As your company expands, there will always be the good and the bad that comes with an expanding business. However, that should not dissuade you from having your business grow. Even though there are some bad that comes from expanding your business, these can easily be remedied and fixed. For the new locations, you could have those you trust to be in charge of the new locations so that they now have the experience and knowledge on how the business operates and can help facilitate the new location until everything is up and running. For employee morale, you can have small events or treat them to small things like snacks or drinks every so often so that their morale can get the boost that they need so that they can continue on working and help grow the company. So, your business expanding is something that should be celebrated and that to always be aware of when to grow as this will help you decide if your company is ready to expand or not.
]]>So, in conclusion, meeting deadlines is important for small businesses as it helps maintain a constant workflow as well as help with our organization and time management skills. Making deadlines and meeting them is essential in a small businesses growth and here at Linkstyle, we make sure that we set up deadlines for our goals and make sure that we meet them so that our company can grow and improve so that you the customer would get the best customer service from our store.
]]>Here at Linkstyle, we do our best to make sure that we research and develop new items so that we can make sure that we can meet your expectations as our customer and at the same time, build our brand to be something that is different from the other stores. Our goal is to develop a brand that is unique and appealing to our customers as well as to make our brand be that our items are of the best quality and give our customer that “Wow!” factor.
]]>So, for this spring, while many others are focused on cleaning their homes, we here at Linkstyle are also cleaning up and making sure that going into the rest of 2021, we can give you, our valued customers, the best experience possible and to make sure that you always leave satisfied.
]]>Here at Linkstyle, we believe that there are different needs for different scenarios for our customers. The products must have selling points that can be connected to the user’s needs, as well as achieve a sort of emotional resonance with consumers, and stimulates their desire to buy said item. This also helps establish a good interactive relationship with our customers and fosters consumer stickiness and loyalty to our store, which is what we will like to achieve with our customers.
]]>During the idea stage, it is guaranteed that there will be multiple ideas that are tossed out and you can not choose all of them. So, with this we use a metric called AARRR, or acquisition, activation, retention, referral, and revenue. Acquisition is first as it is important to figure out how the customer will be able to find you. Followed by this is activation in which we will need to figure out how we will be able to have our customer reach that “AHA’ moment, which is the moment our items “shine’ in the customer’ eyes and that they finally understand what the core value of the product really is. nExt we have retention, in which the idea will help us retain the customer and have them return to purchase more items from us without the need to spend time to acquire these customers again. Next is referral, in which the idea will give an incentive to the customer so that they can promote our company to others, thus bringing in more people to look at our store. And lastly, revenue in which the idea can bring extra revenue through our existing customer base as well as the new customers that are coming in.
Here at Linkstyle, we use this model so that we as a small business can continue to grow at a rapid pace. But we not only do this to increase our revenue, we do this so that our customers can get the best service that we have to offer. As a small business, we do not have the same amount of resources as the big retail stores. As such, we use this model so that we can develop and cultivate checks and balances so that we can offer a service to our customers that can be on par or even better than the big retail stores. We will continue to improve everyday so that you our customers will always get the best service that we have to offer and for you to continue to shop with us now and into the future.
]]>We here at Linkstyle, we are doing everything we can to make sure that all of our employees are staying safe and that we here hope you all are staying safe during these difficult times.
]]>Next, figuring out how to respond to these reviews. In most cases, this will be your first time reaching out to the customer so first impressions are always important. First, greet the customer and let them know that you apologize for the treatment that they felt. It is always best that you let the customer know that we sympathize with them and that we can understand their frustration. After this, let the reviewer know that we would gladly assist them further and then refer to them with some contact information so that they can respond back to you through a more direct channel, thereby minimizing the customer having to wait for too long and repeating the previous steps from before.
Next, make sure to see if the review is actually a review on the company’s customer service or the item and not about not getting their way. This is important as if they are complaining about your item and customer service, then it is up to you to figure out a way to fix the situation. However, there will be times where the review is nothing more than a customer not getting their way. In these cases, you have to see and look into the review and in the case that they are complaining that they did not get their way, then as before, offer sympathy and then kindly let them know that you would be able to look up their situation and provide them with the contact information. Once, or if, they respond, then look up their situation and if the situation was handled badly then it would be best to fix the problem. But, if the situation was handled correctly and that you are not at fault, then kindly let the customer know and inform them or your policy. It is important to not let your emotions show during these interactions. If you let your frustration or anger get to you and that spills out into your response, then that can be looked at as harassment. So, make sure to always be professional and courteous to customers, even when the customer is not because you are the first contact for the company.
So to summarize, how you respond to negative feedback will help you as a company be able to show that you care for your customer as well as help identify issues that may have missed the cracks. Here at Linkstyle, we always strive to make sure that our customer’s always have a positive experience shopping from us. And if our customers experienced a not so great experience from us, then we will do all that we can to make sure that the issues are addressed and help them resolve the issue.
]]>As we continue to move forward in this new year, we at Linkstyle will have more challenges in the future. With these annual meetings, we will be able to handle these new challenges and all of our employees can also express themselves better and can also help each other in tackling these new challenges.
]]>During the early days of Chinese New Year, we received an email from a customer who wanted to know the status of their order since the tracking number they received had not been updated yet. Our employee checked the tracking number that we had on our system and it showed that the order was still on its way but that due to the winter storm that was raging in the country at the time, it was going to be a bit later than expected, with the recent date being updated only being yesterday. The customer relayed this to the customer and even sent the customer the link to the tracking number so that the customer could also track the order. A few days later and there was no update but then the customer responded and let’s just say that they were not too happy about the delay. The customer wanted a refund since it would not arrive in time for their needs. Of course, we could not do this as the item is still on the way to the customer’s address so our employee responded back saying that we could not cancel the order due to the item still being in transit and that we can not consider the item lost in transit until there has been 7 days without an update. This of course did not sit well with the customer and they began to complain and that they threatened to use legal action against us if we did not refund them their money. Our employee was clearly a bit shaken from this as they didn’t expect this kind of response for something that reached out to the manager, which was me. From here I took over and once again told the customer that because the item was still on the move so we can not issue the refund as well as I informed the customer that due to the current winter storm that was hitting his region, all the carriers that we use reported that there will be delays in delivering packages and that we apologized for the inconvenience that this delay has caused. Another day goes by before the customer responds back. The customer was still adamant on getting a refund because they had paid expedited shipping for the item. I checked and it turns out that the customer did pay for expedited shipping for the item. So, from this I was able to come up with a compromise. I reached out to the customer and offered a solution: We can refund the customer the expedited shipping cost in exchange for the customer to continue to wait for the order. There was no response for a day and then the customer reached out again and stated that they would accept the offer. From there I was able to process the refund of the shipping cost back to the customer and thanked the customer for their understanding, and that was the end of the communication between that customer and our company.
So, the moral of this story is that when you are dealing with a customer who wants something to be done immediately, you do not give in to what they are asking as in this case, the item was still on its way and thus if we had given in and issued the refund and the customer got the item, it would pretty much mean that the customer got the item for free. Another thing to point out is that it is probably best to remember that not everything is in our control. While we do our best to make sure that we process our customer’s orders as quickly and correctly as possible, there are just some things that are out of our control, like in this case the weather. From this experience, we learned that you must not cave into pressure from a customer if the situation is not your fault and that to always try to see if there is a middle ground in which you can reach with the customer so that you and the customer can come out of the situation satisfied with the results.
]]>When I went to college, I wanted to continue studying and playing my violin. I had started at 5 years old and it was a passion that I, to this day, still have. The violin teacher assigned to my college was a legend. Roy Malan. I will never forget him. He is the kindest teacher with a charming British accent and was what I would call a British gentleman. He never used a mean word and you would practice because his kindness would make you feel guilty if you didn’t. However, he was also a well-known man. There was a famous violinist called Efrem Zimbalist and he only took four students in his lifetime. My teacher was one of them and he is the first and only concertmaster for the San Francisco Orchestra. He has since retired from that position but my memory is of my third lesson with him. I was trying to play a difficult piece and I was struggling over and over with it. I was rushing it and trying to play it in its entirety and getting frustrated every time I hit a wrong note. I had broken my left wrist due to a snowboarding accident and couldn't play for 4 years, but I was told by the music department that I was good enough when I auditioned, so I didn’t understand why after a week of practice I still couldn’t get it right. I was slightly panicking because we had a music jury and if I didn’t pass, they could kick me out of being a music/theater major. It was weighing down on me so much that my fiancé was getting worried as I seemed to obsess over this one little thing .Growing up with a piano teacher, my mom has always said “Playing it once correctly is luck. Playing it 5 times correctly is skill.” So I was trying to prove that I had skill because I wanted to impress Roy and let him know that I could pass the music jury. Keep in mind that my parents had met Roy and really wanted me to show him that I could be a good student and do what he asked of me. Unfortunately, that was not what happened and at one point I nearly broke my violin due to my frustrations. Roy, who was sitting silently and watching, began to play the part that was making me frustrated. He played it beautifully and I felt defeated as if I let my parents, him, and myself down. After crying my frustrations and my feelings out to him, he then said “You come from a wealthy and loving family and you aren’t letting them down. This is a difficult piece that I am only assigning to one student which is you because I know you can do it. You also have the most expensive and beautiful violin I’ve ever seen. But you are not practicing how you should.” He wanted me to realize that I had almost everything anybody would ever need. After a brief pause to let his last sentence sink in, he then continued “I told you that whenever somebody asks, you should never say you are just a violinist, but you should say you are a classically trained violinist. You don’t always practice like one though. I have been to one of your performances and you have so much potential. But, if you do not practice it how you should, you will never get there even if you do practice every day.” Therefore, he was saying that violin wasn’t just what I do, but what mattered was how I practiced playing my violin. If I never adjusted how I practiced and kept just practicing how I used to because that’s what I thought I was supposed to do, I would have never passed the music jury. Instead of rushing through the piece, I played that part over and over again until I could play it without looking. The music jury day arrived, his wife accompanied me, and I actually received a standing ovation from the head of the music department, Roy, and 50 other music graduates. I passed it with flying colors.
Since that day, I have taken that saying to heart. Although I stopped taking lessons from Roy because he decided that I was good enough to no longer need a teacher, at his last performance with the Nutcracker, he gave me his violin strings, his resin, and a signed violin bow which I have actually kept in a safe place to serve as a reminder. I no longer just do something because it has to be done, but I try to find the most efficient and effective way to do it. It’s like studying-you can read a book all day, but if you couldn’t make the material stick, perhaps you should find another way. For example, perhaps you are an auditory learner and therefore, if you recorded yourself saying the lecture and played it back to yourself while you slept, maybe that would make the material stick. It really isn’t about what you do, but how you do it that makes a difference between the ordinary and extraordinary. Everybody has different tasks that they need to do such as studying for a test, preparing for a music jury, or just simply going running. If we take a moment to stand back and think about our approaching strategies, we can save time and effort and accomplish those things with a much better result.
]]>One could ask themselves, why did we still decide to build our brand and just sell a few products instead of choosing the more money making route of selling thousands of items to make more revenue. Well, this is where we have been telling everyone about for quite some time. And that is our vision which is that we aim to bring you the information, guides, and products that will make your home more intelligent and your life more enchanted. What this means is that we would never put ourselves as a vendor who sells “products”, instead what we sell to our customers is a solution that would provide our customers a bridge of sorts to connect them to a different lifestyle and shopping experience. Therefore, before we publish any of our products online, we take our time to do research on the item as well as find any problems with the item through customer feedback and reviews left for us.
We here at Linkstyle believe that Sales and Services are both connected together in that we give our attention to make sure we serve our customers with the best customer service so that our customers can see how great our services and thus would like to buy more items from us
]]>As many people know, the idea of teamwork has been an old topic within many companies when it comes to sharing their success stories. However, I do believe that even this idea that teamwork is key in a business has been around for decades but the definition of it changes as time goes by. While attending the virtual CES this year, I was inspired by the words of Walmart’s CEO who said that this year has been a very challenging one and while their team had to deal with a lot of tough decisions moving forward on projects, it was still really tough since what they were facing was something that has not been seen before. It goes on to everyone regardless of their position and department shared their thoughts and ideas during the meeting and from there turned the problem into an opportunity which not only solved the problem but also let them take a step forward towards success.
Here at Linkstyle, we understand the feeling that the Walmart CEO was conveying as since we are a startup and not a big corporation, we have to learn from each other in order to grow and get better. While there will be failures down the road, everyone would learn from it and grow together. This is how the definition of teamwork is in our team’s mind at Linkstyle and that is why we believe that it is our core value at Linkstyle as well.
Here at Linkstyle, as we have mentioned before, we are a startup and so we don’t really have much money to invest into customer service management, or CRM. The best that we can do however is to always train our customer service reps, that when they communicate with our customers, that is not them replying as themselves but instead they are responding and representing our brand. It is this first impression that allows our customer to look at us in a different light as we don’t have a time machine to go back and fix the past mistakes we made. For example, if a customer received a defective item from us and at first they may feel disappointed or angry but what we can do is turn that around with provide our best attitude to them and thus help resolve the issue with the customer feeling satisfied. And that is what our customer service is always about.
]]>Here at Linkstyle, as many of you know we are a startup, you might ask how that makes us any different from the many other startups. Well, for this, I have a memory to share. It was a while back and I had the opportunity to speak with our CEO and from what he told me is that as a startup company, it doesn’t matter how much we do on a daily basis or how close we are to getting to our goal, we are to be aware that time isn’t on our side as we are still growing and that it takes time to pursue the bigger picture than compared to looking at our goals like a daydream and expect that it could be done in a short time frame.
With 2020 now coming to an end, it’s a great time for us to reflect on how we have been doing and what areas we still need to improve in, whether we keep doing one thing or stop doing another. This is why our team uses weekly reports so that our supervisor can see what we do and allows us to see what we have done over the week. Of course, the reason I am mentioning this is because this helps me balance out my daily schedule either for work or my activities when I am not on the clock.
From everyone here at Linkstyle, we wish you all a Happy New Year to you and your family and may you all stay safe.
]]>An example of this actually happened recently when one customer has called us and inquired about a product that we sell. The price on the item was a great price but the thing was that the price was also the lowest when compared to similar products on the entire marketplace. The customer had reached out just to make sure that what they were seeing was indeed real and not a mistake since she was hesitant to place the order. Of course, we did a check on the listing to make sure that the price was correct and our results came back that it was indeed the correct price, that it was just how we sell the item based on our operating cost. It was probably more eye catching since we made this decision to increase its visibility on the marketplace, which leads to a high conversion rate.
We want to take this moment to thank all the customers who have contacted us with their concerns or issues that they have encountered. At Linkstyle, we began with not much to our name and now everyday, we are growing thanks to our customers and that is how their faith in us pushes us to go the extra mile on the way to success.
]]>Here at Linkstyle, we humbly take any worse situation and we learn from it so that we can make improvements moving forward and while we do believe that we can do more than just sell products, we can also sell our services to our customers as well.
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