The significance of excellence in after-sales services is growing rapidly. Organizations, irrespective of industry, are realizing that traditional approaches and platforms can no longer guarantee global recognition.

Traditional focus has been on core products and sales. Most manufacturers are still viewing their service operations as a subsidiary function devoid of strategic importance. However, for others, the past decade has witnessed a remarkable change. Organizations are now moving away from the shortsighted sales perspective to achieve service excellence.

In fact, the trend in most manufacturing companies is changing prominently. Substantial profits depend on the level of service offering and not just the quality of product packaging. In another study by Accenture, results highlighted that poor service is the primary reason why customers switch providers.

While sale is important, service functions are elementary for optimizing customer satisfaction and retaining customer loyalty. While competitors can replicate product features quite easily, it is service that acts as the key market differentiator in many cases. Besides, it is an independent source of revenue generation. According to Deloitte Development LLC, service operations can result in more than 75% higher profitability than the overall profitability of a given business unit.

The expectations out of service offerings are moving from cost reduction to customer redemption. Therefore, it is important for firms to customize service offerings for rapidly evolving customer expectations.

Customers look for value and purchase only after thorough comparison with what the competitor has to offer. Given that scenario, it is critical to package the product with a service value that can enable customer satisfaction and retention.

An extended warranty is an integral service function referred to as “service agreement” or “maintenance agreement”, which is offered to customers in addition to the standard warranty. Generally, warranty covers mechanical failure incurred through normal usage and not accidents. Extended warranties cost additional, usually a certain percentage of the product’s retail price.

Value of the extended warranty

There are several reasons why consumers look for extended warranty on automobiles, for example. It ensures that your car will be in the best mechanical condition relatively longer. With the level of complexity in auto repairs today, one repair alone can be significantly expensive. It pays to invest in extended warranty, which costs lesser than the service charge, and covers all the repairs within a given period after purchase.

The company behind the warranty

An extended warranty is often backed by a third-party company or the manufacturer. Third-party warranties are often scored high for the ease of use. Most often, they are less expensive and offer broader coverage than what the manufacturer may be able to provide.

Understanding the challenges

A study by Deloitte shows while organizations plan and strategize to improve business results, service functions are often considered as afterthought due to the unpredictable challenges that can hamper results. Challenges that continue to plague service operations include: flawed strategy, business design, and operational discrepancies.

Due to a lack of insight into profitable service functions, organizations stumble in the attempt of overcoming competition. Very few of them have clear understanding about customer profitability and long-term benefits. Research suggests that less than 40% of companies have clear visibility into profitability through service.

According to a report from the Aberdeen Group, titled “State of Service Management 2011: Achieving Connectivity and Growing Revenue”, chief service officers (CSOs) are struggling to develop their service enterprises into core profit centers.

Service leaders have to keep trying new strategies to optimize benefits from revenue while improving customer satisfaction simultaneously.

Irrespective of their position in the service cycle, organizations need to take crucial steps in developing effective service offerings. They need to do that while keeping in mind the challenges that can impede results. The unpredictability and complexity of service models can diminish customer satisfaction and hamper outcomes. One of the biggest challenges in service operations is that some areas may have highly automated service-management capabilities, while other areas may not. It is hence crucial to integrate service-related processes with business functions, workflows, and systems. This reduces the element of ambiguity and ensures profitable business actions across functions.

With a set course of actions and clear objectives, it is easier to monitor the service transformation lifecycle.

Creating a niche

The way to create a niche in the market is through innovative and robust solutions. They often create a competitive differentiation against three elementary parameters: quality, cost, and timeliness. They serve as a benchmark to arrive at the best outcome in the market. Quality, cost, and timeliness ultimately drive the future of the offering.

While creating a competitive edge, it is also important to:

• Explore different platforms
• Seek new mediums for competitive advantage 
• Adopt innovative service solutions that surprise and delight customers
• Discover the right channels and develop the right metrics for evaluation and comprehensive process enhancement 

Service operations are critical in driving performance, building revenue, and developing strategic business advantage. It is evolving as a more stable source of revenue. It is hence crucial for organizations to explore more and more innovative and value-driven approaches to optimize profitability through service functions.

Author Bio: Preethi Vagadia is the Marketing Executive worked in process improvement projects involving the multi-national teams for one of the best companies based across the world. She has over 5 years of experience in Warranty management solution, and as a practicing manager of Business analysts successfully executing several projects in terms of Logistics management, Logistics Integration, Reverse logistics, Warranty software and Warranty claims management.

A good online survey is key if you want high response rates. In many instances, people who are not familiar with creating online surveys on a regular basis can neglect to think about the relevance of each and every question they ask or the layout of their survey, for that matter.


Poorly crafted questions, bad layout and unappealing design can greatly deter people from filling out your survey.

Of course online survey software has made the process of creating surveys a lot simpler; you can design a survey yourself from scratch with intuitive online tools or you can simply choose a questionnaire template and go from there. However, one important factor that you will always need to keep in mind whatever type of survey you create, is that good design and well-crafted questions are imperative if you want results.

In order to ensure a good response rate, you will need to have an impeccablylaid out survey with all questions in a logical order, well-crafted questions that are easy for the respondent’s to read and answer, and importantly, a good design.

For some great tips on how to produce an A1 online survey, check out our info graphic below. Rest assured, you will see the results if you use our expert tips.

Here the infographic designed by Surveygoo en-titled with " Tips on How to Create Good Online Survey " that gives us some great tips on how to produce an A1 online survey, Rest assured, you will see the results if you use our expert tips.


Are you agree/disagree with this? Why? Feel free to leave a comment with your experiences. Have a Great Day!

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Technology has occurred an incredible impact over the prospect of industrialization. For this technical stage there turn out the cellular telephone. These days the utilization of mobiles has expanded a whole lot particularly by the general individuals. These adorn use of mobiles phones has pulled in the sight of the business premises. They started to consider this to make their exceptional and propelled specialized modem as their passage apparatus. For the most part, all the minor scale business premises have demonstrated to its distinct fascination to get this SMS Gateway administration or service.

In this time the present day electronic and printing media has taken the majority of the promoting market. Anyway this technique is exorbitant and unreasonable basically. So the minor estimated or recently started organizations can't ready to stand to utilize this rich medium. In this concern Bulk SMS service is more liked to be the best mode of correspondence by the short scaled even the enormous organizations. Mass or Bulk SMS gateway service is more favored nowadays and has abandoned this extravagant medium of correspondence and underwriting far above the ground of business advancement.

The outline of sending Bulk SMS provider requisition is made for creating and sending moment unrestricted quick messages, welcomes, season welcome, mass recruitment warning and work cautions, business commercial, versatile promoting fight. It is additionally intended for making to tell the clients of arrangements, advancement of items and distinctive sorts of occasions in regards to business. It is particularly planned for sending the messages created in the pc to mass mobile phones numbers. The bulk messaging methodology is huge and inconvenience free blueprint to keep contact to your representatives, customers, companions and even relatives.

Bulk SMS informing function has an intuitive graphical client interface which makes it exceptionally simple to utilize. Indeed, the administration holders or the client does not require any particular specialized capability to utilize this interface. The SMS supplier furnishes their own programming and apparatuses that is massively client well disposed to utilize.

To send messages through this programming is a simple errand. The client is just to compose the substance of the message that the organization cravings to send to its focused on customers. At that point the client is to include the mobile numbers from the database that has been sent by the Bulk SMS service provider with that specific programming and finally he is to click on the sent button and the messages will be sent inside just about 50% of second.

The system scope and the speed of the system are the astounding characteristics that have made the administration more valuable in the field of each sort of business. The Bulk SMS or messaging service is interconnected straight with the requisition modifying interface electrical apparatus that make accessible the interface connecting divergent programming driving forces and expedites their encroachment, comparable to the system the client interface expedites collaborations around the customers and the organizations.

About Company: Bulk SMS service with one stage advance with computerization, could do a mess for an organization to upgrade its picture in the brains of its clients if utilized adequately. The intriguing thing here is it is extremely shoddy contrasted with the different modes. Bulk SMS / Messaging is the spread of huge amounts of SMS messages for conveyance to cellular telephone terminals. For more information, go to www.smktechnology.com.

In the early inception of a business where offices are just being put into operation, the scenario in the early days of the office will be exciting, dynamic and very hectic. You are entering a market which is already heated up with an ample amount of competitors, so it is obvious that you will be snagging a lot of potential customers and there will a constant pressure on your company to perform in a more swift way to propound the fact that your company is solidifying its position in the market.

Albeit an ample amount of your work energy will be effaced in satisfying the unique queries of the customers and to ameliorate the characteristics of your products and services to better suit the needs of the consumer, it is also unequivocally imperative to develop the core working process of your company. To successfully implement the process development in your company, attention should be rendered to HR, who will effectively pacify the environment within the office accordingly to the law. There are lots of business leaders with the conception that HR will slow down the business processing of their company due to the ‘red tape’ on their business and due to the HR regulations that has to be followed. But if you don’t avail the proper processes in recruiting HRs, your business will face a substantial fall in the pace of its progress.

Thanks to the introduction of the HR software as a service to new businesses, now taking the first step into HR is much more easier. These HR tools rendered in your service will effectively let you manage the people in your office, paving the way for a better ambience and workflow inside the office. Till the appropriate time when you find the right HR professional for your company, you can efficiently manage the people in your office with the HR tools data which will later enable the hired HR professional to operate without any issues.

For small businesses that is in its preliminary stage in the market, the four essential HR softwares are:

1. Cloud Based HR Software

If you conduct an online search on Google about HR software systems, you will be availed with numerous web based HR software tools which you can utilize. These softwares will include operations such as, Performance management, Tracking or managing an employee holiday and sickness, Document management and sharing, alerts, reporting, recruitment modules etc.

2. Cloud Based Performance Appraisal Software

The focal point of the above mentioned HR software's abilities is: document management, employee records management, and the attendance management. When you avail the service of of these web based HR tolls, not all of them are equipped with advanced performance management tools and if you feel that the HR system you have chosen is lacking or is devoid something, then you should definitely opt for a specialist cloud based HR performance appraisal system, which you can easily search for via Google.

3. Time Sheets

Most of the HR system will enable you to effectively manage the attendance of the employees in your office, but if you want to specifically track hours worked for purposes of billing, then you should definitely opt for a professional web based time systems. You can execute this process efficiently in Excel. There is an ample amount of time sheets systems in Google search engine.

4. Shared Workspace Collaboration Software

The working systems of the employees in the office have evolved to another level where all the staffs are not located in one office only. Those co-located offices are absent in the current market scenario. It is imperative that you have a shared online space for work which can be effortlessly accessed through a browser by the staffs of the company who will be effectively notified through the shared workspace about alerts and updates. To acquaint yourself with this information, you can search Google for a private social network software where you will be availed with plenty of efficient products.

Most of the prevalent cloud based software tools on the internet are on free trial, so you can check out which ones suits your company the best. Always opt for the tools where you can sign up online and then at the end of the free trial, convert the subscription into a payable account. Make sure that the software you choose is web-based and hosted by third parties. The management of your business deserves your utmost attention, with an efficient HR software tool, you can effectively manage the ins and outs of your company.

Author Bio: Nithin Singh is a HR Software specialist who specializes in strategy, employee engagement, time and attendance management system and hr management system. He writes primarily on empowering employees to help business goals. He works for an award winning HR software company, EmployWise.

Photo by Michael Daddino / Flickr

Over the course of history, many companies have merged together to become one. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, this practice has actually become even more common as super large companies swallow slightly smaller ones. To give you an idea of what's been happening, let's take a look at the five biggest mergers of all time.

Biggest Business Acquisitions

Here's a rundown of some of the largest business mergers of all time.

1. America Online acquires Time Warner

At well over $186 Billion dollars this is the largest merger between two existing businesses. The marriage was an attempt to create one of the largest media companies in existence. AOL did run into some snags after purchasing the company, but they're still in business today.

2. Exxon acquires Mobil

In a deal for just over $80 Billion dollars, this is another huge merger that took place. While not the largest, it's a big one because it's the marriage of two energy companies that were long considered to be two of the largest in existence.

3. Comcast acquires AT&T Broadband

This deal cost around $76 billion, but people on both ends of the deal were happy with the outcome. This is one of the biggest telecommunication mergers of all time.

Recently, Comcast bought NBC, another large purchase that made them even bigger.

4. Pfizer acquires Pharmacia

This deal was for over $60 billion dollars, but beyond the dollar amount, it was the coming together of two huge drug companies. Today, Pfizer is doing better than ever before. Profits for the company are looking good and will likely continue to grow.

5. Disney acquires Pixar

A lot of people weren't sure about this deal when it was first announced publicly, but Disney made a really good decision by buying this animation company. They've been able to use Pixar's technology to create their own blockbuster hits. And now that they own the rights to Star Wars, who knows what might happen. A Jar Jar Binks Saturday morning cartoon show perhaps? Hmmm.

Looking at the list above, it's easy to see that many different companies in various industries are merging - successfully - all the time. Many companies have made mistakes when it comes to buying other corporations in or out of their industry, but the practice of buying someone out will continue in the years ahead.

If you know of any big mergers or acquisitions that we left out of our list of the top five, leave a comment and let us know who you think should've been on the list. When it comes to mergers, there definitely isn't a shortage these days. Leave your opinion below and let us know what you think about big businesses getting even bigger.

Author Bio: Sarah Laslow likes to look up RouletteB online because it's so easy. When not doing that, she enjoys learning more about reputation managemenet stuff and how it's being used in the 21st century to help all sorts of companies.

The business world’s adoption of mobile technology is what Forbes calls unprecedented. By 2015, they estimate there will be 7.4 billion wireless devices out there. This creates an interesting conundrum for companies looking to utilize employee-owned equipment to create a digital workplace. How do they go about synchronizing devices safely to get everyone on the same page?