I plan to live forever. So far, so good.

For any business to survive it’s not enough just to have great leadership, a shiny website and excellent products. It’s also got to have excellent customer service. The basic concept of customer service is all about getting your customers to come back to you – creating repeat business.

When you have excellent customer service, two things happen:

1] You get repeat business

2] Your customers will talk about you (word-of-mouth marketing).

Below are tips for excellent customer service:

1] Always respond to telephone calls and call people back.

2] Always respond to emails. If you are not around, set up your email auto-responder to let people when you will be back, and that you will respond once you have access to email. In your auto-responder, give another person whom they can contact.

3] Be patient with your customers and listen to them.

4] Be accessible to your customers.

5] Deal with complaints. This is not easy, and many times small business owners will say to themselves, “ok… so I’ll lose one customer…” No one likes to deal with complaints, but your ability to make another customer happy will prove worthwhile in the long run.

6] Always throw in some kind of incentive for repeat customers. Let it be a coupon for a future discount or a buy-one and get-another-half-price or something.

7] Excellent customer service depends on everyone at your team. Train your staff as well!

8] In your marketing campaign point out the fact that you have excellent customer service. Why? Because people are looking for service that is hassle free. People are looking for a solution to their problem – your offer of great customer service gives them peace of mind.

9] Follow up calls after selling a product or service. Simply ask if everything worked out and if they have any questions regarding the product or service. This will leave a good impression of you and your company, and will secure repeat business.

10] Remember your customers’ names.

11] Sometimes you need to run the extra mile. This means that many times a customer will ask you about a product that you don’t have, or ask you a question for which you may not have the answer. Try to make the effort to help them out – it will pay off.

12] Always remember: Service with a smile!

Article Source: http://www.articleset.com

About the Author
Hillel Porath is the founder and developer of iyazam.com. Hillel has been working in marketing for several years learning many valuable lessons along the way, the fruits of which appear on his website. Hillel lives with his wife and toddler in Israel.

Most of the time we just install the antivirus or the anti Malware programs and relax that they are working fine and one fine morning you see things not working and finally you realize that its your antivirus program which was not working at all. Here is a small test which you can do in case you are not sure if your antivirus program is working fine or not.

#1 Open Notepad and paste this string into it:

X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

#2 Save it and as soon as you do your antivirus real time protection should be able to detect it. In case you have disabled the real time protection run a scan for this file.

This file actually is a dummy virus which simulates like a virus which is provided by EICAR for distribution as the “EICAR Standard Anti-Virus Test File”, The file is a legitimate DOS program, and produces sensible results when run (it prints the message “EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!”). You can read more on this at EICAR Antivirus Test File.

Candid styles of photography are increasingly becoming popular both in general day to day photography but also in formal photographic situations. Below are a number of tips to help photographers improve their ‘candid’ photography.

Please note that these tips are not about taking sneaky, voyeuristic or true paparazzi shots (ie photographing people without their permission) but rather about how to add a more candid feel to the shots you take of people that you know. Here’s a set of tips for improving your skills at taking candid photos:

1. Take your Camera Everywhere

Probably the best way to take spontaneous photographs is to always be ready to do so. Taking your camera with you everywhere also helps people to be more at ease with you taking their photo.

I find that my friends and family just expect me to have my camera out so when I do fire it up it’s not a signal to them to pose but it’s a normal part of our interaction – this means that they are relaxed and the photos are natural.

2. Use a Long Zoom

Obviously the further you are away from your subject the less likely they will be to know that you’re photographing them and the more natural and relaxed they’ll act.

Using a telephoto lens or long zoom enables you to shoot from outside their personal space but keep the feeling of intimacy in the shot you’re taking.

3. Kill the Flash

Perhaps the most obvious way that you can signal to another person that you’re photographing them is to use a flash. There’s nothing like a blinding flash of light in the eyes to kill a moment. If possible (and it’s not always) attempt to photograph without the flash if you’re aiming for candid shots.

When in lower light situations increase your ISO setting, use a faster lens, open up your aperture or if your camera has a ‘natural light mode’ turn it on. Hopefully one or a combination of these approaches will help you blend into the background a little more.

4. Shoot lots

When you shoot multiple images quickly of a person you can sometimes get some surprising and spontaneous shots that you’d have never gotten if you shot just one. Switch your camera to continuous shooting mode and shoot in bursts of images and in doing so you’ll increase your chances of that perfect shot.

5. Position Yourself strategically

While Candid Photography is about capturing the spontaneity of a moment and getting that perfect shot at the right split second of time I find that if you think ahead and anticipate what is about to unfold in front of you that you can greatly increase the chances of getting some great shots.

Which way will people be facing? What will they be doing? What will the light be like? Thinking through these issues will save you having to run around repositioning yourself when you should be shooting images – it’ll also mean you take a whole heap less shots of the back of people’s heads!

6. Photograph People Doing things

Images of people doing things tend to be much more interesting than people sitting passively doing nothing. For one your subject will be focussed upon something which adds energy to a photo (and takes their focus off you) but it also puts them in context and adds an element of story to your image.

Timing is everything in Candid shots so wait until they are distracted from you and fully focussed upon what they are doing or who they are with and you’ll inject a feeling into your shots of them being unaware and that the viewer of your image is looking on unseen.

7. Photograph People with People

Something very interesting happens when you photograph more than one person in an image at a time – it introduces relationship into the shot. Even if the two (or more) people are not really interacting in the shot it can add depth and a sense of story into the viewing of the image.

Of course ideally in candid shots you’d like some interaction between your subjects as that will add emotion into the shot also as we the viewer observe how the people are acting.

8. Frame Images with Foreground Elements

A trick that is often used in candid shots is to purposely include something in the foreground of the shot to make it look as though you’re hiding behind it. You might do this with by shooting over someone’s shoulder, by including a little of a tree branch or the frame of a doorway. This can add a great effect to your candid photos.

9. Shoot from the Hip

If your subject is aware that you’re there and that you have your camera out they might tense up or act a little unnaturally as they see you raising your camera to the eye.

The beauty of digital cameras is that it doesn’t cost you anything to take lots of shots and it can be well worth shooting without raising your camera. To do this most effectively you might want to set your lens to a wider angle setting to make up for any aiming problems you might have.

10. Mix up your Perspective

The other beauty of shooting from the hip is that it gives you a slightly different perspective to take the shot from. This adds to the candid nature of the shots. In fact sometimes it’s the slightly crooked, slightly out of focus or poorly composed shots taken from this type of angle that ends up looking the best because they come across as quite random.

Of course, you can add all these new perspectives to your shots without shooting from the hip. Crouch down, get up high, frame your shots on an angle, zoom in close and then quickly zoom out to a wide angle, break the rules of composition etc and you will add a new perspective to your shots that can mean they look fresh and surprising.

11. Take Posed Shots into Candid Territory

One of the nice times to shoot candid shots is when other people are taking formal ones. This is because everyone in the shot is focused on the one element (the other photographer) – but it’s not you. If the main photographer has posed the happy couple of the day or their bridal partly look for a different angle to them to take a shot of the same subject. Often if you take a few steps to the side and shoot from almost a profile position you can get great shots.

Also zooming in to take shots of just one or two of the people in a larger group at these times can work well. Also try zooming right out to take a shot of the photographer and their subject all in one. If you’re the only photographer and you’re taking formal shots a great technique is to take your posed shot and then continue to shoot after everyone thinks you’ve finished. It’s often the shots just after the posed one that are the best as people relax and look at each other.

Via the Digital Photography School. Photos taken from my photo collection.