Barbara Wold

Barbara Wold

The next time you run an "idea generating meeting," prime the workforce by putting together an upbeat session that involves all participants.

>> Learn some tips for improving meetings

Barbara Wold

One of the biggest reasons your customers do not return is they have no reason to. Their experience was a dud - there was nothing memorable.

>> Read tips for making shopping in your store fun

Barbara Wold

Apply these service secrets to your customers' experience and you will increase customer satisfaction, customer retention and win back customers to increase your bottom line.

>> Read Barbara's secrets to improving service

Barbara Wold

Customers like to feel important. Here are some things you can do to enhance that feeling and build sales.

>> Read Barbara's tips for improving customer experience

Barbara Wold

Here are 10 tested and proven ideas that can help grow your business. Try something new!

>> Read Barbara's Tips for Your Business

Barbara Wold

When customers call on the phone, we are provided with a tremendous opportunity to reinforce and grow the relationship. It makes good (economic) sense to take the extra time and effort to make these calls as meaningful and service oriented as possible.

>> Review these 10 keys

Barb Wold

Guidelines to build a staff into a team that does the best possible job for the organization:

1. Be friendly to staff members but don't treat them like close personal friends. They want you to be the boss and they want to be employees. It works better that way.

>> View more guidelines to build a staff into a great team

Talk about first impressions; telephone greetings are critical. Welcome customers on the phone with a pleasant, sincere and brief message.

>> Click here for 3 easy steps to success

Around the holidays retailers tend to hire part-time employees. But Managers often face problems with motivating these workers.

>> Click here to read what will motivate them

Barbara offers her Top 10 list for tips to improve your store's customer service.

>> Click here to view her Top 10

Good customer service is the lifeblood of any business. You can offer promotions and slash prices to bring in as many new customers as you want, but unless you can get some of those customers to come back, your business won't be profitable for long.

>> Read Barbara’s 8 Rules for Good Customer Service

Daily affirmations

1. I am present and I pay attention
2. I am respectful (and never speak negatively or gossip about another employee or a customer)
3. I trust my employees to do the right thing...

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Are you leaving the fun and playful part of your personality at the front door of the store each day? For many, work is a place to be serious -- fun happens on vacation and away from work. We need to accept fun and understand it as another element of the workplace.

>> Read more why fun at work is so important

The Holiday retail season easily outshines other times of the year in sales, but it can also be the most exhausting. With proper planning and preparation, it can be not only a successful and memorable season, but in the most positive sense of the word, an enjoyable one for owners, managers, staff, and your customers. Barb Wold takes a look at some of the things you should do and should not do during this holiday season.

>> Read the Do's and Dont's

Be sure to look in these four places for potential hires:

• Customers -- both current and past
• Suppliers
• Current employees
• Competitors

>> Click here to read more details

Mission: Create a powerfully positive first impression.

Goal: Manage each moment of every contact.

Don't gamble with the 7/11 rule! In only seven seconds, a customer forms 11 impressions about you and your organization.

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To attract great employees, you need to get aggressive and move out of the box. One in five new hires turns out to be a dud, according to a study of nearly 1,600 hiring managers by HR consulting firm DDI International.

• Call good employees who have left.
• Offer finder's fees.
• Ask job applicants for names of other potential employees.
• Offer flextime.
• Show prospects how you'll help them grow.
• Work with local organizations.
• Advertise in new places.

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The next time you run an "idea generating meeting," prime the workforce by putting together an upbeat session that involves all participants. Try these methods or come up with other creative ideas.

1. An angle for meetings that has proven to be very successful is to put a different person in charge. You determine the agenda and then gives all meeting responsibilities to a staff member. Also, ask the person, now in charge of the meeting, to add one new idea to the agenda.

2. Weeks before the idea-generating meeting, ask each staff member to visit a competitive store. Ask your benevolent...

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Research gives a business the competitive edge. A focus group is one excellent way to collect data and fresh new ideas from customers and staff.

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Resolve to make a concerted and consistent effort to get to know your customers.

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