Article: It is essential to establish the metrics you want staff to meet because if you can't measure it, you cannot manage it. What defines good customer service at your company? Is it repeat visits? Average check-out times? Number of items per ticket? Quick response time to complaints? Problem resolution time? Once you have established this list and how to track your metrics, communicate this to your employees. If one of your metrics is items per ticket, track the basket size of your customers on a weekly basis. You can find out the average number of items per ticket, then figure out ways to grow that number. Maybe you need to educate your employees on all of your products so they can encourage customers to add a few more products to their baskets. Or perhaps the shelves are not restocked often enough, so people can't buy all of the items they need. Increasing ticket size may require you to hire more people to keep the shelves stocked or prioritize restocking right before the busiest times of the day. You should provide your customer service representatives and employees with the proper guidelines for keeping customers happy. These might include proper greetings, procedures for dealing with unhappy customers, or guidelines about how long customers should be kept on hold. Make sure that these procedures are clearly laid out for your staff and that they are possible to implement. Consider providing them with a booklet or handouts to help them remember their customer service policies. Your customer might have different thoughts and ideas than you because of their cultural background. Make sure your employees are trained in handling encounters with people from other cultures to reduce the chances of cross-cultural misunderstandings. Never break a promise you make to a customer. Only promise them what you can actually provide, and then provide them with that service. For example, do not promise a customer a refund unless you are absolutely sure that a refund can be granted to him. And do not promise a customer that you can get her a 30% discount when she only qualifies for a 15% discount. Even though effective company policies are important tools to keep customers happy, you also have to trust your team of employees. There are some situations that a company policy does not cover, and sometimes decisions have to be made on the fly. Allow your employees some reasonable leeway in how they deal with customer grievances or unexpected situations.  For example, your customer service representative might give an angry customer three extra coupons even if company policy is to provide just one coupon. Rather than getting angry at your employee, trust that her judgment provided the smoothest resolution to the problem. At the same time, it is important to educate your employees so they know just how much leeway they have to satisfy a complaint, and when they should turn a complaint over to a supervisor. Providing your employees with written rules and policies can help make this clear. If your employees get rewarded for treating customers well, they will see just how important excellent customer service is to your organization. Consider creating a monthly award in your office for the star customer service provider. You might also provide bonuses to the service teams that help improve customer loyalty. By establishing your metrics early on, you can use tangible results to reward your employees. If you have comment cards or a customer satisfaction survey, you can reward the person who scores the highest. Or if you can track how quickly customer service problems are resolved, you can reward the employee with the fastest and most accurate problem resolution time. Emphasize to your employees that good posture, a clear speaking voice, a friendly demeanor, and a professional appearance are all essential to good customer service. First impressions are important in communicating with customers. Ask your staff members to enunciate especially clearly and slowly if they deal with customers on the phone. There are a number of methods you could use to help teach your employees necessary customer service skills. For example, you could use role-playing exercises to practice customer service, hire coaches to run workshops, or ask your employees to complete online training modules. Even a two-hour workshop might help your staff learn new tricks for making customers feel taken care of.
Question: What is a summary of what this article is about?
Develop performance metrics to measure customer service. Institute policies that make it easy to treat customers well. Be conscious of cultural differences. Keep your promises. Give your customer service representatives leeway in dealing with problems. Reward employees who go above and beyond in their customer service. Train staff to communicate effectively. Schedule customer service trainings with your staff.
Article: Any type of hairspray will work fine to preserve your flowers. It is helpful to shake up your hairspray for 20 seconds or so before you use it. You can use a cheap can found at your local drug store, for instance. Hold the hanger upwards in 1 hand and spray the hairspray with your dominant hand. Position the can about 4–6 in (10–15 cm) away from the flowers, and press down on the spray nozzle. Slowly move the can around the entirety of your flowers. Cover the blossoms, leaves, and stem. You can also place a piece of newspaper behind your flowers and let the hanger stay on the hook as you spray them. After you apply your a coat of hairspray, set the hanger back onto a door hook. Set a timer for about 10 minutes, and then you can apply the next coat. You want each coat to completely dry in order to properly preserve the flowers. To check if the flowers are dry, touch 1 of your fingertips to the end of the stem. One coat of hairspray is likely not enough to fully preserve the flowers. After the first coat dries, spray another complete, even layer across the blossoms, leaves, and stems. Then, let each coat dry for 10 minutes. You can use your preserved flowers to make a decorative display. Cut the flowers off of the hanger, and remove the dental floss from the ends. Put a bouquet of preserved flowers into a decorative vase, and place the vase on a tabletop to make an attractive centerpiece.  You can do this to make seasonal decorations, for instance. Tie a ribbon to the outside of the vase for extra embellishment. You can secure the ribbon by using a small dab of hot glue. About 1-2 times a week, you can spray another 1-2 coat on your flowers to keep them hard and intact. Do this if the flower buds start to look droopy or if you notice any petals start to fall off. Continue doing this as needed to preserve your flowers long-term.  If applying multiple coats, wait about 10 minutes in between each one. You can take out the flowers and lay them on newspaper, then spray a light even layer on each side. In addition, you can spray a light layer over the blooms and stems while the flowers are still in the vase.
Question: What is a summary of what this article is about?
Use a can of any ordinary aerosol hairspray. Spray an even coat of hairspray over the entirety of your flowers. Let the flowers dry upside down for about 10 minutes. Apply another 2 even coats of hairspray to cover your flowers. Display your preserved flowers in a decorative vase. Touch up your flowers once every 3-7 days to keep them preserved.
Article: Allow grout to cure for 24 to 48 hours before stepping on it to ensure its stability and to make sure that it is completely dry.
Question: What is a summary of what this article is about?
Cure grout.