Quality Business Tips
Better Business Practices
September 2020
You’ve worked with QBS to improve your office equipment and IT infrastructure, but that’s not all we can provide to make your business as successful as possible. Read below for September QBS tips for better business practices, personnel management and other topics with which your business is involved each day.
We welcome your feedback!
Customer service
- Before attempting to work out an issue with a customer, tell them how you plan to deal with the issue and what the desired goal is. This will help to make sure you both are on the same page with expectations.
- Try to give customers the information that will help them resolve their problem, and not have them come back to get missing pieces of information.
- With any dispute, assume the customer is right and treat them that way as you work together to uncover the details of the issue. If it turns out that they are not correct, tell them that you could see how or why they reached their conclusions to avoid making them feel bad about their position.
- When a customer appears to sound wrong when explaining how they perceive the cause of an issue, hear them out and be patient with them. They may be misinterpreting what they see or hear, or are going by the advice of others who don’t have the benefit of complete information.
- Customers sometimes are agitated because they are frustrated. The issue they are experiencing may be causing them delays or they may just have a low tolerance threshold. Put yourself in their place at all times while working out the issue with them. They will appreciate the empathy.
Office Politics
- Avoid telling co-workers too much about yourself, and refrain from telling co-workers about others. It could be interpreted as “bad mouthing” and you never know to whom that person will relay the information.
- Realize that office politics is a destructive game. Identifying the key players and finding out what motivates them will help you steer clear of being an unwilling player.
- Sometimes, office politics can’t be avoided you will have to get involved. When this happens, keep personalities out of it and focus on the problem, reminding them it’s you and them against the problem, not you against them.
- Office politics can be cruel. Think of it like any other questionable information and store it until it can be researched and confirmed. There’s no need to spread it regardless of its validity.
- When one is courteous, respectful and polite, the chances of being approached with or being the subject of office gossip is decreased by quite a bit. If you don’t react, people will think twice before coming to you with rumors. If you treat all with respect, the only gossip about you should be positive.
Leadership
- There can be a variety of types in a work group. Each type lends something to the success of the work group. Learn to recognize who is what type of person and assign tasks based on their type.
- The worker bee is often the answer to “How will we get all this work done.” The counselor often becomes the emotional leader and sounding board by listening to and advising stressed-out co-workers.
- The rule follower often acts as a steering wheel, ensuring the group stays within the boundaries of their assignments, while the day dreamer often provides alternate ways and means if first attempt fail.
- The contrarian is perhaps the most impactful as their objections and seemingly pessimistic approach often serves to ensure that all aspects of the issue or goal is considered.
- The comedian also serves a valuable purpose as their light-hearted attitude and approach to stress can make the project seem less daunting. Assigning them tasks that will allow them to work alongside each of the other work group members should be beneficial.
We’re hoping these tips are useful to your business. QBS has been helping businesses all over Maryland with award-winning office equipment and a variety of IT services that cover all aspects of your technology infrastructure.
Contact us today to discuss how we can improve your business practices through the most efficient use of technology and possibly save your company money in the process!
Gary Abosch
Senior Director, IT & Service Operations
Quality Business Solutions
410-337-3700