Emergencies are the most stress-inducing occurrences in the world. They happen when you least expect them to, require you to take quick and decisive action and/or can be extremely costly. One unforeseen emergency can turn your life upside down and ruin years of hard work. Thankfully, there are several things you can do to prevent one from ruining your life.

What To Do When It Is Too Late To Plan Ahead

It might already be too late for you to plan ahead for an emergency because you are currently experiencing one, albeit one that gives you enough time to search for a solution. This likely means you have found yourself in a financial bind due to an unexpected expense that needs to be paid quickly. The good news is that even though you do not currently have the funds to cover it, there are ways in which you can acquire them. For example, if you need to cover a costly medical expense, you can look into acquiring an emergency medical loan in order to do so. Getting a loan can save you a lot of stress and heartache for several reasons. For one, it will prevent your credit score from being negatively impacted by your lack of payment. In addition, you will prevent yourself from having to deal with constant calls from bill collectors.

Plan Ahead for Next Time

If you are simply worried about the possibility of an emergency occurring in the future, there are several things you can do to mitigate the impacts of one when it does occur. You can even come up with detailed plans for specific emergencies.

It would be in your best interest, for example, to come up with a plan of action for a fire. First, you need to make sure that all of your fire alarms are functional. There have been so many stories about the devastating consequences of a fire starting in a home whose fire alarms did not go off because they were not maintained properly and had expired batteries or, worse, had their batteries removed to prevent them from going off during cooking. Second, you should have a working fire extinguisher, or several, in your home in case you need to extinguish small flames. Doing so could help you prevent a large fire from catching on in the first place. Lastly, you need to have several exit strategies in case a huge, life-threatening fire does end up breaking out. You should know exactly which exit you will aim for depending on the location of the fire.

Have Confidence in Your Plans

Once you plan ahead for emergencies, you need to have confidence in the plans you came up with during moments when you were calm and collected. If the emergency does come to pass, make sure to follow through with what you already came up with, unless you truly and completely believe it would be ineffective.

You can prevent an emergency from ruining your life by acquiring a loan, planning ahead, and having confidence in your plans.

Giving back is not only good for your soul, but it’s also good for your business. That’s because society views businesses that are willing to give back as being more authentic and trustworthy. Corporatism often gets a bad name in the modern-day, but by showing the people around you that you’re committed to doing the right thing, you can get around this hurdle. Here are some reasons why giving back is good for business.

Connecting With the Community

Philanthropy is a great way to connect with your local community. You can offer your employees opportunities to volunteer and get them more engaged in local initiatives. Not only will you be making a good impression on the locals, but you’ll have opportunities to build valuable relationships and learn more about what’s happening in the area. For instance, take Kirk Chewning Cane Bay Partners located in St. Croix. After two major hurricanes hit the area, Chewning helped set up a nonprofit to raise money for rebuilding efforts. Cane Bay Partners then grew as a business and got a better understanding of what the locals wanted from companies.

Strengthening Brand Awareness

By giving back, you can build brand awareness and increase your reputation as a responsible corporate citizen. This will help increase your customers’ trust in your brand and encourage them to buy from you. Brand awareness is especially important for business-to-business (B2B) customers who may have less interaction with your brand than the end customers do. When B2B customers can see that you are an authentic and reputable business, they might be more comfortable with purchasing from you in the future. Getting your company name in the news headlines can also bring in potential customers who may not have heard of your company before.

Encouraging Employees

Giving back can help build relationships with prospective employees. For many millennials, choosing to work for a company is as much about the company’s mission and purpose as it is about salary and benefits. With a focus on philanthropy, you can make an impression on prospective employees, who will appreciate your authentic and socially responsible nature. This can lead to more applications and stronger recruitment for your company. Like-minded individuals will also be more likely to stay with your company for the long haul.

Avoiding Public Relations Trouble

While many companies mean well, a large number of them also manage to make headlines for all the wrong reasons. Risk analysts are now noticing that it’s easy for even the most well-intentioned companies to end up in public relations trouble. Competitors could try to smear you, unhappy customers may exaggerate a negative experience they had, or there could be a simple misunderstanding about something that you’ve done. Corporate philanthropy could safeguard your business’s reputation in case any of these issues come up.

Philanthropy is truly a win-win situation for both your business and the world. So why not choose to give back today and make a positive impact on society? It’s the right thing to do and will only make your business stronger and better.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, customers have increased their use of service channels to resolve issues. Of those customers, 56% said they prefer to use the phone.

The company Ameyo, estimates that a 15% increase in first call resolution results in a 57% reduction in repeat calls.

How can companies improve their resolution rates while customers prefer the phone over self-service options? They can integrate the Salesforce Open CTI with their call center.

Read on to learn about Open CTI and the benefits it offers to customers and their service agents.

What Is Open CTI?

CTI stands for Computer Telephony Integration and connects a computer to a softphone enabling call-to-click functionality.

The Salesforce Open CTI is a cloud-based API that integrates third-party telephony services with the Salesforce Call Center platform. Customer service agents can make outbound calls directly from a Salesforce record.

5 Benefits of Open CTI for Salesforce Users

The Open CTI offers developers and users more benefits than Salesforce Dialer. Open CTI’s advanced functionality includes:

• Voicemail with multiple messages per user
• Inbound call routing to the correct department or agent
• Listen to live calls that are in-progress

To learn more about the differences between Open CTI and traditional CTI adapters, follow this link.

1. Increased Productivity

When a call comes into the call center, Open CTI checks the number against Salesforce. If there is a match, it loads the customer’s data to the agent’s desktop. The information is displayed in a single window, removing the need to navigate multiple screens.

If the number is not in the system, Open CTI automatically creates a new record.

Users can also easily transfer calls, place them on hold, or terminate them if needed. Auto dialing, calling from the Salesforce record, and auto-call logging are time-saving benefits Open CTI provides.

2. Better Customer Experience

Customers do not have to repeat their information to the new agent after being transferred. This reduces frustration and the number of angry interactions.

Agents can schedule calls, messages, or follow-ups with Open CTI which helps to improve the customer experience. With the customer information in front of them, agents can also personalize their calls for each customer. Seeing the sales history also helps with new sales conversations and encouraging conversions.

3. Cost-effective

Open CTI saves money compared with using traditional phones. There is no need to supply a phone for each desk, nor maintain the physical infrastructure such as wiring or phone jacks.

4. Configurable

Using Open CTI, users can configure their softphones to meet their needs and aid in call resolution. In addition, they can add or remove relevant analytical data and client information from their agent dashboards.

5. Flexible IT Support

Open CTI is cloud-based which means it works with any browser and on any computer system. Also, CTI adapters do not need to be installed on individual computers, saving IT costs and labor.

Increase Your Team’s Productivity with Open CTI

Save money and time, and improve productivity and the customer experience by using the Salesforce Open CTI for your call center.

For more helpful sales and technology-related articles, check out the Business section of our blog!

About 80% of the leads you generate will never turn into sales. Meanwhile, 96% of the people who visit your website aren’t ready to convert, either. Instead, you need to improve your digital marketing plan to appeal to your ideal customers.

Not sure where to start? Here are five easy tips that can help improve your digital marketing strategy.

With these tips, you can generate more leads and sales to help your business grow. Get started with these tips today.

Use Personalization

First, make sure to adjust your messaging with your ideal customers in mind. Personalization can help you connect with your target audience. Forging lasting connections will turn brand trust into brand loyalty.

Consumers who fall in love with your brand will make repeat purchases, allowing you to improve your ROI.

To begin personalizing your content, research your customers. Determine who they are, what they care about, and where they spend time online. Then, adjust your messaging to sympathize with the pain points they’re experiencing.

Consumers will begin to realize you understand their needs and concerns. Then, they’ll begin trusting you for the help they need. In time, you can become their go-to resource.

Create an Omnichannel Strategy

As part of your digital marketing strategy, it’s important to reach consumers at different touchpoints. Each time they see your brand, brand awareness will grow. In time, you can remain at the forefront of the consumer’s mind.

Make sure you’re applying different marketing ideas, including:

• Social media marketing
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Content marketing (including video marketing)
• Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising
• Influencer marketing

Update your website, too. Then, consumers on these channels can visit your site to learn more about your business.

Analyze Your Content

Take a look at the content you posted in the past. Which blog posts generated the most traffic, leads, or engagement? What topics did you cover, and what content format did you use?

Analyzing your content can help you make more informed decisions for future posts.

Manage Your Business Listing

Your Google Business listing can help more people find your website, storefront, or brand online. It’s also important to your local SEO strategy. You can read about local SEO here.

Make sure to claim, optimize, and update your listing.

Ask consumers to post reviews and feedback on your profile, too. Positive reviews can benefit your brand’s reputation.

Innovate

Once you begin using these marketing ideas, keep searching for more! Innovate and track the latest trends to remain relevant.

For example, tracking SEO trends can help improve your rankings.

Content trends like VR and AR can help you find new ways to engage consumers.

Keep innovating and analyzing the data from your efforts to stand out from the crowd.

Set Success: Improve Your Current Digital Marketing Plan Today

Don’t miss the chance to help your business grow. Instead, apply these tips to your current digital marketing plan. With these marketing ideas, you can start reaching new customers online.

Get growing with these tips today.

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