Posts belonging to Category Customer Service



How to Obtain an Alberta Certificate of Status

Alberta Certificates of Status are issued by the Alberta Corporate Registry for Alberta companies. Sometimes these are called Certificates of Good Standing or Certificates of Compliance and all companies registered in all jurisdictions in Canada and for that matter all countries can obtain these certificates when needed. In the Alberta jurisdiction they are called Certificates of Status.

Sometimes you will be required to provide an Alberta Certificate of Status to another company that wants to do business with you or to a bank or other financial institution.

An Alberta Certificate of Status will tell you whether the company has done all of its corporate filings and whether it is still an active company. It does not confirm that tax returns have been filed. Each year in Alberta a company must file what is called an Alberta Annual Return. If the company has not been doing its filings its Alberta Certificate of Status will not be clear.

The Alberta Certificate of Status will show the current name of the company on record, the date of incorporation of the Alberta company and the Alberta Access Number of the company.

The government does not refund the money if the Certificate of Status cannot be issued. Basically it will issue a Certificate of Status that indicates the Alberta company is not in compliance and you will then need to file any outstanding Alberta annual returns and order a new Certificate of Status. Certificates of Status are costly so if you know in advance you have not made your filings you should at the least ensure all Alberta annual returns are filed before ordering your Certificate of Status. If you have some outstanding tax returns but have not been dissolved then you will still receive a favourable Certificate of Status as long as your annual returns have been filed with the Alberta Corporate Registry. Basically if too many years go by without filing your federal tax returns the Canada Revenue Agency requests the Alberta Corporate Registry to dissolve your company.

A Certificate of Status is not an Alberta corporate search. If you are trying to determine information about an Alberta company you should have an Alberta corporate search done rather than ordering a Certificate of Status.

Resources for Canadian Business Owners can assist you with an Alberta Certificate of Good Standing and Alberta Company Searches as well as other legal and government registrations and searhces.. This article, How to Obtain an Alberta Certificate of Status is released under a creative commons attribution license.

Are Independent Retailers Becoming Mere Order-Takers

A growing percentage of customers now have smart phones. They bring them into shops, and use them to shop around from the shelves. Shoppers can now scan barcodes, make a price comparison from different sites – both online and off – and make purchase decisions with increased info than ever. To the average independent retailer, this trend is ominous. If customers can discover the exact same merchandise at lower prices elsewhere, won’t they migrate to save cash?

Not necessarily. There’s a much more to creating an original shopping experience than offering the smallest prices. In reality, many huge retailers have painted themselves into the corner by concentrating on undercutting their competition. They’ve defined themselves by low prices, and thus have very little else to offer consumers.

This article will begin by describing the cost of failing to adapt to a changing retail atmosphere that’s driven by buyers. We’ll then check out how to reach out to shoppers who visit your store. You’ll find out how providing your visitors with the tools they need to make informed decisions will improve their loyalty to your company.

The Price Of Neglecting To Adapt

In early 2011, The Wall Street Journal profiled Borders Books, noting that the merchant was on the precipice of bankruptcy. The article claimed a large part of the reason was because of the bookseller’s failure “to keep pace with the digital transformation.” Consumers were getting increasingly familiar with ordering books on the internet, and having them delivered to their residences. Borders failed to adjust, and a result, found itself on the way to bankruptcy court.

This is an instructive lesson for small retailers. They have to take the chance to adapt to a new way of shopping, one which places control into the hands of shoppers. One way to do this is to reach out to shoppers the moment they walk through your doors.

Getting in touch with Customers In Your Shop

Place yourself into the shoes of a customer equipped with a smartphone. She visits your store, locates the product she wants to buy, and uses her phone to look up testimonials, prices, and alternatives. Some small retailers are tempted to ward off this effort, afraid that the patron’s research will result in a lost sale. A more effective option would be to embrace the effort, using it to better meet the shopper’s needs.

For example, send text-based messages to customers in your store to inform them of special promotions. You can also notify them of product presentations, or motivate customers to ask your workers for more information about particular items. While shoppers may be able to find lower prices elsewhere, they’ll realize there is more to your business than low price points.

You may initially confront opposition at this type of marketing. But as the trend toward mobile advertising continues to grow, this opposition will wane. Eventually, customers will form the expectation that they’ll receive relevant details on their smartphone when they visit your store.

Improving Customer Loyalty By Providing The Tools To Shop

Many professionals have predicted that a most online traffic will move from conventional computers to smartphones and other handheld devices within the next several years. The average shopper will end up increasingly knowledgeable about her choices. Instead of hoping the trend reverses itself (it won’t), welcome it by giving your visitors the tools they need.

For instance, internet access may be spotty in your store. If so, think about adding a Wi-Fi connection to aid customers research products. Doing so enables you to deliver targeted information regarding your products. You can also design net-based marketing promotions that let clients claim special discounts. Tying these into a rewards system will improve customer loyalty.

Many customers will remain loyal to their preferred merchants if given good reason to do so. Supply them with the means to be proactive in their purchase choices. You’ll not only generate goodwill, but you’ll also take advantage of a trend that is unlikely to change. If you don’t alter your business tactics you might find your self having a going out of business sale. Don’t let this happen.

Want to find out more about going out of business sales? Then visit www.gawrightsales.com.

A Customer Service Resume Is A Winner In Today’s Climate

The economy certainly isn’t as strong as we would like. According to the latest Labour Force Survey, unemployment in Canada remains close to eight percent, with small gains in the service industry offset by job losses among young people who often start in customer service jobs. Competition is fierce.

That’s where having a great resume can make the difference. With as many as 70 applicants for each available customer service job, a resume that stands out from the crowd can win you the job.

Imagine being an employer for a moment. You place an ad for a customer service representative at your company. A flood of resumes lands on your desk. You scan them quickly for the best three applicants to interview. The rest go to the bottom of the pile or the shredder.

What determines whether your resume gets picked or thrown away? The answer can be as simple as a typo in the first line. An employer who sees misspellings and poor grammar knows that the applicant doesn’t care about sweating the details.

Don’t let that happen to you. Follow the rules of great resume writing and give yourself the best chance to get in there and inspire your prospective employer with your enthusiasm and ability.

Objective: Make your resume clear, concise and to-the-point. Summarize your qualifications at the top of the page in no more than three sentences. Use verbs wherever possible, and keywords that apply to the particular job or industry.

Customize: Tailor your resume to fit the job. If you’re applying for the position of hotel desk clerk and your experience is in food service, note how your abilities as a server make you better able to handle desk clerk responsibilities, especially when it comes to difficult situations.

Include success stories: Briefly explain how you helped a previous employer achieve a goal in each job in your history. Include statistics if they’re appropriate.

Tell the truth: Don’t exaggerate your qualifications. A good resume includes phone numbers and contact information for previous employers. Assume that you put on the page will be fact-checked, because it will be.

Edit: Once you’ve collected all your work experience and put it on the page, go back over it. Remove extra words and rambling sentences. Employers scan resumes quickly, so keep paragraphs short and packed with information.

Format: Avoid fancy fonts or multiple fonts as well as excessive use of italics and bolding. Too much formatting makes the resume hard to read and hard to follow.

Proofread: Get another pair of eyes to check your work, even if you’ve proofed the resume ten times. A different set of eyes will often pick up a mistake or see something you missed.

A great resume gets your foot in the door for an interview, where you can let your personality and qualifications shine. Give yourself the best chance at an interview by sweating the details. An employer who sees a carefully written, tailored professional-looking resume is twice as likely to contact you. Good luck!

Bob Hunter is a resume expert many years of experience in the industry. Please visit CustomerServiceResume.ca for additional tips for gaining employment in this exploding field.

Imports 101

What are imports and exports and how do they benefit us? Well, imports are types of merchandise that are delivered to us from other countries that we use in the United States. A lot of these products are items that we do not mass produce in our country. We receive a lot of rice from China as they grow much more than we do here. An export is a product that we ship from the US to other countries. An example would be us shipping lemons to Russia as they do not grow as many as we grow here.

A lot of unique steps happen for us to import and export. All of this trade needs to be negotiated and approved. These days most of our importing and exporting is done between companies. A big company may order 10,000 DVD players from Korea. Different players that are involved in worldwide trade include: Customs, Customs Brokers,Freight Forwarders,Warehouses, and many other services.

Remember, to move freight across the ocean we need some type of ocean transportation. We also need these vessels to be moved from the port to their unload destination. This is done with many different trucking services. Basically, an ocean container is filled with product. The full container is moved to an ocean port. At the port, the container will be loaded on a ship headed to its final destination. The ship reaches its final stop (Port of Los Angeles).

At the port, the container must have proper paperwork and pass customs inspection. It is unloaded from the ship. A trucking service that moves port containers will be move the container to the company’s warehouse. The company will unload and verify the product at its warehouse. They will store the freight and then ship it to their stores.

This is a real brief scenario of importing and exporting. It is much more complex than this. Each participant in the separate stages of moving product are critical to the overall success of the freight movement.

Learn about US Customs Broker to handle your importing and exporting.

Lesson In Speed Reading

ACCELERATION THROUGH PACING:

Hand movements can cause you to accelerate your reading speed. We’ll shortly teach you hand movements that will accelerate your reading ability. Try each one and see which suits you best.

It’s simple. Just replace all your bad reading habits with one easily learned one: You’ll use your pacing hand. It breaks each of these habits automatically while it increases your reading speed.

The basic pacing movement utilizes the index finger of your dominant hand, i.e. right handed use right hand, to scan a line by running your finger under the type you are reading. Turn the page with the unused, non-dominant hand. Never move your head when reading, keep it still.

To understand this concept, you must understand that your nemesis “The Babbler” (your own inner voice) is reading to you in silent speech and then it goes into your brain.

You’ll read without sub-vocalizing, hearing it your mind.

To understand this concept, you must understand that your nemesis “The Babbler” is reading to you in silent speech and then it goes into your brain. We did experiments in Hawaii, New Mexico, Florida, and elsewhere. It appears that those with the slowest speaking rates have naturally slow reading rates. With this method, your speaking rate will no longer limit your reading speed. You can read as fast as you can think. What I am saying is you can read as fast as your mind can work.

Begin pacing across a line faster than you can form the sounds in your throat:

Extend your index finger, close all others. As you notice I’ve indicated a hand holding a pencil earlier to use for pacing. That can come later. Use you index finger as a beginner Speed reading student.

DYNAMIC SPEED READING program will teach you how to develop these skills to enhance your reading ability and speed through practice and exercises. Soon, you could soon be reading twice as fast as you ever have and retaining valuable information to increase your comprehension and improve your grades.

Dr. Jay Polmar, founder of www.speedread.org, a research organization that’s developed speed reading courses for people worldwide has taught over 100,000 students throughout the world in 5 different languages.

Learn how to be a speed reader, online, in live classes, downloadable programs, audio, video, ebooks or books, by be a speed readering genius Dr. Jay Polmar Learn how to be a speed reader , and more Learn how to be a speed reader. be a speed readerers Succeed!

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