Staff for Your Business. Remember, recruitment is a two-way process, and to recruit effectively, you must also be able to articulate the unique benefits of your business or company. Tip: Study your candidate’s application and identify their “trigger points” – ie. what makes them ‘buy in’. Business reputation, career progression and a challenging workload are all key factors, so don’t assume that because you are interested in the candidate they are equally interested in you!   

The Lowdown:

Last week the TUC (Trades Union Congress) announced that UK workers are currently “giving away” £27.4 billion in unpaid overtime. As the recession rumbles on, companies nationwide are cutting working hours and slashing paid overtime. For many workers, this means making up for lost time by staying at work long after the average working day has finished. According to the TUC’s calculations, the five million UK employees who regularly work unpaid overtime are working an average 57 days a year for nothing. This figure represents the highest number of unpaid extra hours worked in this country in over a decade.

The TUC’s research suggests that an average employee works an additional 7 hours and 12 minutes each week. Based on an average salary, and spread over the course of a year, this works out at a surprising £5,402 worth of unpaid overtime per person. To hammer their point home, they have assessed that if everyone who worked unpaid overtime did it from the start of the year, they wouldn’t actually start getting paid until February 26^th!

Brendan Barber, General Secretary of the TUC, has commented: “The recession has forced many employees to do less hours in an effort to save jobs and this has also had an effect on the amount of unpaid overtime worked. This flexibility and the sacrifices made by staff has saved jobs and kept companies afloat. But millions of people are still working far too many hours and often they are not even being paid for it. This ‘long hours culture’ causes stress and damages people’s health.”

            ToFind.co.uk takes a closer look at the issue, and presents you with a range of strategies to help you reduce unpaid overtime and improve your work/life balance.

Facts & Figures:

Additional TUC Statistics:

*Of the five million employees who worked unpaid overtime, nearly 900,000 regularly worked more than ten hours a week unpaid.

*Workers in Northern Ireland, the East Midlands and London were the most likely to do more than 10 hours of unpaid overtime a week. London, where a long-hours culture exists, has the largest number of workers — some 166,422 — doing more than 10 hours of unpaid overtime a week.

Key statistics from a new survey by Monster.co.uk:

*56% of UK workers regularly work overtime and don’t expect extra pay.

*12% of UK workers consider overtime to be the exception, rather than the rule.

*7% of UK workers admit that their managers actually encourage them to leave on time.

The ToFind.co.uk Verdict:

The idea that hard-up UK workers are collectively missing out on an estimated £27billion worth of unpaid wages is undoubtedly a shocking statistic. TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber has even gone as far as describing these workers as “the hidden victims of the recession”. However, when you dig a little deeper it quickly becomes apparent that things aren’t quite so clear-cut… Working directives have long been a contentious issue in Europe, with Britain often cited as the “hardest working nation in Europe” - a claim which isn’t technically true! However, different jobs bring with them different expectations, and meeting those expectations will sometimes require greater dedication to the job. One-size-fits-all working directives are understandably dismissed as impractical. People who genuinely enjoy their jobs are happy to let their work eat into their free time, because they get a buzz from their work. Equally, workers earning generous salaries to work in a project or target based environment are going to be expected to stay on top of their workload - by working late if necessary. (To better understand the aforementioned statistics, it is worth pointing out that based on the numbers cited by the TUC, the respondents are all earning well over the national average wage - with the figures indicating an average salary of approximately £29,000.)

However, a different implication of this survey is the idea that workers are being forced to work late in order to limit the repercussions of the chaotic economic climate. Admittedly, this cuts both ways. On the one hand, workers fear the consequences of not putting in the time required to do the job, fretting over their job security or promotion prospects. Obviously, this isn’t an ideal situation. On a more positive note - in a time of financial crisis, conscientious employees are more than happy to go the extra yard for their employers without the consideration of short-term financial reward. All too often, in small companies, if someone doesn’t do the work then it won’t get done. If huge companies routinely demanded that their lowest-earning workers worked longer hours for no discernible reason then there would rightly be an outcry. An hourly wage is just that – a wage that you expect to earn for every hour of work you do.

            The flexibility of the UK’s labour force has been credited for the lower-than-expected rise in unemployment over the last year, and a popular phrase bandied around by employers is a “spirit of collaboration” – which sees staff happy to make sacrifices in order to save their jobs. At a time when unemployment is rife, and people are being made redundant left, right and centre it seems churlish to complain about working extended hours in order to keep a business profitable. When you consider the altogether bleaker alternative, a few extra hours a week don’t seem so bad after all, do they?

There is a real risk that working long hours can become a habit for employees and expected by employers. Here are five tips to help you achieve a harmonious, efficient working relationship:

1. Put in Extra Effort – But Only When Necessary.

During a recession it is paramount for staff to stay committed to their jobs and put in the required effort to get the job done. However, consistently working long hours is likely to compromise both their health and their productivity. If employees carry on working until they burn themselves out, they aren’t the only ones who will suffer – your business will, too. To avoid burn-out, clarify that the quality of their work is what counts, and that focused effort in the correct areas will reaffirm their commitment to the cause. As the old saying goes: quality beats quantity every time.  

2. Take a Break!

When the going gets tough, many employees start to forgo simple, once-taken-for-granted niceties such as lunch breaks, in order to meet their targets. If you find your employees eating lunch at their workstations, or skipping lunch completely, then you should encourage them to wrestle back some workplace respite. In order to remain valuable, productive employees it is important for them to take a break from the relentless demands of work. Don’t let them become shackled to their desks - urge them to seek out face-time with their colleagues instead of resorting to constant E-mail. As well as benefitting their personal health, this will consolidate workplace relationships and strengthen team-work. 

3. Use Common Sense.

If you think that your employees are becoming overwhelmed by an over-reliance on traditional workplace rules, take a step back from the situation at hand. Smart employers are starting to realise, that it simply isn’t efficient to judge people solely by their hours anymore. Many workplaces – especially office environments – are part of an ingrained ‘long hours culture’. Try to avoid working this way, just because other employers are. By adapting your policies to suit your operational needs your organisation will improve straight away. If someone needs to stay at work late, suggest working out a rota to ensure that no one ends up doing more than their fair share. If you assure your employees that you will evaluate them by their performance, and not by their presence, then you will reduce fruitless down-time and help to improve their work/life balance.

4. Consider New Staff Roles.

It goes without saying that some jobs are far more stressful and time-consuming than others. If an employee is really unhappy with their workload then it is worth exploring their options and trying to find them a more flexible role. Suggest that rather than launching themselves into a fully-fledged career change, maybe they should consider finding a less stressful job within their chosen career? Furthermore, to avoid losing them, try to work together to identify a new position within your company. If your company set-up is too rigid and inflexible for their liking, encourage them to consider temping, consultancy or some other kind of freelance role. By using their experience they will be able to take control of their own agenda, and long nights at the office could become a thing of the past.

5. Know Their Rights.

Finally, if you feel like you are pressurizing your employees to consistently work more than their contracted hours, then it is a good idea to consult the EU Working Time Directives, and verify exactly what you can expect of them - legally. Sometimes employees feel like their boss is applying undue pressure, regardless of how well they are performing. If your staff seem over-worked, give them a platform to discuss their concerns. By getting everything out in the open you will be able to clear the air and hopefully resolve any issues amicably - without them taking any further action.

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In the past, research has suggested that employees spend less than half of their time at work being genuinely productive. For a business owner, this can undoubtedly be a very frustrating experience. However, rather than manipulate them into increasing their standards to your satisfaction, businesses should learn to properly motivate employees so that their goals are always aligned with those of the business. When employees are well motivated, their productivity, concentration and even creativity will all improve dramatically. There are a number of factors which can negatively influence employee motivation, including: high staff turnover, low productivity, a poor workplace atmosphere, an abundance of unresolved workplace grievances, a predictable, monotonous work-load and a lack of genuine opportunity for advancement. Rather than seek to rectify all of your issues in one fell swoop, we will outline five universal steps that you can take to improve staff motivation.

Any successful attempt at improving employee motivation is a balancing act, and sufficient time and effort needs to be expended in order to reap the rewards. Ultimately, motivation is influenced most by the style and practice adopted by individual managers towards their staff. Managers must truly care about their employees, because people can always spot genuine interest and concern, and will generally respond to it well. Half measures and false promises won’t cut it. Motivation isn’t a one-shot deal - it’s a continuous process to counter-act negative energy and drive your business forward. If you think that your employees are struggling for motivation, take a look at our guide below… 

Here are ToFind.co.uk’s Top Five Tips to Motivate Employees and Improve Your Business:

1. Don’t Confuse More Money With More Motivation.

A key failing in business is assuming that you can repair damaged morale by flashing the cash at your workers. You should never assume that an increased salary or the offer of small-scale financial incentives will automatically motivate dispirited workers. Although well-managed incentive schemes can work wonders - and present employees with tangible benefits - it is important to think outside the box and root out the real problems.

If you do choose to introduce incentives, make sure that they are sporadic but meaningful. A regular stream of rewards will only encourage a sense of entitlement that will undermine your efforts. Although it stands to reason that some staff will be dissatisfied with their wages, any kind of general work-place malaise is likely to be caused by a combination of other factors. In the grand scheme of things a small pay-rise will only serve to paper over the cracks, and won’t distract staff from the more deep-rooted problems for long.

Action Task: Work out who at your company is most motivated, and why. By paying attention to the working habits of your staff you will be better equipped to improve the motivation of anyone who is struggling. Pin-point the reasons for a lack of forward momentum - don’t just attempt a quick fix. Try to avoid giving pay-rises to those employees who threaten to leave – this is effectively rewarding disloyalty. Remuneration should be directly related to employee performance. By maximizing fringe benefits and eliminating de-motivators from the work-place you will be able to provide employees with a pleasant, productive working environment that will maximize their motivation. 

2. Make Sure That Staff Have Clear Objectives.

Sometimes staff can feel lost and disorientated at work. If you lose sight of your purpose it is very difficult to concentrate on your workload, and potential distractions can de-rail your focus at every turn. Even if an employee is just a small cog in a large machine it is important to keep staff informed of their overall objectives. Make sure that all staff members know what the overall objectives are, why these objectives are important, and of course, why their own piece of the jigsaw is crucial. In short, an employee’s morale is positively influenced by knowing that his or her work is meaningful. 

 Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric turned Business Week columnist once said: “No company, large or small, can succeed over the long run without energized employees who believe in the mission and understand how to achieve it.” If the company’s objectives are clear enough to be understood by every single one of the employees – no matter what their role - then you will be well-prepared to succeed.

Action Task: Staff are unlikely to be fully motivated unless they know what is expected of them, so you should set about identifying practical, achievable goals for your employees, and explain to them how their success contributes to the ‘bigger picture’. Discuss these goals with your staff, and make sure that they can positively influence the objectives they are being asked to achieve. Why not reward any completed objectives with the chance to lead new projects or tasks?

3. Always Acknowledge Achievement.

All employees like to have their hard work acknowledged by their bosses, but unfortunately this isn’t always the case. All too often, managers don’t give out the appropriate recognition because they don’t get it themselves. A simple “Thank you and well done” is a surprisingly effective motivational technique, and ensures that employees know that their work is appreciated by those that matter. Managers who withhold praise are managers who are holding back their business. Even worse are managers who take the credit for all of the successes and choose not to share the good feeling with their employees. This is a sure-fire way of sapping motivation and disillusioning employees.

Action Task: Every time someone does an especially good job, make sure that you thank them for their hard work. Do not simply save up praise for their annual employee reviews! Try to exude genuine emotion when you are praising staff - that way they will see that the business means more to you than just cold, hard fact and figures. It is always better to give too much credit than not enough. Make sure that your compliments are specifically tailored towards what your staff are working on, don’t just dish out vague, slightly unsettling pleasantries like: “You’re a great employee!” Ambiguous, noncommittal praise will merely arouse staff suspicion. Always remember why you are giving them feedback in the first place – any kind of feedback that does not contribute towards your overall aims is likely to prove counter-productive. Finally, try to remember the golden rule: “Praise in public, criticize in private.”

4. Offer Staff Some Variety.

In the same way that acknowledgment and praise can keep staff motivated, so can the challenge of new tasks and added responsibility. Time can drag for workers doing repetitive jobs, and smart workers often crave recognition and further opportunity. Conscientious employees want to be recognized as individuals, and get given suitable opportunities to grow.  This requires bosses to manage one-on-one rather than treating every employee alike. If you can recognise which members of your team are ready for additional responsibility, then you can keep them fresh and encourage upward momentum. If you actively encourage progress within jobs (including new tasks and new ways of working) you will be making the job as interesting and worthwhile as possible for the employee. Frustrated or under-used employees may well look elsewhere for job satisfaction. Increase employee life-spans by broadening their horizons and stretching their skill-sets.

Action Task: Identify employees who have the capacity to learn new skills. Consider which other roles in the company they could be suitable for. By allowing them to sample greater responsibility you will increase their sense of motivation and stimulate their minds. Try to think about long-term motivation. Short-term motivational tactics will only get you so far, and it is important to recognise that many employees’ ultimate ambitions may take them beyond their current job. By providing opportunities for promotion you are helping them to fulfil their career goals, and ensuring that you don’t end up losing a valuable member of staff. By setting career paths within your organisation you will send out a positive message to your staff and build loyalty and motivation at the same time.

5. Demonstrate Trust.

Nothing de-moralises hard workers quite like micro-management. A good boss will trust his staff to get the job done, and employees will revel in their bosses confidence. Delegating key tasks can empower employees and stimulate innovation. In order to give you their best, staff members need to know that you respect their competence. Apart from demoralizing your work-force, another unfortunate by-product of intrusive micro-management is that it leaves your staff waiting for you to make all of the day-to-day decisions. By stripping away their personal responsibility, your own job will become overwhelming.

However, you should also bear in mind that trust is a two-way process, and nothing destroys team morale quicker than a boss whom no one trusts - particularly one who plays team members off against one other. You must be prepared to demonstrate your integrity regularly, and stand up for your staff at all times.

Action Task: Make sure that employees have job descriptions that give them enough autonomy to find their own solutions. Try to steer clear of simply giving them a list of tasks to perform, as this will discourage them from raising their game. In addition, you should try to encourage an ‘Open Door’ culture. Don’t pester them for details, but let them understand that you are always available for assistance. Managers must be seen as approachable, and it is important to encourage your staff to enter into regular, proactive communication with you. By being open and upfront with them, they will be open and up-front with you. A two-way dialogue of this nature will increase the likelihood of staff sharing their issues with you, and make it easier to root out any motivational issues.

You have been reading ToFind.co.uk’s Top Five Tips on how to motivate your employees. Ultimately, motivating people is about caring about them as individuals, not just viewing them as an interchangeable mass of workers. Although you should never lose sight of the job at hand, good motivation is all about finding ways to ensure that your staff come to work because they want to – not because they have to. Tip: Employee motivation requires a manager’s full-time effort, not just a casual, half-hearted commitment. Staff are your biggest resource, and the better your motivation skills are, the better employees they will become. Only by getting the best out of your staff will you get the best out of your business.

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What?

Since its inception in 1995, eBay has revolutionized the world of E-commerce, and its quirky online auction format has tapped into a huge audience of buyers and sellers around the world. What originated as a kind global car boot sale that enabled users to sell an increasingly random array of secondhand goods quickly evolved into a genuinely lucrative home business opportunity for budding entrepreneurs. Now, several eBay millionaires down the line, big businesses are starting to muscle in on the territory previously occupied by small-scale home-sellers. So far this year Argos, Littlewoods and inevitably Tesco have all launched eBay clearing houses to sell discontinued or reconditioned goods.  

For many users – be they legitimate small businesses or attic auctioneers, the relationship with eBay is beginning to sour. What began as one of the most exciting - not to mention money-spinning - ideas on the internet, is now facing accusations that it has ‘sold out’ to the mainstream. Last week it was revealed that, for the first time in its colourful history, fixed-price ‘Buy It Now’ sales have overtaken traditional eBay auctions in popularity. With high street stores queuing up to claim a piece of the pie, has eBay finally been hijacked by big business?

How?

Recently supermarket giant Tesco hit the news headlines once again when it set up its own eBay micro-site as a trial measure. The store, which is branded ‘Tesco Outlet’ sells discontinued, returned and reconditioned items such as iPods, televisions and other electrical goods, at below their standard High Street price. All products all come with a 12-month warranty, and the retailer stresses that many of the items “have never been used”. Either way, returned items are clearly labeled as such, and re-boxed along with all of their accessories. Some products are sold using eBay’s traditional auction method, but most are available through the increasingly dominant ‘Buy It Now’ fixed price function.

Tesco have stressed that their eBay store has only been implemented on a trial basis, and they are wary of committing to a long-term strategy until they test the water. Although Tesco’s involvement is the most headline-grabbing eBay collaboration, they are not alone, and other companies that have committed to eBay in recent months include: Argos, Littlewoods, Debenhams and JD Sports.  

Facts & Figures:

Long renowned for its trademark auctions, eBay’s latest batch of figures reveal that, for the first time in its history, most sales on eBay worldwide are now sold at a fixed price, and not through auctions. To be specific, 56% of sales are made at a price stipulated by the seller rather than the buyer. eBay admits that the trend has been apparent for several years, but fixed-price sales have only achieved dominance in the last six months. Evidence suggests that the days of costs being determined by what a buyer wanted to pay are well and truly numbered. For years eBay users have enjoyed the freedom that ‘cutting out the middle-man’ has given them, but the middle man is back with a vengeance, and keen to cement his position in the e-commerce arena. Back in September 2008, when fixed-price sales hovered around the 43% mark, eBay decided to alter its fees, boosting the prospects of mid-level sellers. A spokesman for eBay said at the time: “Today’s improvements will remove barriers for sellers. We’re reducing the upfront risk to listing ‘Buy-It-Now’ items on eBay.co.uk, by making the fees increasingly success-based for our sellers and improving their prominence alongside auction on the site.”

Insiders speculated that eBay was evolving into more of a sales ‘marketplace’ than simply an auction site, and eBay conceded that the company expected fixed-price sales to become the main part of its business model within 2 years. A year on they have already made major in-roads, and the signs suggest that eBay intends to follow this option to its logical conclusion and take on its more traditional online rival Amazon.

The ToFind.co.uk Verdict:

Tesco can be blamed for many things, but the demise of eBay is a little bit of a stretch! Tesco didn’t get where it is today by ignoring market trends, and in the grand scheme of things the supermarket giant hitching a ride on the eBay bandwagon shouldn’t really come as a surprise to anyone. The presence of Tesco, Debenhams etc on eBay is more likely to be a canny marketing tactic than a brand new selling strategy. For all of the companies involved, their experiments with eBay merely represent the tips of their business icebergs. eBay users have always had an eye for a bargain, and if that bargain comes from a supermarket giant rather than an armchair trader then it is unlikely to have much of an impact on their way of thinking.

eBay’s transformation from scrappy online flea-market to big business concern has been well underway for some time. Long-time traders suggest that eBay is increasingly opportunistic, with its shifting conditions and changing fees. Bearing this in mind, maybe it isn’t quite such a surprise to see them getting into bed with the big corporations after all? However, despite proclamations to the contrary, eBay will never be A.N.Other online shopping store. With an estimated 18million visitors each month, all with very specific targets in mind, big companies are no more than a blip on the radar for most buyers.

The decline of the auction is a different matter entirely. As we all know, times are tight, and buyers are less likely to allow themselves to get sucked into an auction which could spiral out of control at any moment. A ‘Buy It Now’ transaction effectively safeguards the buyer against paying more than they bargained for, and at the moment, buyers crave security. Richard Kanareck, Communications Director at eBay UK told The Times: “Ten years ago [auctions] were fun. Ten years later that’s so commonplace that people want it to be quick, easy and mainstream.” Interestingly, auctions aren’t actually declining – they’re on the rise too. The problem is, they aren’t rising at the same rate as the ‘Buy It Now’ purchases, which have positively exploded in comparison. This is a trend which they confidently predict will continue. Paolo Pescatore, Technology Industry Analyst at CCS Insight confirms: “Web companies on the whole are being very sensitive to people’s behavioural patterns. People want predictability. For an item that’s been available for five days, you’ve submitted a bid on the first day, and then been pipped right at the post, it is annoying. You’ve got to take into account the economic situation of today. Auctions lend themselves to pushing up prices, and people can’t afford to be spending more for an item where they feel it can’t be justified.”

Far from destroying the very fabric of eBay, a move towards fixed-price sales actually sign-posts a different trend entirely, namely the threat posed to small online businesses. If all of the big high street stores decided to take a leaf out of Tesco’s book, then small businesses would undoubtedly find themselves struggling to compete with their more powerful rivals. For years entrepreneurs have used eBay to eliminate the risks and finance required for a physical business. However, the more big fish entering eBay’s retail pond, the less room for maneuver for smaller businesses. Smaller retailers will always struggle to sell their products at cheaper prices than the bigger retailers because they simply don’t have the economics of scale on their side. However, experts agree, even if micro-businesses are suffering from increased competition, eBay should still provide rich pickings for anyone selling niche products, obscure collectables and rare one-of-a kind items.

In conclusion, rumours of eBay’s demise have been exaggerated. The website is in rude health, and has merely expanded its core money-making objectives. Sure, some of the charm has worn off, with the proliferation of predetermined prices, but eBay is following a natural progression by gravitating towards the mainstream and trying to compete on a bigger playing field. Hobbyists and casual bidders can still enjoy the pleasures of the auctions as much as before, they’ll just be doing it in the shadow of some of Britain’s biggest corporate behemoths instead…

[Photo courtesy of: BluPics.]

There is no getting away from it: employing people is expensive. In your constant drive to reduce costs whilst maintaining flexibility it is essential that the people you do employ have all of the skills that you need and are fully occupied at all times. But therein lies the problem: modern business requires skills that are many and varied. A business model that has become commonplace over the last few years consists of employing for the key functions and outsourcing others. Understandably, some business owners and managers have become uncomfortable with the dependence upon a third party and the associated costs.  There is, however, an alternative model that you could consider… job sharing. Sharing various functions of a job between two or more part time staff that have the collective skills to do them effectively can lead to greater efficiency.

The concept of the job share isn’t a new one – it was first mooted in the 1980s as a solution for women who wanted to combine the dual rigours of motherhood and employment. Over time the concept has faded into the background somewhat, but after years in the wilderness the job share is back with a vengeance, and could present you with the staffing solution you’ve been looking for.

A successful job share will synchronise the demands of the organisation, the demands of the job itself and the individual characteristics of the employees involved. The workplace is an increasingly demanding environment, and the work/home split can be a delicate balancing act. A job share affords the worker a less stressful position and a far greater level of control over their work/life balance. Most importantly, for a business owner, a job share offers: greater flexibility, additional skills and experience, improved productivity and even reduced absenteeism and staff turnover.

Here are ToFind.co.uk’s Top Five Tips to assist you integrate a well-balanced Job Share into your business.

1. Establish The Ground Rules.

Before commencing a job share arrangement it is very important to establish some ground rules, and ensure that both job share partners are completely happy with the terms of the agreement. A thorough discussion should outline exactly which hours each partner will cover, how the salary and benefits will be divided, and what will happen if one person feels unable to maintain this commitment over time. (If one partner decides that the arrangement isn’t working out as planned, there are a couple of likely scenarios: generally, the other partner will have the option to assume the position full-time (either as a temporary or permanent measure) OR they will be involved in the selection of a new job share partner.) Management support is critical to the success of a job share, and senior staff must appreciate exactly how and why the arrangement benefits the company. Mary Mercer, the Principal Consultant at the Institute for Employment Studies assessed: “[A Job Share] will only achieve its aims if HR professionals provide the right architecture to ensure their line management colleagues have confidence in evaluating requests against the business need, consider requests equally and fairly, and then manage flexible workers appropriately.”

Action Task: Develop a well thought out job share plan before you start.
Include details of how the job share will benefit the organization as well as clear information about the job share arrangement itself. Develop a comprehensive job description, communication plan and contingency plan. Don’t be afraid to re-evaluate the position at regular intervals. Ensure that the job does not become bigger, or take on more functions because it is being shared. If you forge a workable blueprint that everyone is happy with, you will maximize the likelihood of success.  

2. Select Two Well-Matched Individuals To Job Share.

When initiating a job share you should select two individuals known for their closely-matched skill-sets – workers who will have shared values, similar personality traits and comparative experience. By dividing the work-load evenly, their complimentary skills will gel them into a dynamic work team that is comfortable sharing successes and failures alike. At the same time, you will be able to draw on a wider pool of skills and experience, make use of increased flexibility to meet demands and benefit from a greater continuity if faced with staff absence. With two flexible, committed team-players on-board man-management will be easier than ever. After all, two heads are better than one!

Action Task: Try to interview both applicants together. This will help you to assess the interaction between the two candidates, and help you to evaluate the strengths of your new ‘team’. 

3. Take One Step Back and Two Steps Forwards.

If you are keen to hire a part-time worker, but want to avoid a recruitment head-ache, consider approaching one of your ex-employees. A common reason for leaving any job is an increased desire for flexibility, and therefore any experienced staff members who have fallen foul of rigidly defined work patterns could well be a perfect fit for a new job share. If you are looking to fill a gap in your organisation, why not get in touch with favoured former employees who have retired or departed the company due to family reasons? Employees will be grateful for the extra flexibility, and repay you by going the extra mile at work. To ease the burden of recruitment you can use existing employees as a sounding board, and find out who could slot into the company with a minimum of fuss. Furthermore, ex-employees will already know the company inside out, and won’t even require training, thus minimising costs.

Action Task: Compile a list of previous employees who have left the company due to a top-heavy work/life balance, and establish whether or not they would be a suitable candidate for your new job share set-up. If you are unfamiliar with their work, consult people who have worked closely with them in the past, and verify whether they would be a good fit for your revamped organisation.

4. Share Everything!

A successful job share arrangement should be fluid, dynamic and cohesive. The link between the two colleagues in question should be so strong that others should find it impossible to tell who is doing what, and when they are doing it! By sharing simple workplace tools such as Email and Voicemail, there will never be any kind of disruptive over-lap. This way, accountability should not be a problem. A common misnomer is that job sharing could quite easily lead to the ultimate in workplace ‘blame games’. Happily, the truth is quite different, and case studies have shown that a job share will actually motivate the individuals involved to go the extra yard and make the arrangement work without a hitch. In any successful job share, colleagues will actually hold themselves accountable to their partner, and this enviable level of mutual trust will be another weight off your mind.

Action Task: If you are worried about blurring job boundaries, and would prefer to give each employee a more clear-cut role, you can divide up the medium-to-long-term objectives, rather than the smaller day-to-day responsibilities. By viewing the job share as two parallel roles, in which both partners are prioritize their own projects whilst staying fully informed of the other’s workload, you will overcome any awkwardness.

5. Agree on a means of communication.

By its very definition, a job share is an unusual way of working, and even the most resourceful employees are likely to have a few teething problems as the system ‘beds in’. Furthermore, employees participating in a job share should always endeavour to make themselves available for questions when they are off-duty. Although no one wants to be harassed with simple queries on their day off, co-workers should be amenable to enquiries, and if you put in place some kind of mutually agreeable protocol then there will be no room for miscommunication.

Action Task: Suggest that both employees work three day weeks – with an overlap in the middle. This should minimize communication breakdown, and ensure that the working week flows rather than juddering to a halt in the middle. This tactic will also boost productivity and reinforce teamwork. Another useful option is a log-book, wherein staff can make detailed notes, and ensure that no one risks doing the same job twice.

You have been reading ToFind.co.uk’s Top Five Tips for integrating a Job Share into your business. Large scale job sharing schemes have already been embraced in both Germany and the USA with great success. Like all important staffing decisions, introducing a job share is a delicate balancing act. A job share won’t be suitable for everyone, and as a good boss you will understand exactly which employees will benefit and thrive from this type of arrangement. Tip: Planning is the key. Develop a detailed action plan, and ensure that everyone understands the logistics and demands of the job share. Implementing a job share will be a learning curve for everyone involved, so don’t be afraid of tweaking details when you have a fuller grasp of the situation.   

Further Reading:

To read a 29-page preview of ‘Job Sharing – Two Heads Are Better Than One’, a practical concise guide book written by Mary O’Hanlon and Angela Morella check out Google Books:

The Low Down:

This week the Payments Council - which was formed in March to formulate strategies on banking practices – announced its plans to abolish cheques by 2018. Thanks to a huge rise in electronic payment and online banking, cheque use has declined dramatically in recent years, and the powers-that-be are now keen to phase it out altogether. After reaching an all-time high back in 1990, with 2.4 billion personal cheques exchanged, figures have gradually dwindled, and last year only 711million cheques were written in Britain.  

In 2002, Shell became the first big retailer to ban cheque payments from its petrol stations, and subsequent years have seen high street giants like Tesco, Asda, Boots, Sainsburys, WH Smith, Argos and Marks & Spencer all opt to decline payment by cheque. Although cheques are still popular in countries like France and the USA, much of Europe has abandoned them, with Finland abolishing them as early as 1993, and Sweden following suit not long afterwards. 350 years after the first ever cheque was signed in Britain, this long-standing institution finally faces the axe.

Payments Council Spokeswoman Sandra Quinn admitted: “Mapping out how the UK might move to a society where, by 2018, there is no need to use a cheque for any type of payment is no small task. Even if the board decides to set a target date, we are clear that we would need to continue to engage with as many other bodies as possible to understand their concerns and requirements.” The Forum of Private Business has agreed to the plans in principle, but stresses that banks must pull their weight and establish a workable replacement before things go any further. We take a look at both sides of the argument, and interpret how the move is likely to affect small businesses in the UK.

Drawbacks:

Any move to disturb the status quo of British banking practices was always likely to raise major concerns, and the move to phase out cheques has been greeted with dismay by the Federation of Small Businesses, who have commented: “We strongly oppose moves to get rid of the chequebook.” Although usage has undeniably dropped (the figure has decreased by almost two-thirds since its 1990 peak), approximately two million cheques are still written every single day. So far there has been a surge of protest from watchdog groups highlighting the risks that a move towards electronic banking would pose to the elderly, but less consideration has been given to tradesmen and small businesses who depend on cheques for all-round convenience.

Daily Telegraph Enterprise Editor Richard Tyler commented: “Small businesses also still gain a benefit by paying their bills by cheque – they can meet an invoice demand but the money still doesn’t leave their account for a few days, which has always been good for cash flow.” According to statistics, there were 692 million cheque transactions made by businesses last year, with the average value of a business cheque coming in at £1,791. These figures underline the continuing importance of cheques, and suggest that we have a long way to go before we can do away with them altogether.

Stephen Alambritis, of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: “This sends completely the wrong message to the self-employed, small businesses and people who run small clubs and charities. We are opposed to the Payments Council dictating this, at the behest of the big banks, when cheques are still hugely popular as a method of payment. We know that students and young adults are using the cheque-book less and less, and the banks talk about things such as cheque fraud, but it is terribly wrong to set any date as to when they can no longer be used. They are also an important record of transactions for small businesses.”

In an era dominated by increasingly dangerous cyber-threats, cheques represent an old-fashioned way of doing business, and they do not require the payer to know the payee’s bank details. Electronic fraud is far harder to verify than cheque fraud, and the paper trail provided by cheques is reassuring in an age where bank accounts can be drained at the click of a button. Although the retail sector have embraced ‘Chip & Pin’ technology, the cost is far too prohibitive for sole traders, and as cold hard cash becomes less of a priority for electronic buyers, the options are all too limited. 

The Federation of Small Businesses has insinuated that abolishing the cheque would be disastrous for millions of self-employed, but there are all manner of big organisations who also rely heavily on the current system. Government departments, such as HM Revenue & Customs and the Department for Work and Pensions, use cheques to make millions of payments each year, and the world of pensions, state benefits, insurance settlements and rebates would be complicated exponentially by a lack of cheques. Vera Cottrell, of consumer organisation Which? says: “Eight years is simply not long enough to resolve all these issues. We need to be a lot farther down the road in terms of providing alternative payment methods for vulnerable groups.”

In February 2009 a survey by the FPB revealed that 73% of respondents stated that ‘customer forces’ should determine the rate at which payment by cheque be phased out. Furthermore, 48% were concerned that removing cheque payments within the next seven years would harm their businesses. 72% of respondents also claimed to receive the majority of their payments from other businesses by cheque. In short, we can’t assume that just because online banking works for us that it works for everyone else. The Payments Council, which comprises of representatives from all of the major high street banks as well as a handful of independent committee members, has assessed that usage will slump another 60% by 2018. Even allowing for these figures, that would still leave roughly 1million cheques exchanged every day. In simple terms, a figure of that size is too high to ignore…

Benefits:

As recently as 2002 a typical consumer in Britain was writing 31 cheques a year, but the number fell to just 14 by 2008. The Payments Council suggests that they are now used for fewer than one in 30 purchases. It costs banks £1 to process a cheque, whereas the processing fee for an electronic transaction is only a fraction of the price. Figures indicate that the fewer people actually using cheques, the higher the processing costs are going to rise. Although it hasn’t been officially mooted yet, it has been suggested by insiders that these costs will inevitably be passed on to customers before too long with a surcharge for each cheque-based payment and a fee charged to accompany the issue of a new cheque-book. Estimates suggest that by abandoning the cheque the banking industry will save itself millions of pounds each year. Naturally, sparing the public the brunt of this kind of financial trauma is a major priority, and if it comes down to a direct choice between embracing electronic banking or counting the cost themselves, it seems obvious that the public will give up writing cheques…

Earlier this year, Rob Skinner, Head of PR for PayPal UK wrote in The Observer: “PayPal was created 10 years ago to enable people to send money to each other electronically almost instantly without sharing their sensitive financial details. The hallowed phrase “the cheque’s in the post” reflects the uncertainty involved in such a leisurely method of payment. In 2009, the idea of paying with a piece of paper that then embarks on a slow journey through “clearing” seems quaint, if not bizarre. Improvements to the cheque clearing process in late 2007 - the “two-four-six” changes, which set a maximum time limit of two, four and six working days for each of the stages after paying in a cheque to a current account - were welcome in providing greater clarity to consumers, but arguably just highlighted the contrast with faster, electronic ways of paying. It may not happen overnight, and we should respect people’s personal choice. But in time the cheque will join the shilling, the farthing and the halfpenny in the banking hall of nostalgia.”

According to UK Payments Administration statistics, business cheque use peaked in 1997, and has declined steadily ever since, as businesses have made the switch to automated payments. Over the last ten years, business cheque volumes have decreased by 43%, and predictions suggest that they will drop a further 51% in the next decade. Despite question-marks hanging over the long-term security of electronic banking, cheque fraud is a similarly lucrative operation, and the amount of money lost to cheque fraud was £15.6m in the first six months of this year alone. Although this figure is a clear reduction on the £21.2m swiped during the corresponding period last year, £8.6m is down to “forged cheque fraud”, which accounts for cheque-books that have gone missing in the post. Abandoning cheques will be a wrench for older generations, but the quicker we embrace electronic payment, the quicker we stand to reap the benefits.

The ToFind.co.uk Verdict:

The abolition of cheques is undeniably a sore point for small businesses and other sectors of community, but the resentment is increased by the fact that the only people to effectively gain by these measures are the banks themselves. At a time when bankers are viewed as public enemies, introducing restrictive measures in order to increase profits seems like a very dangerous strategy. When you consider that card transactions are an additional revenue stream for banks, whilst processing cheques actually costs them money, it’s difficult not to see their shifting priorities as a cynical maneuver.

Although the Forum of Private Business (FPB) has supported moves to phase out the cheque in theory, it stresses that the Payments Council should only abolish the cheque if the move will “drive payment innovation” among the banks. Unless there are viable alternatives put in place for the businesses and their customers who still use cheques, then the whole enterprise will be a disaster, and attract even more flak for an industry already under siege.

In a statement this week, FPB policy representative Matthew Goodman said: “Of course, lots of people have reservations about the idea of ending cheque payment. It’s a familiar and centuries-old system which is still used by countless small businesses for arms length payments. However, we shouldn’t let sentimentality dominate the debate. As a result, our view is that if the decision is made to gradually phase out cheques over eight years, then we aren’t opposed to it in principle. However, the Payments Council needs to be confident that the decision will lead to practical and convenient alternatives being put in place. If they set this roadmap, the onus will be on the banks to come up with solutions for the many small business who still use cheques. Tthe cheque still has some unique advantages and it needs to be fully replaced.”

Change for change’s sake is never a good thing, and although cheques have little relevance to younger generations, they remain a valuable, user-friendly option for businesses and tradesmen across Britain. Until banks can come up with a cheap, safe user-friendly alternative, cheques should remain an integral part of our financial lives. There will undoubtedly come a time when cheques are all-but obsolete, but those days are still a long way off. If we let the market dictate the shift in priorities, and not the bankers then we will avoid any unnecessary anguish, and progress towards an altogether more certain financial future - together.  

Further Reading:

To see the UK Payments Administration statistics highlighting the decline in cheque use, click here. 

To see the Forum of Private Business statistics suggesting that small businesses are still in favour of cheque use, click here.

Photo courtesy of: Roland.

Putting it bluntly, customers are your main reason for actually being in business, and if you can’t keep your customers satisfied then you are in big trouble. Regardless of how good your product is, if your customer service is below-par then you are facing an uphill battle. Businesses offering first rate customer service can look forward to referrals, repeat business and a burgeoning reputation. Businesses offering shoddy customer service on the other hand, have fallen at the first hurdle, and the only thing that they can look forward to is a slump in business. According to market research, an average dissatisfied customer will tell 9 or 10 people about the shoddy service that they have received. Bearing that in mind, can you afford not to take care of your customer base?

In a recent article for The Guardian, Jo Causon from the Institute of Customer Service admitted: “The Institute of Customer Service’s own research shows that levels of customer satisfaction are rising, but so are consumer’s expectations. In 2001, only half of the people in this country were willing to complain about poor service. Five years later that had risen to 60%. We are also more willing to tell others about bad experiences, up from just over 80% in 2001 to close to 90% in 2006. Less than a decade ago we could only tell our friends, family and work colleagues about a poor experience. Now thanks to the internet, and particularly to social networking sites, we can tell the entire world.”

If a good customer is worth having, then they are worth keeping, and you should do whatever it takes to keep them coming back for more.

Here are ToFind.co.uk’s Top Five Tips to ensure that you keep the customer satisfied and improve your business prospects.

1. You Don’t Get A Second Chance To Make A First Impression.

Psychologists estimate that people develop a first impression within 7 to 17 seconds of meeting someone new. Whichever industry you operate in, you need to ensure that you present customers with a positive, lasting impression of your business. Even if you do business with vast numbers of customers during an average working day, you have got to make sure that you deliver the same courteous service to everyone - whether it is 9am or 5pm. Whether they are buying the smallest product you stock, or placing the largest order of the month, you need to make customers feel welcome, informed and valued. Don’t just serve them, impress them. An indifferent customer is a temporary customer, and they will abandon your business as soon as they get a better deal elsewhere.

Action Task: Create a positive work environment, and ensure that customers are comfortable and relaxed in your place of business. Make sure that all staff are polite, attentive and smartly dressed. Finally, ensure that the customer is the centre of attention throughout. If you make them feel special then they will, in turn, believe that your business will offer them a special service.

2. Never Get Complacent About Your Customer Base.

Some people believe that they can afford to lose customers because they will easily be able to replace them with new ones. Wrong! Market research suggests that it costs 5X more investment to attract a new customer than it does to retain an existing one. In many business sectors, brand loyalty is a thing of the past, and customers will go out of their way to find a better product or service. Indeed, the most common reason why someone will abandon a provider is if they are not treating them like a valued customer. If the products on offer are of a similar quality then additional factors such as customer service will become increasingly prominent. Don’t get blasé about their business and give them a reason to buy elsewhere. Long gone are the days when a customer will overlook poor service because of a discounted price.

Action Task: Whether you are dealing with a first time customer or a long-term client, go out of your way to make their buying experience as pleasurable as possible. Ensure that the whole process is carried out with the customer in mind, and treat them with courtesy and respect. As an additional goodwill gesture, why not make a follow-up courtesy call to check that they were happy with the product or service they received. If they are, they will be delighted that you have contacted them, and if they aren’t totally satisfied you have a perfect opportunity to iron out any minor issues. Remember, in business, little gestures go a long way.

3. Outshine Your Competitor’s Customer Service.

You can have the best product in town, but unless you can bolster it with outstanding customer service then it may as well be languishing on the shelf. Your own brand of customer service needs to be what makes your products ‘better’ than the similarly priced products offered by your rivals. Dr. Noelle Nelson, author of ‘The Power of Appreciation in Business’ says: “The quality of something may be good, but it’s the overall experience that will really define customer loyalty.” If you are easy to work with, and flexible towards your customers’ wishes then it will be easy to stamp your personality onto a busy marketplace. You may not be the largest operation around, but sincerity beats a hard sell every time, and if you value your customer as much as you value your product then you are on track to succeed.

Action Task: Make sure that you return customers emails and phone calls straight away. In the past small businesses have sometimes delayed returning calls under the misapprehension that it makes them seem busier, and therefore a more appealing business prospect. Of course, this is nonsense. Strong communication is the basis for any good business relationship, so make an immediate connection with your customer and reap the benefits straight away.

4. Turn Complaints Into Constructive Criticism

A complaint is one thing, but the failure to handle a complaint properly is another issue entirely. In truth, the failure to rectify a mistake quickly and effectively can make matters far worse. Disgruntled customers expect three things of the business that they are dealing with: 1) Listen; 2) Acknowledge; and 3) Act.

A good business will take the time to listen to any complaints, and emphasise with the customer’s point of view. Crucially, customers who complain expect action. If you promise to rectify a situation, make sure that you follow it through to its resolution. If the problem cannot be resolved to your satisfaction, ensure that the customer is kept in the loop throughout, and work with them to establish another, equally satisfactory outcome.

Better customer insights can help retain and deepen your relationships with your customers. As strange as it may sound, you can learn more about your business from a lost sale than you can from a landed one. In a nutshell, make it easy for your customers to complain, and they’ll make it easy for you to improve.

Action Task: Make sure that all of your staff understand the importance of customer service. Make a point of asking for customer feedback, whether the transaction went smoothly or badly. Instruct your staff to record any complaints that they receive, and pass them on to management – even if they think that they may have been at fault. If you keep a log of problems it will be easy to keep track of any underlying trends. Importantly, always act on the first complaint - don’t wait until a small problem becomes a serious issue.  

5. Stay Connected.

According to research conducted by Strategy Analytics for BT, small business employees spend an average of 40% of their time away from their desks. This surprising statistic underlines the importance of ensuring that they stay productive when they are commuting to work or travelling to meetings and conferences. Technology plays a huge part in our lives, nowhere more so than in business. Whether you are in the office or not, it is crucial to stay connected to your customer base. In an era of increasingly hectic demands, customers want an instant response, and if you are ‘off the grid’ when a customer is trying to contact you then you could easily miss out on their business. If your business seems slow on the uptake, then it doesn’t bode well for your product or service, and customers will search out a more responsive company to do business with.

Action Task: Invest in the appropriate technology to ensure that your staff are always available to meet customer needs. Whether they require a mobile phone, a laptop or something more advanced, the investment will pay for itself when you keep on delivering high quality customer service. 

You have been reading ToFind.co.uk’s Top Five Tips on how to keep your customers satisfied. In an increasingly competitive marketplace, you need to make sure that you stand out from the crowd, and superior customer service will give you a huge advantage over your competitors. Follow our tips and revitalize your customer service quickly and effectively. Tip: All you need to do to achieve this is to stop and switch roles with the customer. What would you want from your business if you were the client? How would you want to be treated? If you can’t see how your business stands out from your competitors, then you’re potential customers probably won’t either…