Devon Blog

Category: connectchief

  • How can your business get excellent customer ratings

    Customer service is a process. It begins even before the moment a customer raises a concern with your business. From the moment a business comes in contact with the customer, the goal needs to be to assure that we’re working towards building a relationship that (mutually) matters. .

    Customers can reach out to a business for many things and over various media like emails, phone, social media or even in-person. Clear communication, good listening skills and positivity in all interaction is the recipe to success. We must all realize and acknowledge that problems always do happen. The difference between a highly rated business and a not-so-well rate business is in how they handle the situation. See some tips here from another post on this topic.

    enables the agent to calm frustrated customers and ensure successful resolution.

    Set a target to ensure that every customer experiences an excellent service from our team. To do this a step by step approach, that relies on empathy, care and timeliness in responding & resolving inquiries or complaints.

    Customer satisfaction is most important for repeat business and continued growth.

    Most businesses who get 5 star ratings have the following things in common –

    + Friendly people

    Friendly people are kind, caring and loving. They empathize with others and are approachable. In an organization it is very important to have employees who have a friendly attitude. But it not necessary that everyone is naturally friendly. It is a skill and with time it can be developed with practice and awareness. They have respect for others. Customers always want to communicate with individuals having these qualities as they feel more comfortable and know that their problems will be solved easily.

    Giving a 5 star rating to the business by a customers means they are fully satisfied with the service provider and the team members.

    + They care about their customers experience

    Customer service is very important in any business. If you do not have the right people however good your product is, you are bound to see the downfall. To get the best reviews for your company the team has to go out of their way and provide excellent customer service to their customer and a happy experience from purchasing the product right upto solving any related issues. If you are kind and empathatic towards the customers, nothing can stop you from getting a 5 star ratings at times.

    + They are quick to answer customers questions

    In this fast paced digital world, time is an important factor, everyone needs quick and honest answers to their problems. They make their customer feel important not only by answering them quickly but also helping them with positive responses because they know about their product.

    + They take pride in the product or service they sell

    Having pride means you are satisfied with your contribution towards your work. They are extremely proud about the products and service they sell to thier customers as they relate to the people, focus on their goals, give quality customer service etc. They are confident about the products they sell as they know deeply about the product and how it will benefit the end user.

    + They measure how they are doing, so they can keep improving

    All such businesses engage with their customers and ask them for feedback. Customer feedback tells them where they are doing well and where they need to be doing better. Because they genuinely care about their customers and their business these businesses are on a constant improvement path. Eventually these businesses become those that continuously get excellent ratings from all their customers. These businesses are customer magnets, new customers keep coming to them because existing customers only have good things to say about them.

    trustENGINE helps business owners building awesome businesses manage & own their improvement process.

    Regardless of whether you are on a free or a paid plan, the real benefit comes when you use the trustENGINE platform to engage every customer and learn from the feedback. On trustENGINE businesses can & must actively invite customers to share their reviews. As the first step – create or claim your business profile on trustENGINE so you can be well on your way to build a 5 star business that is loved by customers & is on the path of continuous improvement.

  • Why should anyone use trustENGINE when so many other review platforms already exist?

    We created trustENGINE because every business whether big or small that registers with us gets unbiased reviews. The foundation principles of trustENGINE are the following –

    • Reduce fake reviews
    • Help proliferate the truth
    • Accelerate the opportunity to receive feedback & improve
    • A single venue for consumers to interact with the business
    • Promote reviews from verified transactions
    • Build trust through transparency

    See here why we created trustENGINE and how we are innovating to make trusted reviews a reality. Many review platforms already exist in the market but they all have a few gaps which cause significant challenges for consumers & for businesses too

    + Many online review platforms have a pay to play business model

    Businesses that pay can get preferential treatment. This monetization strategy may be good for the review platform provider but is harmful for the consumer. trustENGINE works on a common set of guidelines that promote transparency & fairness to all users & businesses alike

    + Fake reviews can proliferate on public platforms

    Fake reviews are common on the online platform. They are either negative or positive. Some organisations, to promote their own products and business even hire people to write fake reviews and cause harm to their competitors. Customers rely on reviews to buy products and services. But these reviews sometimes can create problems for consumers and small business.

    + Businesses must have an opportunity to challenge suspect reviews and ask for transaction verification

    Businesses can be vulnerable to frauds. Customers to get something in return or to defame the company write fake reviews about the product they sell. You can reduce the risk of negative reviews by addressing them in a positive way and fix it.  This risk can be reduced by asking the customers for their verified contact details, transaction ids or some proof of purchase of the goods or services brought from them.

    + Most platforms cater to large or online companies

    trustENGINE is designed to help the small business owner build their brand and to build awareness with customers. By enabling small business owners to collect reviews online or in-store, we’re focusing on helping consumers discover that amazing business that is within their community or neighborhood.

    + Consumers have a hard time knowing the businesses actual rating based on verified transactions

    On trustENGINE any consumer can provide a review for any business. We clearly highlight whether a review is based on a verified transaction or not. Every reviewer must confirm their contact information before they can write a review on trustENGINE. This ensures that a review received can lead to a conversation between the business and the reviewer and provides the business owner an opportunity to make good on the customers experience.

    In summary, trustENGINE works on transparency & fairness to all users & businesses alike. Curbs and flags online fake reviews. Enabling small business owners to collect reviews and focusing on helping them and the consumers to discover businesses in their neighbourhood.

  • What is a ‘virtual billboard’ and how can it help me promote my business?

    Advertisements are a great way to get consumers to discover a business. Up until today advertisements have been posted either in the physical world (newspapers, magazines, billboards, hoardings or other print media) or in the digital world (TV ads, radio ads, cinema ads, website ads, mobile app ads, video ads etc).

    Pretty much most of the above ads are encountered in-the-home – either on your digital instruments (TV, Radio, mobile phone or PC) or in print media (newspapers, magazines etc). Billboards are the most common Out-of-home (OOH) forms of advertising available in the market. We’ve seen these as massive public display ads on the sides of roads, highways, at busy intersections, in shopping centers or on the side of large buildings. They are available in traditional poster formats and over the last two decades also in digital versions, which can take the form of animations and video, as well as still pictures. 

    The connectchief team has developed a unique concept of a virtual billboard. The talk of virtual reality is all round us. The metaverse is the future. A virtual billboard is a billboard that has been placed at a physical location.

    Businesses use Virtual billboards to display advertisements to users in the connectchief platform. Users receive these ads in their mobile apps and as mobile notifications when they are in the vicinity of a virtual billboard. A user is presented with a virtual billboard in their mobile phones in a ways that’s very similar to a real billboard that they would see when crossing one on a street.

    Whats more interesting about virtual billboards is that their content and context can be completely personalized to the end user. So the same virtual billboard can present me with one promotion while you see a completely different one.

    Another huge benefit is that 100s of businesses can put up virtual billboards at the same physical location without any risk of overcrowding or running out of physical room.

    Most importantly, Virtual billboards are far less costly, more effective, impactful, flexible and engaging than traditional billboards.

    Traditionally, Businesses end up spending a large amount of time looking for the right spot to advertise their brands and products. With virtual billboards businesses can experiment with their ad formats, locations and time of day.

    As is the case with all forms of advertising, Your products or services should has an impact on your preferred ad channels and on your shortlist of locations. For instance, if you sell books and stationary then your billboards should be carefully placed around education institutions and be presented to your target clients when they are most likely to be making a buying decision that’s in favor of your business.

    Connectchief’s virtual billboards, allows business owners to advertise and to connect with customers digitally using the industry’s most cost-efficient approach

    Our software enables any business owner to advertise in the specific location they choose in any city. By using virtual billboards businesses can reach out to a larger audience in any desired locations at a minimum cost. Virtual billboards help in presenting your ads or coupons to customers when they are at a location where you wish to be on top of their mind

  • How do I know trustENGINE is an unbiased platform for customer reviews?

    trustENGINE’s mission is to bring customers and companies together by taking a fair, impartial and equal stance towards reviews. Every business has to follow the same rules, maybe free or the ones who have subscribed to our services.

    We are committed to be fair to all business and our customers consistently and build trust through the act of honesty.

    + On trustENGINE reviews can never be deleted or hidden by the business owner.

    Once the customers had created their account and verified it on trustEngine, when they write reviews they are the sole owners and only they are the who can edit or delete their reviews. We keep reviews of verified customers as long as they are users of trustEngine.

    + ‘Incentivized reviews’ are always tagged. We put transparency first.

    Many times businesses offer incentives like, discount coupons, free stuff, or even receiving a product before its launched to motivate their customers to give feedback and write reviews. In return it helps businesses to attract more customers and increase their profits because of repeat business.

    When we come across such customers and their reviews we tag it as an ‘incentivized review’

    + ‘Verified transactions’ are promoted.

    A transaction takes place when a customer has purchased the product online or in store. When a customer wants to write a review on the trustEngine platform, they need to create their account. To write a review about the product they have purchased from a business, some proof of purchase is required to verify the transaction. Once that is done, the review is tagged as a verified transaction review.

    + Reviewers must have a verified contact information before they can write a review

    We require reviewers to allow us to save their IP address and location when they are writing a review. This enables us to correlate the users location to the business location and flag any reviews that seem suspect.

    + We are constantly at work to block or mitigate fake reviews

    Fake reviews both positive and negative about a product can harm the business as they sometimes have a positive impact on the customer buying decision. Some businesses, to promote their own products and business even hire people to write fake reviews and cause harm to their competitors. Fortunately our platform helps prevent this by a verifying process compulsory for all the users who want to write reviews on trustEngine.

    It is mandatory, the reviewer loads proof of transaction done with the business, if not they cannot post their reviews on the site.

    On the other hand our technical team constantly is developing and is improving the tools required to fight suspicious and fake reviews.

  • Consumers are four times more likely to buy when referred by a friend 🔗

    Did you know?

  • Why are we building flexxWORK?

    1. Why we’re building connectchief…
    2. Every business should build its ecosystem for growth
    3. Why did we create trustENGINE?
    4. Why we are building promoENGINE?
    5. Why are we building flexxWORK?
    6. Why we’re building loyaltyENGINE?

    The Internet has changed too many things – infact almost everything. It’s become our go-to place for information and influences how we make decisions.

    Today, we can get a degree without ever stepping foot in a school or university. We can shop for practically anything without visiting a store. We order food for it to be delivered to where we are. We can even order services like a cab at the press of a button on our mobile phones. Very few things require us to leave home. After the pandemic, ever more of us realize that while offices are needed for somethings, they’re not required anymore.

    In fact, one can start and build a successful business without ever renting or owning an office.

    A laptop and a phone is pretty much all that most people need to work productively. While there are enough coffee shops that offer you access to free internet, every business still needs a respectable address for receiving its official communication. Businesses also occasionally need that office space to bring teams together to collaborate, have meetings or sometimes simply socialize. This fractional model of utilizing office space is our new reality.

    Hybrid work is a powerful force being felt all over the world. flexxWORK software is making hybrid work happen for office real estate providers & business owners

    While co-working spaces offer subscriptions to enable flexible usage, most business owners prefer not being limited to a single provider or a single city for that matter. flexxWORK is software solution by connectchief which gives glocal business owners the flexibility they need while creating a positive outcome for office real estate owners globally.

    The flexxWORK platform enables real estate owners (office building owners, co-working providers and anyone who owns real estate) to maximize the monetization of their assets. Our platform provides all the software necessary for real estate owners to –

    1. Create, manage and rent out subscriptions to virtual office addresses with the flexxWORK software
    2. Offer usage of their real estate facilities like desk space, meeting rooms, event facilities and more on a pay per use basis.
    3. Stay in control of their property while maximizing the revenue opportunity with shared use.
    4. By being part of the flexxWORK alliance you are continuously introduced to new entrepreneurs and business owners from other towns & cities across the globe.

    flexxWORK provides everything you need to serve today’s digital nomad. Office/Commercial real-estate owners & co-working providers can each offer & advertise their services like virtual office addresses, hot desking, events spaces, meeting spaces and more. Users get the option to use one ore more services on a subscription or a pay-per-use basis.

    Business owners have so much to gain by using flexxWORK –

    1. Rent a virtual business addresses in one or more cities across the world. You receive digital copies of all your business mail directly in your flexxWORK app. Physical mail is forwarded to you upon your request at an additional cost (we provide all the software you need)
    2. Subscribe to one or more desk spaces in one or more cities where your staff resides. Reserve meeting rooms or larger event spaces at any office location across our network. Meet with client(s) or hold conferences any many of the facilities that are a part of the flexxWORK alliance.
    3. Get favorable pricing from all participating facilities for being a flexxWORK user/member.
    4. You and your business are no longer limited to a single office.

    By being part of the flexxWORK network, business owners & office space providers both become omnipresent. A business owner from Austin, TX can have a subscription to an office space in Austin and they can book ahead & access office spaces in Los Angeles or other cities when they are visiting those cities.
    An office space provider in Los Angeles may be renting out their premises to various local businesses but they can also be reselling virtual office subscriptions to their clients for virtual office locations or selling hotdesking credits to their clients for use in many other cities across the nation.

    Being part of the flexxWORK network creates a win-win for everyone!

  • What is the connectchief, scan & connect (SNC) code

    At connectchief, we build software tools that enable small businesses to thrive. See this post on the various reasons on why we’re building connectchief.

    Through our conversations with many successful business owners, we have found that customers have a very interesting behavior. Customers tend to go back to businesses where they feel heard. Even if they didn’t have a great experience with a business at first, they feel comfortable giving that business a second or third chance if they felt the business heard them and is taking steps to do better the next time.

    Our scan & connect (SNC) system enables any business to engage its customers. Through its scan & connect (SNC) code, businesses can –

    1. Provide surprise discount coupons and / or promotions to visiting customers
    2. Ask for (one click / super quick ) feedback from customers on the service, facilities or other relevant items for the business
    3. Ask customers to provide online reviews for the business
    4. Share announcements with customers
    5. Let visitors know about open positions that the business is hiring for
    6. Poll customers or simply provide a way for customers to directly communicate with management
    7. Even send out instant flash sales & promotions to customers that follow the business

    Businesses can chose which of the above functions to expose using its scan & connect code. The ultimate goal is to provide a single tool using which customers and businesses can engage and build a strong relationship for their mutual benefit.

  • What are the best practices to follow when writing a review for a business or product

    Your reviews matter to both – other shoppers and to the businesses you are reviewing. Reviews provide an opportunity for businesses and customers to build a relationship with one another. And an natural guide for new customers who may be looking to determine if a service or product will meet their needs.

    When you post a review on trustENGINE (or anywhere for that matter), your review should be as clear as possible about what you liked and did not like about the service or product you received from the specific business.

    By doing so businesses understand what they do well and where they need to do better. Most businesses views reviews are a key source of information for creating better experiences for everyone. Here are some best practices to follow –

    + Reviews should be short and clear

    Be specific about what and how you write about the product. Limiting your feedback content to your specific experience is very important. Where possible (always give the business a way to identify your interaction through either a transaction ID, receipt number or other means). Being clear and effective in your reviews gives others the opportunity to understand and take decisions to buy and also builds trust between the business and buyer. If you are a frequent user of the business, you may go back to provide feedback more than once as long as every review is backed by a specific verifiable interaction or event.

    + Be courteous, polite and friendly

    When you encounter an issue, providing feedback is the best way to help the business remediate the problem. It is the quickest and easiest way to ensure others know of your experience and openly allow the business to respond and address the situation.

    Its important to be polite when writing reviews even if your experience was negative. The intent is for transparent communication and how the business owner conducts themselves (whether they care or not) will become evident through how they respond to your reviews. Transparency improves relationships and offers fertile ground to build trust. Patience and mutual respect are best ways to solve even the most difficult situations easily.

    + Write only if you have had a verifiable interaction

    Giving genuine reviews is very important. Therefore it is necessary, only give your feedback when you have had a direct experience. Do not write just because someone has shared their experience with you. Every negative review, can affect the overall rating of a business. To ensure that fake reviews do not hamper the reputation of a genuine business, at trustENGINE we encourage verified transaction reviews. The goal is always to ensure full transparency from each side – reviewer & the business both.

    + Finally, read through your review once before posting so you know it reflects what you feel

    Before you post your reviews, proofread and thoroughly check to ensure it says what you are meaning to say. Always follow the community guidelines. Reviews can be flagged or even removed for policy violations. However, trustENGINE will always take an unbiased position and shall never hide or remove a review simply based on request from a business owner.

  • How you can grow your business faster with connectchief

    1. Why we’re building connectchief…
    2. How you can grow your business faster with connectchief

    Every business owner knows they need to innovate and grow their business. What isn’t clear is how to methodically go about doing just that…

    Growth comes from recognizing the need for change, effectively adapting to shifts in your environment, having strong customer insights and finally turning this information into better customer experience and service.

    Connectchief helps businesses to better engage with its target customers, improving the effectiveness of their marketing, and enables them to find new ways communicate their value propositions.

    The digital revolution has unleashed rapid and significant changes in how business is done today. A businesses ability to engage customers, understand their changing needs and to keep up with them determines its success and growth rates.

    The connectchief team deeply understands how technology can play a significant role for your business to grow. We’re been rapidly innovating and responding with creative ideas to help small businesses build a competitive edge. With connectchief every small business can –

    + Collaborate with other businesses to promote each other

    Any business can get started with connectchief for free. Once registered, identify and invite other businesses nearby to collaborate with you. Each business can promote coupons & offers form its partner businesses to its own customers. Referred customers are more likely to do business with you over those who were attracted simply through a discount or a one-off advertisement. Referrals can cost almost 10x less than traditional advertisements when it comes to finding new customers.

    + Engage with your customers

    At connectchief, your business receives a personalized QR code which is powered by our platform. We chose QR codes so you do not have to many any investments in buying equipment or other technology to grow your business. A simple QR code puts the power of the entire connectchief platform behind your business. Place that QR code (we call it our Scan & Connect system) within your premises to present customers with promotions, solicit their feedback, showcase your reviews, get customer reviews, make announcements and so much more. Better engagement translates into improved loyalty and more business.

    + Create promotions, discount coupons and vouchers for customers and business partners.

    Through connectchief, every business can also utilize our promoEngine to generate coupons & promotions that can be distributed to visiting customers on your website, in-store or even be distributed via other businesses that collaborate with you (your business ofcourse has to reciprocate with promoting those businesses as well).

    Businesses that use innovative ways to find new customers & to retain existing ones tend to grow faster. Those that continuously learn from customers to provide better service and products discover paths to greater profits and lasting loyalty.

    At connectchief, we’re committed to helping you power up your business with innovative, cost-effective and technology-powered approaches that have been afforded only to big businesses until now.

    Find your path to growth – register for free on connectchief

  • Why we are building promoENGINE?

    1. Why we’re building connectchief…
    2. Every business should build its ecosystem for growth
    3. Why did we create trustENGINE?
    4. Why we are building promoENGINE?
    5. Why are we building flexxWORK?
    6. Why we’re building loyaltyENGINE?

    We’re building connectchief to bring the power of technology to small business. See our previous post here.

    In interviewing over a 1000 small to medium sized businesses we learnt that while all businesses want more customers, not everyone understands how to promote themselves.

    In fact, very few business owners were clear on the concept of marketing. Even fewer were able to make a distinction between advertising, branding and promotions. This gave us a clear signal that small businesses can use our assistance and our technology. Our goal with promoENGINE is to help you – the small business owner – to get your message to your target customers at a lower cost.

    promoENGINE brings together a few key concepts – collaboration, connection, promotion & advertising. And it leverages the power of software technology to amplify how small businesses work together to promote themselves.

    Marketing encompasses all the activities a business undertakes to get the message out (about its products or services) to its target customers (with the intent of completing a buy or sell transaction ie. a sale)

    Marketing includes –

    • pricing related activities like discounts or sales or coupons,
    • promotion activities like advertising, publicity or sales promotions,
    • determining the place where to do these activities (online, offline, target customers etc)
    • and figuring out what to market (specific product or service or attribute(s) of product or service)

    At connectchief, we are bringing to you technology that can enable your business to promote your products or services by using the right incentives (discounts/coupons) at places where belive our software and technology can generate a greater return for your investment.

    promoENGINE is a software tool by connectchief that enables small businesses to promote their products and/or services to their target customer audience in method that is more efficient in terms of the overall investment required in time, effort and cost as compared to approaches mostl commonly used by small businesses today.

    Continue to read more about promoENGINE