Mountain Views News          Saturday, June 23, 2012

14

BUSINESS NEWS & TRENDS

 Mountain Views News Saturday June 23, 2012 


BUSINESS TODAY

The latest on Business News, Trends and Techniques


By La Quetta M. Shamblee, MBA


CUSTOMER SURVEYS? ASK THEM AND THEY WILL TELL YOU. 

Taking steps to establish and maintain a positive image for your business contributes to money in the 
bank. Customer perception is the reality of how your business is viewed. If your business relies on 
local customers for the bulk of your business, it is imperative to know what they think. There is no 
better way to find out what they really think than by asking them directly.

 

What are your current customers saying? What do they know about your business, and more 
importantly, what do they think about how you run your business? Anyone who has stayed in a 
hotel or eaten in restaurants has at some point been presented with a request to complete a brief 
customer survey.

Many businesses print cards that can be distributed at the point-of-sale or placed in an area of the 
store that makes it easy for customers to see and provide a response. A survey with five to ten 
questions is sufficient to capture feedback on a customer’s perception about the key areas of your 
business: Products and/Services, Customer Service, Marketing and Promotions – Example: On a 
scale of 1 to 10, How do they rate the quality of what you sell? Do they think your pricing is too high, 
too low or just about right?; What do they think about your business environment? – Is it appealing, 
clean enough, comfortable seating, easy to park?

One of the ways to implement this process is as a time-limited campaign. This way, you can focus 
on gathering feedback from as many customers as possible instead of the small trickle of surveys 
that get filled out throughout the year. Although it is not necessary, you may choose to offer a small 
incentive to encourage customers to participate. The incentive might be applied during their current 
visit or at a future time (i.e. free dessert, 10% off the bill, buy one and get another for 50% off). If the 
incentive provides a benefit on a future visit, it presents the likelihood of the customers returning to 
spend more money with you.

You can gather feedback from potential customers by participating in local business and civic 
associations (Chamber of Commerce, Kiwanis, Rotary Club) and by staffing a table or booth at 
community events like festivals, farmers’ markets and other venues that attract large groups of 
residents who live in the area where your business is located. You can recruit a trusted family friend 
or other individual with a knack for “meeting and greeting” people. Equip them with a stack of 
discount coupons or other promotional materials to encourage visits to your business, and use this 
setting to gather feedback on whether they’ve ever patronized or heard of your business and what 
they know or think about your business. 

Want to know what your customers and the locals think about your business? If you will simply ask 
them, in a manner that makes it convenient and comfortable for them to answer, they are more than 
willing to tell you what they think.

TO “SUBSCRIBE” OR NOT “SUBSCRIBE”

In your Facebook personal profile, you are allowed to connect with 5,000 
“friends.” If you find yourself needing more friends, you might consider the subscribe feature. It 
allows people to “subscribe” to your public posts without the more intimate “friend” connection. 
Don’t confuse this with a Facebook business page where you build a list of “Likers.” You can build as 
many of those “likers” as you want.

For public figures (reporters, writers, actors, Mark Zuckerberg, artists), the “subscribe” feature for 
Facebook profiles is a great way to build connections. Public figures are often measured by the number 
of Twitter followers or Facebook subscribers they have. Large numbers can equal social relevance, 
status and marketability. An actress once told me that casting directors look at social media numbers 
to determine how they fill the parts! 

The “subscribe” feature also works great for anyone who has a large following in a certain niche. For 
example, I recently helped a famous harp teacher who has a large international following set up her 
subscribe feature.

When people subscribe to someone, they are basically saying they want to get their news, just like 
subscribing to any publication. The bonus is that once you get 100 subscribers, Facebook starts to 
recommend you to others and your list grows and grows. I read a blog post from a reporter who gets 
1,000 subscribers a day. The more subscribers you have, the more you get!

If you set up the subscribe feature, you need to be willing to hear from lots of people. Remember there 
are 900 million Facebook users worldwide. So you might get a few comments or interactions that you 
don’t want. But, you can always block anyone that’s not a good fit. 

A good example of someone using the subscribe feature is Mark Zuckerberg. Check out his profile 
page (www.facebook.com/zuck). I doubt he wants to be friends with his 900 million Facebook users, 
so he gives people the option to “subscribe” to any of his “public” posts. He has 15 million subscribers. 

You might want to subscribe to a few people to see how it works before you set it up for yourself. 

To set up a “subscribe” feature, go to www.facebook.com/about/subscribe or go to your account 
settings and select “subscribers” and it will walk you through the set up.

About MJ: MJ and her brother David own HUTdogs, a creative services business that also specializes 
in Social Media Education for business owners. Join their conversation on Facebook and get good tips 
and tricks about social media, www.facebook.com/hutdogs 

Upcoming Event:

Social Media Marketing Made Simple plus Facebook’s Timeline for pages

Wednesday, June 27, 2012, 11:30am – 1:30pm

Monrovia Public Library 
321 S. Myrtle Ave, Monrovia, CA 91016

This program is sponsored by Constant Contact, so there is no cost to you to attend the presentation.

Sign up for this event or view other upcoming classes at: www.hutdogs.com/workshops/schedule

OMG! OH MY GOSH DID YOU 
KNOW………………..


By Patricia Richardson, M.B.A QuickBooks Certified ProAdvisor

QuickBooks 2012 has a new and improved global To Do feature. You can now 
use it as a prompt, a digital reminder, to follow-up on important time-sensitive 
tasks. For example, To Do can be used to ensure the timely collection of 
customer payments when used in conjunction with the Notes feature to create 
a customized tickler system. The combined use of To Do and Notes creates a digital reminder, an 
automatic tracking system to help you deal with those customers who invariably tell you, “The check 
in the mail.” The item recorded in Notes can be turned into an item on a To Do list for future action 
on a specific date. When the date arrives, the Note will be displayed on the To Do list. 

To Do’s have also been made more accessible. The user can list all To Do’s in a file, which can also 
be accessed from the new Lead Center and the QuickBooks Calendar. Your list of To Do’s can 
be categorized, prioritized, and ordered by time of day. This is ideal for setting up and tracking 
appointments. This is a great new feature because until now there has never been one central place 
to see important dates and schedules. Finally you can alleviate forgetfulness – “Hey, it’s been five days 
and that check is still not here.”

The enhanced scheduling features can help you stay on top of deadlines like filing dates and due dates 
that can now be kept inside QuickBooks, as opposed to on an external calendar that may compromise 
your privacy or confidentiality. These features provide auto-alerts that facilitate more timeliness in 
addressing overdue transactions, all toward keeping your company’s cash flow positive. You can view 
To Do’s by area (lead, customers, vendors) and by function (call, fax, email, meeting, appointment, 
and task). The tasks can be marked, viewed and prioritized as Active, Done, or Inactive.

QuickBooks is the number one selling accounting software for small and medium sized business. The 
development of this software was done with business owners like us in mind and it just gets better 
every year

 

….Also

 

NEW ONLINE SMALL BUSINESS PORTAL TO ASSIST CALIFORNIA EMPLOYERS

http://www.dir.ca.gov/SmallBusiness/index.htm

 

The California Department of Industrial Relations has created a Small Business Portal to assist small-
business owners with compliance to ever-changing employee regulations and laws. The portal gives 
information on a variety of subjects including hiring and maintaining employees, wage and overtime 
laws, employee safety precaution requirements, and workplace posting obligations.

There are also links to resources for starting a new business, hiring and administering employees, 
and creating and maintaining a safe working environment. Think of the Department of Industrial 
Relations (DIR) as a friend to business. According to their website “Small businesses are critical to 
California’s economic recovery and strength, to building America’s future, and to helping the United 
States compete in today’s global marketplace. Small businesses also represent 99.7 percent of all 
employer firms and they employ just over half of U.S. workers and pay 44 percent of total U.S. private 
payroll.

If you own or manage a small business, you’re in good company with resources like Quickbooks and 
DIR. Stay tuned to OMG on a weekly basis and you’ll find more of you need to create the business 
success that you deserve.

Patricia Richardson is the owner of Monrovia Computerized Business Service and is an accountant, 
educator and trainer. She specializes in helping business owners develop and realize their respective 
missions and visions by empowering them with tools and training in areas that may not be their core 
competency. For information on upcoming trainings or professional services, e-mail: patti@qbworkshop.
com