Answer Upon - Reference and Education

What is Customer Service? Ten More Things to Remember!
Ask yourself why you love your favorite restaurant. Chances are that you frequent a restaurant because they offer great food and a warm ambience. Comfortable seating and good lighting are important factors also. But what exactly is customer service? Do retailers even know the answer? Is it the warm and friendly greeting, the good food, the charming atmosphere or the comfortable seating? Of course, the successful retailer knows that the answer is all of the above. If you are starting a new business, ensure that your customer service strategy integrates all aspects of your business – staffing, product merchandising, convenience, comfort, store policies and after sales. Because being nice isn’t enough!Ten more points to remember about customer service:1. Knowledgeable staff – cheerful and informed – knowing the product is paramount – informed about how the product works; how the item is made and its care; informed about the suppliers; informed about the store policies and its values; informed solutions to customer’s needs and wants; gives expert advice and gift suggestions. If knowledge is p

embers:

The best academic advisor does not have the time to hold your hand throughout your academic career. The academic advisor’s time is limited because, after all, he or she is a professor first and is getting paid to teach courses, advise graduate students, supervise graduate research, write books or journal articles, and serve on campus- and university-wide committees.

Moreover, your advisor went through the same process without much assistance from his/her advisor when he/she attended graduate school. Therefore, the tradition of completing a thesis or dissertation is a lonely process and an unsympathetic advisor does not want to cheat you out of having the same experience he/she suffered through years ago. Hence, your academic advisor’s main commitment is to supervise your research project. He/she will not be your friend, therapist, financial aid counselor, or marital advisor.

6. Choose your battles wisely—Handling Conflicts and Disagreements:

Your advisor is the coordinator of your thesis or dissertation project. While the major role of your advisor is to share his or her expertise with you to help you develop your ideas, your advisor is also supposed to advocate on your behalf as well. Should your committee members give you conflicting advice you should bring this to your advisor’s attention.

Change Management In Six Sigma
Change is the only constant thing in the world and businesses are no exception to this universal principle. The aim of change is bringing about continuous improvement in the competitive world through which businesses hope to surpass their competitors to meet customer needs better than the rest.Change Meets ResistanceYou need to anticipate resistance from unexpected corners while contemplating and proposing change. This could be for the first Six Sigma project or for the subsequent project, despite rigorous results with previous project implementations. Workers may respond by ignoring the change, by refusing or failing to comprehend changes, disagreeing with apparent benefits and resorting to delay tactics and tantrums. Other instances can be ignorance from other sections within the organizations and non-cooperation on projectsManaging The Change In Six SigmaProject leaders understand that most resistance has no valid reasons.1. For example, let us take the case of ignoring the change. People are opposed to change just because they don't want a change. Change entails doing things

Many students think I write article like these because I did not have a good advisor. However, I want you to know that I had a wonderful advisor. He was a tenured professor and well respected in my academic department. He wasn’t my best friend; my friend Elsie had fulfilled that role a long time ago. He was intelligent, well respected in the field, and had the reputation of being an advocate for his student advisees. I chose him because he was reliable and a great advocate for me. While some faculty members might be able to serve as mentors, you need an advisor who has power and respect in the department.

Selecting an advisor requires you to make an honest assessment of your working style. What type of working environment maximizes your true potential? Do you need someone to micro-manage every aspect of your thesis or dissertation project? Do you flourish when you are given a task and allowed to work at your own pace? Do you excel when you are allowed to figure things out by yourself? Are you willing to ask for help when you need it? To successfully complete your thesis or dissertation, you need an advisor who complements your working style.

Here are 7 tips to managing your advisor and committee members:

1. Interview Potential Advisors:

Remember, you and your advisor should be enthusiastic about your thesis or dissertation topic. When selecting a selecting a topic you have to think of whom on the faculty is an expert on that topic and would be willing to work with you. Prior to your interview for an advisor, consider writing a three-page draft of a proposal to discuss with your potential advisor. Be sure to ask if the faculty member is planning a sabbatical in the next two years.

Selecting the right advisor is critical to your success in graduate school. Your advisor can propel or hinder your academic progress. As a graduate student you have very little power in your academic department. Hence, you need to select an advisor who can be an advocate for you. To be your best advocate, your advisor should have tenure and the respect of his peers. As chair of your committee, peer respect will be invaluable when your advisor has to supervise the other committee members and facilitate your defense hearing.

2. Interview Fellow Students/Advisees:

Although a faculty member might be respected in his or her discipline, be aware that some faculty members might be difficult to work with; advisors sometimes ask for a draft when what they really want is a polished piece. Some advisors might prefer to work with the same sex graduate student. Others may or may not be willing to co-author with their graduate students.

Your peers are your greatest resource; advanced graduate students are often willing to share information about what it is like to work for or with a particular faculty member. As a possible advisee, you need inside information on:

• Availability and accessibility of the advisor

• Timeliness and quality of the feedback

• His/her expectations—are they realistic?

• The working atmosphere in the lab

• Management style—micro or macro

• Facilitation skills during defense hearings

• Average time his/her advisees take to finish

3. Be Professional With Advisor/Committee Members:

The quality of the advisee/advisor relationship varies and is based on the commitment level and personalities of your advisor and yourself. Both of you have some responsibility for making this relationship work successfully. You should be as professional with your advisor/committee members as possible.

• Let your advisor/committee member know that you value his or her time. Get to your scheduled meetings on time. Don’t sweat it if your advisor/committee member is late.

• Be prepared with an agenda for your regularly scheduled meetings-- prepare questions ahead of time.

• Call and cancel if you will not be able to make your scheduled meeting.

• Send a follow-up email confirming any items and resolutions that were discussed during the meeting.

• Prepare a coversheet with an outline of your document indicating the type of feedback you are looking for.

• Don’t get frustrated if they ask for another copy of the latest draft of your document even if you haven’t made any changes since you gave it to them last week.

• Always bring a hard copy of the chapter to be discussed with you.

• Takes notes at all meetings; you won’t remember everything once you leave the office.

4. Don’t Assume, Ask:

The relationship between you, your advisor and committee members varies by the amount of direction, personal interaction, and psychological support. In addition, the type of criticism given and the frequency of interaction will depend on the type of relationship you and your advisor has established. It is quite possible that each committee member could have different expectations of you.

It is your responsibility to find out what level of participation each member of the committee is willing to commit to. I know of a student who directly asked each committee member “what do you need to see in this dissertation for you to sign-off on it?” By asking ahead of time, she was able to address each member’s concerns with the help of her advisor.

5. Understanding Your Advisor And Committee Members:

6. Choose your battles wisely—Handling Conflicts and Disagreements:

Is Your Brochure Killing Your Sales?
When you go to trade shows you probably pick up brochures.What do you do with them?In the majority of cases I'm willing to bet you either leave them to fester in the lovingly designed show carrier bag or you scan some of them and then throw them away.Do you read any of the brochures you get through the post or left by sales people?If you don't read brochures why do you think your prospects will?If your brochure is all about you and very little about your customer it wont get read. If it's not read it can't sell anything. That means you've just lost another prospect because your brochure didn't do its job right.What A Brochure Isn'tDesigning a brochure is not simply the managing director, marketing director or Mr Average Copywriter simply dumping everything they can think of about your company and its products into a four page 4 colour brochure.Explaining how your business has grown from strength to strength over the last 5 years, or how the new widget is now also available in puce and lemon is boring.In fact most brochures are

thesis or dissertation topic. When selecting a selecting a topic you have to think of whom on the faculty is an expert on that topic and would be willing to work with you. Prior to your interview for an advisor, consider writing a three-page draft of a proposal to discuss with your potential advisor. Be sure to ask if the faculty member is planning a sabbatical in the next two years.