We’re at it again… New LifeStyles hosted it’s last annual mac & cheese cook-off Friday afternoon.

There were 13 entires in 3 categories: 

A lot of good stuff this week! Enjoy!

Boomer Customers Seek Emotional Connection

Link Building Do’s and Don’ts

Social Media: Time To Get With The Program- YouTube, Facebook, Twitter…Smart Providers Are Reaping Benefits

Be a Lead Magnet with E-Newsletters

Home Care Expert shares insights on selling to Adult Children

Do You Always Put Your Customers First?

Happy Customer Service Week!

What is customer service? Here’s what our team has to say:

Fancy Tanner (Production Manager) – It is doing for others what you would want done for you

Bill Porter (Sales Director) – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_service  Thanks Bill…

Donna Miller (Distribution Manager) – Being treated like you would like to be treated. Putting others best interest above your own.

Doug Fusella (COO) – Accessibility and Responsiveness

Luke Jansen (Accounts Manager/Client Site Division) – Going the extra step to ensure that the client is satisfied and willing to do future business

Megan Blaser (Media Buyer/Sales/Owner) – Attending to the customer’s needs in a professional and timely manner.  Even if you personally cannot help them, you should always listen to their concerns or needs and do your part to point them in the right direction so they are in fact served. 

Michelle Gowdy (Media Buyer/Sales/Owner) – Treating your customers as you would want to be treated as the customer, listening and answering questions, leave them thanking you. Customer Service is giving 100% even if there is no sale.

Pam Fusella (CFO) – Being attentive to your clients/customers needs, addressing concerns/questions promptly, reflecting a positive image for your company

Stacee Howse (IT Director) – Solving issues for clients or potential clients in a timely, respectful, business-like manner.

In my opinion, customer service is servicing the customer, answering their questions & filling their requests. But it should be going over and beyond to satisfy a customer so they feel special and want to give you return business.

The resounding message seems to follow the golden rule: Treat others as you would like to be treated.

Is this what type of customer service your team is giving? There are numerous tools available to find out: online surveys & feedback forms, mystery shoppers, and more… Or just listen to what is going on around you and follow-up on lost leads. You may learn a lot about your customer service.

Activity seems to be picking up in our industry and here at New LifeStyles.  Traffic to NewLifeStyles.com has been increasing over the past few months and book orders and distribution continue to be steady.  Hopefully, you are seeing foot traffic to your community, calls and web traffic picking up, as well.  We are in the mode of finishing strong and planning for 2011, with such things as:

-          Updating our digital guides.  We have gotten strong traffic to the versions of each guide that are available on the site.  You can be included for free with print advertising.  We have been up for six months and will have an improved look in the next couple months.

-          New ways for potential residents and clients to find you.  It’s in the works, no additional cost to current advertising partners, but we can’t tell you about it until we unveil it!

-          As mentioned, we are investing time and dollars into our site and its value.  Traffic continues to grow and the QUALITY of the traffic grows with it.

-          Dedicated distribution work.  We have someone working and researching every market for new points of distribution.  Please e-mail us if you have suggestions.

October is the space reservation deadline for the following markets:

• Los Angeles – our largest distribution, a great value!
• New York Metro – another large distribution, excellent set of choices
• St. Louis – our fastest growing market, the guide has tripled in size over the last three years
• Orlando – a great market for leads, the Orlando guide is ordered as much as some of our large guides, which makes the leads a major value
• Chicago – one of New LifeStyles’ most popular guides, extensive distribution and great content.

New copies of our guide should be arriving for the following markets:

-          Nevada

-          Portland

-          Seattle Area

-          Connecticut/Rhode Island

For more information, contact us immediately!

Our web design division continues to build and take live 5-8 sites in your industry, every month.  If you have a site, talk to us about our SEO packages.  To get the lastest information on our web design division, friend New LifeStyles on Facebook , connect with us on LinkedIn, or follow us on Twitter.

Thanks for spending some time with our blog.  Call us!  We will be an effective part of your marketing campaign.

 Doug