Great Article on Creating Customer Loyalty

As business owners, we all want customers, but what’s the goal we should really set to sustain a successful business?

If your answer is “turning buyers into fans,” you thought right.

Sure, we all want as much traffic to our site as we can get and we are happy with any sales that come our way, but how do we turn buyers into full-fledged brand loyalists?

Word of mouth marketing

One of the best ways to market is through word of mouth. Nothing beats a review than one coming directly from someone you trust. Traditional marketing has its value, but there is no better marketing tool than having your customers become advocates for your brand.

Having customers that feel passionate about your business will not only show up as an upside to your revenue but also will help your business grow. Scaling a new business relies on its supporters.

One company I believe that has truly excelled in this area is Uber. Uber has done an exceptional job at marketing and taking the term “brand loyalist” to a whole new level. Giving out promotion codes to get the first ride free and allowing their customers to share these codes with their contacts really did wonders to help Uber spread the message about their service. I still cannot wrap my head around how fast people took to this service once their pricing became affordable for the everyday person.

Make customers feel appreciated

Actions speak louder than words. All the marketing material in the world won’t equate to the way you treat your customers. In order to convert customers into fans, you must put your fair share of work into making your customers feel appreciated.

The first step to turning your customers into brand loyalists is to ensure your customers have a top- notch experience every time they visit your page or contact your customer service. If you make your customer feel like they are the only thing that matters in that moment in time, they will be sure to remember it. Engage with your customers on a personal level, become their friends, not just a business they frequent.

Statistics have shown that 75 percent of brands do not know what engagement means but are “measuring” it. Don’t be one of these brands. Engagement is the definition of what it takes to convert customers into fans. Social media has opened up so many different avenues to communicate with your customers there really is no excuse not to be active around the clock to boost your brand. The better you manage your channels, the higher quality the experience will be for your customers.

Make everyone feel special

Another way to earn brownie points with your customers is to make all your customers feel special no matter the circumstance. Don’t be selective. Reward your customers whether they are shopping with you for the first time or the fiftieth. Even if it’s something small, a token of appreciation can truly make a difference.

Many companies make the mistake of only rewarding those who dish out the cash, but this doesn’t have to be the case. Rewards don’t always have to mean discounts or giveaways right off the bat. A simple “Thank you for your purchase, we see you liked this product, please enter your email to be among the first 25 customers notified when we run a secret shopping day. This means you have VIP access along with 24 other customers to purchase our products at a highly discounted price for a limited time.” As an online business, chances are you will eventually get an overstock of something. What better way to sell these products than a fun rewarding activity for your customers?

If you haven’t made converting your customers into fans a priority, it's time to re-strategize. Don’t let your competitors have the advantage by being more connected with your customer base. Treat your customers the way you want to be treated at a five-star resort — nothing but the best.

Amit Bhaiya

Contributing Writer

Do Your HR People Add to the Bottom Line?

How to align your employees and your culture

May 23, 2016, 7:10am EDT

Image provided by Getty Images

Mis-hires most often occur because we aren’t digging down to the core of matching the person (not just the employee) to the organization (not just the job.)

Time and time again I hear CEOs and company leaders grumble about their staff — high turnover rates, new employees who “just don’t get it” and current employees who are only “so-so.”

An organization’s people are its most valuable asset. Who they are and what they are committed to will make or break an organization’s success.

Consider the current challenges with people in your own organization. Are they lacking the technical skills you needed? Or is there a gap in the cultural fit? If alignment with the culture is the problem, keep reading.

See Also

• How to make work more meaningful (and fun)
• 5 reasons tough conversations go from bad to worse (and how to fix it)
• How to use candor for more success

Building the team

Mis-hires most often occur because we aren’t digging down to the core of matching the person (not just the employee) to the organization (not just the job.)

During recruitment, interviews and on-boarding, ask yourself if you are:

• Direct about the organization’s goals and expectations, mission and values
• Focused on who they are as much as you’re focused on what they can do
• Selecting people for an immediate role only, or considering their potential for success within the whole team
• Temporarily hiring candidates to come aboard for a day or week for an on-the-job trial period
• Speaking with the best references you can find, or simply connecting with those the candidate suggests
• Considering “conscientiousness” as a predictor for job candidate success, and, figuring out how you will determine that or other key cultural strengths early in the interview

Growing their capacity

The team-building process doesn’t stop once someone is hired; then it becomes an effort to refine and cultivate the greatest collaborative community. Consider the answers to these questions:

• Is someone who was right for the job in the past still good for the job as it is needed for the future?
• Does each employee have the potential to learn and to lead?
• Would I enthusiastically rehire each member of my team?

If the answers are “yes,” leaders must foster their potential and encourage growth. If the answers are “no,” and they are no longer coachable, move swiftly. An employee who is missing the capacity to learn and lead isn’t living your company’s core values or who no longer suits the direction of the business isn't alone in their lack of growth. They are thwarting the success of your organization.

Be candid about where you want your organization to go and who it will take to get there. Expect people — from candidates, to your existing team, and including yourself — to be honest and direct about who they are, what they want, and how, collectively, you’re going to make it happen.

Nancy Eberhardt

Contributing Writer

Business groups will try to block overtime rule, but don't expect them to succeed

Business groups will challenge the new rule that expands eligibility for overtime to millions of workers, but employers should act as if the regulation will go into effect as scheduled on Dec. 1.

There’s legislation pending in Congress to block the rule, and business groups are considering challenging the regulation in court. But the chances of blocking the rule before it goes into effect are slim.

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Even many salaried employees will have to watch the clock under new overtime pay… more

LEOLINTANG

The rule would make any worker making less than $47,476 a year eligible for overtime if they work more than 40 hours a week, even if they are managers or professionals. That’s double the current overtime pay threshold.

Momentum is growing for legislation that would force the Department of Labor to withdraw the rule until it conducts more analysis on its impact. But even if this bill passes both the House and Senate, President Barack Obama would veto it.

Getting a veto-proof, two-thirds majority in Congress for this bill will be difficult, but the business community isn’t alone in objecting to this rule. Nonprofit organizations, universities, and state and local governments also are worried about the rule’s impact, so they’re lobbying Congress as well.

This coalition “is only going to grow,” said David French, senior vice president for government relations at the National Retail Federation.

There also could be lawsuits challenging the rule. Business groups could contend the new salary threshold is so high that it’s contrary to Congress’ intent of exempting people with management responsibilities from overtime pay requirements. Or they could contend the Department of Labor doesn’t have the authority to automatically increase the overtime pay threshold every three years without going through the regular rule-making process.

Both of these legal strategies are long shots, however, said Tammy McCutchen, a principal at Littler Mendelson who headed the Wage and Hour Division when the Department of Labor last increased the overtime threshold in 2004.

Employers need to proceed as if the rule will go into effect Dec. 1, she said.

That starts with analyzing how your exempt employees are paid, and identifying the ones who will become eligible for overtime pay in December under the new pay threshold.

Then you’ll have to compare the costs of raising their salary to $47,476 in order to avoid overtime, with the costs of reclassifying them as non-exempt employees and paying overtime if they work more than 40 hours a week.

You’ll also have to figure out to track the time that salaried employees spend on work. For those making less than $47,476, travel time to conferences, training and work at home all will be counted as paid time that has to be tracked, McCutchen noted.

You can reclassify salaried workers as hourly workers, but that’s tricky. Many employees will see having to punch a clock as a demotion.

“Employers can expect many employees to feel hurt and underappreciated,” saidAlice Kilborn, consultant on workplace litigation prevention in Albuquerque, N.M., in a Society for Human Resource Management blog on how to tell employees that they’re be reclassified as an hourly employees. “Many workers place a premium on the prestige of being considered an exempt or salaried employee — no matter how much we emphasize that it’s just a categorization of pay and not a reflection of importance or level of contribution.”

So you should begin to talking to employees now about what the new overtime rules will mean for them, SHRM recommends.

Final Ruling On New Overtime Minimum Wages Signed

Wage and Hour Division (WHD)

Final Rule: Overtime

Defining and Delimiting the Exemptions for Executive, Administrative, Professional, Outside Sales and Computer Employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act

On May 18, 2016, President Obama and Secretary Perez announced the publication of the Department of Labor’s final rule updating the overtime regulations, which will automatically extend overtime pay protections to over 4 million workers within the first year of implementation. This long-awaited update will result in a meaningful boost to many workers’ wallets, and will go a long way toward realizing President Obama’s commitment to ensuring every worker is compensated fairly for their hard work.

In 2014, President Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum directing the Department to update the regulations defining which white collar workers are protected by the FLSA's minimum wage and overtime standards. Consistent with the President's goal of ensuring workers are paid a fair day's pay for a hard day's work, the memorandum instructed the Department to look for ways to modernize and simplify the regulations while ensuring that the FLSA's intended overtime protections are fully implemented.

The Department published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) in the Federal Register on July 6, 2015 (80 FR 38515) and invited interested parties to submit written comments on the proposed rule at www.regulations.gov by September 4, 2015. The Department received over 270,000 comments in response to the NPRM from a variety of interested stakeholders. The feedback the Department received helped shape the Final Rule.

Key Provisions of the Final Rule

The Final Rule focuses primarily on updating the salary and compensation levels needed for Executive, Administrative and Professional workers to be exempt. Specifically, the Final Rule:

1. Sets the standard salary level at the 40th percentile of earnings of full-time salaried workers in the lowest-wage Census Region, currently the South ($913 per week; $47,476 annually for a full-year worker);
2. Sets the total annual compensation requirement for highly compensated employees (HCE) subject to a minimal duties test to the annual equivalent of the 90th percentile of full-time salaried workers nationally ($134,004); and
3. Establishes a mechanism for automatically updating the salary and compensation levels every three years to maintain the levels at the above percentiles and to ensure that they continue to provide useful and effective tests for exemption.

Additionally, the Final Rule amends the salary basis test to allow employers to use nondiscretionary bonuses and incentive payments (including commissions) to satisfy up to 10 percent of the new standard salary level.

The effective date of the final rule is December 1, 2016. The initial increases to the standard salary level (from $455 to $913 per week) and HCE total annual compensation requirement (from $100,000 to $134,004 per year) will be effective on that date. Future automatic updates to those thresholds will occur every three years, beginning on January 1, 2020.

Although the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has reviewed and approved the Final Rule, the document has not yet been published in the Federal Register. The Final Rule that appears in the Federal Register may contain minor formatting differences in accordance with Office of the Federal Register publication requirements. The OMB-approved version is being provided as a convenience to the public and this website will be updated with the Federal Register’s published version when it becomes available.

https://www.dol.gov/whd/overtime/final2016/

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