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Employees’ stress levels continue to rise
Workload, people issues and lack of job security topped a list of why some 68 percent of employees reported having high levels of stress at the end of 2010, according to the latest StressPulse survey by ComPsych Corp. The number of people indicating they had high stress jumped three points from the 2009 survey. “Employers should remind workers of available EAP (employee assistance programs) and work-life services, which can help individuals set and stick to a budget, as well as get counseling to keep stress levels in check,” said Richard A. Chaifetz, chairman and CEO of ComPsych, an EAP provider. Responses to the survey showed:
National Federation of Independent Business picks 7 best business books of 2010
- “Making Money is Killing Your Business: How to Build a Business You’ll Love and Have a Life, Too” by Chuck Blakeman
- “Built to Sell: Turn Your Business into One You Can Sell” by John Warrillow and Bo Burlingham
- “The Millionaire Fastlane: Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich for a Lifetime” by MJ DeMarco
- “Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose” by Tony Hsieh
- “Predictable Success: Getting Your Organization On the Growth Track – and Keeping It There” by Les McKeown
- “Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?” by Seth Godin
- “Effortless Entrepreneur: Work Smart, Play Hard, Make Millions” by Nick Friedman, Omar Soliman and Daylle Deanna Schwartz
4 ways to use a company website to interact with customers
Many business leaders think of their company’s website as a one-way customer communication tool. In reality, the way customers interact with a company website can detail their first impressions of the business, said Prasad Thammineni, a serial entrepreneur and CEO of OfficeDrop.
To understand what customers thought about OfficeDrop, the company analyzed website visits with tests: quantitative and qualitative, popup surveys and analytic reports. Thammineni learned four valuable lessons from listening to how customers were using the company’s website. He shared his findings in a piece he wrote for OPEN Forum.
Speak in the words your customer uses. “We wrongly assumed that our customer would understand industry jargon. They didn’t. When we switched our positioning and phrasing to the words they used, we dramatically increased comprehension, recall and conversion on our site.”
New customers may value different features. “By looking at which feature page visits correlated highly with purchases, we realized which ones were most important to potential customers.”
Customers want to make a human connection. “Time and time again we found that users loved watching videos of the founders, executives and sales people demonstrating our service and discussing our features. … We also found that customers like to see faces on our website, and that they were drawn to click on them.”
Asking why potential customers say no can help you innovate. “We found that people would tell us why they are not going to buy. Querying about what features they would like to have seen or what issues kept them from wanting to buy has helped us decide how we are going to innovate our product and advance our company.”
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