Are you interested in saving the planet while at work? If so then, check out these 10 tips to help your office go green:

1. Make recycling easy for yourself and your colleagues. Place recycling bins around the office so people can properly dispose of their paper, soda cans, plastic containers, and so on. The more bins there are, the more likely it is people will use them.

2. Invest in energy-saving office machines. There are now a lot of machines on the market that are designed to be energy-efficient. These include paper shredders, photocopiers, computers, etc. Some of these devices will shut down on their own so not only will they save power, they’ll help you save money on your utility bills.

3. Use eco-friendly supplies. Many of the supplies that you and your colleagues use on a regular basis can be substituted with items made from recycled or biodegradable material. You can use recycled printer/copier paper, folders, and so on. You can stock your break room and bathrooms with environmentally friendly soap and use green cleaning supplies. Whatever supplies you need for your workplace, chances are there’s an earth-friendly equivalent.

4. Use public transportation. No matter how many or how few employees there are in your company, if everyone drives to work that’s going to do some major damage to the environment. Encourage people to use public transit in your area so your company can reduce its carbon footprint.

5. Embrace telecommuting. Another way to keep people out of their cars is by having them telecommute. Technology has made it easier than ever for people to keep in touch, so you and your colleagues can get a full day’s work done from the comfort of home.

6. Encourage people to carpool. If using public transportation isn’t an option, you can encourage your co-workers to carpool. This cuts down on the number of cars on the road, fights pollution, and can help people save money on gas, which is always getting more expensive.

7. Do away with paper. Many of today’s offices are going paperless thanks to the Internet, etc. Storing your files on a hard drive or a secure server will greatly cut down on how much paper you use, which will have a sizeable impact on the planet.

8. Use a paper shredder. One of the best ways to prepare paper for recycling is by shredding it. After the machine’s waste bag is full, just tie it off, and put it out for recycling. Also, shredding your documents will help reduce the possibility of identity theft and lawsuits because your company’s information will stay private.

9. Recycle your old computers. There are many organizations that recycle old computers. Be sure to look up the one in your area so you can get rid of those old dinosaurs without banishing them to the landfill.

10. Shop at local businesses. Finally, if you can get some of your office staples from local businesses, make sure to do so. This cuts down on pollution, will save you money on shipping costs, and can help keep a local business from going under during this rough economic time.

These 10 tips can help your office go green. Be sure to give them a try today so you can do your part to save the planet.

Source: Free articles from ArticlesFactory.com

About the Author

Jeff McRitchie is the Vice-President of Marketing for MyBinding.com (http://www.mybinding.com/). He regularly writes articles, reviews, and blog posts on topics related to bookbinding, laminating, paper shredding, and office equipment. More than 2,500 of his articles have been published in thousands of locations on the Internet. If you’re looking for information about paper shredders, his articles are a great place to start. (http://www.mybinding.com/).

Companies have a customer service problem. They know that good service is essential–90% of customer service decision-makers tell Forrester that it’s critical to their company’s success, and 63% think its importance has risen. Yet companies struggle to offer an experience that meets their customers’ high expectations at a reasonable cost. Beyond the costs, anecdotes of poor service experiences can echo through Facebook and other social channels, eroding hard-earned brand image.

IT needs to take on this challenge. They need to better understand the customer and the process for serving them, so they can give the company’s customer service leaders the tools to deliver outstanding results. None of this is easy. But here are seven practical… (Read entire article).

AT&T Offers Worst Mobile Customer Service — Again

Here’s another reason to hope that the AT&T – T-Mobile merger goes nowhere: Lousy customer service.

According to a survey of over 66,000 Consumer Reports online subscribers, AT&T customer service placed dead last among the “big four” mobile service providers. While T-Mobile got “significantly better” ratings, it still placed behind top-ranked Verizon and runner-up Sprint.

The real winners in the survey, however, turned out to be… (Read entire article).

Wells Fargo to hire 77 in customer service center

Wells Fargo announced Tuesday it will hire 77 people for its customer contact center group in Sioux Falls.

The full-time positions will be in customer service, which includes answering questions from Wells Fargo’s banking customers and offering company products and services.

Company regional spokesperson Staci Schiller said the job openings partially are in response to attrition but also a slight ramping up of Wells Fargo’s Sioux Falls contact center workforce.

“It’s not unusual hiring activity across… (Read entire article).

Employees are not the only members of an organization that need to be engaged.  It’s just as important that we discuss the virtues of being an engaged boss.  Non-engaged managers create toxic work environments. Engaged bosses exhibit these eight traits which are crucial for their employees to be successful.

We are used to talking about engaged employees.  However, it’s just as important that we discuss the virtues of being an engaged boss.  When managers are disengaged it breeds a toxic work environment.  Your willingness to be actively involved with your staff will have a positive effect on them, the office environment and your company.

Employee Success

According to a Gallup Management Journal survey, engaged employees believe a positive relationship with their boss is crucial to their success at work.  If you happen to manage a sales team, then developing a strong supportive bond with each member of your team may result in more sales.  This revelation goes farther than that, as an engaged manager, you have an impact on all the projects your team produces.  Being an engaged boss means taking an active role in ensuring that your employees have what they need to be successful.

Employee Longevity

Employees who feel their boss cares about them are more likely to stay with their organizations longer.  If your team is suffering from high turnover, you may need to be more active in showing them you care.  An engaged boss isn’t only concerned about the bottom-line, but is also concerned about the staff.  Showing you care will cause your employees to want to remain in the environment.  Research has shown that when employees are happy with their bosses they are 17% more likely to believe they will still be with the company in one year.  In contrast, when employees are unhappy with their managers they are 37% more likely to believe they will leave the company within the year.

Employees Recommend Your Company

Employees who have engaged bosses are 40% more likely to recommend their companies to friends and families.  In an ideal world friends and families of an employee should be automatic customers for the employee’s company.  When companies make sure their employees are happy, they benefit by obtaining business without the price of advertising. This means that when a manager is engaged with their employees they directly impact the number of sales that company makes.

Eight Traits of an Engaged Boss

1.       You should have the ability to anticipate the needs of your staff and supply them with the necessary resources.

2.       You need to be responsive to your employees.  When your employees have questions, you need to respond to them with answers in a timely manner.

3.       You need to make yourself available to your employees.  If you are often unavailable, you will be perceived as uncaring of staff.

4.       Be conscientious to communicate frequent feedback, good and bad.  Your employees want to do a good job.  Your feedback gives them the tools they need to be successful.

5.       Be patient with your employees especially when they are given a new assignment.  Understand that mistakes may happen.  However, your due diligence to give accurate instructions can help prevent most mistakes.  Remember that every employee needs to be able to feel challenged from time to time.

6.       Don’t micromanage your employees.  That implies a lack of trust.  The best way to build a good relationship with your employees is by showing your trust in their work ethics.

7.       Actively resolve conflicts when problems arise among your team.  This will send the message that you want the team to work together.  Integrate team building activities regularly in meetings to foster a greater sense of cohesiveness.

Be decisive.  Your ability to make good decisions will build confidence from your employees.

Source: Free articles from ArticlesFactory.com.

About the Author

Angela Huffmon is a keynote speaker and corporate trainer.  She helps managers have better relationships with their employees.  She also speaks to groups of managers helping them solve their 3 biggest problems, employee retention, productivity, and manager-employee communication.

This article gives four reasons why customer service is bad and what can be done to make it better.

We all frequent a lot of businesses; most have so-so customer service at best. (But not if you hear their advertising! Customer service is always outstanding!) We’ve become used to clerks who seem put out if they actually have to help us, and we even find ourselves feeling bad if we have to ask for their help! Customer service has become customer guilt trip. Sure, we all know there are tough customers – but the majority are nice folks who just want the products or services each company is supposed to provide.

Since I conduct customer service training, I know why customer service is often so bad:

1.) Company leadership stinks. They haven’t defined what they expect OR they enforce the rules with some front line people, but not with others OR they have no idea how to motivate and inspire their people OR they assume their people know how to give good customer service.This list could go on and on. I ALWAYS attribute poor service to poor leadership. Period. It starts at the top.

2.) Nobody in the company has truly defined what good customer service is. How can front line people deliver it if no one knows what it is? One of the biggest things missing in customer service today is friendliness. It’s also one of THE most important things. Do you train your people how to be friendly? If not, don’t be surprised if they aren’t. How do you define “friendliness”? When I deliver customer service training, we spend a great deal of time on just that – tone of voice, body language, facial expressions – we talk about how to be friendly!! You would be surprised how many people don’t know how to be consistently friendly to customers. And when we give leadership training we talk about how to define expectations for employees.

3.) Front line people are treated poorly by the company. Imagine that! The most important people in the company – the ones who deal with the customers on a daily basis – are treated the worst! You know it’s true. They often get paid the least, have the least amount of freedom and get hammered if they mess up one phone message. They get it from all sides, all day. And the ones who are good – who show up on time and handle things well – are usually ignored. Leaders spend all their time trying to fix the problem employees and these superstars of dependability get nothing. If you treat your front line people like dirt, how do you think they’re going to treat the customers? You got it – like dirt!

4.) Companies want short term profits and forget the long term. They focus on speed of processing and don’t give their people time to be friendly. They set up crazy policies and procedures and don’t do a good job of educating customers. This is guaranteed to result in problems that front line people will have to straighten out. It’s one thing to sit in the corporate office and invent policy – it’s another to battle the 100 irate customers in the lobby. A short term view usually makes companies harder to do business with (ex. it’s cheaper to hire people in India – so what if they can’t understand our customers? We’re saving millions!). Making it hard to do business with you is not providing good customer service. It may make money in the short term, but in the long run, customers will go elsewhere.

These are just the tip of the bad customer service iceberg. It’s just a matter of time before this iceberg sinks some companies. And just like the crew of the Titanic, you may never know how bad it is until it’s too late.

Source: Free articles from ArticlesFactory.com.

About the Author

Denise Ryan, MBA, is a Certified Speaking Professional, a designation of excellence held by less than 10% of all professional speakers. She is a blogger http://motivationbychocolate.blogspot.com. Her website is http://www.firestarspeaking.com.

New product startups rightfully begin with a heads-down focus on creating the ultimate product – whether it’s a new technology, a new look and ease of use, or a new low-cost delivery approach. Most then add customer service at the rollout, but very few really understand what it means to be truly customer centric, and even fewer really achieve it.

Customer centricity is far more than providing excellent customer service, although that’s a step in… (Read entire article).

GEICO’s Coralville office to add 50 employees for service positions

CORALVILLE, Iowa, Nov 09, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Due to the company’s continuing national growth, GEICO will hire roughly 50 associates for its customer service department in its Coralville office.

“Just like the rest of the company, our Coralville office continues to grow, and we currently employ some 350 associates,” said Lona Montgomery, director of sales and service for GEICO’s office in Coralville. “We are constantly seeking talented associates who are interested in contributing to GEICO and advancing their career.”

Candidates for these positions should have excellent… (Read entire article).

GEICO looking to hire 100 new employees in Dallas

DALLAS, Nov 08, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Even though GEICO’s office in Dallas employs roughly 1,200 associates, employee growth shows no signs of stopping due to the need to serve its growing number of policyholders in Texas.

GEICO’s Dallas management team will be looking to fill an additional 100 spots for positions in sales, service and claims between now and the end of January. GEICO will be recruiting entry-level associates and experienced professionals to fill those spots.

“Right now is an exciting time to begin a… (Read entire article).