Being an introvert in an extrovert-dominated world can often be challenging, particularly in the workplace. In many organisations, introverts can become misunderstood and undervalued, overshadowed by their more extroverted colleagues.

For managers, this presents one of the more difficult aspects of leadership – trying to get the best out of the many different personality types in their teams. A good leader will want to make sure everyone in their team is treated fairly and given the same tools and opportunities to develop their career. So how can you make sure you’re helping the introverts in your team to succeed?

If you’re a manager or team leader, it’s important that you know how to empower the introverts in your team, to achieve organisational goals and help each individual reach their full potential. Here are some practical steps you can take to help introverted employees succeed at work.

Many introverts have an intense fear or dislike of public speaking, often feeling more comfortable and articulate when presenting their ideas on paper, rather than verbally. Having a meeting – or worse, a presentation – sprung on them at short notice can be quite terrifying, which may be hard for extroverted people to understand.

However, in most workplaces, team meetings are a part of everyday life. Having time to prepare for meetings or presentations will help introverted employees greatly.

By scheduling meetings in advance and letting teams know what’s on the agenda, you’re giving everyone time to think about the topics being discussed and process their own thoughts. This will also benefit the business by ensuring that employees are given the best opportunity to share their knowledge and experience with the group.

It’s not about pandering to the introverts in your team – it’s about showing your employees that you respect their individual work styles by running an effective meeting that will generate the best ideas and outcomes.

Once you have your team gathered together in a meeting or brainstorming session, how can you be sure that the introverts in your group will share their voice?

For introverts, speaking up in group situations can be hard, especially when there are a lot of big personalities in the room who are more outspoken. Introverted team members will often sit back and listen, letting the extroverts run the show while keeping their ideas and opinions to themselves.

Susan Cain, author of bestselling book ‘Quiet’, believes that modern society dramatically undervalues introverts, losing much by doing so. She suggests a strategy for encouraging introverts to participate called the think-pair-share technique, which is more commonly used in classrooms but is very effective in the workplace.

Introduce a topic for discussion and ask team members to take some time to themselves to think about it, writing down their thoughts if they’d like to. Then divide the group into pairs to discuss their ideas one-on-one. After a few minutes, ask each pair to share their thoughts with the group.

Having some alone time to think and prepare before being asked to share with the group will make introverts feel more comfortable, prepared and ready to share their ideas with the team.

It seems that most modern workplaces are set up with extroverts in mind. Open plan offices, brainstorming sessions, constant collaboration, self-promotion… all of these things feel opposed to an introvert’s authentic self. Pushing against this every day can lead to many introverts experiencing burn out at work or low mental health.

It’s important to empower introverts by creating a safe, positive work culture in which they feel comfortable and supported. Even if this means doing things a little differently in your office. This will help bring out the best in introverted staff members, allowing them to contribute their best work for your organisation.

The most effective managers are those who take the time to understand how each individual works best. These leaders have the potential to change how we see introverts in the workplace and how they see themselves.

While these team members can sometimes come across as aloof or a little awkward at times, the introverted mind is responsible for many wonderful inventions, ideas and innovations in our world. They are often very hard-working, creative and loyal employees – they just need to be given the space and supportive work culture to show that.

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How managers can help introverts succeed at work

Collaboration is increasingly important in today’s workplace and a highly sought after skill in any employee.

With technology making communication across teams and offices easier and more accessible, staff have more opportunity to collaborate and work together than ever. Building a culture of collaboration has great benefits for your business, increasing cooperation, improving knowledge sharing and promoting teamwork and positive working relationships.

Let's look at how you can help build a culture of collaboration in your organization.

The work culture of any company will be far more positive when individuals work together as a team.

For employees, working collaboratively increases their sense of identity within the team, as well as building a personal sense of achievement and overall team morale. Building trust and cooperation as a group leads to real support for each other, encouraging loyalty and respect.

Managers and supervisors who understand the benefits of collaboration will look for opportunities for their teams to work together and connect, promoting a culture of teamwork.

These days, teams don’t always share the same work space, with employees working from home, remotely or in offices across different continents.

Large, diverse teams often need to work together virtually to deliver a project, meaning fostering effective online collaboration is vital. With so many individuals involved, it’s important to make sure you’re tapping into those resources of knowledge and experience.

Employers and managers should encourage team members to share information and knowledge freely, to accomplish team and organizational goals.

Collaboration is most beneficial when it leads to a direct outcome.

Focusing on outcomes helps to keep progress moving forward, with teams working together to achieve shared goals. Sharing a sense of purpose is an important part of teamwork and will help to strengthen employee working relationships, as well as their engagement with the project.

One of the biggest barriers to success is when teams act as a collection of silos, rather than one organization.

In many offices or job sites, you can see cases of siloed work behavior, with staff sticking to their own teams and not really mixing or interacting with the pods or offices beside them.However, through teamwork and collaboration, employees are able to tap into a larger and wider knowledge base, meaning working across teams can be very beneficial for everyone. Be conscious of helping and supporting other branches and departments, to reach the same company goals and milestones.

During onboarding for new hires, encourage them to meet with other branches and departments, to break down silos and encourage collaboration. Nokia’s collaborative culture begins the moment a new hire starts on the job, when their manager sits down and lists all the people in the organization it would be useful for the employee to meet. They look together at what topics the newcomer should discuss with each person on the list and why establishing a relationship with him or her is important.

In a leadership role, you have the exciting opportunity to drive collaboration in your organization.

If you’re a manager or team leader, particularly in HR, you can lead the way in improving collaboration in your workplace. You also have a responsibility to encourage the collaborative process to make your whole team better than the sum of its parts.

You’ll be helping to increase work satisfaction of your team, while improving efficiencies and knowledge sharing, reinforcing your skills as a leader.

In fact, “great value is placed on leaders who can bring diverse groups together in a spirit of cooperation to get things done.”

If you’re interested in becoming more proactive in building collaboration within your organization, you can learn more through online courses such as How to Build Collaborative and Focused Teams. This free eLearning course will provide you with the skills and knowledge to understand what drives culture, helping you to build collaborative, high performance teams.

Continued education and training for personnel are important in the success of a business, and that has never been more important than today since technology is growing at such accelerated rates. Here are a few ways in which eLearning can help you improve the performance of your sales team.

How To Improve Your Sales Staff Performance With eLearning

According to the Education Resources Information Center, “For companies to stay competitive, they must continually bring new products and services to the marketplace. One strategy organizations can use to support this requirement is to provide their sales force with training that enables revenue generation”. As you’ll discover, eLearning is the perfect solution for delivering training to improve your sales staff performance.

The most basic definition of eLearning is “electronic learning”.  However, it’s about more than just attending a school or college online, taking a few courses, and getting a certificate. Today, with all of their new technological advances companies can use eLearning to help their staff learn how to improve their sales skills.

Some of the benefits of eLearning vs. traditional learning include:

Tailored to specific needs.
With eLearning, a company can actually tailor the curriculum to its needs. For example, if the company wants to focus on marketing for one group of employees and sales etiquette for another, it can be done.

Flexible. 
Unlike traditional schools where students may need to wait a semester or longer for a particular class to become available, there are now software programs available to create particular classes and curriculum.

Ability to track progress. 
Instead of waiting for the “report card” to come out, you will be able to track the progress of the employees enrolled in the eLearning courses. Managers can also monitor the success, strengths, and weaknesses of each student to better address their needs.

Smaller bits of information. 
Instead of trying to cram a week’s worth of instructions and lessons into a three-hour training video, companies can break down the information into bite-sized classes or programs that will likely be better absorbed than longer classes.

3 Ways eLearning Creates Better Sales Staff Performance

5 Types Of Microlearning That Help Improve Your Sales Staff Performance 

According to the eLearning Industry, “In essence, micro-eLearning offers students and employees the opportunity to more easily absorb and retain the information that is being offered, by making lessons and course activities more manageable and ‘digestible’”.

Here are a few types of microlearning that can help improve your sales staff performance.

These would be games designed by the company that are in some way educational for the employee. They can be lesson-driven so that each level in the game passed is another level in lesson achievement.

The human brain tends to retain visuals more than the written word which is why slideshows are so successful. These provide valuable information in a short amount of time.

Again, instead of reading materials and perhaps zoning away from the information, people tend to find videos more entertaining. Instructional and informational short videos can be developed with an engaging tone that will capture the attention and help ensure the information is retained.

Hands-on learning is essential for some people. It also reinforces the information and lessons they are learning. For example: A sales team could be shown how to work a transaction from beginning to end, then the simulation would have the employees do the same transaction on their own.

These are other types of microlearning tools where the employees can watch and read at their own convenience.

The importance of eLearning is growing among businesses and corporations as they discover not only the benefits of the flexibility of eLearning, but also the invaluable ways employees can learn and grow their skills. Staying up to date with the products and/or services of the company, the newest technology and newest trends will help your sales staff performance in a big way.

Improve the performance of your sales team with eLearning

Boost your confidence for your next talk with this short course! 

Many people would rather die than stand in front of a microphone. It doesn’t have to be that way. This brief course will show that anyone can become a polished public speaker with practice. We've designed it for the person who wants to feel confident while powerfully delivering a message to any audience, large or small.

The ability to speak in public is one of the most valuable of all business skills, so make sure you enroll and brush up on your skills today!

Looking for more? Try our Top Categories! 

Looking for something but can't find it? Meet one of our learning consultants and let us help you out!

Free course: how to master public speaking

It’s great news that the NSW government has developed a new, six-year plan to make workplaces safer, healthier and more productive for all employees. The government’s new Work Health and Safety Roadmap for NSW 2022 aims to reduce the rate of illnesses, injuries and fatalities in all NSW workplaces.

At Go1, this a direction we support wholeheartedly, which is why we’re campaigning to help promote the Work Health and Safety Roadmap for NSW 2022.

At the same time, we know that government agencies are struggling to train staff properly due to budget constraints and limited technology. Without proper training, staff will find it difficult to deliver services safely and efficiently.

Go1’s recent Local Government 2016 survey found that most local governments aren’t even offering online training yet, let alone mobile. Fewer than one in three government agencies offers mobile learning.

Given that governments are setting the standard for the community, they need to be well trained and informed in all of the areas they deal with on a daily basis. All local governments we surveyed listed the same three compliance courses as their top priorities: Traffic Control, Codes of Conduct and Workplace Health and Safety.

So to make training easier, and help more organisations get online and embrace the advantages of eLearning, we’re offering three of our most popular workplace health and safety courses to all NSW businesses for free.

You can enroll in Go1 SafeWork for FREE here

Independently reviewed by Sparke Helmore Lawyers, this course is designed to provide employees with an understanding about bullying and harassment in the workplace, the type of behaviour that should be avoided and what employees can do if bullying or harassment is occurring in their workplace.

This course is designed to provide an understanding of the controls that should be applied to manual handling in the workplace. It has been reviewed by the National Safety Council of Australia.

Endorsed by Chubb Safety Australia, this course is designed to provide the learner with an understanding of why evacuations take place, what occurs during an emergency and their responsibilities concerning evacuation.

Keeping up with compliance is one of the most critical components in training. Governments are setting the standard for the community. They need to be well trained and informed in all of the areas they deal with on a daily basis, and eLearning can make this simple, efficient and cost-effective.

Go1 SafeWork provides support for a safer government

When it comes to retaining your best customers and building a successful business, the customer service experience you provide is absolutely critical. According to the White House Office of Consumer Affairs, a dissatisfied customer will tell between 9-15 people about their experience. Likewise, a Bain & Company study found that a customer is 4 times more likely to defect to a competitor if the problem is service related than price or product related.

Clearly, when customer satisfaction begins to dip, you know you have a serious problem on your hands. Whether you’re working for a lean and mean start-up or an established corporation, make sure you don’t make these critical customer service mistakes:

When your customer service staff is inadequately trained it reflects poorly on your entire organization. To prevent this, it’s important to have standardized processes for dealing with upset customers, deescalating situations, and above all else, providing actionable solutions. Customer service training shouldn’t just be for the customer service department either. Everyone in your company should be on the same page when it comes to customer interactions.

Not greeting your customers in a friendly manner.

The way your customer service staff greets your customers can change the entire mood of the conversation that follows. If they are friendly and warm then there is a high probability that the customer will respond in the same fashion. However, if your customer service staff sounds stressed out, bored, or uninterested then it will only lead to a negative experience.

Some organizations make it very difficult for their customers to actually contact them. They hide their contact information or direct customers to a long and tedious FAQ in an effort to avoid a real human-to-human interaction. While it's true that customer service time adds to your costs, the customer service experience also drives revenue. When your customers can't find solutions to their problems then they will turn to someone else and they will tell the friends to do the same.

“I’m sorry, that’s just our policy.” This is a statement that will turn your customers away in a flash. When there's a situation that needs to be remedied and you can keep the customer by bending the rules a little bit, sometimes this is truly the best option. Amazon is a company that lives by this policy and will go above and beyond to make sure that you’re satisfied with the outcome of your purchase—even if this means doing things that aren't in the rulebook sometimes.

Sometimes your customers just want to be heard. If you want the interaction to go well then it's important to pause and listen to everything that they are telling you. In some cases the problem they have might not be as obvious as they think it is. This is especially true in the tech world, for example. If you take the time to listen to your customers before responding to them the outcome of the interaction may be much more positive.

Airlines and telecom providers are particularly bad about this. As soon as you get through to a real human being they ask you questions about your call and then hand you off to another representative. Then that representative asks you the same question and hand you off to someone else!

This is extremely frustrating and turns customers away. The solution of this problem is to give representatives the authority to solve the problem themselves without handing it off to a different department or superior.

Failing to follow up with customers after the contact was made.

Following up shows the customer that you care about their experience and that you want to make sure that the problem was fully resolved. It leaves things on a positive note so that the last thing your customer remembers is that you were attentive enough to make sure they were fully satisfied.

Some companies train their customer service staff to keep the customers happy at all costs. While this sounds like a great philosophy it also leads to a lot of promises that cannot be fulfilled. Obviously, when your customer expects one thing and is given less than they planned on then your reputation will suffer. Your staff should only make promises about service that they can actually keep!

Documenting your interactions with customers saves you time and provides you with critical data that you can use to improve your products and services over time. Plus, nobody wants to explain their problem over and over again when contacting a customer support representative. If you have a database that documents prior actions then you can get caught up and start addressing the problem faster, which will lead to a more positive outcome with the customer in the end.

Some companies – startups in particular – choose to provide customer service exclusively over email. While this isn’t a problem itself, it can become one if you are sending too many canned responses. Your customers know when they’re receiving a pre-fabricated message and it can make them feel like they are being brushed off. All it takes is adding a little bit of personalization in the beginning of these emails to make the customer feel like they are being paid attention to.

Another Bain & Company study found that it costs 6 to 7 times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. This statistic alone should show you how valuable each and every one of your customers are. The bottom line is that customer loyalty is paramount to the health of your organization. Avoid the mistakes I’ve listed above and you’ll be providing a superior customer service experience that will pay off tremendously in the long run.

Are you interested in learning how to better understand the needs of your customers?

You might find How to Understand Customer Needs to be a valuable resource.

What’s the secret to sales success? Your people!

If a sales manager is not being supported by his/her team then the company is almost guaranteed to experience revenue problems, to say the least.

So how do you motivate your sales staff? Providing incentives and positive reinforcement are two great places to start.

Understanding the Way Motivation Works Within the Workplace

Take a moment to consider what a customer appreciates more: a well-planned business structure or outstanding customer service?

If you’re having trouble hitting the goals that you’ve set for your company, it may be time to reevaluate the ways that you’re approaching your business.

It is too easy to get lost in the numbers and forget about the HUMAN elements that drive sales and result in returning customers.

Determining what customers respond to is more about personality than logistics. Countless studies have proven that clientele good customer relationships drive business growth.

Customers will pay a premium if they’re guaranteed a positive experience.

Ensuring customers are receiving top-quality service lies on the shoulders of a company’s employees. When an employee feels good about their job and the work they are doing it will be evident in their attitude and treatment of others.

Working to motivate your sales staff is a sure fire way to increase their performance about the jobs they’re doing. Consistent motivation will also help promote a greater sense of accomplishment and work ethic.

When developing a motivation strategy for your business, there are several different techniques you can experiment with. Some common approaches are things like:

Goal-driven competitions are a great way to provide incentive and assist the company in reaching targeted sales quotas.

When quarterly bonuses are on the line, sales staff will be more ambitious about their work. It’s that simple.

Offering bonuses that are based on an individual’s work over a longer span of time will encourage them to consistently try harder. Everyone could use a little extra money and many sales staff members will be less willing to risk the total bonus amount because of a poor quarterly performance.

When a business owner makes their team a part of the overall plan, there is a higher chance of success.

Letting your sales staff know what the goals for the company are and how the results can benefit everyone is a great way to provide an incentive for hard work. The big picture does indeed matter.

Not only will your staff feel like they’re part of something bigger, they will have a better understanding of where the business is going and how they can improve their commissions over time.

Sometimes authority figures forget to reward good behavior. This goes for parents, teachers, and yes, bosses.

When an individual is only recognized for poor actions and effort, it lessens their self-esteem and does very little to foster motivation.

Human nature is a fragile thing and people are easily beat down when they are only receiving negative attention. Positive recognition, however, can boost someone’s confidence and provide them with the drive necessary to become a success.

Even if it’s a simple action, sales managers should take the time to thank their team for the hard work they do each day. Showing gratitude really does have a positive effect on your people. .

These types of positive encouragements will benefit the company overall and help you to achieve the goals you’ve set for your team by promoting a culture of positive action.

Reevaluating the working conditions of your sales team and making sure they’re provided with the things they need for a positive environment is vital to your company’s success.

Author Frederick Herzberg discusses a variety of different factors that can promote either satisfaction or dissatisfaction in the workplace in his book, The Motivation to Work. Some of these are:

Taking the time to think about these factors is imperative to a good business environment. If sales teams feel fulfilled by their working conditions they will have more motivation to do their jobs well.

When a boss notices that certain areas of the job or workplace are lacking, they should do something about it asap. This might include investing in better office furniture or even taking the hard-liner approach of eliminating low performing or negative individuals.

Motivation is a Driving Force Behind Company Success

Implementing a greater sense of purpose amongst your team will have a positive effect on your company’s success and reputation.

Whether you’re offering incentives or showcasing gratitude and respect, your sales team will become more focused and determined to succeed—and this will give them the necessary push to start hitting their numbers more consistently.

How to motivate your sales staff and hit your sales goals

The tech industry is a major driving force in the American economy, accounting for 7.1 percent of overall GDP and 11.6 percent of total private sector payroll.

With more than 6.7 million Americans working in the tech industry, and close to 200,000 tech jobs created in the United States last year, the industry is certainly booming. 

Choosing a career in technology is sure to be exciting, innovative and also very rewarding – particularly financially. Did you know that working in the tech industry can bring you more than double that of the average private sector wage?

So how can you get started in the tech industry, or ensure you stay ahead of the competition? Online courses are a great way to learn the fundamental skills you need to get started in technology, or to expand upon your existing skill set – at your own pace, in your own home.

We’ve found 5 of the best online courses to help you develop some of the most in-demand tech skills, valued by today’s employers. 

If you’re looking at getting started in the IT industry, or have moved into a role that requires you to have a greater understanding of tech solutions, troubleshooting is a good place to start.

As one of the most popular and fundamental tech skills, troubleshooting is required for many customer support and system management roles in the tech industry. Knowing what a tool is, what it looks like, and how to use it properly is critical when systems are not functioning, or down because of some wiring issue.

With the online course Becoming an IT Pro: Network Basics you’ll gain valuable troubleshooting skills, putting you ahead of others just starting in the field.

Coding is an incredibly useful skill to have, even for those working outside of the tech industry, such as in marketing, communication or media roles. Being able to build a website from scratch or enhance an existing site is something that many employers will appreciate!

Through the e-learning course HTML5 & CSS3 Site Design, you’ll learn how to master basic skills in web design, HTML, and CSS, as well as handy tips and tricks to help make sites more attractive and user-friendly.

Many companies are looking for employees who are skilled and proficient in Java, an extremely popular language for web development.

Through e-learning course Java Programming: Principles of Software Design you will learn how to write programs in Java and design programs to solve problems that require solutions. This 4-week online course focuses on showing that programming is more than just coding, involving strategic thinking and design as well.

Proficiency in SQL is one of the highest tech skills in demand, with the knowledge of database management and development valued and sought by many employers.

With the online course Mastering Oracle Database 12c SQL by Example, you’ll learn how to use SQL's best practices to query and manipulate data. Unlike other SQL courses, the course provides a media-rich learning experience, with a virtual class module that plugs you into a class environment where you can learn by example.

If you’re new to SQL, this course will be a fast and effective way for you to learn this language and become a skilled SQL developer. For those already familiar with SQL, the advanced parts of this course will provide you with new implementation approaches to improve your skills, including the newest SQL 12c features.

You might be surprised to see this included in our list, but taking the time to improve your leadership skills is very worthwhile. In fact, in a study of the most frequently desired skills for IT roles, approximately 30 percent of positions listed management as a necessary expertise. Showing strong leadership skills is clearly a highly valued skill for potential staff, regardless of industry.

Get a head start on your next supervisor or team leader role with Leadership Fundamentals – an online course that will help you improve your leadership style, successfully manage change and conflict, inspire your team and better serve the needs of your organization. 

There are many more e-learning resources available on the Go1 platform, including hundreds of courses for free! You can simply enrol and complete training modules online, improving your tech skills at your own convenience.

5 online courses to improve your tech skills

One of the most significant benefits to our ever-increasing access to technology is the ability to enhance our productivity exponentially. Think about it: the average student or employee now has access to better and more efficient tools and technology than multibillion dollar corporations had 15 years ago!

Whether you're learning a new language or working to improve your performance on the job there are tons of affordable applications that can help you get more done in less time. The end result of better productivity for students can translate into better jobs when they reach the workforce. For the employee, these tools can help you achieve higher wages and better job security.

Here are a few of our favorites productivity apps that you can start using today:

Productivity-Boosting App #1: RescueRescueTime

RescueTime is a powerful tool that gives you the ability to track and analyze how you spend your time when you sit down at your computer. It’s easy to install and runs in the background while you’re working and tracks how much time you spend using applications and spending time online. Once you've gathered a few days’ worth of information you take a close look at where you are spending too much time and take action to fix it.

The results can be quite eye-opening. For example, you might be shocked to discover how much time you are actually spending on social media or reading news sites every day. Even if it’s a ridiculously conservative 2 hours per work day, that adds up to 40 hours per month! Even if you slashed that number by 50%, imagine what you could get done with 20 more hours in a month. RescueTime has a simple free version as well as a paid premium version that allows you to block websites and track several additional data points like the time you spend away from the computer.

Productivity-Boosting App #2: FocusBooster

FocusBooster is an application that uses the Pomodoro technique in order to maximize your productivity when performing mentally demanding tasks. It's fairly simple to implement: you simply start the timer in the application for 25 minute increments and focus on the work at hand until the timer goes off.  Then you take a short break for 5 to 10 minutes and allow your mind to relax and start the timer again after the break. Studies have shown that this method helps prevent mental fatigue, improve recall, and reduce errors when performing information related tasks. FocusBooster is one of the easiest Pomodoro technique-based applications to get up and running and is absolutely free.

Productivity-Boosting App #3: Google Drive

For the information worker on the go there might not be a better application suite and than Google Drive. This is one of the most popular secure cloud-based storage applications available, allowing you to backup your photos, videos, and documents in a snap. You get a whopping 15 GB of space for free and as long as you have access to the Internet you can collaborate with other workers and update your documents anywhere in the world that you are. All it takes is a tablet, computer or smart phone and you’re off and running!

Access to Google Drive also allows you to use Google's office-based applications and export them in the appropriate format. So even if you don't have access to Microsoft Excel, you can create a spreadsheet in Google Drive and export it to XLS format and send it on to your boss or coworker.

According to a recent survey conducted by the Global Leadership Summit in London, 34% of business leaders claim that half of their company's full-time workforce will be working remotely by 2020. Clearly, applications like Google Drive will help drive productivity in a huge way for workers who will not be tied to a single workstation in the future.

Evernote is an outstanding application for productivity that allows you access to your notes across multiple devices. You can take snapshots of websites, clip important passages and create bookmarks on the go…and then access them from anywhere in the world. You can also create reminders and even hand write to-do lists and upload them to your Evernote account for later access.

The days of taking notes on a yellow legal pad and hauling it around with you are over. One of the biggest benefits to Evernote is the fact that you can organize your notes and ideas and search through them based on keyword tags. This is an essential time-saving app for students and workers alike. Evernote has both a robust free version and an even more advanced paid version at a very reasonable $10 per month.

This is a flash card style program that helps you improve memorization. Many students love to use Anki for language learning because it's fast and effective for repetition based memory techniques. Medical students, engineering students, and other populations that need to memorize a wide variety of formulas and concepts have all touted the benefits of Anki for years. You can create your own “decks” of cards to learn specific concepts or choose from a wide variety of shared ones that have already been created by other users. Anki is a free application that can help you boost productivity in a big way.

Productivity tools empower the student and employee of today in more ways than at any time in history. The applications listed above can help you learn languages faster, get more work done in less time, prevent mental fatigue and organize your information more efficiently. Imagine what you could do with just 20% more time in a day? What could you accomplish? If you start using applications like these then you will soon find out!

5 apps that can help boost your productivity

Proper procedures may be the foundation to a successful customer experience, but they are nothing without the group of people who are performing them.

According to an article in Forbes Magazine, 86% of consumers are willing to pay more for good service. A company might have an award-winning plan to ensure customer satisfaction, but if the employee assisting that individual is not up to par there is an automatic decrease in the chance of conversion.

Achieving greatness amongst your customer service team might seem tricky, but there are three key factors that can make all the difference:

Abiding by these basic ideas will help to ensure successful business practices, happy customers, and an effective customer service team that keeps things running smoothly.

When a business owner wants to improve their customer service tactics, they need to start from the ground up.  Choosing employees that exhibit certain necessary skills will allow them to best serve their customers.

Traits like adaptability and patience can make a huge difference in the grand scheme of things. Not only is each customer different, but also every situation itself is unique. Employees that bestow natural flexibility will have the ability to appeal to a broader variety of personality types and needs.

Managers and owners should also look for team members with great communication skills.

In today’s modern world the digital contact portals available are extensive. Not only are customers calling businesses on the phone, they’re emailing and looking for live chat opportunities. The ability to clearly communicate throughout these different forms is essential to providing a positive customer experience.

Not only will your customers feel more understood themselves, they will also feel more confident about the information the customer service team is providing.

It may seem obvious to say, but knowledge is another key factor in excellent customer service. Guaranteeing someone who has had proper training and education is assisting your customers will help safeguard the company against potential issues.

In a recent Huffington Post article, an intriguing question was posed:

“Are your customer service representatives enabled to be the best they can be…?”

Hiring on team members with the right skills and capabilities is the perfect first step to answering yes to this question and achieving a great reputation for quality customer service.

Time and experience have shown many bosses that there is a direct correlation between happy employees and successful customer service. When a member of the team is being positively motivated on a regular basis, their desire to good work is exponentially higher.

In order to properly motivate employees, a business owner should look at things like:

Letting your employees know how much they are appreciated is a great way to provide motivation. All too often, business higher ups forget to convey gratitude for the work their teams are doing.

When a customer service employee is consistently putting forth a ton of effort but never being acknowledged, their drive to do more will quickly begin to weaken. High morale is key and it’s incredible how much a simple thank you can make a difference.

When a person is happy at work, that happiness will rub off on the customers, which will, in turn, positively affect sales.

Fostering a little friendly competition throughout the workplace is a great way to motivate your customer service team. Whether the award is a small bonus in their paycheck or a restaurant gift card, people love a challenge and a little good-natured competition will bring a sense of fun to the job.

Competitions provide goals that give team members something to work towards. They inspire dedication and increased efforts that will result in higher sales rates for the company.

Whether it’s nothing but raving compliments or a little bit of constructive criticism, the opportunity for a customer service employee to sit down with their boss is an invaluable chance for motivation.

Not only do these meetings provide a platform for feedback, they also offer the employee a chance to discuss any questions or concerns they may be facing.

However big your company is, taking the time out for a one-on-one chat with your employees allows you to focus on them and their needs. This will not only provide a fresh perspective for both boss and team member but will often encourage higher respect throughout the company.

When you’re trying to figure out how to get your customer service team performing at their best, one of the most helpful answers is to walk a mile in their shoes.

Taking the time out of your busy schedule to spend a day working in customer service will provide you with the firsthand knowledge needed to truly understand the work being done and the expectations of your consumers.

You will have the chance to interact with your own service equipment and products, which will unveil potential weaknesses in the system. This will help you determine what types of reevaluation and re-training may need to occur

Logistics aside, however, seeing your company from the other side of the counter will probably give you a newfound respect for the work that your employees do. As a result, your customer service team will feel encouraged by your own dedication to the work.

Improving Your Business’ Success from the Inside-Out

A high performing customer service team is a major key to successful business practices.

Your customer service employees are the face and voice of your company. Their happiness and effort will directly affect the number of successful customer experiences you see and will keep said customers coming back for years to come.

A company with a reputation for amazing customer service speaks volumes in the world of business and it doesn’t take much to get there. If you remember the three main topics mentioned in this article: capability, motivation, and understanding, you will be laying the groundwork needed to become a triumph in the customer service industry.

How to get the best out of your customer service team

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