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When you fly on a corporate jet, you don’t serve wrapped sandwiches or tea and coffee in a Styrofoam cup to the passengers. No way! Corporate jet catering is almost like dining in a five-star restaurant. Passengers have a choice of meal and it is served on real plates with real cutlery. Along with having the appropriate flight attendant training, in order to work in this area of the aviation industry, you need to have training in the preparation and serving of meals. The catering is one of the upscale services that comes with flying and working on a corporate jet and provides passengers with a luxurious flying experience.

The catering process starts long before the flight departs. As a corporate flight attendant, you are responsible for submitting the request for food to the caterer you use in a city and in overseeing the preparation of the food at the caterers facility. Then you have to make sure the food is transported to the aircraft properly and then you need the know-how and experience to prepare and present this food onboard.

Personal hygiene is of utmost importance in a corporate flight attendant in the preparation of food during the flight. This is to ensure that all the food served to passengers is germ free so that it won’t cause any gastrointestinal illnesses either during the flight or just afterwards. The main thing you have to realize is that the food is cooked when you receive it and the part you play in cooking the food on the plane is to reheat it. There are certain things that you must keep in mind when doing this.

1. Always make sure the oven is heated to the right temperature before you put the food inside to reheat it.

2. Do not uncover the food in the reheating process because this will cause it to dry out. Always use a liquid in conjunction with the food to keep it moist.

3. Use a temperature probe to ensure that all foods are heated all the way through.

When you are serving food and drinks to the passengers, there are safe practices that you must use as well. Always hold the glass by the base or the stem and never let your hands touch the rim. If you are pouring drinks from a jug, the rim of the jug should never touch the top of the glass or the cup.

That being said, the types of meals involved in catering onboard an aircraft also mean you need to have training in the proper way to serve these meals. You should be able to display the food on the plate in the same manner as it would be if the passengers were actually eating at the caterers restaurant. The caterers chosen for supplying the meals are ones well known for their unique menus and the manner in which the food is presented on the plate. The passengers will also know which caterer is supplying the food, which is why these caterers are involved in the training of corporate flight attendants for the preparation and serving of their foods.

Resources: For more information on corporate jet catering, corporate flight jobs and executive jet jobs, visit http://www.CorporateFlyer.net

Loyalty cards have invaded and have taken over our lives! It all started innocently enough. It seemed like no big deal when airlines and hotels embraced the ‘frequent’ traveler rewards programs. We consumers embraced the idea of earning rewards for our travel.

Little did we know that loyalty cards would band together and plot to overtake our lives! The momentum built slowly so that we wouldn’t notice. First we had one airline and one hotel loyalty card stowed safely in our wallets. Soon, we added other cards to make sure that we took advantage of our travel activities on all airlines and hotels that we might visit. Then, as if we wouldn’t notice, rental car reward cards snuck into our wallets. As we added airlines, hotels, and rental car cards, the number of loyalty cards that we held crept into the double digits.

Other businesses eager to cash in on the loyalty card phenomenon were quick to respond. One by one we added loyalty cards from restaurants, grocery stores, department stores, gasoline stations, coffee shops, video stores, and pet stores. Colorful plastic cards that beckoned us to use them more and more soon overwhelmed our wallets.

The invasion was on! Our wallets were completely overtaken and could take on no more new plastic cards. Like an aggressive parasite, loyalty cards looked for new areas to invade and quickly found our key rings an inviting target. Like something out of a science fiction movie, loyalty cards spawned a new breed of key fobs that crept onto our key rings and multiplied like rabbits. Seemingly overnight, plastic fobs overtook our key rings.

The quiet invasion of the loyalty cards continues today. New businesses enter the fray every day. Book stores, doctors offices, eyeglass stores, veterinarians, and home improvement contractors add to the mountain of loyalty plastic. I fear the day that my lawyer or doctor issues a loyalty card for proctology exams.

I know that I have reached the point of saturation; there is no more room in my wallet or key ring for even one more loyalty card. The overflow of loyalty cards that won’t fit have now assembled together and have begun an assault of various desk, kitchen, and dresser drawers in my house.

We could fight back by throwing them all away, but that’s like asking a life long cigarette smoker to quit cold turkey. Loyalty cards don’t necessarily encourage loyalty - they create a sense of guilt. When a shopper buys at a store without their loyalty card they feel guilt; guilt for not saving a few dollars or not earning their reward points. Loyalty cards are like an addiction; they’re hard to give up.

Loyalty cards are popular with businesses because it can help them to identify their customers, create a sense of exclusivity, and reward their best customers. The mountain of loyalty plastic, however, is creating a burden on today’s consumer to carry - and remember to use - their loyalty card.

To stop the invasion, businesses need to increasingly implement loyalty programs that allow the consumer to self-identify without the need of a physical loyalty card. For online businesses, this is easier to accomplish with cookies or simple online account management capabilities. For brick and mortar businesses, the challenge of consumer identity management is the holy grail of customer relationship management. Until then, the loyalty card invasion will continue to be well engrained in today’s business environment.

I just hope they solve the problem soon. I can’t carry any more loyalty plastic…

…and I shudder at the thought of loyalty cards invading my underwear drawer.

Resources: Robert G. Howard, the founder of ClearBrick.com and is the author of The Customer Experience Solution Kit, and 7 Steps to Customer Experience Domination. [Blog: The Clear Brick]

It has become evident that effective customer service is required in order for a business to be profitable. People are no longer willing to accept companies that can not and will not handle customers concerns and questions. Many company owners have better things to do then to sit around all day seeing to customers.

Instead, they employ customer service representatives who take care of any needs the customer may have. Now however, when a customer calls for customer service they may be talking to someone who is handling their concerns from the comfort of their home. The growing trend throughout North America is focused on handling customer care inquires from their homes.

Work at home customer service opportunities are on the rise. This is not only offers benefits for agents in having work flexibility but companies also get advantages. For instance, they save money on office rent unities, and they can tap into a diverse pool of proficient workers who wouldnt or arent able to work in traditional call centers. This has resulted in improved customer service for many companies including retail, banks, airlines and others. Whats more work at home customer care agents earn more. Traditional call center agents earn about $8-$9 an hour while work at home agents earn $13-$14 an hour.

Are you qualified?
In order to land a job as a virtual customer service agent, where you would handle general calls and provide technical support, you must have a computer, high speed Internet access, and a landline telephone. You will also need basic computer skills, excellent people skills, and a high school education. The key to succeeding as a work at home agent is entrepreneurial skills. You can not be the type of person who needs someone to tell you what to do and when to do it. You have to be self motivated and be able to create your own structure. Prior sales or customer service experience is not required but it is a distinct advantage. Having a second language is also a plus.

Companies may ask applicants to successfully complete a customer service training course and submit to a background check, credit check, and drug testing. Hiring is usually handled on the phone or online.

Business model

Customer service agents work as either an employee or an independent contractor. The main difference between these two business models is that as an independent contractor, it is your responsibility to handle start up costs and taxes:

Alpine Access (www.alpineaccess.com) hires virtual agents as employees.

LiveOps (www.liveops.com), and VIPdesk (www.vipdesk.com), among others, hire agents as independent contractors.

Payment structure

Ask in advanced how the company pays its agents. Tory Johnson, CEO of Women for Hire says that, some pay hourly from when you clock in to when you clock out. For others, the meter runs only while youre on an actual call; youre not paid for downtime between calls. Research the companies you want to work for and find out how they pay, how much and the work load volume.

With more companies understanding the role customer service plays in their success it can be certain that more companies will be hiring work at home customer care agents to fill this need.

Resources: The Moms Work at Home Directory is dedicated to finding the best resources, jobs, and opportunities for Moms Working at Homescam free in the 21st Century.

At first glance, big picture thinking and customer focus would seem to be mutually exclusive terms. After all, the first phrase connotes a farsighted, panoramic view of business, while the second implies an intense, laser-beam-like concentration on the customer. Yet as revealed in Magnifying Customer Focus: A Study of Current Trends and Future Possibilities 2006-2016, a global study commissioned by American Management Association and conducted by The Human Resource Institute, the terms are not only compatible, they are inseparable.

The study finds that customer focus is a top strategic concern for many businesses today and is ranked as one of the most important needs concerning issues ranging from leadership challenges to ethical behavior and innovation. Yet it also reveals that there is a wide disparity between what activities companies practice when it comes to customer focus and what they should be practicing.

The study asked respondents to rank a variety of strategic actions in each of five areas environment/culture, communications, HR practices, measurement and organizational practices in terms of what their companies are doing now and then to rank those same actions in terms of what their companies should be doing. Here is a closer look at the results for each of the five areas.

In environment/culture, having the support of top management ranked number one in both the should-do and doing-it-now categories. On the surface this would appear to be a heartening result leadership is doing what it should be doing.

But that good news is undercut by the number two should-do action: having leaders set the example with customer-focused behaviors. This is only number four in the doing-it-now category, meaning that while leadership may nominally support customer focus, it is not necessarily supporting it with its actions. Perhaps that helps explain why including customers in our corporate value statements ranked number two in the doing-it-now category but only number six in the should-do category; mission statements are all well and good, but its action that counts.

In the communications area, Magnifying Customer Focus finds that companies are falling short of communicating the customer focus message internally. Respondents ranked the action of having an internal plan in place to communicate customer insights number four in the should-do category, but only number seven in the doing-it-now category, suggesting that many companies are missing this crucial component. Its important to note that this doesn’t simply mean leadership handing down memos. It means employees at all levels of the organization must share their perspective and facilitate feedback from the customer so the company can get a true picture of the state of its customer service.

Companies are placing too much emphasis on market share as an indicator of customer satisfaction, according to respondents results in the area of measurement. Regularly measuring market share ranked third in the doing-it-now category, but eighth in the should-do category, strongly suggesting that respondents believe this particular metric is of little value when it comes to gauging customer satisfaction. Bain & Co.s Fred Reich held has gone even further in questioning the relevance of market share as a reliable measurement of customer satisfaction. Reichheld maintains that although companies may capture market share and generate considerable revenue from dissatisfied customers, it is actually more costly than profitable in the long run to do so.

When it comes to HR, expecting employees to anticipate customer needs ranked number one in the doing-it-now category and number three in the should-do category. It seems that while the respondents believe this strategic action is important enough to be included in the top three of actions that should be taken, it is not the overall most important action. That distinction belongs to providing customer-oriented employee training, an action that ranked number one in the should-do category and number three in the doing-it-now category, a surprising result considering the number of customer service training programs currently in place. The takeaway from this seems to be that while companies may think that they’re addressing customer service training needs, they are in reality falling far short.

While the organizational practices area is a broadly defined subgroup with substantial overlap with the other four areas, it did produce some interesting results of its own. For example, responding to demands for customization and personalization ranked eighth in the doing-it-now category but ranked only twentieth in the should-do category. Customization and personalization have been hot topics lately, with many proclaiming them the next big thing, but clearly the survey respondents consider them overrated as a customer focus issue.

Conversely, the tactic of being customer-focused at all customer touch points, not just sales and customer service ranked fourth in the should-do category and twelfth in the doing-it-now category, revealing a large disparity between its perceived importance and the extent to which its executed.

That point an urgent reminder that customer focus needs to be instilled throughout the organization and not isolated in one or two departments serves well to sum up the entire survey.

Resources: Management Training Centre provides professional development, motivational seminars, leadership and executive training and career training programs for HR professionals, supervisors and employers.

My sister-in-law recently shared a little tip with me, and even though the tip was related to housekeeping, I thought it was a great concept to apply to any business.

Here’s what she said: she always ends her day by making sure her kitchen sink is cleaned. No leftover dinner dishes. No stray items. Stainless steel polished to a shine. That way, she can wake up in the morning to a nice clean sink, and the rest of her day just goes more smoothly.

It’s easier for her to keep the rest of the kitchen clean when she sees her shiny sink. She’s in a better mood when her kitchen is clean.

And knowing her kitchen is clean is a great incentive to keep the rest of the house clean. This one easy step of cleaning the sink each night helps everything else fall into place.

I’m sure you’re probably wondering what in the world this has to do with business. Well, let me explain…

A clean sink is a relatively simple idea. And in the grand scheme of things, it might not seem all that important to some people. In fact, some people might not care what their sink looks like at all.

But to my sister-in-law, it is a huge concern. Her kitchen sink has the power to make or break her entire day. And most people would never know that it matters to her so much.

So what are your customers’ and prospects’ “kitchen sinks”? What are the things that matter to them so much, they have the ability to make or break a deal?

Is your client a stickler about grammar and spelling? Does she really value punctuality? Does he want a particular color to always be in stock?

Chances are, every one of your customers has their own kitchen sink. And chances are, if the sink is clean, other issues don’t matter quite as much. As long as my sister-in-law wakes up to a clean sink, she’s OK with an extra pile of laundry.

It doesn’t matter (as much) when my nephew forgets to tell her it’s his turn to bring snacks to soccer practice. She can handle it when my niece uses her antique table cloth as a “wedding gown”.

And as long as you “keep the sink clean” for your customers, other issues that might crop up won’t seem quite as important to them.

When you have a choice to make between different deadlines or multiple concerns that need to be addressed, you’ll have a clearer picture of what would please your client best. You’ll know where to put most of your attention and efforts.

How do you find out what your client’s kitchen sink is? Believe it or not, it’s OK to ask. In fact, you’re doing a disservice to yourself and your customer by not asking.

It should be relatively easy to work this question into your proposal or sales inquiry. For instance, let’s say you’re a wedding planner. You might have your assumptions about what will make the perfect day for the bride.

But isn’t it much better to simply ask, “If we could guarantee only one particular thing would happen on your wedding day to make it the most perfect day ever, what would that one thing be?” If the bride replies that it’s really important to her that her grandmother have a great time, you’ll know some of the things you need to focus on.

If you’re a salesperson in a retail clothing store, you could ask, “What one item would you absolutely require to make the perfect outfit?”

If your customer says he really, really wants a blue paisley tie, you’ll know you can work around the fact that the brown slacks he had his eye on are out of stock… as long as you can get him that blue paisley tie.

Knowing your client’s kitchen sink is a great rapport builder. It also allows you to follow up in a very personal manner.

What a huge difference there is between “Thanks for letting us plan your wedding” and “It was wonderful to see the joy on your grandmother’s face. We were so honored to be a part of that special occasion.”

So start inquiring about your customers’ kitchen sinks. And by the way, if anyone wants to come over and clean mine, you’re more than welcome!

Resources: Karen Scharf is an Indianapolis marketing consultant who works with small business owners and entrepreneurs. She offers several whitepapers, free reports and checklists, including her FREE Can-Spam checklist and FREE email pre-flight checklist to ensure your emails get delivered, get opened and get read. Download your copies at http://www.ModernImage.com.

A sales lead is the identity of a person or entity potentially interested in purchasing a product or service,and represents the first stage of a sales process.The lead may have a corporation or business associated (a B2B lead) with the person(s).Sales leads come from either marketing lead generation processes such as trade shows, direct marketing, advertising, Internet marketing or from sales person prospecting activities such as cold calling. For a sales lead to qualify as a sales prospect, or equivalently to move a lead from the process step sales lead to the process sales prospect,qualification must be performed and evaluated. Typically this involves identifying by direct interrogation the leads product applicability,availability of funding, and time frame for purchase.This is also the entry point of a sales tunnel,sales funnel or sales pipeline.

A formalized sales process is generally more common for companies that either have large revenue risks that require systematic assurance of revenue generation and/or those that choose to use a more consultative sales approach(Saturn, IBM, Hewlett-Packard).Strictly speaking, even an effective ad hoc or retail sales process can be described by steps of an ideal sales process though some of the steps may be executed quickly.Often a bad sales experience can be analyzed and shown to have skipped key steps. This is where a good sales process mediates risk for both buyer and seller.

A solid sales process also has the dramatic impact of forecasting accuracy and predictability in revenue results.In general terms, sales professionals need to know a set of discrete data in order to determine whether or not the prospect will become qualified. These variables may include,business needs, authorization to transact business (financial or operational), money or budget and an economic buyer or in other words, who would stand to benefit the most (or lose the most) if the good or service were to be acquired (or not acquired).

Closing is distinguished from ordinary practices such as explaining a product’s benefits or justifying an expense. It is reserved for more artful means of persuasion, which some compare with confidence tricks. For example,a salesman might mention that his product is popular with a persons neighbors, knowing that people tend to follow perceived trends.Internet marketing ties together creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including design, development, advertising, and sales.

Internet marketing does not simply entail building or promoting a website, nor does it mean placing a banner ad on another website. Effective Internet marketing requires a comprehensive strategy that synergizes a given company’s business model and sales goals with its website function and appearance, focusing on its target market through proper choice of advertising type, media, and design. The volume of B2B transactions is much higher than the volume of B2C transactions. The primary reason for this is that in a typical supply chain there will be many B2B transactions involving sub component or raw materials but only one B2C transaction, because the sale of the finished product to the end customer is only a single transaction.

In complex sales, the process of selling can take several weeks, or even months, to complete. Sometimes there are long discussions between buyers & service providers before finalizing the specifications. In some cases, offer and counter offers will go back and forth. Prospective buyers sometimes issue a Request for Proposals (RFP), Request for Information (RFI), Request for Quotation (RFQ) or an Invitation for Bids (IFB). These requests guide the sellers and provide specifications about the buyer’s needs. Meeting the specified requirements is a major objective in writing a successful proposal.

Resources: Get Lead Generation Use Sales Lead Generation