Christmas 2010

Hope everyone had an amazing Christmas! Shieff Services for Christmas ran a can food drive and donated 325 pounds of food to our Hays Food Bank. We love to give back and build our community, Shieff Services conducts a community service per month. Our goal is to serve our community and enhance the lives of others!

Infusionsoft Email Features!

Social Media Connecting Now with Infusionsoft
Infusionsoft is a powerful CRM with countless features to help small businesses develop and expand! Their most recent features help connect customers to your social media channels! Now in the Infusionsoft Email Builder you can add twitter, facebook, blog and youtube to your outbound emails.

What does this mean for you?
Simply, direct and connect with your customers to build relationships and even generate new leads. Twitter and facebook are huge resources and tools for small businesses! You can also create inspiring or helpful youtube video to reach and target consumers. Delivering youtube videos to your customer can reflect your company’s personality and develop perceptions.

New Plug in for Email Templates
High Impact Email by TemplateZone is a new add-on, Infusionsoft is providing members hundreds of quality email templates for free. There are also premium templates provided for an upgraded membership. It is easily integrated with infusionsoft and offers professionally designed templates to grow your business.
















Help!
Want a certified expert help implement infusionsoft features? Contact us at www.shieffservices.com

Shieff Services was started by Randy and Camille Shieff out of their bedroom. After the birth of their fourth son, they soon had to find another way to finically support their growing family. The Shieffs started working from their crowded bedroom and expanding to the kitchen as Virtual Assistance. Shieff Services now offers customer service, fulfillment and special services. Just 5 years later Shieff Services is a multimillion dollar company and currently employees 50 representatives in San Marcos Texas.

Marketer and Entrepreneur Dave Dee recently stopped by to interview CEO Randy Shieff.



View the audio:
http://www.davedee.com/

Service Recovery Regaining Your Customers

Service recovery is effort to recover the goodwill of the customer after a service failed or a perception was not met. It’s a critical process to rebuild the perception and gain trust of the customer. A complaining customer should be viewed as an opportunity and chance save the customer.

Did you know that over 96% of dissatisfied customers do not complain and just stop purchasing? However, 54-70% of those customers will buy again if their complaint is resolved and 95% will purchase again if the issues is resolved swiftly. The cost of gaining a new customer easily outweighs the cost of retaining existing customers. Focusing on existing customers and allowing them to simply complain is key to saving the customer.

Make it easy to complain!
• Offer live chat options on your website
• Provide website comment sections
• Easy access support by phone or email

Complaining customers to most people it the worst thing to deal with. However it is an opportunity to strengthen relationships between the customers. Service recovery is not only resolving an issue to ensure it doesn’t reoccur. Feedback from these customers can help improve services.

Here are steps to regain your customers:
• Identify the customers need
• Be empathetic
• Apologize and allow the customer to vent
• Offer solutions
• Take action to satisfy the customer
• Follow up!

Service recovery can rebuild the trust and perceptions of your business and services. Remember complaining is an opportunity to improve!

The month of November, Shieff Service's staff generously donated to the Big Brothers Big Sister Central Texas organization.

Big Brothers Big Sisters is an established youth mentoring organization which reaches out across to communities country wide. They provide one-to-one youth service to develop positive relationships which impacts on the lives of young people.

Shieff Services truly appreciates the work they do and have even helped those close to us. Keep up the great work Big Brothers Big Sisters!

Happy Halloween from Shieff Services!! We had a Halloween costume Wizard of Oz theme contest. Our winners did a great job and made the day very entertaining!

Turkey Dinners Tackling Hunger

The Hays County Food Bank had a drive to help our local families in need for Thanksgiving. With the generous giving of our staff and the Shieff family, we donate enough to feed 51 families a holiday meal that includes a turkey and all the trimmings!

Last holiday season, the food bank helped more than 6,500 people in its service area of Hays County.“The Food Bank has seen a big increase in the need for food due to the slowdown in the economy,” Jerry Gracy, executive director, said. “There was a 45 percent increase in the number of times people received food in 2009 compared to 2007. With so many people out of work, we expect this trend to continue this year. The Turkeys Tackling Hunger campaign raises the money to help local families struggling to make ends meet.”

I hope our community enjoys an amazing Thanksgiving feast this year!

Importance of Local Presence

Many companies have lost sight of their local economy and community. Globalization is the new trend among corporate and even small businesses. However the importance of local presence is vital for many reasons including building credibility, perception and increasing business opportunities.

Creating credibility is huge for a company’s success. Having a face to face communication is a powerful method to build local credibility and relationships. Get to know your local community by emerge yourself in the area. Share your knowledge and help your local economy by teaching at local libraries or community centers. For instance, our community center allows companies to instruct subjects ranging from cooking to business planning.

Make your local presence known by joining the city’s Chamber of Commerce. There are often hundreds of companies looking to partner and expand with neighboring businesses. Attending a networking or city event can also provide new opportunities. Building your local presence can not only bring new business ventures but develop positive perceptions.

Perception is a process a person chooses, arranges and interprets information then translates into a meaningful opinion. Often a perception is difficult to change once a consumer has translated the information. Community services, sponsoring an event or charity are just a few options to develop consumer perceptions. Positive perception will cause word of mouth and spread buzz about your business. With the reach of internet, local customer’s experience can touch others worldwide. So who’s to say that your local presence doesn’t matter?

This weekend was awesome! Our team painted the exterior of the Hays County Food Bank. We completed painting within only 1 1/2 hours! Not to mention we had to fight against classic Texas heat. I'm quite proud to say we finished it in record speed with top quality painting skills. Good job Shieff team!

This past weekend was filled with refreshing and constructive activities. Shieff Service's management team had a team building event bringing management together to work more efficiently. The last day of our event our staff and families went to the San Antonio Zoo! All the animals were actually awake and active this time so our time was more than entertaining.

Small Business Taxes

On January 1, 2011, Americans will face the biggest tax hike in history. If Congress fails to act, marginal tax rates will increase for every taxpayer, the capital gains rate climbs 33%, and dividend rates jump by as much as 164%.

Congress must act now to prevent this tax increase. Extending existing tax rates would, in one bold stroke, boost investor, business, and consumer confidence by taking the uncertainty of tax policy off the table. It would leave hard earned income in the hands of the individuals and businesses that earned it and allow them to spur investment, boost consumption, promote economic growth, and create jobs.

Instead, Congress wants another $2.6 trillion from Americans in the form of higher taxes, despite the fact that President Obama's own economic advisor tells us "tax increases are highly contractionary." It’s something we simply can’t afford.

American small businesses, our economic jobs engine, will face marginal tax rates as high as 39.6%. Compounded with the loss of certain itemized deductions and personal exemptions, these small businesses face rates as high as 41.6%. And this increase hits our successful small businesses, our job creators, particularly hard. Approximately half of the business income reported on tax returns in 2011 will be subjected to the top two marginal rates.

Older Americans also have a good reason to worry, as they will be disproportionately hurt by tax increases on investment income. In 2008, 71% of dividend income was earned by taxpayers age 55 and older. A third of taxpayers with capital gains income were 65 and older. Another 40% of those with capital gains income were between ages 45 and 65, earning nearly half of all capital gains income. These Americans, who have invested for decades for retirement, will feel the pain.

Twitter Traffic

Hey everyone,

I need a little input from all of you marketing gurus! What is the best time to tweet? Any secret methods you using to build your twitter? Is there an average amount of tweets you post to keep up traffic?

Community service is vital to the society and environment. Not only do you help and benefit others but you build character. We believe your community should be nurtured and served.

"Never before has man had such a great capacity to control his own environment, to end hunger, poverty and disease, to banish illiteracy and human misery. We have the power to make the best generation of mankind in the history of the world." President John F. Kennedy



Last week we had the opportunity to do just that! Shieff Services served at the local animal service in San Marcos. It was hard not to adopt every adorable pet. Working at the animal shelter was a great experience to connect with the team and community. In August we'll be serving at the local food bank. We're all excited and can't wait for the next experience. Click Here for more pictures!

Outsourcing Myths

By Charise Stevens
Marketing Director, Shieff Services Inc.
July 5, 2010

Outsourcing has gained a bad reputation over the past decade due to misconceptions. Perceptions of outsourcing often embrace that only large companies outsource decreasing flexibility, control, quality. Many people consider outsourcing as a resource utilized only during financial distress. However small businesses to corporations use outsourcing as a competitive advantage and growth.

1) Only big companies outsource
Outsourcing is not limited by an organization's size but is often determined by the business model. For instance, a complex business model consists of many strategic and tactical levels. This system often delays decision making and reduces flexibility. The complex business model can utilize outsourcing for a specific task or purpose. A simple business model integrates multiple strategic and tactical functions allowing quick decisions and responses. The simple business model commonly uses outsourcing for multiple purposes such as administrative tasks, customer service and fulfillment. Depending on your business model, outsourcing can expand a single or multiple functions and purposes.
2) Lacks flexibility and control
Outsourcing increases flexibility by allowing scalability to meet fluctuating demand. Thus when your company promotes or launches, additional agents are quickly added to serve your customers at same service level. Control is especially critical to business leaders. Outsourcing center's daily summaries allow business leaders to monitor and control activities.
3) Loses quality
Quality is an important factor which must be improved and maintained to build customer relationships. Without quality service, customer loyalty decreases which causes your company financial losses. Measuring quality is implemented through monitoring chats, emails, live and recorded calls. The quality of an agent’s social and technical skill are observed and developed through training. Continuous agent performance feedback helps build quality and customer service.
4) Use only when facing financial problems
Outsourcing should not only be used when economically strained but when you desire to expand. Building a business provides many great opportunities but the costs and risks are high. Employee salary, benefits, taxes and equipment costs are expenses every company must understand. In March 2010, the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed employee compensation averaged $29.71 per hour. Wages and salaries averaged $20.67 per hour which consisted for 69.6% of compensation costs. Benefits averaged $9.04 and accounted for the remaining 30.4%. (" Employer Costs for Employee Compensation news release text") Equipment costs will quickly reach to many thousands of dollars for computers, software, wireless connection, headset and voicemail services. Business leaders must also consider the cost for employee space and furnishing. Outsourcing relieves the stress of employee operational costs and offers the opportunity to increase at a lower cost.


No matter the size of your business, outsourcing can be the right decision allowing you to achieve new success. It can supply flexibility and scalability to adjust to customer demands. Quality service can make or break a company, but by monitoring and controlling this factor agents will build customer relationships. Remember outsourcing is not only used during financial decline but for growth.

References:
" EMPLOYER COSTS FOR EMPLOYEE COMPENSATION - MARCH 2010." Employer Costs for Employee Compensation news release text (2010): n. pag. Web. 5 Jul 2010. .

Check out outsourcing tips from pros: http://bit.ly/d2cXI9

Shieff Service Marketing Campaign

Hi!

We are excited to be launching a new marketing campaign for potential clients. Shieff Services has been rapidly growing for the last five years and will continue to serve it's existing clients. We strive to build long-term relationships and help companies expand in their industries by providing the best customer service.