Are you looking for ways to make your customers feel more appreciated? Do you want to ensure that your company is building its book of repeat business through loyal customers? If so, then you need to find ways to produce a satisfied customer.

Customer satisfaction is an endless job. It requires your brand to provide attention and care for your prospects and customers, regardless of where they are in the customer journey map.

See below for a list of ways that you can start producing satisfied customers with your brand. Doing so will help you nurture your clients, instead of having one-and-done buyers.

1. Focus on SEO

Search Engine Optimization, otherwise known as SEO, is an important key to the customer satisfaction puzzle. It ensures that your customers are happy from the moment they’re exposed to your brand.

For those of you unfamiliar with it, SEO is a marketing tactic that focuses on making your website more attractive for search engines (Google being the top priority).

It involves things such as backlinking, keyword research, keyword optimization, site speed, high-quality content, guest posting, and so much more. It’s used to generate more leads, higher sales conversions, and build customer loyalty with your brand.

How can SEO help boost your retention rate? Think of it this way: when your customer has a question or issue, they turn to Google for advice. Google will send them to a page on your site that answers their question and helps them learn more about your products.

Search engine optimization helps you focus on the customer’s needs ahead of your own. If you want to draw them in, you have to answer their questions. Your content has to be insightful and helpful.

Instead of focusing on the sale, SEO turns the tables and helps you focus on customer satisfaction more naturally.

2. Prioritize Convenience

If you are the owner of a small business or an eCommerce site, your middle name should become “convenience”. That’s how important it is to your customer’s satisfaction rates.

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes for a moment. Is there an easy way to find your product pages? Is your online purchasing process simple or complicated? How easy or difficult is it for your target audience to find your brand?

The aforementioned customer journey map has five different stages: awareness, consideration, purchasing, retention, and advocacy. You need to provide convenience in all five stages to push them along.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself regarding website convenience:

• Are there certain complaints about your site that you hear frequently?
• Does your content contain a strong call to action?
• Do you have credible and up-to-date information on your contact page?
• Does your website load in 5 seconds or less?
• Is your website mobile-friendly?
• Does your website’s layout look simplified and spacious or cluttered and overwhelming?
• Do you have multiple forms of content on your site?
• Is there a LiveChat feature on your site to assist customers?

Don’t worry, not all of these things have to be fixed overnight. Take the time to work on these one by one.

3. Dive Into Analytics

We know that the words “data” and “analytics” tend to come with negative connotations. But here’s the deal: websites that study and listen to their site’s analytics are the ones that build a satisfied customer base.

Perhaps you have high bounce rates on your product pages and you aren’t sure why. Maybe you’ve noticed a pattern amongst your site visitors that jump off your site, but you can’t pinpoint the reasoning.

Whatever the case might be, it’s time to look behind the scenes. You can invest in AI-powered software for your company and visibly see the sessions that site visitors are having.

With this technology, you can watch all of your website visits and see where they hovered their cursor or what they clicked on. It will enhance your consumer’s digital experience, thus boosting your customer satisfaction as well.

4. Find the True Pain Points

Once upon a time, Febreze was meant to be an industry-changing product that removed bad smells from a customer’s household. Proctor & Gamble spent millions developing this product to find out one thing: that wasn’t the client’s biggest pain point.

Their customers couldn’t tell that Febreze was working or not since they couldn’t tell the difference. If they’d gotten used to the smell of smoke in their home, they never realized it was an issue.

Instead, customers wanted Febreze to be used as the “cherry on top” after cleaning up and washing fabrics. P&G made the adjustment and the rest is history. If you want to increase customer satisfaction, do a deep dive into your customer’s biggest pain points.

5. Watch Customer Reviews Like a Hawk

Like it or not, online reviews rule the roost. For many customers, they will serve as a peek behind the scenes of what it’s like to purchase a product/service from you.

While you can’t always control what customers say, you can control your response to it. If someone has a negative experience, apologize and offer a way for them to contact you for further assistance.

As tedious as it might be, responding to those that take the time to leave a review will make your brand seem more approachable and conscientious.

Grow Your Satisfied Customer Base Today

Now that you have seen several ways to produce a satisfied customer on a more frequent basis, be sure to use these tips effectively.

Start with the feedback you’ve received thus far. Let those guide you on what needs to be fixed and prioritized above all else.

Be sure to browse our website for more articles on how to gain customer satisfaction, as well as many other topics.

 

The internet has made it possible for people from all around the world to find your business. With more than 3.5 billion Google searches made every day, there is endless potential for new customers to find you online.

What if the customers you want to find you are local? You own a local business that serves the majority of its customers in person in a specific local.

You need to be utilizing local SEO to market your business and find new customers. Not sure how the benefits of local SEO can help your business? Keep on reading to find out more.

What is Local SEO?

Standard SEO involves setting up your website in a certain way so people searching online can find it. There are numerous strategies to make your website more visible to people searching for the product or service in your niche.

Some of those strategies include paying for adverts to appear at the top of the search results. This is great for businesses with big marketing budgets, but what about small, brick-and-mortar businesses?

Local SEO uses the searcher’s location to find businesses near them that offer the service they are searching for. This levels the playing field for smaller businesses and is an excellent way for you to get discovered by new customers.

1. Benefits of Local SEO: Attract New Customers

The best thing about local SEO is that potential new customers can find you easily.

If you are listed on Google Business, Yelp, and social media pages, your potential customers will find you quicker. If you utilize local SEO, you become more visible in relevant local searches.

People searching for a business in a specific area have a clear search intent. Why is search intent necessary?

If someone makes a search such as: ‘Sarasota SEO company‘ they want to find this type of business.

If you can become one of the top businesses listed on search engines for your area, you will gain authority, and new customers will want to use your business.

2. More Enquiries and Sales

If you have a strategy for a local SEO campaign, you will reap the rewards in sales and inquiries.

Online visibility to potential customers in your area is one of the most effective ways to promote your business.

The more information prospective customers can find out about your business online (such as a price list and opening hours), the more likely they are to visit your store and use your services.

3. Reduce Your Marketing Spend

Another one of the many advantages of SEO for your local area? You don’t need a huge marketing budget to be successful. Small business SEO can be just as effective as it is for larger companies.

If you are listed on Google Business, Yelp, or Facebook, people can find you without spending anything.

Working on a content strategy, content promotion, backlink building, and press outreach are all time-consuming and expensive approaches to SEO.

If you are using local SEO, you should find relevant customers more efficiently and stop wasting money on advertising to people who will never use your business.

4. Build a Community

If you use social media platforms to promote your business, you will interact with both existing and potential customers.

You can use reviews to discuss relevant topics with customers and let them know of upcoming promotions or events.

Engage with peoples’ reviews and tell them how grateful you are for their custom. This makes customers feel valued and will more likely encourage them to make a return visit. Making people feel valued and part of something larger than just a sales transaction will promote loyalty and a sense of community.

5. Target People on the Go

If you are maximizing your efforts with local SEO, then you can get your business in front of people who are out and about.

They may be in your town or city and looking for a place that provides the service you offer. If you are easy to find on mobile apps such as Google Maps and Yelp, people will find you.

6. Build Authority in Your Locality

If you can master the search engine game, you will start to gain more customers and followers. This, in turn, will help you build a reputation in your local area.

Provide excellent service and encourage satisfied customers to write positive reviews. The more positive reviews you can build up, the more people will trust your business and want to visit. A high review score will also help your SEO.

Ranking high in search is still essential as 28% of people will only click on the search engine’s first result.

7. Highly Targeted Traffic

Last but not least, local SEO is excellent for your business because you will reach highly relevant people.

Optimizing for a general, non-specific keyword with high search volumes should not be a strategy.

You want the visitors to your online pages to have a strong search intent. This means they want to get a specific outcome from their search. Such as finding a business that offers the service they are looking for.

Master Your Local SEO Strategy

Sometimes the multiple platforms and methods for succeeding with SEO can seem overwhelming and feel like a puzzle you can’t complete.

Remember, the fundamental goal of the search engine isn’t to penalize your business but provide the searcher with the correct information they are looking for. This is why your business can reap the benefits of local SEO.

If you need some expert help and advice, you can always enlist the help of an SEO agency. They will be able to analyze your current online presence and tell you how you can improve it.

Want to read some more of our business articles? Check them out here.

 

 

When you sign up to showcase your business at a trade show in Perth, you get an incredible opportunity to connect with countless customers. However, simply having a booth at a trade show won’t be enough to make a memorable impression on attendees. It takes a lot of planning and preparation to stand out at a trade show and if you’re willing to go the extra mile to look better than your competitors, here’s what you should do:

Create a social media marketing plan

Depending on which trade show in Perth you decide to attend, there will probably be a lot of other businesses there as well. One of the best and easiest ways to make sure that attendees come to your booth even if you face a lot of competition is to create a social media marketing plan.

Post photos from your booth and promote the event on your social media accounts to increase your online visibility and generate hype around your brand. If an attendee sees your post on social media, they’ll likely recognize your booth when they’re at the event and drop by.

Invest in good equipment

Investing in good tech equipment for trade shows is a simple way to stand out. Don’t just hand out promotional material and basic gifts like branded pens, mugs, and keychains. Instead, focus on providing an interesting experience to any attendee that approaches your booth.

When someone arrives at your booth, it’s crucial that you keep them engaged. Even when there are multiple people at your stand at the same time, you should have enough equipment to hold their attention and encourage them to stay and learn more about your brand.

If you have the budget, you can buy this equipment and use it for all future trade shows. Another option is to find tech rentals for events based in Perth. Some of the essentials when it comes to tech equipment for events include projectors, tablets, laptops. In some cases, it might be a good idea to acquire VR equipment to provide consumers with an immersive experience.

Create a giveaway contest

When someone approaches your exhibition stand at a trade show and are interested in your brand, you should demonstrate to them how some of your best products work. Although this strategy will likely boost your sales, some of the attendees will probably forget about your products once the event is over.

There are a lot of different brands at any trade show in Perth, so it’s understandable that people won’t remember every stand they approach. That is – unless they participate in a small and memorable event like a giveaway contest.

Think of a fun contest idea that anybody can participate in and announce it on your social media accounts. Apart from generating more interest for your brand at the trade show, this is also an excellent way to spread the word about your products.

Make sure you give some of your top selling items to the contest winners, who’ll then talk about the event and product to their friends and family. Before you know it, more people will be interested in your brand than ever before.

 

As well as being an experienced engineer, Josh Melick has founded three businesses. One of which, Broadly, specializes in developing tools and systems to aid businesses in better organizing their business systems and to better communicate with their customers.

Importance of Customer Service

Melick believes that businesses should not underestimate the impact that their customer service has on their overall success. However, Melick also puts forward the idea that businesses shouldn’t be passive when it comes to customer service and need to plan to execute well-developed customer service solutions. That will greatly boost businesses’ customer service rankings.

One recommendation which he makes is for businesses to have a system put in place to allow customers to give feedback on their interactions with their employees. So that employees who consistently give great service and who attract letters of thanks are given opportunities to progress within their companies. While employees who consistently attract a lot of complaints can be given warnings. He even recommends that businesses immediately let go of employees who have several fact-checked complaints filed against them. As if customers have negative experiences with a particular staff member, future customers are also likely to be disappointed by the service which this employer is likely to give them.

Melick also recommends that businesses take steps to properly manage all of their business systems to make it easier for information to be accessed quickly and efficiently. Unfortunately, many businesses take a haphazard approach to managing their systems and don’t take the effort to link all of their systems in their network to a primary system. Which can make finding specific pieces of information an incredibly difficult task. One huge way that customer service has changed in the last few years, is that while in the past customers would only expect a response to a query within business hours, today customers expect timely responses no matter what time of day it is or if they have a question in the weekend. As customers demand access to information almost instantaneously customer support workers need to be able to quickly access key information.

One way that businesses can make it easier for their employees to gain access to important customer information is to keep all of their databases in a cloud-based system. Especially as it’s wise for businesses to have a backup of all of their systems and information in case there is a problem with one of their servers. As the last thing that a business needs is to lose all of its important data. Some of which may be owned by their long-term customers and which they need to protect.

When it comes to access to customer support teams, Melick believes that most individuals will try and contact companies via instant chat messaging, email, or phone. Which are the services on which businesses should focus their efforts on instead of focusing on low-volume services such as Twitter-based customer support.

So if businesses want to follow the advice of an expert who has a wealth of personal experience with building solutions for customer service issues, they should follow the advice of Josh Melick.

Any entrepreneur has the main objective of having their business grow profitably. They need to understand some essential business factors that contribute to growth for them to achieve this. Many believe that growing a business can be a complex process. And these complications depend on a limited number of factors. Business leaders must pay attention to specific areas, including social, human, financial resources, and sales consulting, even when some variables influence a business’s growth potential and businesses may not consider Small Business Tax Deductions for 2020. There is a fundamental need to have management and technical skills business owners can cope with and adapt to the changing environment, apart from developing and training staff. There is also no way for any business to thrive without a dash of opportunity and creativity recognition.

Critical Business Factors That Influence Growth

Here are some business factors business leaders must pay attention to when looking to grow their business.

Location

Some of the factors likely to affect growth opportunities are variation in buoyancy, scope, and size of demand in local markets. Also influential on the supply side are services and premises, labor availability, and cost variation. However, it is easy to adapt for owner-managed businesses. They can deal with these local variables by employing different strategies to minimize their impact.

External Factors

Another vital business factors are the external factors and business may have zero control over how it may affect their business’ growth. The economic, political, or cultural conditions of the region or country the business operates are some of these factors. The often changing economic, political, and cultural conditions at local, regional, or national levels also trigger entrepreneur growth.

Business Management and Structure

The management team’s ability to make rational decisions about its operation, its performance, goals, and business structure will affect the business’ successful development.

Personal and Behavioral Traits

Attitude, personality, and all a business leader’s traits will indeed impact the business growth. Furthermore, some industry sectors look for higher expectations through a leader’s capabilities like training and education, while access to resources can influence their social capital. Other ingredients that will also influence success recipe are relevant business sector knowledge, functional skills, family history, and management experience.

Leadership

It is way below the surface that growth starts, just like nature during springtime. Business leaders’ employees’ perception of them and their businesses determines the motivation to help the company reach its goals. As such, business owners need to pave the way for everyone to succeed.

Social Responsibility

It may be impossible for business leaders to see the connection between business growth and social responsibility. However, what people in is what they will get back. Businesses will be impacting their customers and community in a positive way when they adopt social responsibility policies. Businesses selling alcohol can refresh their training on responsible selling using the Alcohol Awareness Month in April. However, businesses that do not fall into this industry can still leverage a cause such as this as a springboard to give back meaningfully to their community.

Employee Training Commitment

Business growth cannot happen in a vacuum. A standard knowledge baseline is essential for all employees of an organization where they can cultivate their growth. With an online training platform, businesses can grow their businesses while meeting today’s needs. Organizations can customize learning paths for each staff while ensuring that they transfer consistent knowledge to everyone.

Smart Technology Adoption

The fertilizer for any business growth is technology. Companies and entrepreneurs can streamline the process, save on labor costs, and handle tasks quite efficiently. Choosing the appropriate technology tools for their specific business goals is where companies face challenges. It is vital to have adequate alignment with several sections of business strategy. When companies intend to choose technology partners, they must look at their ROI from different angles.

Customer Loyalty

The business owners’ focus is on how they will have more customers when strategizing about sales growth. They need to work on increasing sales potential with their current customers while expanding their customer base and increasing brand awareness. Business owners must look for the opportunity to grow their profits with their current customers through referral business, customer loyalty programs, and add-on sales.

Understanding Macro and Micro Business Factors

One of the most critical business factors at the center of every business today is internal impacts. The internal business factors are anything tangible and intangible under the company’s control or within the company. Companies must figure out these factors and then categorize them into the company’s strengths and weaknesses. They can consider any elements as strength when it brings positive effects to the company. On the other hand, they can understand the weakness when an element prevents the company’s development. As such, companies need to consider some criteria.

Operational Efficiency

The operation efficiency concept encompasses process improvements like the company’s entire activities that lead to their final service or product. Business leaders must understand their business factors and adhere to them to find out if they perform them correctly or not. Some suggestions that suffice to accomplish this efficiency include:

• Utilizing technology for better operation productivity
• Discover failure as you map out process failure
• Pay attention to the product cost
• Pay attention to the business situation

Capital Resources

The funding businesses need to sustain and grow their business is the financial capital. Business leaders invest their financial capital for intangible resources like employee training, marketing, etc. They also use it to invest in production equipment to produce a product and tangible goods like tools, machines, and factories.

Without the capital resources, no business can survive. Companies can achieve impressive results, expand their scale, and launch more projects when they have enough budget. Companies can guarantee impressive success when they have big investments and stable financial resources. Some resources can also help an entrepreneur maintain stable budgets, including annual income, funding, and investment opportunities.

Human Resources

Human resources can be a business’s greatest asset when we talk about the modern global economy. People realize economic value, where digital and ideals skills and not physical resources are on the rise. Generally, the company has such body as its strength or weakness depending on the performance, attitudes toward work, practical skills, etc. When a business has motivated and skilled employees, they are indeed the company’s biggest asset.

On the other hand, it can be hard for companies to address negative attitudes to tasks and poorly trained workers. In short, the company needs effective and strategic human management for its worker’s positive development and the company’s benefits.

Organizational Structure

An organization must create a system that will work smoothly within the company to have an appropriately suitable organizational structure. The most important part is understanding the effectiveness of the structure towards the company’s growth, whether a centralized or decentralized system. Customers must get information about particular products without any hassle, and department heads must ensure to effect the move. To ensure the business and employees’ benefits, the company must apply relevant rules and regulations.

Innovation

People are living in an industrial revolution and competitive marketplace. Companies need to upgrade new technology and ideas for overall success if they want to survive. Innovation is all about bringing new ideas into the business, whether it comes from managers, developers, employees, or outside the company like customers, suppliers, etc. When a company has a successful innovation, it can expect to increase turnover, brand value, higher competitiveness, cost reduction, and productivity. However, it can result to losing key staff, underlying profit loss, and losing market share to competitors with poor innovation.

As the fog begins to lift on COVID-19, professionals from all industries are settling into the new way of getting the job done. In short, they’ve adapted and have learned to do things differently to achieve the same – or better – outcomes. Working remotely from home or anywhere with good Wi-Fi was a dream of many workers and is now a reality. David Highbloom, a 25-year entrepreneur with extensive experience in scaling business models emphasizing the customer service experience, points out that instead of companies reverting to old, pre-COVID business models, they should embrace the change and keep the momentum growing. COVID caused a rate of disruption that took time to recover from, and the last thing companies need right now is to tangle themselves with more disruptions trying to grasp processes of the past, added Highbloom.

According to a recent Vox report, this prediction is already being realized as companies embrace the remote workforce while building a hybrid model to meet all employee comfort levels and professional work experiences. Highbloom says these shifts should continue to capture momentum through a wide range of creative solutions and employees’ options.

For example, one process that is marching forward is integrating business-to-customer interactions with engagement on the forefront. Companies are finding that remote customer service agents are primed to increase engagement with customers on the backend of digital engagement programs. Online chat features and call-back functions (where the company calls the customer back, so they don’t have to wait on hold) is becoming the new norm. And it serves both the customer and the company well. Customers get their issues resolved, and companies are re-engaging on a conversational level with their customers.

In-line with the conversational re-engagement, Highbloom predicts this will lead to an increased focus on customer loyalty and retention programs while introducing empathy as a top customer experience metric, according to a recent MyCustomer roundtable discussion. Highbloom comments that the one positive thing COVID achieved was to unite every person in the world with one commonality – to stay safe and fight against a global pandemic. That is a strong connection among people now and will lead to greater empathy and attitude for customers and customer service representatives.

Highbloom predicts these alignments will pay off in customer loyalty trends as customers gravitate toward brands they know, trust, are helpful, and add value to their new outlook on life post COVID.

Studying law is still one of the most common choices which students are making across the country, with the large majority of students looking to become a lawyer once they pass the bar. If there is anything which these youngsters should know about their future career however, it is that they should always look to stay within the area of the law which they are passionate about. David Serna attorney in New Mexico is a perfect example of this, widely regarded as the best in the state, he often attributes this reputation to the fact t hat he always stayed within the area of law which he was most passionate about.

 

From environmental law to human rights, traffic to family law, there is a lot to choose from here, and this is why you should look to follow your passions.

To Be Better

You may think that you are more than smart enough to be a lawyer within any area of the law, and this could very well be true. What you should know however is that if there is one particular field where your passions lie, then this is where you will excel. Nobody is suggesting that you couldn’t be a lawyer in a field which you don’t care too much for, what is true however is that you will be at your best if you care about the role which you are playing within your chosen field. This can only happen if you have true passion.

Client Happiness

Being an attorney is about pleasing your client and making them feel comfortable, just as much as it is about winning. Once again, if you share the passion for your chosen field you are going to be able to deliver a far better experience for your clients, than if you only care about the law, and not the specific branch of it. If you have a passion for family law because of what you witnessed with your parents growing for example; you will be far more empathetic towards divorce clients or those fighting for child custody. Through your passions you will be able to offer a significantly greater experience for your clients, each and every time.

Longevity

David Serna, the attorney we mentioned in the intro, he has been in the game for over 40 years, and this is because he is still incredibly passionate about what he is doing and the branch of the law in which he is working. If you are prepared to go and follow your passions then you are much more likely to have a long and fulfilling career, which you never tire of.

Those working within certain areas of the law which they don’t care much for, are no doubt still delivering an excellent job and are still fully committed to their clients. When compared with a highly skilled attorney working within an area which they are passionate about however, there really is no comparison between how good a job each will do.

 

A business cannot function properly if no proper accounting is done. Accounting is an integral part of a business. Hence the value accounting firms bring to the table cannot be ignored. Accounting firms carry out a wide range of activities in order to help business owners stay floating financially. It also helps to ensure there is some level of organization in the finance of the company. Their services make it possible for these businesses to grow and be accountable for their finances. Businesses who want to achieve a lot need to ensure they seek the service of accounting firms not just for hiring them for bookkeeping purposes but also as important business partners. Not all accounting firms in Austin offer all the different types of services. Some accounting firms carry out a particular type of accounting services. Hence it is important business owners do a proper interview in order to ensure that the accounting firm they intend to hire offers the services they require. It is wrong to assume that every accounting firm will be able to offer every accounting service. Some accounting firms specialize in certain niche services like tax preparation, business valuation services, some accounting firms also offer bookkeeping and even tax strategy. Depending on the services that are required, business owners should pick the right accounting firm for the job.

Here are some of the major services carried out by austin accounting firms:

• Business Development and Valuation

Accounting firms are a very important aspect of every business. A business will be unable to experience great growth if there is not a proper accounting structure to support the company. When a business needs to carry out valuation reports, accounting firms play a huge role in order to ensure that this goal is achieved. Accounting firms also play an integral part when a business needs to take a loan from a financial institution or take funds from a private investor; the accounting firm ensures that the transaction is legitimately and accurately valued. This service rendered by the accounting firm is also important when there is a need for a merger or purchase. Accounting firms help to also look into revenues that have been generated by the company in previous years, the consistency of the company’s growth in order to give an exact value of the company to the investor or buyer. This part is very important because the value of a company is always needed anytime any major transaction is needed to take place. Some accounting firms also help to provide a financial statement for businesses and also business projections. Accounting firms help with the pro forma financials of businesses; they are used for business expansion. Accounting firms do so much for business and no business can record any form of financial success without the effort of an accounting firm.

• Operational Bookkeeping and Payroll

A lot of business owners are great at providing great products, services, or ideas that are the backbone of the business. Some of these business owners are not financial experts. The most they know is the little accounting knowledge that is probably not enough to help the financial state of the company. Accounting firms assists these business owners in the financial aspect of their business. All these businesses need to do is to ensure that all the copies of the bank transaction carried out and also their bank account should be sent to the accounting firm and also to the bookkeeper in order to maintain an accurate record of cash flow. Another service that is carried out by the accounting firm is to also help the businesses they work for create a profit and loss statement that helps to explain and show the key areas of the costs and revenue streams.

They also help businesses with accounts and manage monies that are used and received by the business; this could include payment of vendors and payroll processes. There is so much that an accounting firm does for businesses to excel. They also help businesses do better financially and make good financial decisions.

• Tax Planning and Preparation

There is so much calculation and expertise that goes into tax planning and preparation and this is way bigger than a business owner. The expertise of an accounting firm is needed to ensure that proper tax planning and preparation is taken place. Business owners also have the right to give the accounting firm the authority to represent their interests regarding information requests or audits from the Internal Revenue Service. It is safer to work with accounting firms when it comes to tax planning and preparation in order to get the figures right.

 

You’ve heard great stories of how many regular folks make tons of money via ecommerce stores. Now you decide to get into it. You’ve studied the model and have come to the conclusion that you don’t want to join the price wars that’s a regular feature of the dropshipping model.

So after much research, you settle for a number of products that you believe will sell based on your market analysis (Click here to read more on how to conduct effective market analysis). Then you set up shop and, amazingly, after tweaking your ads, you start getting a decent number of orders. Then gradually, you discover that your basement can’t hold your inventory anymore and that every available space in your home is becoming a warehouse.

And as if that isn’t bad enough, you now don’t have any time for yourself or loved ones. You are dealing with quite a lot: You have to handle queries from customers, take orders, pick them up, package them, send them over to the delivery company and…

No, there has to be a better way, right?

Yes, there is…

3PL Fulfillment – A Brief Overview

When you need a company that will help you handle those logistical nightmares that we call warehousing, keeping inventory, picking and packaging orders, and shipping them to your customers, you are talking about the services provided by a third-party logistics fulfillment service (that’s the same as a 3PL fulfillment company).

This shouldn’t be confused with a drop shipping company. While a drop shipper also does everything a third party logistics fulfillment company does, there’s a fundamental difference…

A drop shipping company buys and stocks inventory at its expense. It owns the stock. You, the merchant, only enjoys an arrangement that allows you to list the products the dropshipper has in stock on your store. When a customer purchases from you, you place an order at the dropshipper’s site, provide the customer’s shipping details and the dropshipper delivers it to your customer as if it was directly from you.

But in the case of a 3PL service, you buy all inventory with your own money. They ONLY help you warehouse them, process, package and deliver to your customer. But at every point, you own the products they are simply handling for you.

The Benefits

The benefits of using a third party logistics company for all your fulfillment are clear. Let’s talk about a few of them…

1. It frees you up to focus on the things that are your core competencies. If you run a store and have done your due diligence, you’ve taken time to master traffic generation, conversion and customer support, among other things. With this major time-consuming aspect off your list, you can concentrate on these areas.

2. You enjoy a higher quality of service. Anything handled by professionals is usually much better than that handled by amateurs no matter how great their intentions are. Your logistics as an ecommerce store owner aren’t different. People who live and breathe fulfillment will definitely do it better than you. For your customers, they enjoy a much higher quality of service.

3. You can enjoy your business more. You simply can’t enjoy your work if it eats up every waking hour and leaves you thinking about unfinished task even when you’re lying down. As people who run ecommerce stores, we understand how having other people take care of inventory, order processing, packaging and shipping can make the business something you run with joy.

4. It helps you make more money. If you can focus on the core drivers of sales in your business, you’ll definitely make more money. There’s nothing complicated about that, right? Visit https://3pllinks.com/third-party-logistics-provider-save-business-money/ to see how this helps you make more money by cutting down your costs.

The Downsides

It’s important that we point out that there are a few things that might NOT seat well with some people about using a third party for their logistics. Here are they are…

1. You incur additional cost. The service provider you engage is running the business in order to turn a profit and so this means that you’d pay extra to enjoy the convenience. Depending on how big your operations are, it might eat too deep into your profits. So think twice before going this route if you’re just starting out.

2. It ties down your capital. In contrast, dropshipping allows you to enjoy all those benefits without having to pay a dime before your customer has actually purchased the product from you.

Conclusion

NOT all businesses can use the dropshipping model in order to take a hands-off approach to their e-commerce business. For such businesses, using a third party that’s been proven to handle logistics efficiently is definitely a smart way to move their business forward.

Have you thought about creating your own technology company? Silicon Valley isn’t the only place in the United States that holds great promise for you. The reality is, Washington, D.C. is a thriving entrepreneurial hub that has drawn many startup aspirants over the years, according to business expert Brian Ferdinand in a recently released article. Here some major reasons why Washington, D.C., has emerged as one of the most in-demand cities for startup creators.

Washington, D.C., Versus Other Cities

In a recently published article, Brian Ferdinand, who is the managing partner of CorpHousing Group, emphasizes that one of the major advantages of running a startup in Washington, D.C., is that the United States’ government is based there.

Because the government is present in Washington, D.C., the area’s economy is extremely steady. The nation’s capital generally doesn’t have the economic swings that many other areas struggle with, which is why many entrepreneurs are drawn there. In addition, billions of dollars from the government are spent on research and development locally each year, further adding to the economy’s robustness.

Another perk of operating a business in Washington, D.C., is that the government is essentially a large customer. So, if you have a business product or service that government workers or agencies might find useful, you have great potential for success in the city.

Washington, D.C., Attracts and Breeds Entrepreneurs

Washington, D.C., features a continual flux of well-educated individuals. Some of these people appear in the nation’s capital for a short period of time. For instance, they may live there during a four-year presidential administration. Or, they may be called to Washington, D.C., to complete temporary military assignments. Some individuals move to Washington, D.C., simply to call attention to certain issues for a time. Meanwhile, others stay in Washington, D.C. for the long haul.

With the mix of these individuals, you have a dynamic business market filled with people from various walks of life. That’s because the city does an excellent job of both attracting and breeding the brightest minds. So, whether you’re looking for people to hire or to sell your offerings to, you have an eclectic mix of potential employees and customers to target.

All in all, if you set up shop in Washington, D.C., and offer a truly unique product, you increase your chances of launching a business that will flourish in both the short term and the long term.