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PSPINC will help your business thrive by providing for all of your technology needs. We offer a wide array of products, including Web & Email Hosting, Website Design, Custom Development, Email Marketing, a number of additional business tools, technical support, and so much more. Visit pspinc.com to learn more.

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How to Set Up Google My Business

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How to Set Up Google My Busi...
1. First, you must verify that your business listing doesn’t already exist. To do this you’ll need to Google your business name and location. On the search result page, look to the right; if there isn’t a business-listing box, it probably doesn't exist. If it does exist, it may ask you to claim the listing.

2. Login to your Google account. If you have multiple accounts, use the account you want associated with your business. If you do not have an account, you can learn how to create a Google account here.

3. Once you’re logged into your Google account go to https://www.google.com/business/

4. Fill in your business name and address. Confirm that your address is written correctly. Make sure you read and check the delivery box option if applicable.

5. Choose a business category that best matches your company. If you can’t find an exact fit choose a category as close to yours as possible.

6. Add your phone # and your website when prompted.

7. Choose your verification method. Google will mail a postcard to your physical location (to legitimize your company address) with a verification code within 5 days.

8. Once you have the postcard, log back into your Google My Business account and verify your listing to complete the set up!
#Blog #BusinessTips #ENnews #Google #GoogleLocal #GoogleMaps #GoogleMyBusiness #GoogleReviews #PSPinc #SmallBusiness #Technology

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What is Google My Business?

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Google My Business (GMB) is a tool built for businesses to manage their online presence – and it’s FREE! The GMB dashboard lets you control multiple business listings on map and search results.

When you first start with Google My Business, you’ll need to verify your business. Once verification is complete, you can manage how your business information is displayed on Google, including your hours of operation, store locations, and pictures.

“Businesses (who) verify their information with Google My Business are twice as likely to be considered reputable by consumers.” – Google

Responding to customers online is another way to benefit from Google My Business. All your Google reviews can be found in your GMB dashboard, which makes it easy to reply individually to your loyal customers.

“Businesses that add photos to their listings receive 42% more requests for driving directions on Google Maps and 35% more clicks through to their websites than businesses that don’t.” - Google

Expand your understanding of your online presence by using Google My Business insights to see how your customers are searching for your business and the locations they’re searching from.

It’s easy to manage and update your business listing online and from your mobile device.

Next time we’ll go over setting up your Google My Business account and how to verify your business.
#Blog #BusinessTips #ENnews #Google #GoogleMyBusiness #GoogleReviews #PSPinc #SmallBusiness #Technology

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Will the End of Google+ Affect my Business Reviews?

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Google+ is starting to delete user accounts as part of their consumer-side shutdown of the failed social media platform. What concerned us and many other small businesses, were the consequences of shutting down part of the Google eco-system.

At its best, Google+ was a virtual storefront for many small businesses. At its worst, it was a struggling social network. At the beginning of its lifespan, in an effort to spread awareness, Google integrated Google Maps with Google+ accounts. This created a Google+ page for all business listings and was home to online reviews and other business information.

This made it easy to manage your business locations in one place while responding to all of your reviews online. But now that Google+ is gone, what will happen to business listings and reviews?

Don’t worry, all of your business reviews and information will remain.

Google+ is being replaced with Google My Business. The only part of the platform that had success gave small businesses a tool to manage their online identities within the search engine. It gave owners a place to communicate with their customers and find new ones. This is now a separate service called Google My Business.

There isn’t any reason to worry about your business listing or Google reviews being deleted when the social network goes away. If you log into your Google account and navigate to Google My Business, you will see a star labeled ‘Review’ on the left tab. This will bring you to a page where you can read and reply to any reviews.

We’ll be diving into Google My Business over the next two blogs to give you more information about its features. For now, rest easy knowing the Google+ shutdown won’t affect your business.
#Blog #BusinessTips #ENnews #Google #GoogleBusiness #GoogleMyBusiness #GoogleReviews #PSPinc #SmallBusiness #Technology

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Google+ is Deleting User Accounts

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Google has begun phase two of shutting down its social network Google+, which it announced it would do back in 2018. February was the last time anyone could create a new Google+ account.

On Tuesday, April 2nd, Google began deleting user accounts, data and content, including those of its top executives. This doesn’t come as much of a surprise. But what is surprising, however, is what Business Insider discovered was being deleted from public record – pertinent company history.

Four notable accounts were deleted on Tuesday, including co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page as well as former CEO Eric Schmidt and current CEO Sundar Pichai. Most of the content on the executive profiles wasn’t important but some of it may be, including company announcements and insight into the decision-making process.

No one has any problem with old selfies being deleted, but when quotes like this one are erased, eyebrows get raised: “We have not joined any program that would give the U.S. government-or any other government-direct access to our servers.” - Larry Page

It’s unclear if Google will make an announcement or respond to any questions about the deleted accounts. And it’s unclear how much information was really lost when accounts were deleted. All we know for now is that Google+ is history.

Source: Business Insider: https://www.businessinsider.com.au/google-plus-executive-profiles-deleted-2019-4?r=US&IR=T
#Blog #BusinessTips #ENnews #Google #GoogleReviews #PSPinc #SmallBusiness #Technology

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Customer Surveys: Ask the Right Questions

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We often ask questions with some expectation of the answers before we hear them. When asking our customers for their input, however, we must willingly set aside our opinions and remain neutral if we want to get honest feedback and learn something valuable from them.

According to Peter Drucker, guru of business management, the fax machine is a prime example of the influential power in our questioning techniques.

Before the fax machine came to market, U.S. manufacturers conducted market research asking, "Would you buy a telephone accessory for upwards of $1,500 that enables you to send, for $1 a page, the same letter the post office delivers for 25 cents?" You guessed it; the answers were no and U.S. manufacturers did not pursue the fax machine.

On the other hand, as Drucker pointed out, Japanese manufacturers asked a more straightforward question: “Is there a market for what the fax machine does?" And they realized fax machines could replace courier services like FedEx in the 70s. As a result of asking the right question, Japanese manufacturers were first to market and more dominant in fax machines than U.S. companies in the 80s and 90s. It was too late for many U.S. companies to follow suit.

Collecting feedback from our customers is beneficial, but only if we phrase our questions in such a way that allows them to be honest and think for themselves. If we are going to take the time to survey people, make it worthwhile. Prepare ahead of time, keep it straightforward, and take the bad with the good – because it all helps to better your business.
#Advertising #B2B #Blog #CRM #CustomerFeedback #CustomerSatisfaction #CustomerService #ENnews #FocusGroups #Marketing #OfficeTips #OnlineSurveys #PSPinc #SmallBusiness #Surveys

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How to Host a Focus Group

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Hosting a focus group to get more granular feedback from your customers is a great way learn what’s working, what’s not, and what the people want. The feedback can help you make better informed decisions when it comes to introducing, modifying or discontinuing products or services – instead of relying solely on your gut instinct.

Follow these five steps to host a successful focus group:

1. Define your Mission

What do you want to learn from your participants? Plan your focus group around a purpose and stick to it.

2. Recruit Participants

Carefully consider the people you invite. Think back to your plan for the focus group. Should you invite business people or consumers? What ages? Does income level or location matter? And should you be talking with people who are loyal to your company or people who have stopped purchasing your products or services? Maybe you need a good mix of everyone. You might consider sending out a questionnaire to pre-screen participants.

3. Provide Incentives

Time is money so be sure to reward the people who participate. Perhaps a discount or a gift card. Whatever that is, put yourself in their shoes and determine if the incentive is worth your time.

4. Interview

Interviewing participants in person is beneficial because there is much more to answers than words. Tone of voice and facial expressions can say a lot too. You can really capture the feelings in person. Prepare questions in advance and be very straightforward when delivering them. Don’t use a lot of adjectives or language that can be leading. Stay objective and try to get non-biased answers.

5. Take Notes

This is your chance to get more than a yes or no answer, so take advantage. Take notes on how the users engage with you. How do they appear? Do they smile? Are they agitated? Are they struggling to answer right away?

For a successful focus group, you need plenty of preparation ahead of time. You can find lots of sample questions online to give you ideas!
#Advertising #B2B #Blog #CustomerFeedback #CustomerSatisfaction #CustomerService #ENnews #FocusGroups #Marketing #OfficeTips #OnlineSurveys #PSPinc #SmallBusiness #Surveys

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Simple, Immediate Surveys get Results

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The best time to ask a customer about their experience with your business is immediately after your transaction or interaction with them. Life is busy and our memories get muddled because of it, so don’t wait too long to get feedback. Ask when when it’s fresh in your customer's mind.

If you want to keep it really simple, ask just one question: “Are you happy?”

Here are two ways PSPinc is doing that:

Feedback Form

We implemented a simple email survey through our CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system so whenever our support staff helps a customer, the customer immediately gets a follow-up email asking them to rate their experience with us. This can tell us a lot about how we are doing, and also what kinds of issues customer are having.



Opinion Stand

On a tablet next to our lobby entrance, we ask customers, “How did we do?” and they have the option to give their feedback on the tablet as they exit.



Don’t miss an opportunity to connect with your customers. These simple and quick surveys can provide a lot of great insight into what you’re doing right and what you need to do better.
#Advertising #B2B #Blog #CRM #CustomerFeedback #CustomerSatisfaction #CustomerService #ENnews #Marketing #OfficeTips #OnlineSurveys #PSPinc #SmallBusiness #Surveys

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How to Get Customer Feedback

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Learning from our customers equips us with information to better our business. In a previous article we discussed using analytics as a tool to understand our customers’ online behavior. Now let’s talk about reaching out to those customers to get their feedback.

One of the best and easiest ways to engage with your customers is to create a survey for them. Surveys are easy to make and you can customize them to ask broad questions or get very specific – it all depends on what your company needs from it.

Here are some key points for you to consider before you start your survey:

- Determine your goal for the survey, and what you want to get out of it.

- Compile your customer list, preferably emails, to which you can send the survey.

- Consider offering an incentive (coupon, freebie, discount) if they take the survey.

- Come up with your questions. Keep it simple and neutral, don’t lead your customers toward a particular answer. Stay completely objective. Consider questions like: How do they like your product or service? Where did they learn about you? What else would they like to see your company offer? What is your strength / weakness?

- Keep it short and tell them up front how long it should take to complete the survey. Everyone’s busy, don’t get greedy with their time.

- Be sure to follow-up at some point so your customer doesn’t think their time and feedback was wasted.

- Consider asking some of the tough questions, even if you’re worried about receiving criticism. Remember, you’re not looking for a testimonial; you want to understand how you can improve. Customers might appreciate it.

Once you figure out your questions, then you can find the survey tools. PSPinc has an online form program, so if you need any help, contact us! We would be happy to assist you.
#Advertising #B2B #Blog #CRM #CustomerFeedback #CustomerSatisfaction #CustomerService #ENnews #Marketing #OfficeTips #OnlineSurveys #PSPinc #SmallBusiness #Surveys

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Learning from our Customers

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Sometimes we let our values or assumptions dictate our business decisions. But how do we know if we’re making decisions that appeal to our customers’ needs and desires? If business is good, that’s a pretty solid indicator your ways are right. But what if business could be better? I think there’s always room for improvement, and it starts with customer research.

In this next series of articles, we explore ways we can learn from our customers – starting with web analytics.

Google Analytics is a free web tool that’s simple to use. First, you need to setup your Google Analytics account. Go to www.google.com/analytics. Follow the instructions and get a “tracking code” for your website. If you’re unsure how to proceed once you have your tracking code, contact your webmaster, your marketing company, or call us at PSPinc.com (1-800-232-3989). Most websites have easy ways to embed those codes so you can track the visitors to your pages.

Google Analytics can give you a lot of data about the people visiting your site, including where they come from, how they enter your site and where they exit.

Some things to look for include:

- Page Hits = how many pages are viewed
- Visitors = how many visits you had
- Unique Visitors = how many visitors are new to your site
- Bounce = meaning people are leaving your site
- Page Flow = shows how your visitors navigate through your website

So now you have all this data in front of you, but what do you do with it? Start asking questions. Here is a jumping off point:

How many people are visiting your site? Where are they coming from?
Who are they? Are they your target audience?
How are you attracting them? Are they spending time on pages you hoped they would hit?
Are they taking the “actions” you want them to take via your website?
What pages interest them the most? What pages do they leave from, and why?


Questioning this kind of data may help you develop some theories for testing your website’s appearance, content and functionality, and improve its performance altogether. Even a small tweak can make your homepage more effective.
#Advertising #B2B #Blog #CRM #CustomerFeedback #CustomerSatisfaction #CustomerService #ENnews #Marketing #OfficeTips #OnlineSurveys #PSPinc #SmallBusiness #Surveys

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