July 9, 2018

5 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Happy customers make for a happy business owner … and on the other hand, unhappy customers can really bring you down.

If you’re a business owner, you already know that the increasing popularity of review sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor gives your customers more power than ever. Just one negative review from an unsatisfied customer can cost you a lot of potential business. You might be thinking, “Well, I don’t have any bad reviews, everything’s fine!”

Related: 5 Proven Ways to Get More Customer Reviews On Google and Facebook

But do you really know how your customers feel?

If the answer is no, learning how to determine your customers’ happiness score and improve your customer service will be one of the best time investments you can make.

Why does your customer’s happiness score matter?

According to Help Scout, poor customer service costs U.S. companies more than $62 billion annually. When it comes down to it, unhappy customers can end up costing you a lot of money.

Satisfied customers might recommend you to a couple of people, but generally, you won’t hear from those customers if you don’t ask. If a customer has a bad experience with your business, though, he or she will let everyone know just how disappointing that experience was — as in the number of stars selected:

Google reviews (screenshot). https://www.google.com/

Marketing and sales are much more difficult these days: Customers are smarter about making purchases and are less trusting of companies, making customer retention more essential than ever to growing a business.

Customer retention, in turn, is much less expensive than customer acquisition; and, according to Invesp, the probability of selling to an existing customer is 60 percent to 70 percent, while the probability of selling to a new prospect is less: 5 percent to 20 percent. This is why you need to focus on your customer service and ensure you have a good relationship with your existing customers.

To start focusing on improving customer service, here are some simple ways to measure your customers’ happiness score:

Customer satisfaction score (CSAT)

Key to a customer’s happiness score is his/her customer satisfaction score. This basically entails asking customers to rate their satisfaction with your service, product or business, in general. Your score is the average rating of your customer responses. It’s a simple and direct way to gauge the happiness of your customers.

You can make it easier on the customer to let you know how they’re feeling by asking them to click the face that best describes their satisfaction with your service.

Customer satisfaction scale (image), https://www.questionpro.com/article/likert-scale-survey-questions.html

You can send targeted emails to your customers asking for their overall satisfaction rating. Make it simple for them to choose their level of happiness, as in the example above; also consider adding an optional text box to get more detailed feedback.

Net promoter score (NPS)

A net promoter score works to determine how likely your customers are to recommend your product or service to a friend, family member or colleague. Typically, customers are asked how likely they are to recommend you, on a scale of 1 to 10. You can use an in-app survey, where you subtly integrate a feedback bar right into your website, or a slide-in popup that appears for customers and subscribers only. For example, take a look at Asana’s feedback bar: 

Asana feedback bar (screenshot). https://app.asana.com/

This is a great way to measure brand loyalty and to see which of your customers are going to be ambassadors for your brand. Brand loyalty also helps you connect with your customers. Using the word “friend” in your question creates an emotional connection between the customer and your business.

Related: 4 Lesser-Known Customer-Review Platforms You Need to Know About

Customer effort score (CES)

After having a negative experience, 51 percent of people would never use the company again, according to New Voice Media. Customers don’t have a ton of patience, and that means you need to be quick and efficient at solving any problems they have. This is what the customer effort score can help you with.

You can use a tool like QuestionPro to help you understand how easy or difficult it was to use your product or get help from customer service. 

Customer effort score (image). https://www.questionpro.com/customer-effort-score.html

Customers here aren’t being asked for their happiness score but instead for the amount of effort they invested to get a problem solved. The goal is to lower this customer effort score. That way, you’ll know your business is easy to use, and your customers will be more likely to want to repurchase your product or reuse your service again.

Monitor social media conversations

Customers talk about brands on social media all the time. If they have a problem with your business and are ranting about it on social media, you’ve got a good opportunity to improve your customer service. Many companies will reach out to unhappy customers on social media personally, offering their apologies and help in solving their issues. Customers appreciate the convenience this method offers.

You can also use a tool like Mention, to track everything that’s being said about your company online, making it easier for you to manage unhappy customers and see what people are saying about you.

Mention brand monitoring (screenshot). https://mention.com/en/

Related: 6 Ways to Make Online Reviews Work for Your Business

You’ve got to realize, however, that there’s always room for improvement when it comes to your customer service. Constantly looking for ways to raise your customer’s happiness score is never a wasted effort and will help grow your business to new heights.

July 7, 2018

2 min read

No matter what business you’re in, social media is a necessity. And when you’re spending time and money building your brand’s social presence, it’s important to know whether these efforts are making an impact.

Related: 6 Social Media Monitoring Tools for Managing Your Online Presence

Of course, social media can be tough. But the good news is you’re not alone. A number of professionals admit they don’t know if their social media efforts are actually paying off. According to research by MDG Advertising, 44 percent of CMOs admit they have not been able to measure the impact that social media has had on their business. Not only that, but only 36 percent say they have a good qualitative sense, but not a quantitative one, and a mere 20 percent say they’ve actually managed to quantify social media’s impact. Given these numbers, it’s no wonder marketers say their top challenges are social media related, including difficulty measuring ROI, publishing content and developing a social strategy.

Related: 5 Social Media Tips to Help You Drive Sales

However, with the help of digital tools such as Hootsuite and Google Analytics, tracking social media is a little easier. These tools make it simple to measure engagement, likes and comments. Where people run into trouble though is measuring the actual sales that come from social media. In fact, a whopping 58 percent of brands say they measure engagement but not actual conversions; only 21 percent say they measure conversions.

Related: 4 Tools for Automating and Recycling Social Media Posts

Don’t let these number discourage you though. From increasing exposure to building a loyal fanbase — your social media strategy may be working, but the actual numbers are not quite clear. However, with the right investments, platforms, employees and data, you’ll be well on your way to understanding social media’s full impact on your business.

To learn more, check out MDG Advertising’s infographic below.

July 6, 2018

4 min read

This story originally appeared on Due

What does it mean to be “rich?” Does it mean an ability to afford basic needs like a home, clothing and food? Is it an arbitrary earning rate, like $100,000 per year or $1 million per year? Is richness measured by how much money you have in the bank? While there may not be a clear answer to what makes someone rich, many people do try to categorize us by earnings, assets and other measures.

One common way to look at your wealth is to compare yourself to others. That often comes in the form of “keeping up with the Joneses,” or feeling bad if you can’t. Some recent studies showed the average income in some of America’s biggest cities, and where the top and bottom incomes are found in the United States. Let’s dive in to see how you compare and the answer to the pressing question: are you rich?

Top 50 percent income rates

Depending on where you live, the mid-level income varies widely. The highest average income in the country is Silicon Valley, with a top 50 percent threshold of $110,000 per year. That’s right! You need to make six figures just to reach the median income in The Valley. Nearby San Francisco has the next highest average income at $96,700 per year, according to Census Bureau data.

But if you can live anywhere on your income and want to feel rich, consider a move to America’s Southeast. In New Orleans, you only need to make $48,800 per year to join the top half of incomes. Nearby Memphis is another city where you can be in the top 50 percent below $50,000 year, with a $49,800 income putting you square in the middle.

Those are the extremes of metro areas in the United States for 2016. The infographic compiled by how much shows that the vast majority of cities require an income in the $60,000 to $80,000 range to reach the top half of incomes.

This income breakdown also helps to show why some cities are more attractive than others. Why would someone move to Washington D.C. where you have to earn over $95,000 per year to join the top half when you could move to Atlanta, not far away and a lot more affordable? In Atlanta, $62,600 per year puts you in the upper 50 percent of incomes.

Compare your total income to the chart above to see if you land in the top half of income earners in your city, or if you need to hustle to earn a little more to join the top half.

Can moving make you rich?

Here’s an interesting question to ask yourself. If you are not self-employed, could you move to a new city in search of wealth? If you make the average income in a low paying city, would moving to a higher average income city lead to a raise? The answer is maybe.

In my own experience, I was able to move to a new city and get a 40 percent raise in the process. Much of that, however, was due to a new MBA, working with a high-quality recruiter, and changing from a low paying industry to a highly profitable one. But in some cases, if you have the right skills you can absolutely do the same. Just keep in mind that you may be able to get a raise in your current hometown before you uproot and move to a high-income city that may also cost a lot more in comparison to where you live today.

Are you rich already?

Nearly a decade ago, I had a lively debate with another personal finance blogger about what makes someone rich, or at least upper class. He argued that a $100,000 income in San Francisco does not mean it is easy to get by. That may be true, but it could just be a matter of how you are trying to get by. Perhaps you have let lifestyle inflation take you into a more expensive living situation than you can really afford, but that does not make you poor.

Maybe you are rich. Compare your standard of living to that in other parts of your city, other parts of the country, and other parts of the world. If you have a high income and still struggle with the bills, stop looking at your neighbors and start looking at your budget. If you manage your money right, you may be able to live a rich lifestyle on what you make today. If you can find happiness living within your means, you are on the right track for a lifetime of happiness and success.

(By Eric Rosenberg)

July 1, 2018

2 min read

Everyone has their own way of doing things, especially when it comes to absorbing new information. What might work for you won’t for the person next to you. That’s why it’s important to understand your needs and what works best for you so you can take in new information quicker.

Related: The 4 Key Learning Styles and How You Can Use Them to Learn, Teach and Grow Your Business

Some people are “visual learners,” meaning they learn best when some sort of imagery such as maps, flow charts and diagrams is used. When there’s too much text on a page, a visual learner is likely to lose interest quickly. To the contrary, others might learn best when there are more words than images. These people are categorized as “read/write learners,” and more words on a page is beneficial to these individuals. Other types of learners include aural/auditory learners, multimodal learners and kinesthetic learners, or people who need a hands-on experience and put theory into practice.

Related: I Started Saying ‘No’ to These 6 Things. My Life and My Business Got a Lot Better.

To figure out what type of learner you are, check out Pound Place’s infographic below.  

June 30, 2018

1 min read

Too much stress can lead to decreased productivity, poor health and burnout. The truth is, however, we usually stress about things that never actually happen. Or, if they do, we end up handling these situations much better than we’d imagined.

Related: 9 Ways High-Performing Entrepreneurs Handle Stress

Research conducted by Happify discovered that a whopping 85 percent of people admit that the things we worry about never actually happen. Not only that, but when our worries do become a reality, 80 percent of people say they handle these situations better than they thought they would. Still, seven out of 10 people say they experience stress and anxiety every day.

So what exactly are people stressing about? The top stressor is money, followed by work and the economy. In the workplace, people admit that workload was the most overwhelming aspect (46 percent), followed by people issues (28 percent), work-life balance (20 percent) and lack of job security (6 percent).

Related: A Brain Surgeon’s Tips for Handling Stress Head-On

The best way to beat these stressors are getting outside, cultivating relationships with loved ones and exercising. To learn more, check out Happify’s infographic below.

June 29, 2018

5 min read

Let’s talk about the “s-word.”

While stress levels among American adults have remained consistent over the last two years (averaging 4.8 on a scale of 1 to 10), but people were more likely to feel the effects of stress in 2017 than the previous year. In fact, 45 percent of Americans reported their stress translated to lying awake at night during the past month, according to the American Psychological Association’s annual Stress in America survey. And about one-third said their stress led to feeling nervous/anxious, irritable/angry or fatigued.

Women have it even worse — they’ve reported higher stress levels than men since the survey began, and in 2017, women’s stress levels increased slightly while men’s dropped.

What we can do to tame those cortisol levels? We’ve got a roundup of five quick exercises you can do anytime, anywhere to tap into your inner zen.

Focus on your breath.

Image credit: Merlas | Getty Images

Our breath patterns are known to change when we’re relaxed, stressed, fearful or excited, so it makes sense that the process often works in reverse — in other words, breathing in a relaxed way usually promotes feelings of calm. Another perk of breathing exercises: You can do them anywhere, and they’re relatively subtle. One of the most common techniques is the 4-7-8 exercise developed by Dr. Andrew Weil, author of Breathing: The Master Key to Self Healing. To prepare for the exercise, rest the tip of your tongue against the roof of your mouth, and try to keep it there throughout the exercise (some people find this easier with lips slightly pursed). Let your lips part, and exhale completely.

Here’s how you get started: With your lips closed, breathe in through your nose over the course of four seconds, hold your breath for seven seconds and, with a “whooshing exhale,” release the air over a period of eight counts. You can repeat the process as many times as necessary — it’s meant to serve as an oxygen boost and a method of slowing down heart rate.

Tense and release.  

Image credit: Seb Oliver | Getty Images

Whether you carry tension in your shoulders, neck, or any other area, a 10- to 15-minute tense-and-release exercise is a prime way to relax. At your desk, systematically tense different parts of your body, hold for a few seconds, then release. Start with your toes and feet, and move all the way up to your neck and face. Each time you release a muscle group, notice the difference in how it feels. People with constant tension can become so used to the feeling that they no longer notice it, so this exercise aids in awareness for tension in the body. It can also help you to cue a relaxed state when you feel yourself starting to become stressed.

Get moving.

Image credit: LeoPatrizi | Getty Images

Try walking around the block to ward off stress. Physical activity — even a brief, brisk walk — amps up the brain’s production of positive neurotransmitters, also known as endorphins. Exercising regularly can help clear the mind, improve sleep and assuage mild depression and anxiety symptoms. Scheduling a half-hour walk amidst a day of calls and meetings can seem infeasible, but even taking three 10-minute walks over the period of one day can bring about similar benefits as one longer stint of exercise, according to the Mayo Clinic. Another perk? A recent TED Talk by behavioral and learning scientist Marily Oppezzo showed that exercising in the form of walking can boost creativity levels. In fact, people who brainstormed while walking on a treadmill averaged close to twice as many creative ideas as their seated counterparts.

Enlist a relaxation playlist.

Image credit: Merlas | Getty Images

Americans spent an average of about 32 hours a week listening to music in 2017, up 5.5 hours from the year before. One of the many reasons it’s a beloved pastime: Music can influence mood quickly and completely — even when it comes to minimizing stress. According to an article published by the Public Library of Science, listening to music before a stressful situation helped the autonomic nervous system — which is responsible for breathing, heartbeat and digestion — recover faster from feelings of stress. Try creating your own playlist to de-stress, or turn to an existing one (for example, streaming platform Spotify has curated options like “Relax and Unwind,” “Nature Noise” and “Calm Down”).

Go for gratitude.

Image credit: spukkato | Getty Images

One of the simplest stress busters of all? Think about what you’re thankful for. Adding gratitude into your daily routine can take many forms, but however you introduce it, it could decrease stress levels and boost your general happiness. Research from University College London suggests that practicing gratitude can increase optimism and sleep quality — as well as decrease diastolic blood pressure. Try incorporating gratitude into your daily routine by thinking up five to 10 things you’re grateful for just after waking up or before going to sleep. If you’re a visual learner, consider investing in a gratitude journal that prompts you to jot down your thankful thoughts.

June 28, 2018

3 min read

The following feature is excerpted from TIME Marijuana: The Medical Movement available at retailers and on Amazon. 

When you are involved in an industry that is exploding with product and profits, important details can get lost in the shuffle.

Details like security.

“Some of these cannabis growers will stick a million in cash in a gym bag, throw it on the passenger seat and drive it down to Salem with a joint in their mouth,” says Garrick Fernbaugh, co-founder of the elite tactical-training and security-service company Red Frog in Oregon. “That’s maybe not the best way to go about that, and that’s where we come in.”

Fernbaugh, a Navy SEAL for 20 years and a former government contractor, is part of a growing trend of former Special Operators who are applying their expertise to the cannabis industry.

Related: Use This Secret Military Trick to Tell if Someone Is Lying

And not necessarily in the gun-blazing manner one might think. “In Special Operations, ninety percent of the job involves analyzing situations and mitigating risk as much as possible,” explains a former Green Beret from California-based security firm Ridgeline OST who requested to be referred to only as Matthew.

Those risks come primarily in two forms: robbery, and businesses failing to keep up with the ever-changing rules and regulations. Operators have ample experience with these two threats, thanks to their work in politically unstable nations.

Billy Tosheff, CEO of Oregon-based Wildcat, which facilitates collaboration between growers and retailers and helps businesses scale, says Special Operators fill a hole. “People who come from a business background are thinking more about financial objectives, so to have people who are focused on potential threats is invaluable,” he says.

Former SEAL Fernbaugh explains that the habits he built up while providing security for the likes of the president of Afghanistan stay with him even while driving to the mall. “When I’m driving, it’s probably a 70/30 ratio of looking ahead and in the rearview mirror,” he says. And this training is coming in handy in the weed world. “There are only two banks in Oregon that are accepting this cannabis cash, so you can imagine the potential for an ambush.”

Is it overkill to employ the skills of the most elite fighting forces in the world? Not when you consider that some marijuana farms harvest one big crop a year, which means that at that moment, they’re sitting on millions of dollars worth of product.

Related: The Green Beret Hotel Check-In Safety List

As the industry has grown, business owners are taking security and compliance more seriously, but Matthew from Ridgeline OST says companies are still going through a learning curve. “My first week full-time in California, I find myself at a shareholders’ meeting sitting across from three Russian guys that looked like they stepped out of a gangster movie: tracksuit, fanny pack, the whole deal. So that was a good discussion with the crew after the meeting. We need to know who the shareholders and investors are. You can have some organized-crime syndicates putting money into your operation, but that’s not good for security—or for when the state legislators look into your finances.”

June 27, 2018

6 min read

This story originally appeared on Bizness Apps

Managing your SEO goals on a small budget can be overwhelming, especially if you are only a one-person, two-person or [insert small number here]-person team. With a plethora of options available to choose from, you really need to keep your eye out for those strategies that are easy to implement and yet bring considerable returns. So to make your journey easier, we have listed a number of SEO strategies that will give you a quick and easy start.

1. Optimize for mobile

Mobile optimization is now a necessity, not an option. Mobile friendliness is a ranking factor and hence it cannot be ignored when you are talking about SEO success. Websites designed for mobile screens perform better in terms of ranking when compared to the ones that are not. With Google’s mobile-first index coming to the scene, it makes sense to optimize your website for mobile users.

This takes precedence in our list because, 1) it is an absolute necessity and 2) it is pretty easy to implement. In fact, platforms like WordPress will do it for you. They have a pool of mobile-optimized themes that you can pick from, easy as pie! In addition, read this quick guide to find out how to optimize your site for mobile devices.

2. Build your local presence through local citations

If you own a local business, earning a strong local presence is essential for visibility. With local SEO gaining importance, it makes sense to invest in various aspects of it. One of these includes earning local citations in order to get found online. In the latest Local Search Ranking Factors survey, local search experts rated citation related factors as making up approximately 13.31 percent and Google My Business 19.01 percent of the Top 50 factors.

Local citations, as per Moz, can be built majorly through three gateways: Industry-specific platforms, Local Business data platforms, and the Wider Web. For instance, the Yelp directory helps businesses like restaurants, bars, beauty salons and so on to expand their local listings. GMB (Google My Business) provides a common gateway for businesses in all industries. Apart from these listings, you can also earn local citations through blogs, government websites, apps etc.

It’s important to remember that it isn’t just being present online. Accuracy plays a key role in how you actually show up online. Discrepancies in information across different listings can be detrimental to your business image as it can mislead the audience and create space for bad reviews. Make sure your NAP (aka Name, Address, Phone number) is accurate and updated on all platforms.

3. Create a sitemap

One of the major reasons why websites lose traffic is because of “crawlability” errors. So if you really want to increase your traffic results, you need to address such issues at the start of your SEO journey. A sitemap allows search engines to list all your website pages, so they are crawled effectively.

Generating a sitemap is easy. There are a number of online sitemap generators you can choose from. For sites hosted on WordPress, your sitemap is generated automatically by the Google XML Sitemaps Generator plugin.

4. Focus on making your metadata click-worthy

Optimising your metadata is one of the best DIY methods to get SEO positive results. The major elements in your meta-data are: Title, Meta description, URL.

Start by including your target keyword in the title, as shown below. Then move onto meta descriptions; these are short snippets of information your audience can view from the search results. Effective meta descriptions compel viewers to click on your website link. (Note: The meta description character limit has increased to “320” from 160 characters.) Getting your URL structure right is also a crucial aspect of SEO optimization. Ensure that your target keyword is a part of your URL. Additionally, keep your URLs as short as possible. This can be done by eliminating unnecessary conjunctions.

5. Add a visual appeal to your website

The core motive of any SEO strategy is to enhance user experience and through it, rank higher. When a user lands on your website, the first impression is created by the website appearance. So, it is crucial to leave a good (or better yet, amazing) first impression.

How? Try to enhance your website design visually. Ensure that your blog-posts are “visual-rich”. Articles with relevant images get 94 percent more views. While investing in a video production company to create videos might not be the best thing for your budget, an explainer video can really give you that initial push. If you don’t have it in your budget to hire a designer, you can take a stab at it yourself. There are many free (and fail-proof) design tools out there that can help your brand become more visual.

6. Focus on thought leadership when creating content

“Content is king” still holds true in the marketing world. So when you set out to create your content strategy, always think of generating content that is unique and adds value to the readers. Find pain-points that haven’t been addressed and deliver solutions through your content. Incorporate visuals in your content plan, as mentioned above, to deliver information in a more engaging way.

This strategy is employed by Moz and executed well in their “Whiteboard Friday” video series. Another good example of a blog that established authority through content is BufferApp. By writing a series of guest posts which offered valuable insights, they earned 100,000 customers in the first 9 months.

Quick recap

For small businesses, the best way to crack the SEO code is through strategies that offer them an even field with big companies. The first step to doing this is to optimize your website’s metadata and be mobile-friendly. Another great way is through local citations, a good local presence can help small businesses reap great rewards. And the way you deliver user experience also dictates your success. Make sure that you create a visually engaging first impression.

(By Sahil Kakkar. Kakkar is the CEO and founder of Rankwatch, a platform, which helps companies and brands stay ahead with their SEO efforts in the ever growing internet landscape.)