Creating Good Karma with Your Contacts

The current market is extremely competitive. In addition to having to compete with large corporations, small businesses also have to jostle for positions with other small businesses that sell the same products or offer the same services. 

This is why it’s crucial for small business owners to build excellent client and customer relations. Word of mouth marketing is essential for small businesses to survive and thrive in the current market. In addition, building great customer relationships can help you get repeat customers as well as new ones. 

As your small business grows, however, it can be difficult to manage all of your contacts. To succeed in your business, you need to maintain frequent communication with your suppliers, business partners, and of course, your clients and customers. You also have to keep track of your schedule, your meetings, your business overhead and supplies, and so on. You need to juggle all of these properly to ensure that your business runs smoothly and capably. You don’t want to end up missing an important meeting, or worse, sending out the wrong order to a customer.

So how do you solve this? Well, you could create a spreadsheet and encode all the information there. You can continuously add and subtract to it, and hope that you don’t get confused with all the rows and columns you’ve added. Or you can try a customer relationship management tool. There are currently many customer relationship management tools available in the market. One of the most promising ones is KarmaCRM.

KarmaCRM aims to make your life easier. It’s basically a customer relationship management platform that’s entirely web-based, so you can access it wherever you are, whenever you need it – there’s no need to download anything. It offers a simple and easy-to-use interface to help you manage your contacts and the things you need to do without problem.

What exactly are the things you can do with KarmaCRM?

     1. Manage your contacts

KarmaCRM allows you to import contacts from external websites, and customize your contact list so it only includes those relevant to your business. You can add photos, files and tasks to your contacts, so you always know who you’re talking or transacting with. You even have access to a Google map so you can easily see where your contact is located. 

You can also assign an urgent, hot or cold status to each lead, so you know whom you need to prioritize, and customize your contact status in the settings.

     2. Manage tasks

KarmaCRM helps you easily manage the tasks you need to do, so you don’t forget any important meetings and deadlines. Within the platform, you can place due dates for each task you need to do, so you don’t find yourself rushing when it’s nearing the deadline. You can also set up email and SMS reminders when deadlines are approaching, so you don’t forget anything. How often have you forgotten an urgent task only to be reminded when it’s already due?

You can assign tasks to a contact or a member of your team. This way, they can also be reminded about their deadlines.

     3. Create cases

You may occasionally have small or large cases that need to be prioritized. With KarmaCRM, you can create a case, customize its type, status and priority, assign contacts, and add notes and tasks to the case. This makes it easy to manage each case and then close them once they’re finished so you can move onto the next task. 

     4. Manage your schedule

You can create a calendar of activities in this platform and customize the view according to your preference. You can even import and sync your calendars with your Google account, as the site integrates with many third parties. You can use it to add tasks and events easily and manage your schedule. With KarmaCRM, you won’t have to worry about ever missing a deadline, an important meeting, or an upcoming event.

     5. Chat with team members, store and transfer files

Also within the site, you can privately chat with the members of your team and even create unlimited group chat rooms. You can easily see who among your team members are online so you can talk to them about a task or case that’s almost due. Chat transcripts are even saved for future reference.

Files can easily be transferred from one team member to another. You can store your files and presentations so that any of your team members can access them anytime and anywhere, as long as they have an Internet connection. 

So why trouble yourself with spreadsheets and other tools when there’s an easier way to manage your contacts and ensure good customer relationships? To create good Karma with your contacts, why not try out KarmaCRM today?

Stop Emotions from Eroding Your Professionalism

At work, we encounter many instances where our professionalism gets challenged. There is always that person whom we are not enthused to work with for reasons such as mutual dislike, jealousy, or simply getting on each other’s nerves for reasons we can’t explain. Putting all these emotions behind you is not easy, but it’s necessary that we always display professionalism.

There will be times when work gets too stressful. With deadlines that we have to meet and meetings that we have to attend to, we can just feel our patience slowly thinning out. When this happens, we are prone to become more emotional towards dealing with those we work with. As a personal brand or business, we can never let emotions that will rouse trouble to get in our way. Everything that we do and say reflects on our brand and business. If we maintain a professional attitude when necessary, we avoid bad brand reputation.

Letting our emotions loose at work can also decrease productivity and create an unpleasant work environment. It’s not just the two of you who gets affected, but even those who are working around you. Others might get involved even when they don’t want to.

How then do we prevent our emotions from getting in the way of work and maintaining professionalism?

Here are some things that you can do:

Get the right mindset – when you know that you are going to talk or need something from that person you don’t get along with, prepare your mind for it. Imagine the worst scenarios over and over, and that whatever happens, you will not let your emotions get in the way. Instead, focus on the things that will be best for the job. If the other person lets an unprofessional comment slip, be the bigger man and disregard it. Expecting the worst thing that the other person can do to you at work will make it easier for you to handle your emotions.

Instead of thinking - the customer is always right; ask yourself – am I attracting and selecting the right customers– you can choose who your customers are. Here’s where planning is key.  Is your messaging and marketing speaking to that ideal target customer?  If you’re getting many customers who are driving you crazy, then look at your messaging and marketing. What are you doing or saying that’s attracting them?

Settle misunderstandings amongst yourselves – when you feel that things are about to get out of hand, try to calm down and find a way to settle your misunderstanding. This is going to be for the good of your work environment. Talk in private. If there’s no chance for the two of you to become friends, at least maintain a good working relationship. If the two of you want to keep working together, you both have to be professional about it. It’s not easy, but someone has to show that they are willing to maintain a professional working relationship with the other.

Find ways to release some of that bottled up emotion – if you want to maintain calmness and professionalism, you have to find a way to let your emotions out the right way. We are only human and the emotions that we keep to ourselves always find a way out. We don’t want it to come out when we are stressed or tired, because this may cause a situation that can quickly spiral out of our control.

Right now – stop and think of five things that you enjoy doing and know will help you “blow off steam” so that you are in the right frame of mind to get centered again.

It’s always important to maintain professionalism although it can be tough.  There are emotions and then emotionally charged words that can fuel the fire.  Words like “manipulate” or phrases like “insult to my intelligence” are like pouring pure gasoline onto any situation.  Unless you’re ready to just “burn that bridge” with someone – then carefully consider and refrain using emotionally charged words and phrases.

Achieve Versus Impede

Sometimes you must upgrade the relationships in your life to pro-actively surround yourself with people who will help you achieve the life you want rather than impede the progress.

This is not saying that you only hang out with people who can do something for you or help you get ahead yet it does mean that you take a good strong look at who you know and who you spend time with to see if they are “taking away from you” or “getting in the way” of you achieving your life goals.

There are some people you will connect with who can stand beside you and be a support, compliment your strengths and create a synergy. There are those that will “leech” on to you and drain you. There is a great difference in being “needed” and associating with those who are “needy”. And, while “users” can come dressed in “sheep’s clothing” (I know this from personal experience!), their true intentions, over time, will reveal themselves. Hopefully, you’ll get really good at seeing what you are putting up with and realize that you do not have to tolerate their behavior or neediness.

Do you have:

1. Friends or connections (even family members) who criticize and judge you always? Often their statements start with “here’s what you should do.

2. People who take you for granted?

3. People who manipulate?

4. People who “expect” things from you - feel you owe them?

Rid yourself of these people! It’s time to do some “spring cleaning” for your mental health and successful well-being.