Interrupt Politely, Take Control and Encourage a Customer to Disengage from a Conversation — As a customer service representative or small business owner, you likely deal with rambling customers on a regular basis. Whether the customer is unable to follow your instructions or is simply not listening, these customers can be a headache to deal with. All customers are important Imagine that you are a CSR working at…

On Using Experiences, Memories, Conditioning, Pattern Recognition, and Inherent Knowledge to Make Effective Decisions — The decision making process is a critical part of any business. Whether you are making a decision about what product to sell, who to hire, or how to allocate your resources, good decision making is essential to success. Intuition and rational decision-making You can define intuition as the thoughts or feelings that guide your…

It’s Easier When You Plan, Distribute, and Use a Written Agenda — Meeting management is an essential part of any organization. It’s important to be able to keep meetings on track and focused so that the important work can be accomplished. In order to be successful with meeting management, it’s important to have a well-developed agenda and effective communication methods. Keeping a…

Effectively identify potential risks and develop strategies for mitigating them — When choosing risk identification techniques, you must consider the setup of your organization and the kind of projects you work on. Reviewing your projects with a risk management perspective can help to identify potential risks and develop strategies for mitigating them. Risk identification techniques Many organizations choose a risk identification technique based on…

Understand How Reporting, Risk Monitoring, and Contract Administration Program Processes Work — This article will look at the Reporting, Risk Monitoring, and Contract Administration program processes in the Monitoring and Controlling process group. These processes will help you manage your programs and risks. …

Is there a way to identify poor performers based on their personalities? — So?! Is there a way to identify poor performers based on their personalities? In fact, most of the research on performance tends to concentrate on good performers. Most people believe that success is a result of hard work and dedication. …

Reduce the Time it Takes to Resolve Customer Issues — Managing customer calls is a challenging and complex task. Navigating the customer’s needs and providing the right level of service is key to maintaining a positive customer relationship. How can you best handle emotional or unfocused customers on the phone or email, and manage to get the best results? You…

Evaluate Alternatives in Terms of Multiple Objectives — When making a decision, the outcome is the most obvious thing to consider. But when making a decision, there are many other factors that you need to consider. These include the costs, benefits, limitations and trade-offs among others. If you ignore these, you might end up making a bad decision…

How to Establish a Respectful Atmosphere, Be Positive and Encouraging and Include Everyone — In order to be a successful meeting administrator, it is important to facilitate meeting participation. There are several ways to do this. When people actively engage in a meeting, they frequently contribute winning ideas and keep managers abreast of problems and issues. Unfortunately, many people are reluctant to participate in…