No matter who your customers are, you should always strive to make sure they feel welcome. After all, a happy customer is your greatest asset as a business. So, work on giving everyone who walks through your door the royal treatment, and you’re sure to be set in your business for many years.
Remember that happy customers are also buying customers. Whether it’s goods or services you offer as a company, your customer is there because of how you make them feel. And, good referrals happen when your customers are satisfied with those feelings. Here are some tips for keeping your customers happy and giving them the royal treatment.
Whether you’re just starting a business or have been running a company for several years, you should understand that it is your customers who keep you in business. And getting to know each customer will help your business grow.
Four Products to Guarantee Your Customers’ Royal Treatment
By providing identification of your employees, you allow your customers to become familiar with those who can help them. Name tags are one of the best tools you can use to make sure your customers are happy with your business. They provide a friendly and quick “hello” for everyone who walks through your door. And they also act sort of like a permission slip to people who see your name tag that you are open to talking. This allows immediate engagement between your business and your customers.
Provide a quality experience for everyone who enters your business with custom made signs. These signs can display your working hours or vital information that keeps everyone in your company safe.
Custom plaques add a classy feel to the average sign and let the customer know that you care about your company’s value because of how upscale they are.
Meet your security and identification needs for all of your employees with custom lanyards. They are a key tool for any business. And, there are so many ways to use them. Lanyards are perfect for identifying visitors or keeping security cards handy for employees. No matter what you need custom lanyards for, they have so many uses that everyone needs them.
Six Professional Tips to Create the Best Customer Experience
At the end of the day, successful companies don’t just deliver better customer service at one point in time; they constantly change their businesses in response to evolving consumer behavior. If you can understand your customers well enough to anticipate their needs and empower your teams to deliver A-level service, you’ll differentiate yourself from the crowd and go a long way toward creating enduring success for your company.
1. Set Goals
Find ways that your business benefits your customers, and then make them known. Whether that is through a sale or getting the word out about your product, your customer should know what you’re all about.
2. Be Friendly
It is customer SERVICE, after all. Make sure your customers know that you are there for them, no matter what.
3. Provide Value
No matter what your product or service is, make sure it’s valuable to your clientele.
4. Make Improvements
Always be on the lookout for ways to improve your relationship with your customers. Up your game with new products or services that will still benefit your customers.
5. Find Consistency
Once you have your product line and value, keep it going. Try not to discontinue something that your customer has come to expect.
6. Always Say Thank You
Providing a quality experience is your job as a business owner. Remember that it’s your customers who keep you in business. So, no matter what you do, always thank your customers for sticking around and keeping you open.
You may think having students who want to be at school and learn from their teachers sounds to good to be true. But that’s what schools that focus on increasing student engagement are seeing. More than coming to class and turning in homework, engaged students are enthusiastic about their education and have a desire to excel in their classes. If you want to see your students succeed, you must figure out how to engage them in the learning process.
What is student engagement?
In education, student engagement refers to the degree of attention, curiosity, interest, optimism, and passion that students show when they are learning or being taught, which extends to the level of motivation they have to learn and progress in their education.
How does student engagement affect learning?
Multiple research studies have found that students who arrive on time, pay attention in class and complete assignments are more likely to get higher grades and graduate on time. On the flip side, studies have found that students who do not pay attention or participate in classwork have lower grades and are less likely to graduate on time. Because student engagement directly impacts student performance, it is essential for teachers to recognize when students are engaged and increase that level of engagement.
How can you tell when students are engaged?
There are three types of student engagement: behavioral, cognitive and emotional.
Behavioral Engagement is when students actively participate in the learning process. They show up on time, turn in their homework and bring the materials they need for class. They also participate in class discussions, do what their teacher says and consistently try their best.
Cognitive Engagement is when students try to learn as much as they can. Not only do they pay attention in class, but they also ask thought provoking questions and go beyond what you ask them to do.
Emotional Engagement is when students have a positive outlook on their educational experience. You can tell students are emotionally engaged when they treat you and their classmates with respect and approach schoolwork with optimism.
To know how invested your students are in their education, look for all three types of engagement. If you only concentrate on behavioral engagement, you may overlook students who feel left out or need to be intellectually challenged.
What makes student engagement challenging?
Keeping students engaged is hard, both in a classroom setting and an online learning program. In a classroom, you have to teach all of your students at once. This makes it hard for you to determine how quickly you should go through a lesson. If you go too fast, some students will get frustrated as they fall behind. If you go too slow, other students will lose interest as they wait for the next activity
The difficult part about teaching students online is that they can get easily distracted. Not only can they get lost in browsing the internet or playing video games, but they can also get disrupted by other people who do not realize they are in class.
Online learning also makes it hard for students to connect with the class emotionally. If students feel that they don’t have a relationship with you or their classmates, then they are less motivated to participate in discussions or do their homework.
Student Engagement Strategies
Now it is time to plan how you will increase student engagement. To help you get started, here are some ideas that apply to almost every grade level. And they work for classroom and online teaching.
Behavioral Engagement Strategies
Students will know how to behave when you give them class rules to follow. List your class rules on a custom sign or plaque, and hang it where students can see it. Make sure to include a rule about students treating each other (and you) with respect so that everyone has a positive experience.
Get more students to participate in class discussions by putting each student’s name on a name tag. When you have a question for the class, draw a name tag out of a box and ask that student to answer it. This strategy prevents the same students from answering all of the questions. It also motivates your students to stay alert because they never know when their name is going to be chosen.
Another way to get students to stay alert is to use blank ribbons as attention signals. Hold up one color ribbon to say when it is time to listen and another color when it is time to discuss. Using these visual cues helps your students know what to do and stay engaged throughout the lesson.
Cognitive Engagement Strategies
Motivate your students to do their best by coming up with learning objectives for your class. Learning objectives show your students what they can achieve if they pay attention and complete assignments. Once they understand how your class benefits them, they will take it seriously. To keep these learning objectives on the forefront of their minds, add them to a custom sign or plaque for all your students to see.
Keep your students focused on their schoolwork by making educational bookmarks for them. Use Custom Top Ribbons to make full-color bookmarks that teach grammar rules or math formulas that will help students with their homework. Your students are sure to appreciate these learning tools and use them for textbooks and other class materials.
Part of keeping your students engaged mentally is giving them a chance to unwind. To make this easy, customize name tags with a wide variety of mental breaks (e.g., sing a song or play rock, paper, scissors) and put them in a jar. When it is time for a mental break, take a tag out of the jar and have your students do that activity.
Emotional Engagement Strategies
Get your students excited to learn by decorating your classroom with ribbons, plaques and more. Even if you teach online, decorating the room you are in with bright colors and custom designs will stimulate your students’ imaginations. Hang a ribbon chandelier from the ceiling or drape a ribbon garland along a wall. Give your whiteboard a little flair by lining the edges with a brightly colored ribbon. To decorate your desk, customize an acrylic plaque or desk wedge with an inspirational quote and graphic.
Emotionally engage your students by helping them get to know you and their classmates better. Customize badge ribbons with a wide assortment of positive characteristics, such as Life of the Party or Proud Computer Geek. Have each student wear these ribbons during class by attaching them to their shirt. (Don’t forget to wear ribbons that describe you.) By using these descriptive ribbons, your students will emotionally connect to you and their classmates as they see (literally) how much you all have in common.
Students will have a positive attitude toward learning when you make it fun. Use paper inserts to play trivia and other games with your students. While you are at it, why not throw in some friendly competition with spelling bees and other contests. Don’t forget to pass out Prize Ribbons so your students will always remember the fun they had in your class.
What engagement strategies have worked for you? Share them in a comment so other educators can benefit from your expertise.
Improve Performance Through Student Engagement
No matter if you are teaching online or in person, keeping your students engaged in the learning process will improve their school performance. They will earn better grades, score higher on tests and graduate on time. So what are you waiting for? Put custom name tags, ribbons, plaques and signs to work for you so your students will reach their potential.
From video apps to professional development, networking while working from home takes focus and planning.
You
think that you have it all figured out, right? Then life gets in the
way. Whether it’s an illness or a family matter that takes
precedence over being in the office, you might be asking how you can
keep your networking alive and well when you are out.
It
doesn’t have to be hard to network while away from an office or
other business setting. Using available tools will help you gain
control over your networking. And by using these tools, your remote
working experience will be better than you expect.
We
live in a time where networking is one of the primary keys to making
a business work. And, when you use networking properly, not only will
your business flourish, but it will also make an impact in your
community. So, here are several easy ways to make sure that your
networking while working from home doesn’t fall short.
Staying in a Routine
Whether
it’s setting up a home office (desk and computer included) or just
making sure you keep to regular hours, staying in a routine will help
with networking while working from home. First things first, make
sure getting dressed (and even putting on a name tag) remains part of
your daily schedule. This routine should also help you keep out
distractions, like TV or phone use. If you have kids, make sure you
sit down and talk to them about your working hours.
Video Conferencing and Phone Calls
While
getting together may not always work for other people, you still need
to make yourself available for face-to-face connections. These
connections should include video and phone calls. And, by using
online tools and apps to increase the time you spend talking to
people, your networking will still thrive even if you are using a
home office.
Keep Messaging Alive (Texts, Emails or Apps)
Just like video conferences, sending written exchanges is still a great way to network while working remotely. Texts, emails or using other apps to stay connected are important to any business. You can communicate with employees, colleagues and customers alike via these online channels. Make sure when using this form of communication that you remember to edit your text before hitting send. When it comes to networking, you need to make sure you are putting your best foot forward, and your grammar and voice in these emails are important.
“Meet” Colleagues for Coffee or Drinks
Staying
social is just as crucial as using video or phone calls when working.
Your social efforts may be limited to a video chat through your
favorite social media channel or another easy-to-use app. But, these
connections are just as important to your networking goals.
Make an effort to remember birthdays and congratulate colleagues on a work or life accomplishment during the next team call. When you learn about upcoming vacations or weekend plans, make it a point to ask them how their trip went. Remembering the small things will make everyone feel appreciated and more connected.
Use Social Media
From
LinkedIn Groups to Reddit, utilize every platform you can when using
social media for networking. Make sure your profile is designed
appropriately for networking and then jump in. Most social media
sites are easy to use and require very little time to set up. Just
remember to keep your networking goals in mind while using social
media. Without focus, you can end up surfing instead of working.
TIP: Join a LinkedIn Group that can benefit from your specific knowledge and skill set.
Continue Professional Development and Pursue Your Hobbies
Keep learning. And keep dreaming. From hobbies (like crafting holiday wreaths) to distance learning, your brain is your most valuable asset when networking while working from home. Keep yourself sharp in your understanding of how your business needs to run. And, keep your creative side available to combat any stress or distractions.
Overall, remember that networking while working from home isn’t as hard as some people think it is. Keep your goals in mind, and keep working. You’ve got this!
A name is what makes you unique. Well, that and your personality, quirks and other traits. But, without your name, you wouldn’t be who you are. Having a name is important. It makes you feel wanted and that you are a part of something. Well, the same goes for having unique name tags.
And what better way to show off your individuality than by wearing a tag with your name on it. There are many types of name tags to choose from: metal, plastic or paper; all sorts of different colors; different printing processes or engraving. The custom choices that you can make for your name tag will make them just as unique as you are.
From custom shapes
to blank plastic, name tags have all sorts of uses. Especially around
the holidays. Some of our customers use their name tags exclusively
for identification. And others use them for creative and fun
projects. There is no wrong way to use a name tag. And we have proof
that everyone (and everything) needs a name tag! Check out this
recent news article.
Nathan Wilcox started selling Christmas trees when he was 11 years old, and he doesn’t plan to stop any time soon.
“I would have a hard time quitting this because I’d feel I’d let a lot of people down,” Wilcox, 51, said.
The trees come from Wilcox’s farm in Floyd County, about 20 minutes from Radford University, and other parts of Virginia and North Carolina.
And get this: His trees all have names.
His older sister, Becky Belote, came up with the idea of naming the trees and when she stopped selling Christmas trees about 30 years ago, Wilcox decided to carry on the tradition.
Each year, his wife, Karen and their three daughters, Candice, Summer and Julia, would spend Thanksgiving filling out tags with names from family members, friends and classmates. (Karen) said she averages a box of 50 to 100 names a night while watching TV. In the past couple years, she has used popular celebrity names like Justin Bieber.
Both Karen and Nathan try their best to match the names to the right trees, i.e., putting “Charlie Brown” on a small, dinky tree rather than a big one. Once purchased, the trees are given a fresh cut and the employees remove the tree’s price from the name tag. Nathan said customers have told him they keep the name tags and use them as tree ornaments.
“A lot of people actually keep the name tag, for 10, 12, 15 years and use them as ornaments,” he said.
We love that someone is being so unique with their name tag usage.
Even here at Coller Industries, we have been known to get creative with name tag uses. Gift tags, shelf labels for organizing ribbons and so much more! We have even used them for prizes for picking a creative elf or reindeer name for our company Christmas parties. This creativity should know very few limitations. And adding names isn’t the only thing you should be able to do with name tags.
From brand
recognition to conversation starters, name tags are just like names:
useful in getting to know someone. And the holidays are no exception.
Name tags are often seen as props for party games during company and
family get-togethers. They are also great for family reunions and
just hanging around with a group of friends.
Name tags are the
glue that holds conferences and other events together. From
decorations to meeting new clients, creativity is the key to making
your name and name tags stand out. Add bright logos, graphics, names,
titles and nearly any creative thing you want. Just remember to keep
them as unique as you are.
Every time you pick up a coffee at your local café, grab lunch at the mom-and-pop shop or buy a new bag from a local store, you’re making an impact in your community. In fact, for every dollar spent at a small business in the US, approximately 67 cents stays in the local community.
Since its inception in 2010, the Shop Small Movement has grown rapidly. Many small, community retailers and other businesses participate in the sales involved on the Saturday after Thanksgiving to promote buying locally. And, with more than half of every dollar spent staying in the community where you are making your purchase, the small business owner is becoming more and more significant.
So, how does a small business owner keep up to date with that tradition? Here are three of our products that will aid any small (or large) business during their holiday endeavors.
Keeping
consistent with a brand should be important to any small business
owner. And, with these custom graphic signs, adding logos and text is
simple. Post your hours of operation on the front door and feature
your business logo next to them. Or, let your customers know which
door they need to be entering through.
Another
great way to use custom signage throughout your business is by
labeling your departments. From shoes and cosmetics to fishing gear
and outdoor wear, these signs will make sure that all of your
customers know where to go to find just what they are looking for.
And,
adding a holiday message to a sign anywhere in your business is sure
to bring everyone a smile. Whether it’s a simple holiday movie
quote or something a bit more involved with a graphic, keep your
imagination going with these versatile tools.
From using hashtags on social media promotions to advertising in your store or office, every small business owner understands the importance of getting their company name out there. And, name tags are here to do just that. By adding your logo and an employee’s name to every name tag, your customers get to know your brand even better.
Even we use name tags for reasons other than employee or volunteer identification. They are, after all, identification tools! Our ribbon shelves are labeled with small name tags featuring ribbon colors and sizes. It’s just one more way to stay efficient and get the job done well just for you. So, take a page from our book and use your name tags for labeling.
Another page from our book is to use a printed name tag like a business or calling card. While we created our calling card as a sample to give to our customers, a small business owner might consider using name tags as a calling card that will leave an impression.
Give your customers an interactive experience at your holiday events with unique giveaways, handouts and gift tags. Custom text ribbons are the perfect idea for event raffles as you can add any text you need on either a vertical or horizontal badge ribbon. Then, attach it anywhere you need to with either a pin or double sided tape. They also make great gift tags with a simple to/from imprinted on your ribbon color choice. Then, all you need to do is add a handwritten name.
Or,
add information about any sales or promotions your business is having
during the holidays. Give these to customers before your sale starts
to bring back more people. And, with such a unique tool, your
promotion is sure to be remembered. You can also attach the ribbons
to your employee’s name tags to help promote any sale or other
store events.
Use these ribbons as a great way to say hello or thank you! Custom ribbons are a great way to let people know your contact information or to send a quick holiday greeting. Your only limit to these identification tools is the size of the ribbon.
Other Ribbon Uses for a Small Business
What
are some other ways you can use these three identification tools?
What about the rest of our name tag products? Let us know, or better
yet, show us what you did with your custom tags and signs for Small
Business Saturday.
