· Identify your goals – What are you hoping to accomplish with these survey? Improve customer service platforms? Survey audience response for a new product or service? Make sure you know what your goals are before you begin to construct a survey.

· Pick your tools – When it comes to online survey software, you can either host the software or employ a vendor. Using a vendor is highly recommended since it allows you to focus on either things besides the technology side of administering a survey, such as quality of the questions and managing incoming results.

· Write your questions – Take into consideration the wording and order of the questions. Something as simple as the tone of the survey can affect the responses of participants. Also consider whether you want multiple choice or open-ended questions.

· Test your survey – Once the survey questions have been written and revised, test the survey on a small handful of customers to see how well it is received.

· Launch your survey – The next step is to launch your survey; announce it to your target audience and guarantee maximum participation. This can be done by advertising the survey to more people than you need. For example, if you are looking to garner 200 responses, invite 400 customers to ensure you meet that goal.

· Measure your results – Identify results that are similar and indicate numerous customers respond in a particular way. You may also want to look for unforeseen results may open your eyes to issues or concerns you weren’t aware of or had not considered.

They say that a picture is “worth a thousand words” but does the cliché necessarily apply when it comes to business photography?  Will a real estate agent acquire more clients because they use a self-portrait on their advertising (as opposed to no picture)?   

The calculating use of photography can be far more powerful and convincing than the most eloquent lengthy prose.  Humans tend to be visual creatures, so adding a humorous, poignant, or outrageous picture to your advertising will surely catch more eyes than an unimaginative title. 

When it comes to advertising, which would you be more inclined to look at?

“The World’s Ugliest Dog”

or

Get my point?

Source: Our preferred Utah business photographer of choice.

• The average person spends 60 hours on-hold annually (CNN Survey).
• Out of callers put on hold without any music or messages, 60% hang up (CNN Survey).
• Out of callers that hang up after being put on hold, 30% do not call back (CNN Survey).
• Over 70% of individuals that call a business are put on hold (Telemarketing Magazine).
• Up to 20% of callers make purchased based on info they heard while on hold (Telemarketing Magazine).
• Callers who are put on hold with nothing but silence hang up in less than 30 seconds – 90% hang up within 40 seconds (North American Telecommunications Association).

Isn’t it time your business implemented a creative on hold recording?

The credit crunch of the past year has forced major corporations within the financial sector to write off billions of dollars in investments gone bad. The industry’s top companies are working overtime to revamp company risk management and assessment, a move that will no doubt carry implications to boardrooms and companies around the globe.

Risk management has become one of the top concerns for companies of all sizes and in all industries. Liberum Research (an independent tracking firm) said that risk management positions were up 25% at public companies in 2007. Take a cue from the big guys…what risk management procedures does your business have in place?