Archives for January 2022

How To Improve Customer Satisfaction For Your Online Business

January 31, 2022 by

Increasing customer satisfaction is a vital step to boosting the bottom line of your online business. Customer satisfaction is so important because it helps you build long-lasting relationships with customers, which in turn increases spending per order and brand awareness. If you are struggling to improve customer satisfaction in your online business, then this guide is here to help.

1. Ask For Feedback

One way in which you can more effectively improve customer satisfaction is to, quite simply, ask for feedback. It is difficult to understand what a customer wants if you have no basis for understanding the existing level of satisfaction. You should try following up with a customer after receiving their order and having time to engage with it. You can ask customers to fill out a simple satisfaction form, so you have more actionable insights. You can also encourage customers to level reviews, which can both help you to gain more knowledge on satisfaction and help you to increase future sales.

2. Offer High-Quality Customer Service

The level of customer service that you offer can have a big impact on the levels of customer satisfaction in your business. In today’s age of instant gratification, high-quality customer service involves providing a response to a customer’s query within ten minutes. You should also try to be as honest, understanding, and transparent with customers as possible.

Studies have found that people who experience high-quality customer service are much more likely to recommend the brand to a friend. This means that by increasing customer satisfaction in this way, you are also increasing the chances of organic marketing.

3. Use Excellent Packaging

Online businesses are in a unique position as they have the opportunity to make two first impressions, a virtual first impression and a physical one. Offering high-quality delivery services and top-notch packaging is imperative when it comes to making the right first impression on a customer. Learning how to present your products in the best way will help you to ensure satisfaction from the first physical interaction.

4. Understand Customer Behaviour

When it comes to improving customer satisfaction, you should try to be proactive and use all relevant, available tools to provide the best experience. Online businesses have a wealth of data at their disposal with your online analytics, so you should make sure to utilize this. Learning more about customer behavior, by studying data analytics can help you to better understand how customers respond to your brand to improve the online experience and increase satisfaction rates.

5. Set Appropriate Expectations

One of the biggest dangers to customer satisfaction rates is poorly managed expectations. When customers have a certain expectation that they do not feel has been delivered, this can lead to feelings of frustration and betrayal. These feelings are often so strong that they can cause a customer to actively spread negative impressions of your brand. You should make sure that all of your product photographs, written copy, and marketing campaigns are appropriate and honest to ensure you are not setting unrealistic expectations.

 

Filed Under: Business & Growth

What Are The Best Ways To Use Your Hobbies To Make Money?

January 20, 2022 by

Making money doing something you love to do is the ideal scenario. It is why it is worth looking into ways of using your hobbies and passions to try and boost your income.

Here are some ideas below which might just inspire you to have a go this year at something new.

Train To Be A PT

Doing more exercise or improving their fitness is often one of the most common New Year’s resolutions. If you are passionate and experienced in the gym, you may be able to take up a course to become a Personal Trainer. Once you pass this training, you can advertise your services and book clients to work with.

The hourly rate for working with a client as a PT is $60, so once you become established, you could really boost your weekly income quite fast. If you enjoy it so much, you may even decide to do this full-time in the future.

Language Lessons

Being able to speak another language is a great skill to have, particularly for those who enjoy traveling, so if you are fluent in over one language, you should offer lessons. These can be done online or face-to-face, depending on what you are comfortable doing.

Obviously, teaching is not for everybody as it requires a lot of patience, but if you feel you would enjoy helping somebody learn a new language, this could prove very rewarding to you, not just financially.

Sports

If you watch a lot of sports and are very knowledgeable about them, you may feel confident betting on the outcome of matches and tournaments. Of course, there is a risk to this, as like with stocks and crypto investments, there is a chance you will lose money.

Some American football fans enjoy betting on the NFL. If you take it slow and concentrate on one game a week, like starting to bet on the Monday Night Football, you can monitor how well you do and then make a decision about whether this is a good long-term strategy. You can also find the best odds prior to this game and take advantage of any signup offers and promotions available on the game.

The Super Bowl, which was won in 2021 by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, is another good game to concentrate on as, by that point, there is a lot of data to study on how well the two teams fared in the regular season and playoffs.

Music Lessons

Music is many people’s passion in life. If this is you, and you are an expert on a particular instrument, you could look to teach others how to play. Whether it is the guitar or piano, the skills you have can be used to train an eager student to learn the basics.

You can book these slots to suit your schedule, so you may decide to offer your services in the evening or at the weekend. The more instruments you can play, the greater chance you have of finding clients who will pay for your help.

Good luck with some of the above hobbies this year. Hopefully, you have great fun making some extra money.

 

Filed Under: Money Talk

Property Development Refinancing For Beginners

January 18, 2022 by

Many property developers have undoubtedly had to wrestle with unexpected issues while undertaking essential development projects at some point in their careers. These problems can occur in every project, including the well-planned and managed ones. It is easy to encounter these issues because there is no shortage of things that can go wrong with your development efforts.

COVID-19 and Brexit are hugely responsible for the numerous construction delays plaguing the UK. However, your development project can face setbacks for numerous reasons like poor weather or a crucial supplier not delivering as anticipated. Similarly, the construction crew you prefer for the job can be overbooked when the time arrives.

You can face huge penalties due to these setbacks if you take out development finance for your project. Nevertheless, you can avoid these penalties by going in for development exit finance. Here are some things you can do to refinance your development projects successfully.

The Best Time For Property Development Refinancing

Property developers have many alternatives to explore when refinancing a development project. Therefore, prioritise taking your time to understand the options you can select before deciding whether development project refinancing is the best thing to do. In addition, consider your current projects’ terms and conditions and whether you will have to pay any extra costs if you refinance, even if this can result in a net loss. Also, think about whether you can make your payments fully and on schedule and the prospects of adjustments.

As a general rule, refinancing is an option worth considering if you have been working on a project for at least nine months. This period is enough time to be certain about whether you can meet your deadlines without any hindrances since most of the tasks would have been finished by then. If you are still in doubt about whether this can happen, various bridge loan refinance options are worth considering.

Lengthening Your Terms

A loan term of just 12 months is expected since this is the case in most situations. However, this short term can cause timetable delays, especially if you encounter issues with construction or closing. As such, it is essential to have a property refinancing commitment by yourself or via an expert finance broker like Finbri. Additionally, select a company that won’t charge you any fees for completing your development project ahead of time.

Decreasing Your Costs

It is common knowledge that consumer loans have higher interest rates than many other types of property development finance. Consequently, it is easy to save significant cash on your borrowing cost if you are taking on a construction project. Furthermore, you can direct all your resources towards finishing this project since the interest that accumulates on your loan exit is kept.

Should You Refinance?

Refinancing is worth considering as a developer for various reasons. For example, refinancing can help you circumvent huge penalties for project delays. It may also help you start your next project by offering enough funds. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that developers seeking frugal ways to fund their operations often use refinancing to acquire their sites and start designing and planning while still undertaking a project.

 

Filed Under: Money Talk

How To Treat Common Gym Injuries

January 12, 2022 by

Getting a gym injury is bad news; it’s painful, causes problems with mobility, and it means that you can’t workout (at least not in the same way) for a little while, causing issues with your overall fitness. However, if you know how to treat the most common gym injuries, you can reduce your pain, improve your mobility, and get back to working out as soon as it’s safe to do so – much sooner than if you did nothing at all to help yourself and treat your injuries. With that in mind, here are some of the best ways to treat common gym injuries.

Straight Away

As with most things, the sooner you can treat a gym injury, the better. There are a few actions you should take straight away once you have been hurt, and if you can follow the acronym RICE, you should be able to remember what to do.

  • Rest

If you can rest the injured area, whether it be your knee, ankle, shoulder, wrist, back, or anywhere else, then you stand a much higher chance of recovering more quickly. When you have been injured, the muscles are temporarily weaker, and therefore much more susceptible to further injury. If you can rest, it’s less likely that you will hurt yourself again.

  • Ice

If you can apply ice as soon as you have sustained a gym injury, this will help hugely. You don’t need any specialist ice bags or similar; a bag of crushed ice or peas directly from the freezer will work perfectly well. Remember, though, the ice should never be placed straight onto your skin, as this can cause frostbite. Instead, you should wrap the bag in a cloth first.

The ice will reduce the swelling, making it easier to move, and it will relieve the pain – it does this by reducing the amount of blood flowing to the injured area. Leave the ice on the injured area for around fifteen to twenty minutes, then remove to allow the skin to return to its normal temperature. You can keep applying the ice for as long as you need to, as long as you have this break in between.

  • Compress

The best thing you can do once the swelling has gone down and the gym injury is less painful is to wear a compression bandage or brace. There are plenty to choose from at podobrace.co.uk, and the only thing to think about is which body part needs to be supported; make sure you buy the appropriate brace.

This brace will keep the injury partially immobilized, helping it to heal more quickly. It will also reduce the build-up of fluid, which can be painful.

  • Elevate

In order to reduce swelling, even more, you should elevate your injury. It’s best if you can elevate it above your head, as this will ensure the fluid does not build-up, and any that is already there can more easily drain away. If this is not possible, then at the very least, you should keep your injury raised to the level of your heart.

The Next Day

Even though your gym injury is sure to hurt at the time it occurs, most people find that it isn’t until the next day that the true extent of their pain really starts. This is mainly due to the swelling, which will be at its highest level at this time; your body is trying to heal itself, and swelling is one way your immune system does this. You will also probably have bruising, and again it’s only on the day after your injury that this will really become noticeable and painful.

Keep using the RICE method of treatment; this should be used up to 72 hours after an injury if it is still required. If the pain is bad enough to prevent sleep or major discomfort, you can try taking over-the-counter medication to alleviate the issue. Choose one that will reduce pain and inflammation at the same time; ibuprofen and aspirin are good choices.

It’s important not to apply any heat to the gym injury in the first 72 hours. It will feel great, and therefore it will be tempting, but it can be damaging this early in the healing process. This is because the heat will improve your circulation, and although that is usually a good thing when you are injured, better circulation will increase any swelling.

After Three Days

In most cases, you’ll find that you are more mobile and in less pain after three days or 72 hours. The bruising might still be sore, but the swelling will have gone down, and you will be almost back to normal. It is at this stage that, if you are still finding the injury is causing you any pain or mobility issues, you can start alternating the ice pack you are using with heat.

Although the heat was not recommended earlier than three days, now, once the major healing has taken place, it can be extremely useful. Improving the circulation is now crucial; this will bring additional oxygen to your injury, promoting better healing.

Once the swelling has gone down, you can stop wearing the brace and start stretching the injury to improve mobility. If you find that this hurts, you must stop. Don’t push yourself too hard, or you’ll find that you injure yourself again and have to start the treatment process from the beginning.

When To See Your Doctor

Of course, although it’s wise to try to treat your gym injury yourself on most occasions, there will be times when it’s best to seek medical advice from a doctor. If you think the injury, you suffered is a severe one, then apply ice, use a compression bandage or brace, elevate it, and call your doctor for an appointment. In truly serious cases, go straight to the emergency room; waiting for too long could be detrimental to the healing process.

If you suffer from any of the following complaints after your gym injury, you should definitely see your doctor rather than trying to treat it all yourself:

  • Severe swelling
  • Breathing difficulties
  • Crunching sounds when moving
  • Visible issues such as bent limbs or lumps
  • Joint instability
  • Inability to support your weight

 

Filed Under: Health