16 Apr

3 Effective Ways To Improve The Customer Experience

Posted in Synergy Suggestions on 16.04.15 by John Meloche

Businesswoman on phone signing document at officeOver the past couple of days, the Synergy Marketing Blog has been focusing on improving your company’s team. Generally, your business can only be successful as your employees allow it to be. The more dedicated they are to your vision, the better they will perform. We mentioned, however, that a big part of your job is to get your team on board with improving the lives of your customers. After all, who matters more to your company?

Providing excellent customer experiences is the true definition of a successful company. It’s important to put customers first so that they will continue to offer their long term support. Without it, your company will find it a lot tougher to thrive. Surprisingly, “some companies simply can’t be bothered to put their customers at the center of their business by prioritizing their experience,” writes Rob Carpenter on Evergage.com.

Here are three effective ways to improve the customer experience:

1. Be accessible over the phone. It doesn’t matter how tech-savvy and internet-crazy our world has become, people still prefer speaking to live representatives over any other type of customer service. It’s important to offer your customers the type of service that makes them feel comfortable. You don’t just need friendly and knowledgeable staff members. You need an easy way for them to be reached. Carpenter suggests that you offer phone consults to your clients.

He also suggests that you find ways to better know your customers. Keep in mind that the success of your company largely depends on the relationships it builds with its clients. “The lesson here is that deepening your relationship with your power users sometimes means going offline,” Carpenter writes, “It means taking the time to understand how your product fits into your user’s life, and recognizing them and appreciating their business in a way that is uniquely meaningful to them.”

2. Personalize your product packaging. Showing your customers that you care often means adding a bit of a personal touch. While reaching out via phone to make sure that they are satisfied with your service will help out quite a bit, you may also want to find ways to personalize the way your products are packaged. Taking the time to add personal handwritten messages to go along with the deliveries of your products is one example.

“While it takes an extra minute or two, it sends the message to the customer that they are seen and heard — that their decision to give you their business is appreciated,” insists Carpenter, “This is especially important during the trial phase. Taking the time to connect with the customer on a personal level creates a bond between the user and the brand that they will remember when the trial is over.”

3. Give away freebies. Synergy Marketing has long championed the concept of giving away freebies to customers. And why wouldn’t we? We offer the best promotional products in the business! Our many years of experience have proven that giving customers useful items for free works wonders in building loyalty, garnering referrals, growing client bases and increasing sales. Carpenter certainly agrees with this practice.

“One of the easiest ways to make customers happy is to give them something for nothing,” he writes, “But there is a difference between giving away useless trinkets, and providing customers with added bonuses that bring value to their life or to their business.” We couldn’t agree more. This is why we are dedicated to offering high-quality promo gifts that add value to the lives of their recipients.

To order promo gifts for your company, call Synergy Marketing at 1-877-748-9884 today!

tags: , , , ,

Comments Off on 3 Effective Ways To Improve The Customer Experience

15 Apr

3 More Ways To Bolster Your Business Team

Posted in Synergy Suggestions on 15.04.15 by John Meloche

Competitive businessman wearing hockey equipmentThe NHL’s Stanley Cup Playoffs are set to begin tonight! And that means that excitement is at a fever pitch all throughout Canada. Not necessarily in Toronto, however. Our hometown Toronto Maple Leafs have missed the playoffs for a second straight season, after completing one of their most dismal attempts to make it back to the postseason in years. Things are bit different in other parts of the country.

Interestingly, round one of the playoffs will feature a couple of all-Canadian match-ups. The Ottawa Senators will battle it out with the Montreal Canadiens while the Vancouver Canucks will face the Calgary Flames over on the west coast. Toronto hockey fans will sadly have to adopt a new team to get behind. Again. As mentioned in yesterday’s blog, our hockey team vastly needs improving. Does your company’s team need improving as well?

Here are three more ways to bolster your business team:

1. Encourage and accept feedback. In order for your employees to truly get behind your company’s mandate to perform at its best, they need to feel like what they do and say matters. There is no one better than those on the front line to listen to when it comes to drumming up ideas to improve your company’s success. Your team members who work directly with your customers know what makes your customers tick. Listen to feedback and implement changes where appropriate.

“People will work for something they believe is worth doing because it makes the world better,” writes Tim Berry on BusinessInsider.com, “Believe that, live that, and other people will join you. It’s not about sales growth and profits unless you own the company and plan to sell it. Until then, it’s about doing something that matters.” Your team will feel like what they are doing matters when you prove to them that their contributions truly makes a difference.

2. Let your team be part of your company’s development. It’s one thing to accept feedback. It’s another thing to allow your team members to come up with the ideas that will bring about positive change. If you really want your team to perform well, you may want to give them the responsibility of seeing whether or not they can come up with ways to improve business on their own. Berry refers to this as a “SWOT analysis”.

“Get the team together and do bullet points for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats,” he explains, “Strengths and weaknesses are internal, opportunities and threats are external. It gets people thinking about strategy.” When you have your team on board with your strategy – partly because they helped to come up with it – it will encourage them to perform at their best in order to see their ideas through.

3. Keep statistics. If it’s one thing that sports fans really love to pay attention to, it’s statistics. How else are they able to determine who the best players in their favourite leagues are? As a business owner, you should take the same approach to bolstering your team. Keep statistics and share them with your team. The only way to improve performance is to let them know exactly how they’re doing.

“Find numbers for everybody and live them and own them,” insists Berry, “Not just dollars in sales or costs or expenses; find the real numbers your team members can live with, take pride in, improve, and (point 2 above) own. That might be page views, clicks, links in, meals served, trips, engagements, conversion, calls, presentations, whatever. Give everybody numbers. Make an environment in which people care about their numbers, check them daily, hurt when they’re bad, feel good when they’re good.”

tags: , , , ,

Comments Off on 3 More Ways To Bolster Your Business Team

14 Apr

3 Ways To Improve Your Company’s Team

Posted in Synergy Suggestions on 14.04.15 by John Meloche

Businessman and baseball batWell, the Toronto Blue Jays didn’t start their 2015 season at home the way we would have liked. With a less-than-exciting 2-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays last night at their home opener inside Rogers Centre, the Jays have fallen to 4-3 on the season so far. The fans, here at Synergy Marketing, are hopeful that the things are only going get better from here. After all, the Jays have done a lot to bolster their team over the offseason.

At Synergy Marketing, we are also mindful of the fact that business owners are in constant states of bolstering their teams. It is practically a year-round part of the job to strengthen business operations by improving the quality of their staffs. So how do you ensure that your team is always performing at its best? How do you know when it’s time to let go of the weakest performers and bring in some new blood?

Here are three ways to improve your company’s team:

1. Develop from within. Just like in professional sports, many teams require the nurturing of young talent in order to grow their success. Naturally, this may take some time. But putting an effort towards developing the talents of your most trusted and loyal team members can go long way in growing your business. To do this, it’s important to encourage your team members by giving them responsibilities that truly impact your company.

“Develop ownership inside the team,” insists Tim Berry on BusinessInsider.com, “By ownership I mean being really in charge of something, so you care about whether it works or doesn’t. If you’re key team members don’t swell with pride when things go well and dig in deep to change things when things go poorly, you’re screwed. Do they wait for your lead on everything? Then they don’t own anything, and nothing good is going to happen.”

2. Learn from your mistakes. No matter how good a team is, they are bound to suffer losses from time to time. Obviously, the Toronto Blue Jays are well aware of that. However, your losses and missteps give you opportunities to know how to make changes for the better. Simply dwelling on what you may consider your failures is not bound to help you in any way. It’s important to learn from those mistakes and turn them into business-building experiences.

“Embrace mistakes and educated guessing,” advises Berry, “People afraid of making mistakes can’t operate. If they don’t acknowledge bad results, and don’t care, get rid of them. If they do acknowledge bad results and they bear down to solve problems and do better, make sure they know that you know that. You want people to guess and keep trying. Good decisions have bad outcomes sometimes.”

3. Put your customers first. In professional sports, it’s important to consider the needs of a fan base. After all, who is putting money in the pockets of the teams? Without support, teams fold and often move to new markets. The Toronto Maple Leafs aren’t about to fold any time soon. Their fan base is too huge. We should know – we’re part of it! But, yesterday, just days after one of their worst seasons ended, it was announced that their General Manager and coaching staff were all fired.

Why? The fans need to know that there will be different results next year! Your customers need to feel as if their needs are considered priorities as well. To do that, Berry recommends that you work towards improving your customers’ lives. “Don’t just keep shouting the same old stuff,” he writes, “Find something your team can do that’s good for your customers. Make your customers’ lives better. Do that on your own terms of course, within your own business area.”

Be sure to check back for tomorrow’s blog as we continue to analyze ways that you can improve your company’s team. And don’t forget to give ours a call at 1-877-748-9884 in order to get your hands on your fantastic promotional products!

tags: , , , ,

Comments Off on 3 Ways To Improve Your Company’s Team

13 Apr

Blue Jays Home Opener Should Inspire Business Owners

Posted in News on 13.04.15 by John Meloche

Thinking out of box conceptTonight is the night that Toronto baseball fans have been waiting for since last October. With another crack at making it into the playoffs for the first time since 1993, Major League Baseball’s Toronto Blue Jays are set to play their home opener at the Rogers Centre tonight at 7:00 p.m. Having started the season in New York on April 6th, the Jays currently stand at a 4-2 record – winners of their first two series. It’s a good sign for Jays fans, as both series wins came against division rivals.

Besting both the New York Yankees and last year’s American League East Division Champions, the Baltimore Orioles over the past week, the Blue Jays go into tonight’s home opener facing another division rival in the Tampa Bay Rays. A sell-out crowd is anticipated, as the annual home opener is a hot ticket each and every year. Here, at Synergy Marketing, we’re quite excited for the start of the new Blue Jays season, especially since the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs ended theirs so badly.

With the NBA’s Toronto Raptors winning the Atlantic Division and headed into the playoffs for the second straight year, there is quite a lot of excitement in Toronto over our hometown teams. Here’s hoping the excitement translates into a big win for the Jays tonight. They’ve had an interesting start to their 2015 campaign already. For starters, the team started the season with no less than six rookies on their squad – including Mississauga’s own Dalton Pompey, the team’s new centre fielder.

Pompey isn’t the Jays’ only hometown addition. Toronto-born Russell Martin is the Blue Jays’ new catcher. Tonight should be a special night for both men. Of course, for fans of the Blue Jays – many of them are part of the Synergy Marketing staff, in case it wasn’t already obvious – the first home game of the year is always a special night. A number of our team members plan on being in attendance at the Rogers Centre tonight.

The start of a new season – no matter the sport – should always be inspiring to business owners. It brings to mind the concept of starting anew and getting a fresh start. And sometimes, that’s necessary in order to keep a business successful. In other cases, starting over is required just to save a company from plummeting deeper into the abyss – so to speak. Does your company need to go through any changes to better itself?

“As a business owner, you have to be committed to constantly evaluating your business practices and making necessary changes if you want to see growth,” writes Chad Holvorson on Forbes.com, “If your small business is stagnant or not as profitable as it should be, sitting on your thumbs waiting for things to improve won’t help. You have to make strategic moves to build brand awareness, improve customer service and bolster social engagement to help it grow.”

If you’re looking to make some significant changes to bolster your business, Synergy Marketing can help! In many cases, it’s not the products or services offered by a company that leads to business growth – it’s the way they advertise. Our fantastic promotional products have long been known to give Canadian business owners the boost they need in getting their names better known.

Choose from pens, key chains, flashlights, knives, tools, water bottles and so much more! Not only are our gifts known for their high-quality, but they are excellent customer-relationship-builders. Long known for their ability to please their recipients, encouraging them to stay loyal, promo gifts are also the most cost-efficient way to adequately advertise your business. Give us a call today at 1-877-748-9884 for more information.

And let’s go Blue Jays!

tags: , , , , , ,

Comments Off on Blue Jays Home Opener Should Inspire Business Owners

10 Apr

3 Ways Promo Gifts Turn Customers Into Advertisers

Posted in Promotional Products on 10.04.15 by John Meloche

img-xcaliber-escape-logo-v1-1024x1269Over the past couple of days, we have been closely reviewing the work of Arsham Mirshah on AMABaltimore.org. From time to time, we enjoy dissecting articles on the concept of business promotion, especially when they refer to the use of promotional products as advertising tools. This is because it greatly intrigues us to learn of the various perspectives of promo gifts that are out there.

Time and time again, we find that promo gifts are widely accepted as the most cost-efficient and effective means by which a business owner can advertise his or her business. One of the main reasons for that is because promotional products help to turn customers into big proponents for the brands they like. We’ve detailed how great an impression you can make on a person when he or she is given a gift. That person often ends up returning the favour through his or her loyalty.

Here are three ways that promo gifts turn customers into advertisers:

1. They encourage spreading of the word. When customers have good experiences, they are very likely to tell others about them. For the most part, people actually enjoy telling others about their favourite places and take pride in their recommendations. For this reason, Mirshah highlights the fact that your promo gifts can work excellently in having the word of your business spread around from person to person.

This is achieved, he writes, through the often-frowned-upon act of “re-gifting”. “Re-gifting is generally a forbidden practice,” says Mirshah, “The thought of someone passing on a well thought out personal gift to someone else generally promotes blood boiling anger but not in the case of a promotional product. If your promotional product is being passed along, you should be elated!” He notes that the more a promo gift is passed on, the bigger the audience you receive.

2. They garner referrals. If we’ve said this once, we’ve likely said it a thousand times: nothing beats word-of-mouth promotion. And while the passing along of your promo gift will do wonders for getting your company better known, don’t forget that your gift doesn’t have to change hands for people to learn more about you. As mentioned earlier, people love to discuss their good experiences with their families and friends.

By passing out promo gifts, you create great customer experiences. The interactions themselves are bound to elicit feelings of trust, appreciation and respect. Customers tend to feel loyal towards companies that make them feel good. So if you’re looking for a referral, there are far worse ways to go about it than to hand out useful, high-quality promotional products to your customers.

3. They inspire social media posts. Is there a more popular way to spread the word than social media these days? It certainly doesn’t seem so. That’s why the use of Facebook, Twitter and the like is so important in 2015. People sure do love to communicate online. And when you hand out your promo gifts, you give your customers something to talk about. Don’t assume that they’re going to post pics of your gifts on their own though.

Utilize your social media profiles to mention your customers, comment on their pictures and “like” their posts. The more you interact, the better. And the more reasons you give your customers to interact with you, the more likely they are to mention you in future posts. Your promo gifts offer amazing gateways to becoming more popular online. Have you started handing them out yet?

Give Synergy Marketing a call at 1-877-748-9884 to order yours today!

tags: , , , ,

Comments Off on 3 Ways Promo Gifts Turn Customers Into Advertisers

09 Apr

3 Ways Promo Gifts Increase Brand Recognition

Posted in Promotional Products on 09.04.15 by John Meloche

img-metal-pen-rubber-grip-1024x1269Running a business is a lot like running a race. There is always someone in the lead and there are always those who are looking to catch up to the leader. Where do you feel your business ranks within its industry? No matter what spot you feel your business is in, it is likely that you feel that it can always improve. Constantly making changes to better a business is a common practice by business owners.

So what is the best way to increase brand recognition? As you may have guessed, the Synergy Marketing team is very familiar with the success that promotional products have helped Canadian business owners to achieve. And on AMABaltimore.org, Arsham Mirshah, notes that the ability of promo gifts to serve as constant reminders is what gives them the power to make companies more popular.

Here are three ways that promo gifts increase brand recognition:

1. They offer repeated reminders. As we pointed out in yesterday’s blog, traditional modes of advertising come and go. TV commercials, for example, will generally have limited runs. And they’re very expensive to produce. Promo gifts, however, are used on a daily basis. Pens and key chains are two of the most popularly-used items each day. That means that such items containing your company’s information will serve as regular reminders of where to shop.

“Brand recognition requires repeated exposure to the brand name, slogan and logo,” writes Mirshah, “Seeing the same thing over and over again is often one of the best ways to remember something and that’s where promotional products come in. Customers are more likely to remember your company if they have been exposed to it hundreds, even thousands of times. A promotional item has the ability to show off your brand on a daily, hourly and even minute-to-minute basis.”

2. They reach audiences beyond your boundaries. You can’t give promotional products to everyone. But when you hand them out to the people who visit your place of business, those people are bound to use your gifts in front of others who have never visited you. Promo gifts, it’s fair to say, have the ability to promote you over long distances. Literally, anywhere your recipients go with your gift is a new territory for you to advertise in.

Mirshah writes that pens are among the most successful of gifts in pulling this off. And that’s because people often borrow pens. “These change hands at an alarming rate,” he reminds us, “People are constantly taking notes, jotting down grocery lists or writing entire reports with pens, but most importantly, they’re sharing. This allows your branded pen to reach an astronomical number of demographics during its life cycle.”

3. They make your company look good. Offering your customers high-quality products and services should be at the top of your list of “to-do’s”. And when it comes to your promotional gifts, your attitude towards quality should remain the same. Your gift is a reflection of your business. It serves no purpose to give away something of poor quality. Mirshah writes that your brand’s reputation can be greatly improved by high-quality promo gifts.

Research shows that a promo gift can have a significant impact on the opinion one has of a company. “71% of participants in a study done by Louisiana State University could remember the company’s name that gave it to them,” Mirshah reveals, “You can bet these people also had a favorable impression of the company as well, simply because of their gesture of goodwill.” What is the impression your company is giving off?

Improve it with promo gifts today! To place your order, simply call Synergy Marketing at 1-877-748-9884.

tags: , , , , ,

Comments Off on 3 Ways Promo Gifts Increase Brand Recognition

08 Apr

3 Ways Promo Gifts Strengthen Customer Relationships

Posted in Promotional Products on 08.04.15 by John Meloche

img-multi-clr-led-logo-1024x1269Business owners all across Canada are unified by a very specific similarity – they all want their companies to grow. Who wouldn’t? What differentiates these business owners, however, are the methods they employ to foster growth within their respective brands. Some choose to go the traditional route of print ads or radio spots. But these avenues prove to be both costly and largely ineffective in the long run.

Many others choose to go the route of the promotional gift. And, at Synergy Marketing, we have many years of experience that have proven to us that this method works! First, let it be highlighted that promo gifts cost far less than your average print ad or radio spot. That said, they also create great bonds between givers and recipients. On AMABaltimore.org, Arsham Mirshah writes that a promo gift is “a proven, cost effective way of marketing your company to an extremely large audience while doing minimal work.”

Here are three ways that promo gifts strengthen customer relationships:

1. They help to break the ice. Before you can strengthen a customer relationship, a business owner must first begin one. By offering a gift to a new customer, you are giving yourself an opportunity to immediately open up the lines of communication. It allows you to get to know people by name and learn about their interests and needs so that you can address them. Mirshah writes that this entire circumstance encourages shoppers to buy from you.

“L.J. Market Research did a study that found 52% of participants given a promotional item, ultimately did business with that company,” he reveals, “The remaining 48% of participants said they would be more likely to do business with that company in the future because of their gesture.” Keep in mind that the giving of the gift itself is an act of generosity that, at worst, will simply give off a good impression of your company.

2. They help you to stand out from your competitors. In yesterday’s blog, we underlined the importance of bringing your promo gifts to trade shows with you. That way, you are able to easily set your brand apart from the many others in attendance who may be more likely to hand out nothing more than business cards. Mirshah writes that promotional products are excellent ways to attract attention.

“Everyone wants to be the popular table at the trade-show, am I right?” he asks, “We all want attention for our companies and our brands and promotional products are a great way to attract that attention!…Your trade-show booth can only be viewed from so far away, so how do you reach people all the way on the other side of the convention center? Easy! Send a promotional product after them!”

3. They have some serious staying power. Again, it should be reiterated that promo gifts and business cards are not created equally. Not to mention, television commercials can only be run for so long. Promo gifts, on the other hand, are useful items that bring value to the lives of their recipients. They stick around as constant reminders of your business for a very long time. Mirshah highlights this as well.

“Think about what promotional products generally are: note pads, pens, t-shirts, key chains etc.,” he writes, “These items are not large or expensive; instead, they are simply useful. These types of items can easily be used in everyday life, making them susceptible to long term exposure.” He notes that the L.J. Market Research study found that a full year after receiving promo gifts, a third of recipients reported that they actually still had them on their person!

Invest in promo gift advertising for your business today. Call Synergy Marketing at 1-877-748-9884!

tags: , , ,

Comments Off on 3 Ways Promo Gifts Strengthen Customer Relationships

07 Apr

5 Ways To Use Promo Gifts To Grow Your Business

Posted in Promotional Products on 07.04.15 by John Meloche

img-floating-key-chain-logo-1024x1269At Synergy Marketing, we have many years of experience helping small to medium-sized business owners in Canada to grow their customer bases and increase their sales. And we’ve done it all with the best promo products in the business! As we’ve blogged about extensively in the past, promo gifts provide a type of advertising power that television commercials, print ads and billboards do not. And they’re much cheaper too!

We’ve often commented on the fact that promo gifts create personal connections between business owners and their recipients. They are expressions of thanks that often result in many years of customer loyalty. At worst, they’re great conversation starters – or conversation “continuers”, to be more accurate. This is because the handing out of the gift itself is reason enough for a relationship to begin.

We’re not necessarily talking about the “let’s hang out and have a beer” kind of relationship. We’re talking about an enjoyable encounter between a customer and a brand that has reason to continue. The power of promo gifts lie in the fact that they help to establish great rapport that inspires customer loyalty. But as Eagle411.com points out, there are many ways to use promo products to grow your business. Here are five of the best.

1. Include them with your sales letters. When you send out correspondence to your clients, do you tend to simply mail ordinary letters? Most business owners do. Try including a promo product in the package. It will come as a welcome surprise. And chances are that you will be increasing the number of responses you get. “Mailing a promo product with a sales letter can increase your response rate by as much as 50%,” says Eagle411.com.

2. Offer them as “thank yous”. One of the most common reasons that business owners use promotional products is to express gratitude. Saying “thank you” truly goes a long way in inspiring customer loyalty. People like to know that they are appreciated. According to Eagle411.com, “sending a promotional product…with a thank you note can enhance your customer’s positive feelings about you by as much as 25 percent.”

3. Take them to trade shows. Events where you can set up booths and introduce yourself to like-minded professionals and would-be customers are arguably the best places to bring your promo gifts to. Most business types hand out business cards. And these are generally either lost or thrown away. Promo gifts, on the other hand, have much bigger impacts. “At trade shows, promotional products can increase awareness of and preference for an exhibitor’s products by as much as 70 percent,” Eagle411.com reports.

4. Use them to support your community. Giving back to the community is always a win-win. You can’t go wrong with offering help to those who need it most while shining a favourable light on your brand. Eagle411.com suggests that instead of donating money to certain causes, you may wish to give away useful promotional items to community events, sport teams, educational programs and summer festivals. It will save them money while spreading the good word about your brand!

5. Present them as rewards. It needs to be highlighted that promo gifts are excellent ways of saying “thank you” – not just to your customers, but to your employees as well. There is literally no downside to boosting employee morale and recognizing jobs well done in your workplace. “Remember, employees who feel good about your company may do a better job with customers,” points out Eagle411.com.

To order the perfect promotional product to advertise your company, call Synergy Marketing at 1-877-748-9884 today!

tags: , , ,

Comments Off on 5 Ways To Use Promo Gifts To Grow Your Business

06 Apr

5 Ways To Strengthen Your Team Of Employees

Posted in Synergy Suggestions on 06.04.15 by John Meloche

Multi Ethnic Business GroupToday is the day that baseball fans have been waiting for since the end of the World Series last October. It’s the start of the Major League Baseball season! And for fans of our hometown Toronto Blue Jays, the excitement is hard to contain. Although Blue Jays fans will have to wait a week for their annual home opener, they’ll be able to watch their team take on the New York Yankees in their home opener today at 1 p.m. on TV.

Over the past couple of seasons, the Jays have certainly had their ups and downs. With a dead last finish two years ago and a third place finish in the American League East last year, there is hope that Toronto’s team is steadily on the rise. As usual, there are high hopes for the team with the start of the new season as there have been many changes made to their roster. However, the opening day squad consists of no less than six rookies.

Many baseball experts question if such a young team will have the experience necessary to dominate their division. It brings to mind the fact that, in business, new blood is often required to uplift a team of employees. There are, of course, many other ways to bolster a staff. As Leslie Levine points out on AllBusiness.com, “your company’s chances for growth are closely aligned with its commitment toward fostering employee development.”

Here are five ways to strengthen your team of employees:

1. Turn your veterans into mentors. Just like in baseball, young acquisitions could always use the help of veterans. Levine writes that “pairing newer, less experienced employees with more experienced employees is a great way for people to learn from one another.” By creating “mentors” out of your experienced staff members, your new employees will have a better chance of developing as productive contributors to your company. Get your top producers to show your newbies the ropes.

2. Focus on employee training. It’s always important to have a good training program in place. And this isn’t just for new hires. Levine notes that “even after an individual joins an organization and the ‘honeymoon’ period has passed, companies should continue to provide training on an ongoing basis for any skills that may be pertinent to the employee’s job.” That way, you’ll always be able to keep the skills of the team members sharp.

3. Offer advancement opportunities. Hiring staff members from within your company before looking to the outside world to bolster your staff will help for your brand to grow professionally. It will also go a long way in boosting employee morale. “Hire and promote from within,” insists Levine, “Employees appreciate job security, but in order to grow professionally, people want and need new responsibilities.”

4. Encourage and implement feedback. One sure fire way to strengthen your team of employees is ensure that each member feels as if his or her contributions matter. That entails listening to feedback and making changes where necessary to improve business practices. Levine suggests that you “develop a method that makes it easier for staffers to share their creative ideas or suggestions with top management.”

5. Reward your star performers. At Synergy Marketing, we are always championing the concept of rewarding your staff members. And why wouldn’t we? Our fantastic promotional products have very often been used as employee rewards! “Don’t make the mistake of neglecting employees who do great work and don’t need much managing,” warns Levine. Remember that your star players need “occasional pats on the back” as “disregarding their hard work can be demoralizing.”

To order the perfect promotional product to represent your company, give us a call at 1-877-748-9884 today!

tags: , , , , ,

Comments Off on 5 Ways To Strengthen Your Team Of Employees

03 Apr

Taking The Time To Better Manage Your Time

Posted in Synergy Suggestions on 03.04.15 by John Meloche

Time ManagementToday is a statutory holiday in Canada. But that doesn’t mean that all business owners are taking the day off. In fact, it’s a common personality trait of business owners to be round-the-clock workers. And while they tend to put so much time and effort into running their businesses, they often complain that they “don’t have enough time”. “There’s never enough time in the day” is a common quote from many an entrepreneur.

So while most people take today off of work to catch up on family time, handle personal matters or observe traditions associated with the holiday, a large number of entrepreneurs will be thinking about their next business moves. At Synergy Marketing, we recommend creating a new sense of time management as a task to pull off today. After all, since you should have more time today than usual, perhaps you can come up with ways to make more time for yourself in general.

Basically, it’s all about time management. As least, this is what is believed by Joe Mathews, Don Debolt and Deb Percival on Entrepreneur.com. Very interestingly, they distinguish the difference between “clock time” and “real time”. Understanding the difference is the first step in being able to better manage your time. We all know what “clock time” is. Each minute is 60 seconds, each hour is 60 minutes and so on. It’s the same for everyone in the world.

However, “real time” refers to the fact that “all time is relative. Time flies or drags depending on what you’re doing. Two hours at the department of motor vehicles can feel like 12 years. And yet our 12-year-old children seem to have grown up in only two hours,” according to the team of writers. It’s so true, isn’t it? How can there never be “enough time in the day” when every day has the exact same amount of time as the day before it?

This rhetorical question is one of the main reasons that the Entrepreneur.com team insist that having good time management skills means ignoring “clock time”. Because “real time” is “mental”, they say, you can create and manage it. Mathews, Debolt and Percival insist that there are only three ways to spend time: thoughts, conversations and actions. They believe that no matter what type of business you own, your work will be made up of those three items.

“As an entrepreneur, you may be frequently interrupted or pulled in different directions,” the trio writes, “While you cannot eliminate interruptions, you do get a say on how much time you will spend on them and how much time you will spend on the thoughts, conversations and actions that will lead you to success.” So what are the best ways to address the time we spend on handling interruptions? It all starts with documenting your current habits.

The team recommends that you carry a schedule around with you to “record all your thoughts, conversations and activities for a week.” Doing so will help you to understand how much you are accomplishing each day and how much time is being wasted on unproductive items. Are you producing results? Or is your time being used ineffectively? It’s important to assign greater amounts of time to actions that actually promote your success.

“Plan to spend at least 50 percent of your time engaged in the thoughts, activities and conversations that produce most of your results,” the team insists. They also recommend actually scheduling time for interruptions so that being pulled away from what you’re doing doesn’t completely throw a monkey wrench into your plans. Also, it’s important to begin each day with planning your day out. Here’s hoping you’ll be able to make the most out of your time today!

tags: , , ,

Comments Off on Taking The Time To Better Manage Your Time