Essential Marketing for Every Company, Product and Service

Consider marketing to be an ongoing process, rather than a discipline with a 'start' and a 'finish' and you are likely to reap far better benefits from your efforts.

Because marketing deals with an ever-changing entity: markets.

And markets are made up of dynamic, ever-changing buyers. They age, change their spending habits, adapt their tastes and their needs; people come and people go.

One of the most fascinating things about aging has been the realisation that I am no longer considered part of any real target market. No one fights to sell me property, insurance, furniture, music or fashion any more. I already have so many of those things. But if I want to replace a saucepan, I find they are now sold in sets. If I want one, I must buy six. Surely only newlyweds need six new saucepans...what on earth would I do with the other five?

And, let's be honest, I am no longer sylph-like, so in more ways than one, I no longer fit the mould. I'll only want a new home if I down-size; my furniture is mainly antique, not mass-produced; my music is mellow and has stood the test of time and I've bought all the insurance I can afford (and some I no longer can).

Marketers look to much younger people to buy most of their products: the teeny-weenies, the teenage hellions, the upwardly mobile or future families; in short, Generations Y and Z. On my part, that's good! The only marketers who still bother me are banks (and if they checked my bank balance and debt load first, they'd leave me alone entirely!)

Where to start with a marketing mix?

Affordability is as good a guide as any. No SME would book ongoing national TV coverage, for instance. Not only is it unaffordable, but only large companies and franchise systems can service national response to great TV advertising.

Here are ten great commandments for successful management of the marketing process:

1. Your market knows what it wants. You may be bright; you may be clever, but the people who buy (or don't) also have opinions and are easily swayed. Never assume you know what your market needs. Ask it! Tons of companies target markets that provide little of their income.

2. Continually ask questions. The best marketers have insatiable curiosity and questions reveal questioning, intelligent minds. Products fail daily because they are the wrong colour, are too big or too small...questions need answers; find them.

3. Back up all argument with evidential rationale. Argument without facts or proof to back it up is merely opinion. Just because we like something, doesn't mean others do.

4. Lead with strong conviction. It's management's job to lead onwards into new territory. If your team grumbles and disagrees, get them to find their own answers, but don't discount their opinions. Continually 'pushing the envelope' is essential to good marketing management.

5. Surround yourself with positive people. I'm in two minds about this...while essential optimists make every team easier to co-ordinate, I don't believe marketing should forge ahead without relevant research, assessment and report-back. If people don't like the taste, they'll only buy the muffin once and sales will drop before the marketing campaign is done. Ra-ra people may bolster your confidence, but they could also easily miss essential detail.

6. Learn from your mistakes. If you don't take risks and make mistakes, you won't learn anything about your products, your services or your market. Marketing without ongoing research markets to a vacuum. Always aim to reach beyond what you already know.

7. Don't do it alone. Whether you have an internal marketing team or you use an agency or freelancers, listen and include every opinion you can. Discover each person's value and apply it to the tasks in hand.

8. Commit to generating momentum and dynamic activity. Campaigns include providing feedback, like researching target markets, product popularity, service needs and follow-ups. How many enquiries did your promotion generate? Activity based on logic generates momentum and gets results, creating confidence in the marketing process.

9. Hire people who are smarter than you. For true innovation, new ideas are essential and new ideas are generated, not learnt. Find people who think differently and, once tested, let them manage new initiatives. By all means, expect status reports, but give them relative freedom to operate.

10. Honour your failures. That's right! With no failures, you've not learnt what your buying public doesn't like! Whether you use this approach in product design, service orientation or in the promotional context, failures give you valuable contextual information for future decisions.

The Benefits Of Engaging An SEO Service

If you are planning to make the most of the online space for enhancing marketing efforts, an SEO Service is what you'll need to reinforce your plans. In the ever-so-competitive marketplace of today, having a website alone may not be enough. You need to insure that it enjoys maximum visibility among net surfers so that your marketing efforts can yield desirable results. SEO or search engine optimization is a strategy where the usage of the right keywords insures top rankings on the most popular search engines. Basically, when you engage SEO services of repute, it means that any related search would bring up the link to your website on the very first page of the search engine result list. And, chances are that visitors would end up clicking on your link in quest of relevant information on specific products and services.

Benefits of Hiring an SEO Service

Engaging the services of an accomplished SEO company is as essential ingredient for developing the right content marketing strategy. When you use informative content as a marketing tool, it would be essential to ensure that a wide cross-section of prospective customers ends up accessing it. And an SEO exercise insures just that. Some prominent advantages associated with engaging an SEO service would include the following:

*When you engage the services of an SEO strategy implementing company, it would achieve long-lasting results. Therefore, you can basically enjoy optimal peace of mind once your rankings improve and remain there for a sustained period of time. This insures that your website continues to deliver value to customers round the clock without you having to spend additional dollars for advertising purposes, relentlessly.

*Engaging the most reputable SEO service, before your competitors can, would be the right way to insure a complete edge above your competition. If you manage to set up a website that's optimized as it should, surfers would find it much more easily, with minimal efforts. This is a crucial prerequisite because net surfers would hardly scour through the pages of search engines on the lookout for the information they need. Therefore, it would be of immense relevance to make it to the first page of the search engine.

*Naturally, when the efforts of SEO submission services bear fruits, more and more visitors would register their presence in your website. Therefore, you would end up attracting a lot of eyeballs. Naturally, all these efforts would subsequently add up to higher sales figures.

*Your SEO service would be relentlessly engaged in ensuring high visibility both on a national as well as local scale. You can dominate local markets as well as reach out to customers on a global basis. Therefore, an SEO drive insures that you can spread brand awareness with ease.

*Search engine optimization is one of the cheapest and also the most effective ways of ensuring a thumping market presence.

In a nutshell, engaging an SEO service could prove to be beneficial for the business enterprise in more ways than one. But, it would be essential to engage the services of a firm of repute that has managed to produce results sustainably.

To avail one of the most proficient SEO Service, visit http://www.wlmarketing.com. You can access SEO submission service packages of various price points that would suit your budget, right here.

Benefits and Discounts in Civil Service

Civil Service

Civil Service in the United Kingdom only includes Crown employees. Employees in parliamentary field, teachers and National Health Service employees are not considered as Civil servants. County or city employees are also not regarded as civil servants.

Civil servants are mainly employed by Governmental organizations on the basis of professional merit conducted through competitive examinations.

Benefits and Discounts offered for Civil Servants

Loads of benefits are on offer for all civil servants who have served their respective organizations. Salaries are almost at par with industrial standards, apart from that, various other benefits and incentives such as child-care vouchers, flexi-time working, pension scheme benefits, are also available.

Let's see a few benefits in brief.

Civil Service Benevolent fund (CSBF)

The CSBF team provides help to civil servants by giving proper advice and financial assistance in regard to investments, increasing savings level etc.

This kind of assistance is not only for the employees, but even for the dependants and family members of the employees.
Special assistance regarding debt management, housing mortgage loans etc. can also be availed.

Civil Service Healthcare

CS Healthcare provides low budget health insurance scheme which is applicable for the employees those who have worked, are working in any of the Civil Service organizations.
Any surplus funds are re-invested into the society which helps in keeping the insurance premiums at the lowest rate possible.
Your Choice health plan allows employees to choose different schemes that suit them the best by hand-picking the services they want to avail.
Various services ranging from Heart Diagnostics, Cancer Expertise, In-patient ward, Out-patient ward, Dental care, and special department for women etc. can be customized into your plan.
Other benefits such as
Access to over 300 hospitals
Free advice from doctors in their respective areas of expertise.
Quick settlement of any issue that may arise during the course of treatment.

Civil Service Insurance Society (CSIS)

CSIS provides insurance for homes and cars at very specially negotiated prices especially for civil servants who are working, retired and their partners.
There are no admin fees, hidden or any extra charges.
Pay through Direct Debit for car and home insurance without any extra cost, on a monthly basis.
Online application for car insurance can avail you an extra 10% discount.
Avail specialized services from qualified professionals.
Specialized ID theft assistance helpline for home loan insurance for free.

CSSC Sports & Leisure

Membership to CSSC Sport & leisure costs about £ 3 a month, for which there is a huge range of sport and leisure activities that are on the list to choose from.
Be it Athletics, Track and Field, Indoor games, outdoor games or Gym. All of these facilities can be availed by becoming a member.
CSSC Games event is held twice every year which goes on for a span of 2 days. This event draws thousands of competitors throughout the UK who exhibit their talent in their respective sport.
This is exclusively for the benefit of employees who are working or have worked for any civil service organization in the UK.
The CSSC Sports & leisure department also has a team that deploys health and fitness centre right in the working area. Specialized team draws a blueprint of the fitness centre and helps in tackling the difficulties that may arise while building the fitness centre.

Pension Schemes

There are various Pension Schemes for employees that belong to different work group. They may be classified into

Classic
Classic Plus
Nuvos
Partnership
Premium

All the above schemes have different benefits according to their levels, department and categories that the employees fall into.

Each scheme issues an Annual Benefit Statement that allows you to have a clear view regarding the amount of pension that you have received and also gives you a picture of what is in the pipeline in the near future.

Civil Service Pensions Injury Benefits Scheme (CSPIBS)

CSPIBS scheme provides benefits to employees who have sustained injuries (Physical/Mental) and are incapable of earning or their earning capacity is reduced due to the injury sustained while on duty.
Stringent measures are taken to test whether the injury sustained is serious and it actually disables the employee from earning, only then the benefits are awarded to the employee.

Death Benefits

In case the employee dies while in service, Death benefit becomes valid (no minimum period of qualifying service is required).

Any former member who dies after retiring with a pension or annual compensation schemes is also a valid beneficiary.

Death Benefit is paid to the
Nominee - who the employee might have nominated while he was alive in case of valid nomination.

Personal Representative - who holds 'Grant of Probate' or 'Will' or produces the Letter of Administration if the member dies intestate.

Find exclusive Civil service discounts and check out cash back offers, discounts for civil service employees at PS Discounts, a Public Sector Staff Discount Site.

Questions to Ask When Choosing a Courier Delivery Service

A courier service is a company that supplies door to door shipping and delivery of packages, letters, and other shipments. Courier services can be local, national, and international. Courier services among companies vary so when selecting the right service that meets your needs, it is important to ask the right questions.

Do you offer on-time delivery?

Most couriers offer guaranteed on-time delivery. This is normally available for standard shipping service, express shipping, same day delivery, and overnight shipping.

Do you have a solid reputation?

The success of a courier depends a lot on if they fulfill their shipping obligations, Couriers should have a list of customers who are happy with their services. They should have a reputation of handling packages with the best care and do not have a record of damage or loss of items.

What is the cost of the courier services?

Cost of shipping items can vary among couriers. It is important that you are getting the best value for your money. Ask if they offer discounts on bulk items. Find out what the exact services are for each shipping service. The lowest price is not always the best service.

What does the insurance cover?

Ask if the insurance covers the full value of the item being shipped and if it covers stolen, lost, and damaged items. You want an insurance guarantee on your item in writing. Producing a Certificate of Insurance should not be a hassle for an insured courier. Every courier company should have a minimum of one million dollars worth of general liability insurance

What are your delivery hours?

Some couriers work all hours and days. Some do not work on holidays. You may have to pay an additional feel for a specific delivery time.

What is your State Permit number?

Each state issues a permit to motorized transporters of freight. You should not use a courier who does not have the proper permit.

Are you bonded?

Bonding is insurance against a crime committed by an employee of the courier company. For instance, if a computer shipped an expensive item that was stolen by an employee, bonding would cover the customer for their financial loss.

How much will my shipment cost?

Cost of shipment will depend on the size and weight of the package. Many couriers have online calculators to determine shipment costs.

Are there items that the courier will not ship?

There are items that couriers are prohibited from transporting. Examples include livestock, liquids, perishable goods, glass, gases, pyrotechnics, arms and ammunition, corrosive..etc.

What information do you need when I book a courier?

Couriers usually need to know the type of item, size and weight of the item, destination address, what type of service is needed..etc.

When you enlist the services of a courier, they are obligated to answer your questions. Couriers are now an essential part of transporting items nationally and internationally. Knowing what questions to ask will go a long way to ensure your shipment arrives safe and sound.

Looking for cross border shipping? Get an international shipping quote from Canada's largest courier delivery service company. Provides same day shipping, overnight shipping, international shipping and offers a range of choices to help meet all your shipping needs.

Electronic Medical Billing Software and Service Compliance With Pre-Payment And Post-Payment Audits

Mistaken payments add up to an estimated $200 billion, exceeding 10% of national healthcare costs. Other Party Liability (OPL) alone, i.e., claims that should be paid by somebody else, make up $68 billion or 3.6% of national healthcare cost. The enormous size of potential savings due to improved claims processing continues to attract attention and resource focus. Insurance profitability experts believe that a payment scrutiny program can be as successful a profit-building strategy for insurance companies as raising premiums or adding members. A growing industry of outsourced technology and services to avoid mistaken payments is also symptomatic of a growing demand for such services. Some vendors cite cumulative payment savings as high as $3 billion.

However, avoiding mistaken payments is hard because of four-pronged constraints, namely, the volume of claims, the disparate and disconnected sources of relevant information, the resource-intensive manual processes needed to identify and investigate recovery opportunities, and regulatory requirements for timely payments.

To manage these difficulties, many payers adopted a two-phase-based "pay-and-refund" approach for payment minimization. The second phase of this approach is designed to correct any mistakes made during the first phase. Each of the phases can be further divided into two stages. Specifically, the initial phase splits into prepayment review and timely payment of valid items, while the final phase includes post-payment audits and refunds of items proven invalid during the audit.

Prepayment Review

Prepayment review typically proceeds in two stages, identification and confirmation. Potential overpayment identification requires cross-referencing multiple systems that manage provider enrollment, authorizations, recovery case management, and call centers for both insured and providers.

Overpayment confirmation uses Correct Coding Initiative (CCI), Local Medical Review Policies (LMRP), and other rules to categorize the potential overpayments into Contractual/Clinical, Eligibility, Coordination of Benefits, or Duplicate Payments.

Overpayment confirmation typically includes tests for inter-claim, intra-claim, or cross claim inconsistencies, lifetime duplicates, date range duplicates, re-bundling, inappropriate modifier codes, wrong E&M crosswalk, upcoded or undercoded visit level, etc.

Prepayment review requires powerful database technology. Most of prepayment claim review process can be automated along with subsequent denial notice or explanation of benefits (EOB).

Post-Payment Audit

In contrast, post-payment audits tend to consume more resources during each one of the audit stages:


Target identification

Audit identification report shows total annual revenue and the degree of variance between the audit target and peers in the same specialty and geography. The product of the two numbers is proportional to the expected gain from the audit, essentially providing a natural audit ranking.


Audit preparation

A higher return to the payer is the key advantage of a carefully designed and executed post-payment audit. Audit preparation starts with a review of audit target selection, which is the result of provider profiling and variance reporting. This stage includes a list of claims paid in the past that are most likely to fall outside of standard distribution of the peer group.


Audit execution

The auditor requests and analyzes medical notes supporting the data reflected in the sample of paid claims produced at the audit preparation stage. The auditor's objective is to establish the proportion of claims found unsupported by reviewed medical notes within the set of audited sample (percent of overpayment).


Refund (and penalty) extrapolation

The auditor extrapolates refund as the product of percent of overpayment and the total payments by the auditing insurance carrier for the past six years.


Negotiation


Settlement

Some stages, such as audit execution, negotiation, and settlement must be entirely manual, and may require highly skilled and experienced personnel. Other stages, such as verification of overpayment amount and currency, identification of overpayment reason, and audit prioritization, may be partially automated, using rule-based technology to identify procedure repetition, high payments per day, surge analysis, unusual modifiers, unusual procedure rates, geographic improbabilities, or 5/50 patterns. External resources might be added at this stage to consult provider watch lists, OIG sanctions databases, or high-risk address databases.

Summary

A full-scale implementation of payment scrutiny requires sophisticated processes to handle prepayment claim review and post-payment audits and uses advanced fraud detection technology. Prepayment claim reviews are less expensive than post-payment audits and therefore can be applied to every claim, while post-payment audits must be carefully targeted. A system to manage overpayment recovery process must include claim identification, its history, provider and insured information, medical notes, insured services call center notes, authorizations, etc. Without the ability to efficiently manage a large volume of recovery cases, the risk for errors or missed payment deadlines is high, resulting in missed recovery opportunities.

Yuval Lirov, PhD, author of "Practicing Profitability - Network Effect for Revenue Cycle Control in Healthcare Clinic and Chiropractic Office: Scheduling, SOAP Notes, Care Plans, Coding, Billing, Collections, and Audit Risk" (Affinity Billing) and "Mission Critical Systems Management" (Prentice Hall), inventor of patents in Artificial Intelligence and Computer Security, and CEO of Vericle.net - Distributed Billing and Practice Management Technologies. Yuval invites you to register to the next webinar on audit risk at BillingPrecision.com

Four PR Tips For Marketing Your Product Or Service on TV & Radio Without Buying Advertising Time

You have a great product, service or book, and you know it. But just like the "better mousetrap," it doesn't mean a thing unless your market knows it, too. Interviews on TV and radio talk shows are great avenues for promoting your product to the masses, and are generally far more dynamic than basic print advertising.

You may believe the only way to get great TV and radio exposure is to buy advertising time, but there is an even better and more cost-effective way - harnessing the marketing power of PR.

Regardless of the product or message you'd like to promote, a targeted TV or radio talk show offers a great forum to get your word out. Hosts are always looking for guests that will help them entertain and inform their audiences. With the correct PR strategy you can land these terrific guest spots - pure marketing gold!

Why are these spots gold? You see, when you or your spokesperson is on the air, you're a featured guest on a show whose host has an established audience that trusts his message. Your appearance on the show as a guest confers an implicit endorsement, enhancing your credibility with the host's audience; they're hearing about you and your product or service from their trusted friend.

The best part? An interview as a guest on a TV or talk radio show is free! Even if you decide to employ the services of a public relations firm to arrange these interview spots, such a campaign usually costs about one-tenth of an advertising campaign.

My PR firm was once approached by the CEO of a life insurance agency, and we ended up representing his agency for years. They initially wanted us to arrange local and national radio and TV appearances for the CEO, who was also their spokesman. Now, I don't think it will offend anyone if I state here that as an interview subject, insurance is perceived by consumers as dull, dull, dull. An angle was needed that would not only interest audiences, but resonate with them as an issue of great importance.

We created a very effective headline for our pitch: "Can You Afford to Survive Without Your Spouse?" The interview focus was about the need for spouses and children to be protected financially after the death of the family breadwinner. In effect, it became a human interest story instead of a boring interview with an insurance salesman.

Our client did a large number of both radio and TV guest appearances, but it was clear after a while that the CEO was a terrific spokesman, particularly on the visual medium of television. So the focus for the remainder of the 3-year-long campaign was on TV talk shows. The CEO appeared on numerous national TV news shows, such as CNBC, speaking to the vital issue of financial security for women and families. The result? The highest number of new leads the company had ever experienced, for any type of promotion.

If you think PR can help market your product or service, here are four specific PR tricks you can use to effectively pitch TV and radio producers and hosts:

1. Stay current. Follow the news, know what the hot trends are, and what people are talking about. What is the current "buzz?" Talk radio and TV are all about current events, so make it your business to be "in the know."

2. Tie In to the News. As you follow the hottest stories in the news, think of ways you can relate stories to your product or service. Look for controversy or big names...these are always tantalizing topics for talk show hosts and their listeners.

3. Pitch Your Topic. Keep in mind that TV and radio hosts are interested in what you can do for their audience, not what they can do to help you promote your product. They want an interview, not an infomercial, so when pitching to hosts and producers emphasize the issue or problem for which your product or service is the solution.

4. Follow the Right Press Release Formula. Your press release is critical - it's the key to the media's door! Make sure your headline is enticing and attention-grabbing, and that the text elaborates on the subject matter and what the interview would be about. Also include a short but impressive bio or company profile. As well as a couple of well-chosen juicy or provocative quotes.

And if you have decided to tackle arranging your own interviews the above can be summed up to a couple of key PR rules to keep in mind when approaching media hosts or producers. First, never pitch yourself - pitch the issue on which you are an expert (and you ARE an expert - have you read my book, "Celebritize Yourself"?). Second, never pitch your product - talk instead about the problem your product addresses and how your product ties in as a solution. Good luck!

For 20 years Marsha Friedman has been a leading authority on public relations as CEO of EMSI, a national public relations firm. Her firm represents corporations and experts in a wide array of fields such as business, health, food, lifestyle, politics, finance, law, sports and entertainment. Some of the more prominent names on her client roster are Teamster's President Jimmy Hoffa Jr., Sergeant's Pet Care Products, Former National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane and the famous Motown Group, the Temptations. She consults individuals and businesses on a daily basis and is frequently asked to speak at conferences about how to harness the power of publicity. Go to http://www.emsincorporated.com to claim your free "Power of Public Relations" video today! Or call 727-443-7115, ext. 202, or email her at info@marshafriedman.com.

Start Your Own Medical Billing Service

An aging American population and changes to Medicare regulations in the early nineties have produced a booming medical billing industry. Medical practices simply can't cope under the strain of increasing paper work and client enquiries. If you are looking for a skilled work at home career with the potential to pay the bills and much more, the medical billing industry is for you.

(Please note this article is made up of mostly U.S specific details, that is not to say that the industry doesn't exist elsewhere in the world or that the general principles of starting this job don't apply)

What exactly does a medical billing service entail?

Medical practices outsource all of their billing responsibilities to private medical billing services. Your day to day activities could any of the following:

Preparation of insurance company claims, both electronic and hardcopy Maintaining a practice's patient database Invoicing patients, both electronic and hardcopy Collecting co-payments from patients Tracking overdue accounts Answering patient enquiries Submitting reports to practices i.e. number of patients, bottom line etc.
What is required to start a service - experience, qualifications?

The medical billing industry makes use of a complex and ever changing system of codes. If you don't have any experience in the industry, its time to take a course at your local college or through a recognized home study program. When enquiring about courses or doing research, remember that the course you are after might be under another name than medical billing. Purdue for instance runs a Medical Specialist course which includes a module on medical billing.

Beware of scams, anything that sounds too good to be true usually is. Experience or a qualification is always required to start a medical billing service - all services take time to grow and attract clients. Any companies that advertise "no experience required" or "guaranteed client list" are scams.

What your medical specialist course should include

Make sure the course you take includes at least the following basic elements.

Basic medical terminology The insurance claims process Processing forms National diagnostic and procedural system Training for medical billing software Methods to handle denied claims Soft collection techniques CPT codes

Don't necessarily choose the cheapest course option available. Doctors are very weary of who they hand control of their billing too. A qualification from an established and recognized institution will go along way to created trust and increasing the reputability of your service.

Getting your service off the ground

To start your service you'll first need to setup an office, the following will be required: a computer, high speed internet connection, printer, medical billing software and a CPT coding manual. Most of your work will be done online so a high speed internet connection and a good billing program are essential. Also consider spoiling yourself with an LCD monitor, your eyes will thank you later! Don't forget to compile a basic business plan before setting up your service. Good planning can often mean the difference between failure and success.

There are numerous software packages available on the Internet, expect to pay at least $500 for your software and around $3000 to $5000 for the total business setup, depending on the course you take and equipment you purchase. Search online forums and social network sites like Digg.com for honest consumer reviews before purchasing a software package, the number of unresolved forum posts or negative user reviews will give you a good idea of each programs usability and features.

Marketing your new service

To be successful in the industry you will need at least six medical practices in your employ - typical monthly fees range from $800 to $1,500 per client. The good news is you'll only need to market your services in the beginning, once you have a full roster of medical practices marketing is no longer required. (This lack of marketing expenditure later on is part of what makes this career very profitable).

Market your services initially through direct mailers to doctors, cold calling and networking in the medical billing community.

Final word

Budget for occasional and ongoing education - medical billing is constantly changing so its essential to stay current with changes in the industry. Be on the look out for seminars in your area.

Andrew Misplon is co-owner of The Work Pad - Work at Home Ideas, Tips and Advice, a feature packed work at home resource site including ideas, tips and advice. The Work Pad offers a free Personality Profiler and free Time Profiler to help work at home entrepreneurs achieve their potential. Every article is written by our in house team of entrepreneurs and work at home business people - unique, timely content is always guaranteed.

Coffee Service Companies

Coffee has continuously ranked high among other beverage choices since its discovery in Ethiopia on the 9th century. The great number of companies providing coffee services can attest to that. Several important factors must be considered before deciding for the right coffee service for the office.

An efficient office coffee service builds productivity of the employees and impresses visiting clients. Begin planning with the size and location. Some companies offering coffee service operate nationally while others serve regional locations. Some particular office coffee vendors limit service to those offices with 20 or more personnel.

Consider the level of service too. A number of coffee service providers supply the equipment and coffee. You must handle the stocking, cleaning and managing orders when they provide the coffee and equipment. Full service companies also provide sales representatives that take care of most of those needs.

Cost is a very important factor in selecting the right office coffee service company. It is a good to first compare the services with the cost and also weigh the costs versus the services provided by different companies.

Do not forget the coffee brew itself. Coffee brewers may come in pot, single cup, glass and metal type models. The coffee is packed in cans, pods, bags, and other various packages. Similarly, selection of coffee ranges from supermarket varieties, specialty coffees to premium brands.

You will be presented with various machines when offering services of coffee in an office environment. You may consider buying a standard office coffee machine if you want to offer just a regular brew.

A machine producing the same amount of coffee as the one used in most home is a good choice, considering the number of your office employees. The coffee machine that makes a larger amount is also an interesting option. While you do not necessarily need to purchase such coffee machine from company that specializes in that field, doing so can be a helpful choice especially when you are looking for the one that brews a larger quantity of coffee at one time.

The espresso machine is another option. More people are preferring espresso over regular coffee nowadays. Some machines are designed for brewing both regular coffee and espresso.

Another good option is to buy a vending machine which will offer an array of coffee products and other varieties of hot and cold beverages as well. These may provide hot chocolate, espresso, and also hot water for steeping tea. We can usually find these machines in most large office settings. They are made to satisfy different tastes and preferences.

Here are some successful companies offering coffee services. The Wagner Coffee Service has been in the business since 1978. They have been providing excellent service and good quality of coffee to restaurants and offices in the Baltimore Washington area. They are a member of the National Coffee Service Association and strive to be the leader in this industry of the Mid-Atlantic region.

The Canteen Refreshment Services offers a complete customized menu. They deliver a coffee program suitable to the workplaces and different tastes. They serve Folgers, Maxwell House, Starbucks and other well-respected brands in single cups, glass pots and air pot brewers.

ARAMARK Refreshment Services is considered as North America's leading refreshment service provider with 89 office coffee service locations. They serve billions cups of coffee annually.

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Specialty Produce Wholesaler Frieda's Sets the Standard With Customer Service That Goes the Distance

As a teenager, Karen Caplan and her sister Jackie learned about customer service the old-fashioned way. They spent weekends in the offices of Frieda's, their mother's specialty produce business, answering customer inquiries and sending recipes on how to prepare the company's exotic fruits and vegetables. Frieda Caplan had encouraged shoppers to ask questions and request free recipes at a time when no one else was doing it.

Nearly three decades later, Karen Caplan, now president and CEO of the Los Alamitos, Calif., company, and VP Jackie Caplan Wiggins continue to set trends in customer satisfaction.

Frieda's, which last year did $35 million in business selling everything from sweet dumpling squash to morel mushrooms, is the nation's largest wholesaler of specialty produce, exotic fruits and other foods. And it has honed customer satisfaction and education to a fine art. At a time when analysts and customers lament often slow corporate responses to consumer e-mails, Frieda's fields up to 500 queries week (most of them e-mails), typically replying within a day of receipt. And while other companies have been criticized for "dumb sizing" -- downsizing without regard to customer service or product quality - Frieda's continues to focus on making customers happy. It's a strategy that has helped build customer loyalty and push revenues higher each year in recent times.

"Twenty-eight years ago, no one was doing customer service. If you wanted a recipe or a refund, they'd tell you to expect to wait six to eight weeks," says Karen Caplan, whose company was also the first in the specialty-produce industry to offer full retail refunds to unhappy customers, and within a week. "Today, I'm relentless about customer service."

Give Customers More Than They Expect
Frieda's was among the first to include product descriptions, usage, handling tips, country of origin, complete nutritional information on its labels. And if that weren't enough, Frieda's assigns three employees to answer the dozens of questions that arrive daily, such as:

"Can I freeze my yakisoba noodles?"

"What's the best way to store horseradish?"

"Can I grow elephant garlic from the bulb I bought?"

Other customers simply want a recipe for the dried chipotle peppers they purchased, or have an occasional gripe, says director of communications Tristan Millar, who oversees customer satisfaction. The company lists recipes and product tips on all its labels, as well as its phone number, address and e-mail address, urging buyers to request refunds if unhappy.

Giving consumers a quick turnaround is the key to keeping them happy. Even on weekends, Millar checks her e-mail for customer queries. And the staff is especially diligent before Thanksgiving, because they know buyers will want tips on how to make the most of their holiday produce. Indeed, it's an attitude more companies should adopt, says a study by Jupiter Communications, which says 46 percent of online businesses take five or more days to respond to e-mails, or don't respond at all, collectively losing millions of dollars. Many sites don't bother to list a customer service e-mail address.

To ease the job, Frieda's has set up its own resource library containing books and publications on just about every fruit, vegetable and exotic food the company could find. So when an e-mail asks about unusual uses of various melons, dried fruits or other products, employees can find a solution and fire off a quick answer. They then stash the information in a special binder, because inevitably, someone else will ask the same question.

How can a company of 160 employees that sells its products to retail grocery chains afford to lavish such attention on individual consumers?

Over the past five years, the privately held company's revenue has grown from about $23 million to $35 million annually. It's difficult to peg how much customer service has played in the growth. But Caplan says that Frieda's refund policy -- unique within the produce industry -- says it all.

"In the past year I can tell you we've refunded less than $1,000, which tells you something about our quality," she says. To keep customers happy and complaints low, the company spends about $200,000 each year in employee time to field consumer requests. The results easily justify the expense, says Caplan, who believes the outreach helps build relationships and trust with end users.

"We have some customers who send the refund checks back to us," says Caplan. "Many have been customers for years and feel they have a relationship with our company. They just wanted to let us know that maybe some items were stuck together in the package."

Pick Employees Ripe for the job
The focus on customer satisfaction begins with the company's culture. Caplan and her clan pick employees with the same care it might select a good pepino melon.

"Make sure the people who are dealing with your customers are passionate about the product. Before they're hired, they have to give us the impression of being very customer- service oriented. You can't come in with a clerical mentality," she says. "They have to show a passion for food or customer service."

Frieda's builds on that natural interest by immersing employees in lore about the 500 specialty products it sells. Workers spend the first weeks of employment learning about products in the company's 81,000-square-foot warehouse in the Los Angeles suburb. They are encouraged to take products home and use them in their own cooking and recipes.

Training and education are the key to sparking workers' passion, Caplan says. Many companies are reluctant to shell out for such training, but it has been well worth it for Frieda's. "Some things you have to do on blind faith, just knowing that you're doing something positive for (employees) and they will do something positive for someone else," she says.

So when someone writes or calls with a question like, "How do I cook a squash?" employees know the answer, because it's part of their training. Caplan makes a point of reading every snail-mail letter herself, to keep taking the pulse of what customers want. In the end, she says, "If you aren't passionate about your products, don't expect customers to be."

By Lisa Plendl

Lisa Plendl is a highly seasoned small business copywriter. She provides marketing writing customized for small businesses, including Web copy, brochures, sales sheets, business letters, scripts, articles, and other collateral that drives traffic and gets results.

Small Business and Technology Writer