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Benefits of Customer Support Service Customer support is extending assistance to patrons before, during and after they avail a product or service. Since they are the life blood of the business, customer support services cater to a real vital need in the product and service industry – customer satisfaction. Customer assistance comes in various forms, more commonly voice support and email support. A response team of highly trained operators address a multitude of customer concerns in the most efficient and helpful way possible. Live operators of email support service plus those under voice support services handle customer billing inquiries, troubleshooting and FAQ service. Among the greater roles of live operators are refund management and escalation management. These are high profile customer interactions that often involve money or irate callers/mailers. These are delicately handled and carefully analyzed for the most effective course of action. Essentially, all calls work to meet or surpass the expectations of customer. The benefit of having a good and effective Customer Support Service team revolves within the four desired business goals; Patronage, Retention, Expansion and Satisfaction. Patronage is the most basic of the four and a good customer assistance service encourages potential customers to try a product or service. Retention is what keeps a business afloat. Retention in more plain words is “loyalty”. Meaning that a customer stays for a product or service as long as it is offered and stays within or above a standard they have been accustomed to. Expansion is a business goal that is a direct indication of growth and success. Expansion may be an increase of patronage and retention based on reliability and credibility or a growth within the business that requires an increase in manpower, production and business coverage. Lastly, Satisfaction comes into play. This is the glue that ensures the first three beneficial goals become tangible. Satisfaction is the basis of success. The more satisfied customers there are, the bigger the chance of increased patronage, wider retention scope and larger expansion goals. Taking good care of customers is an edge on competitors. When a business is faced with significant competition, a good support system can be a concrete answer and a extreme advantage. If customers are satisfied with the service, they will not transfer to another firm. Price is not always the game of the trade. Customers themselves demonstrate that price is not sensible in availing products or services when they trust a business. A great customer support service must have the ability and eagerness to address concerns with efficiency and dedication to achieve business goals and reap the benefits. First, politeness and appropriate style in dealing with customers is needed. To let the customer freely express himself through asking questions and raising sentiments is a basic skill that everyone in the business should practice. Second, answering a phone call promptly is a need. The shorter the wait, the less likely the customer might get irate. Third, customer support must be understood as an extension program- not part of the gaining business which counts revenue at the end of the day. Good customer support services have long-term effects and may reflect in the number of years a business flourishes.

Benefits of guarding your Brand Online It is not just Hollywood celebrities that are the topic of gossip and newsfeeds. People also talk about businesses and brands on the internet. They talk about the reasons why they like a brand or how disappointed they are when they used a product. Thus, a business needs to make sure that brand mentions are desirable and stay as such to maintain marketability. Brand monitoring keeps the dignity of a brand and minimizes its use. Monitoring brand mentions on the internet allows the business to identify the level of its brand endorsement. When the brand has been mentioned for a thousand times in a social networking site, the business must consider launching a “thank you” advertisement on the website. Or, the business may consider removing its ads on the site since the brand is too popular and advertising on the website is no longer needed. Brand monitoring also assesses the effectiveness of a marketing message. Effective marketing lines and expressions must be the contents of blogs and shout outs on websites. When the marketing line is not gaining any mentions or attention, it directly means that there is a problem with its effectiveness to gain the desired attention. In comparing the service offered by another competitor and the business itself, brand monitoring can provide data for comparison. Online forums actually mention brands in both a positive and a negative light. Forums and blogs can mention the differences of brands straight from customer’s standpoint making the information within the forum an important bit of data that needs to be considered. A business can analyze these posts and can formulate a report regarding this. Guarding your brand online also builds great customer trust and confidence. In some posts, moderators can answer queries regarding brands. This shows the customers that the business is listening to opinions on how to improve the brand. When a campaign is launched to thank people who have mentioned a brand with positive remarks, customers feel they are given attention and credit to. In monitoring, websites that have information that is inaccurate and detrimental to the brand image may be contacted for immediate action. More importantly, brand monitoring quickly avoids a crisis and Public Relations nightmare by being careful, conscious and diligent. Before issues are created and are magnified, they are monitored and addressed for immediate resolution. This avoids unwanted publicity. In addition, businesses attempting to gauge popularity may use brand watch to create their benchmark. The level of popularity and the kind of publicity can be measured in brand monitoring. Businesses that employ multi-channel marketing also need this to assess the effectiveness of marketing activities. Those that are measuring the scope and effectiveness of blogs and forums as a means of promotion may also use brand watch. Since most businesses need to concentrate on their main activities, companies offer brand monitoring. Companies, like New Media Services, do excellent work. They do brand marketing and brand management. Brandwatch and WWW Moderation are prime choices when it comes to gaining the benefits of brand monitoring. For more information, visit www.newmediaservices.com.au or email us at info@newmediaservices.com.au.

Benefits of Viral Web-Marketing Solution Instead of spending so much effort in creating television and radio commercials that are very expensive to produce, the viral web-marketing solution can be an excellent alternative to market a product. There are good reasons for why businesses use a viral web-marketing solution. First of all, viral web-marketing solutions are cost efficient and effective. As long as the viral video, e-mail or blog is really a hit and serves its purpose to be distributed, the production cost is maximized and the monetary returns are greatly rewarding. The efficiency of viral web-marketing has been proven by many businesses around the world. After posting these viral videos and blogs in the internet, they are distributed by millions to their friends. In Youtube alone, viral videos pop up one after the other catering to different viewer populations. Notably, these viral videos, their makers and their actors gain significant attention from television shows and they are featured in segments. Viral marketing is affordable. E-mails and blogs do not cost that much when used as a viral web-marketing solution. Viral videos, which are usually about 30 seconds, can be produced with just graphics, pictures and clips from digital cameras. Businesses that cannot afford millions of dollars to pay a Hollywood celebrity as an endorser can even use anything from pets, inanimate objects or random people in viral marketing. Thus, there is a direct decrease in promotional and production costs. Another benefit that a company can enjoy is the rapid expansion of brand publicity. As the term 'viral' suggests, these videos and e-mails have a high potential of spreading through what is called infectious entertainment. From the moment these are posted online, millions are viewing them in just a blink of eye. When a blog is posted in Facebook, more than 500 million users can read and (ideally) share the blog. Along with the other mentioned benefits it is important to note that a business that uses viral web-marketing solutions can easily establish credibility just by the method, message and content of their viral campaign. As a marketing tool, viral videos and e-mails include information that entertain, attract and generate belief in the business. Live operators assist in attaining this goal and benefit. When experts and influential people talk about the business after being attracted to a viral e-mail or blog, they are helping in building the credibility of the business. A long list of customers is assured when effective management of viral web-marketing is implemented because it facilitates the retention of current customers, the attraction of potential clients and the prospect of expansion based on reactions, demands and increased consumerism. Moreover, connections and affiliations are built instantly just by association and sharing. There can be a rapid growth of the business. Charming and influential people, who have dozens of peer groups, are a good choice to send a viral video or e-mail. People with large social horizon are bankable people also. They can spread the word effectively and efficiently. The maintenance of credibility also involves interactions of a more personal nature. In this case, live operators should also be skilled in conceptualizing a video or a blog. Plus have the ability to handle clients effectively. In web viral marketing solutions, the limit of the benefits are incalculable and the cost for production is down at a minimum.

Mobile Polling When you feel like marrying your long-time fiancée, grab your phone and send this text message to all your friends: “should I marry her now? Answer me with yes or no only”. Tally all the votes and you will know how many of your friends like your life to be more miserable. That is how mobile polling works. Through your mobile gadgets, you can ask for opinions from your contacts to guide you in your decision-making. In business, you can also use your customers’ mobile phone to know whether your customers did like your service or not. You can ask them if they liked your new designs or your new store, using any of their mobile gadgets. In conducting mobile polling, you must create a Short Message Service message containing a question about your service and the response options. Included is the instruction how to cast answer. Assume that you are the owner of a new fashion clothing collection called “Mimi”. You can create a poll that goes: “Is Katy Perry bankable to be Mimi’s first endorser?” The response options must be “yes”, “no” and “not yet”. State this after the response options: “Type your answer and send to 2996”. This message is then forwarded to respondents’ mobile phones using computers and polling software. When respondents text their answer back to the operator, the software collects all answers and classifies them. The results can be sent back as SMS message. Final results can be used by the business to decide on future actions. Example, the result of the above poll says that 100% of the respondents answered “no”. Then you know now that the singer cannot be your endorser. There are three kinds of mobile polling. First is Short Messaging Service Poll. In a SMS poll, computer software sends the poll as SMS message. This is the most common kind of mobile polls. The second is mobile websites or Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) polls. This kind of mobile polling has risen with the existence of devices that allow internet surfing. Web polls, which are originally made for websites, are customized for mobile phone viewing. Using WAP browsers, respondents can access to the poll question and options. The respondent can click his answer using his gadget. This kind of mobile polling requires internet connection. The last kind is voice poll. It is done by manually calling mobile numbers. The operator manually dials the number of a respondent and asks for the answer to the poll question. This may be an expensive option but the result is statistically valid. However, this is prohibitive in some countries. What makes mobile polling special is its accessibility. Since mobile phones are handy and can be brought anywhere, respondents can answer the polls anywhere they are when they receive the poll question. In creating mobile poll, there are some things that you must consider. First, you must clearly know the goals of your poll. Make sure that these goals can be met using mobile polling. Second, consider your respondents. Remember, this system requires mobile devices of respondents. This kind of mobile polling is not recommendable if telecommunication signals and internet connections are limited in the place where respondents live. One thing to note is the cost of responding in the part of your respondents. Although most people have their mobile devices, some do not respond if answering to your query will decrease their load balance. Review the topic of the poll also. The topic should be timely, novel and controversial in order to gain interest. Boring topics are always ignored. Be creative in stating the question to excite the respondent to answer. In the end of the day, mobile polling can either be successful or not. But mind you, polling promotes a smooth relationship between the business and customers. A poll message creates an impression that the business values the opinion of their customers.

Monitoring your Web Post In a business website, the need to be certain that no content of the can damage the business’ integrity or create undesired attention is a real concern. Any form of damaging information regardless of accuracy, is a threat to smooth business operations. The diligence to ensure that one’s business remains untainted is a tedious task. Web post monitoring is the answer to this important role. Web post monitoring seeks to check if the content of a website published by its creators and its visitors are within the standards set. Posts, remarks and all other content need to be carefully monitored to prevent any and all issues that might arise or stem from the many posts and uploaded contents. In web post monitoring, other websites are also checked so that posts do not hurt the business’ reputation. On the internet, there is complete freedom of speech where people can just post anything they like to say about a business. Before damaging remarks reach millions of users of the worldwide web, these remarks must be lifted out. To attain the goal of maintaining desirable online presence of a website, there are systems and tools that can be used or availed of from a variety of sources. In content moderation, moderators review texts, pictures and messages in forums. Authors, moderators, administrators and publishers make sure that no offensive and illegal content create discomfort for visitors and to the business. Before forum messages are published on websites, moderators review them. Published materials are also reviewed through feedback mechanisms like polling and rating to identify whether these will affect the business’ reputation negatively. Web monitoring does not just limit its scope within its own business website. It can also extend to other websites. Chat, forum, blog texts containing the name of the business or brand are searched for on the internet. Moderators check how the business or brand is being presented in forums and other posts. They verify if these are accurate or inflammatory. Another powerful tool in web post monitoring is the web tracker. On a business website, a small piece of code is executed when a visitor logs in to the site. The code gathers all the visitor’s public details that include IP address, browser, operating system, page title and URL. Web tracker can even record how many times a visitor has logged in to the site in a day and the country the visitor come from. The business gets to know their customers better with web tracker. Another tool in web post monitoring is web security which is attained by scanning user downloads. This tool protects a network against various infections. Some also block restricted sites, hidden downloads and illegal content. One of the companies that offers this service is New Media Services. The company offers PostMaster and WWWModeration. PostMaster makes sure that no post on the internet is damaging the business’s reputation while WWWModeration does the controlling and editing of web material publication. For more information, visit www.newmediaservices.com.au or email us at info@newmediaservices.com.au.

Polling Trivia and Trends Polling does not only benefit businesses but also politicians and celebrities. This activity also makes us reflect in our faith and magnify small things we do not usually notice. Polling starts with a question which the respondents will answer. The response options are given and a respondent picks his answer. After collecting all answers, the results are shown and are analyzed for future purposes. In fact, polling is used to identify who will be the next president of the country. Nowadays, technology has permitted man to sit in his office and distribute poll questions through Short Message Service (SMS) or through the worldwide web. More often, polls are used to get the judgment of people about current issues. Say for example a new poll in the WKRG News 5 website regarding a US activity. The question goes: “Is Libya a vital national security interest for United States these days?” Respondents may choose from these answers: “yes”, “no” and “not sure”. This is similar to segments in other news stations using polling to encourage their viewers to participate in making news. With the rise of dozens of networking sites, polls can be conducted by anyone. All we have to do is to fill in some blanks. Besides polls are easy to create using these sites, it is for free. The software of the site does the gathering, tallying of answers and publishing of the results. One of the sites that offer this service is Blogpsot. In Facebook, there are also some polls that ask a member to describe other members. Polls do not only promote a service but its result can humiliate the service. An example of this was a 2009 UK online poll asking respondents if they believe that God exists. Results of the poll from more than 88, 000 respondents stated that 96% believed there was no God. The worst thing was that the host of the poll was a Christian website. Indeed, it was an Almighty failure, and their goal to promote Christianity through polling failed. Let us look into the brighter side. Upon realizing that polling feature is needed, Sliderocket launched polling offers that its users can utilize. According to its owner, the new tool aim to increase interactivity of their service. Other sites have already permitted polling as an additional feature. Credibility of poll results has also been questioned. In a Streetblog.org report, the organization has received complaints from people about a mobile poll. The poll was done through voice, where the respondents were called to ask about their opinion on the Prospect Park West bike lane in New York. The report was opening that someone was paying for the poll after people divulged that the questions asked to them were about age, race, and political affiliation. Polls also capture very simple things in our life that we do not give emphasis to. In a Facebook poll for the International Women’s Day celebration, it was found that more than 20% posted pictures of Facebook users were group pictures. According to the report, group pictures feature two or more women smiling together and in most cases, they are surrounded by their relatives. It was also found that 25% of the pictures were photos of children or babies. Honestly, have you noticed that? Polls can. Moreover, businesses find opportunities in results of polls. Example of this is the result of an online poll conducted by InfoTrends. It was found that the emerging markets of China, Brazil, Mexico and India represent some of the most photo-active populations in the world. It was then concluded that these countries are being predicted to offer promising opportunities for digital imaging market. That is polling. Simple question with response options can do big things in the society. Polling is more than a tool for businesses. It is part of pop culture.

Why Brand Monitoring Useful? Brands are the forefront of a business. Usually, brands represent the name associated with a company. The overall image of a business can be dictated by the perception of their brand/name. Therefore brand names are safeguarded to prevent brand degradation and unwanted or misleading information. A brand needs a credible and pleasant reputation in order to be successful in the market. Careful and responsible action with regards to brand names is a must for any business. For those who want to promote and maintain a clean business image, online brand monitoring systems can do the task for you. The system works through brand name tracking while web tracking logs significant instances of website mentions of the guarded brand. The system lists the brand mentions and identifies whether these mentions are beneficial or detrimental to the brand’s reputation. Once the brand mention is identified and traced, appropriate action is taken to either promote the brand mention or prevent it from escalating negatively. Brand watch refers to the monitoring of all remarks about the brand on the web. These posts must then be reviewed for accuracy and content and may either be maintained or deleted. Brand watch monitors press releases and announcements. There are press releases that may include a brand as the most recommended or one of the least efficient brands. Blog comments may also mention a brand. Blogs are quite viral depending on the content. The content type and delivery of the message can influence readers. Discussion boards and forums are also common locations where brand mentions are prevalent. Social comments are very short but these are being read by millions and they work by “word of mouth”. People can talk about a brand on Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and other social networking sites. First, the level of the popularity of the brand is identified with brand monitoring. If the brand is known, then it has many mentions. On the other hand, a brand is less famous when the number of mentions is very low. The next thing that brand watch does is to gauge the perception of the public about the brand. It aims to see if the public likes the brand or not. If the brand has more good comments than bad ones, it can be concluded that the brand is doing well. However, if the brand receives mostly bad remarks, the business needs to review the brand features to improve it. Moreover, brand watch protects the business from fraudulent activities, undesired associations and misuse of brand name. It makes sure that when the brand logo or brand name is used in websites, this must be done with permission from the business. Fraudulent emails may also include the brand without the knowledge of the business. Brand watch detects and protects the name from any infringement and misuse. Brand name protection is a serious business that requires diligence and speed. Companies like New Media Services offer Brand Watch, a service for a more efficient brand and web management. Reduce the risk of brand degradation and make sure that no derogatory content will block the business from attaining success. For more information, visit www.newmediaservices.com.au or email us at info@newmediaservices.com.au.