What are the business management issues that matter most for CEOs in R.I.?
The Providence Business News Executive Poll is a weekly survey of 70 business leaders throughout the state, representing small and large companies in a variety of industries.

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Blueglass LA Session: Links matter: How to measure and attain them
Moderator: Chris Winfield Speakers: Rand Fishkin, CEO and CO-Founder, SEOmoz Dave Snyder, Partner, Search & Social Rand is up first, so here we go! Strategic Link Analysis for SEO Step 1 – Determine your goals The links match in different ways to different goals. If you’re in marketing and you want to attract a specific [...] Check out the SEO Tools guide at Search Engine Journal . Blueglass LA …

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Eric Gertler: Privacy Does Matter
The backlash that Facebook recently confronted from users over changes to policies that restricted the privacy of users’ information and that Google faced for…

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Once, you have ranked in the search engines, through pay per click marketing and have started receiving clicks on your website ad, it is necessary to check if your landing page in done up properly. The fact that the landing page is the first point of contact between you and the visitors, makes it extremely important to ensure that the page is made well and is attracting traffic. If your landing page is not being able to retain the traffic , meaning, the bounce ratio from your landing page is high, it is time that you understand that there is some problem in your landing page.

Optimization of the landing page is the only way in which you can maximize the profit of your pay per click program. Here are some of the aspects which you should take care of, while designing the landing page of your website. First thing first, the call of action of your website should be the most highlighted and the most relevant feature in your landing page. After all this is what your pay per click program was promoting too. Therefore, what ever be, the most attractive aspect of your pay per click program should be your call of action.

Apart, from this, pay a lot of attention to the content in your landing page. When a user comes to your site reading the search engine pay per click advertisement you had published, he is expecting to face a useful, compatible and standardized page, which will answer all his queries. Thus, good and understandable English is something that your website needs very strongly. Usage of content in the pages does a lot of good to the website. Firstly, it helps in the popularity of the website ie. people will visit your site and like browsing it, and the second benefit of good content is that your site will begin to rank organically too, along with the pay per click ranking which it has successfully attained.

As we all know, that the internet market is on the rise these days, the competition between websites has also risen. People are regularly launching website and pulling out traffic from the search engines. In order to ensure that traffic sticks to your website you must incorporate some kind of attraction for them. Introduce offers, discounts, incentives of your plan of action that can be availed instantly. This will increase visits to your website and the same time will also enhance your conversion rate.

The points discussed here, tells us the importance of landing pages in pay per click program, and how it is necessary to pay complete attention to it.

Customer service metrics are performance measures that will aid the company in realizing profits with every customer contact. With the right system and adequate employee training, profiting from every revenue opportunity would not be a problem.

Customer service, or client service, refers to the services accorded to customers before, during and after a purchase. These may come as a series of services that are meant to improve the customer satisfaction level of the target market. These supplemental services may be provided by employees like sales or service representatives or they may be provided by automated devices like self-service Internet sites and Integrated Voice Response (IVR) devices. As a response to tighter competition, a company gain competitive advantage by providing superior customer service. Recent advancements in technology have made it easier for companies to provide customer support to their customers. Some of the most common customer service tools used by companies are support websites, live chats with technicians, customer preferences databases, service levels specialist software and call centers. Companies have also devised various ways of obtaining customer feedback to help them improve their products and services.

Various research undertakings have shown that good customer service is instrumental to having more loyal and happier customers. These studies also show that with satisfied customers come happier employees. Potentially, these two conditions will lead to increased profits and revenues because satisfied customers tend to increase their purchases and make recommendations to other people. Most customers appreciate having vendor support after spending their money on a product or service. Most companies provide this kind of support through face-to-face interactions like email, telephone calls, and chat. Often, the customers choose which interaction channel they are most comfortable with. Call centers or contact centers are often hired to provide this kind of customer support. Companies that are not capable of providing customer service often take advantage of outsourcing. To minimize operating costs, other companies use offshore call centers that usually operate outside of Europe and North America.

When asking about customer service standards that make some call centers stand out, replies such as, “Our target goal is to have 80 percent of calls answered within 30 seconds” or “We strive to respond to all customer requests within 24 hours” are very common. Indeed, customer service standards may differ from company to company depending on the call center capability and the interaction channels used. However, the bottom line of these services is that they enhance the experience of the customers with a specific brand. The interaction becomes an extension of the company’s relationship with the customer. In order to do this, employees should be properly trained so that they can effectively address the various concerns and problems of the customers.

To assess the effectiveness of the services provided to customers, managers use customer service metrics. These metrics will serve as performance indicators so that the company will know what needs to be improved and what needs to be maintained. Among these metrics, fast customer service resolution (FCR) rate stands out because of its correlation with customer satisfaction.