Jessica Eyre

“Growth is never by mere chance; it is the result of forces working together.” – James Cash Penney, the founder of J.C. Penney. Growing in the business world requires ingenuity, a focus on your core business strategy, and plenty of hard work. While everyone wants the increased profit that comes from growth, you must have … Continued

Progressions such as automation, self-service, and the breaking down of communication barriers are making customer service easier than ever before. One of the easiest and most convenient advancements for businesses to take advantage of is online live chat. People prefer to communicate remotely these days, making live chat a comfortable option for most. And the … Continued

Kids are more likely to eat an apple when it’s served sliced. That’s because even when we’re young, we know that convenience makes all the difference. For a business to offer long-term value, it needs to provide convenience. When a brand simplifies its customer interactions, it’s more likely to have return customers, and those customers … Continued

Fishing is a widely diverse activity—there really isn’t a wrong way to do it. From a lazy Saturday morning casting a simple rod and reel off of a dock to mass offshore fishing operations, each one fulfills different needs for different people. Marketing, in a lot of ways, is incredibly congruent to fishing; both fishing … Continued

When one thinks about customer loyalty, the mind likely goes to the mom and pop stores in small towns. You know, those one-stop-shops that have everything from groceries to hardware, also doubling as the town’s gossip hub. Everyone knows everyone, and you’re treated like family. Fortunately, it doesn’t matter if you have four employees or … Continued

There are approximately 250,000 commercial and residential brokerage and management firms in the real estate space, generating hundreds of billions of dollars in business every year. And every single one of them is (or should be) taking advantage of modern digital marketing techniques like online listings, e-signing services, and 3D virtual tours to make buying … Continued

A regular customer walks into her favorite coffee shop early on a Monday morning. As she sluggishly makes her way up to the counter, the barista, already running on four shots of espresso, smiles and says “The usual?” She yawns and nods her head, and the barista gets to work on making her coffee. In … Continued

If you’re a creative type starting a business, it can be all too easy to want to share all of your thoughts and innovations with the world. You think perhaps it’s the one divine allotment of ingenuity you will ever be granted, so you want to get it all out there before the opportunity is … Continued

“When any scholar is able to read Tully or such like classical Latin Author Tempore and make and speaker true Latin in verse and prosesuo Marte, and decline perfectlt the paradigms of nounes and verbes in ye Greeke tongue, then may hee bee admitted into ye College.” This excerpt from Harvard’s first code of laws … Continued

If you go back a few decades and turn on the radio or a television, you could almost guarantee landing on a commercial sporting a catchy jingle for home improvement services. Carpenters, plumbers, HVAC, and skilled specialists of all modalities had found a niche on the radio and TV waves in between the onslaught of … Continued

Most people loathe going to the doctor’s office. It takes time out of your busy schedule, waits can be annoyingly long, and there’s always the prospect of receiving disappointing or even frightening medical news. There are no two ways about it—a visit to your physician is typically a drag. As such, you don’t often find … Continued

There’s a home improvement craze on TV. With programs like Fixer Upper, Property Brothers, and Trading Spaces dominating the airwaves, it’s easy to live vicariously through the people lucky enough to get a star-studded renovation of their homes. However popular they are, these shows tend to paint a false narrative when it comes to the … Continued

Understanding the importance of references and work samples You’re a business owner, and chances are you’ve got clients that absolutely love you. They’re satisfied with your service, but just as importantly, they trust you and your employees, and your personalities mesh well together. But let’s say you’re an electrician. Like many home-improvement services, there’s really … Continued

The home improvement industry is notoriously labor intensive. With long hours and backbreaking work, you have hardly any time (not to mention energy) left to find leads and grow your business. That’s where HelpSquad can save the day. While you focus on your job and put just a little work into gaining leads, HelpSquad can … Continued

Humans have long been fascinated by artificial intelligence. If you take a look at TV and films featuring robots, you soon realize that examples are almost endless. There’s Marvin from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy; The Jetsons’ beloved housekeeper, Rosy; Johnny 5 in Short Circuit; not to mention the famous R2D2 and C3PO of … Continued

We now live in a very mobile society. We carry computers in our pockets, billions of passengers fly on a plane each year,  there are more than 250 million cars on the road in the United States. And, according to statistics site FiveThirtyEight, the average person will move homes 11.4 times in their lifetime. As … Continued

The way in which we conduct our accounting practices is changing rapidly. New customer expectations and emerging technologies mean that accounting firms must rethink how they deliver their services to customers and potential clients. As a provider of accounting services, your clients are counting on you to be there through every point of their life … Continued

How Live Chat Can Take the Heat off of HVAC Owners It’s been three weeks of record-breaking heat and your days are getting longer and longer as you go from tired air conditioner to tired air conditioner trying to keep your customers comfortable. As a busy HVAC business owner, you don’t really have time to … Continued

The typical moving company is a small business, not a large corporation with a dedicated sales staff. So you’re answering your phone, responding to emails and closing sales yourself. If you’re busy talking to potential customers on the phone and answering emails and text messages, then you’re making some deals. But you’re limited by the … Continued

In Temkin’s 2018 customer experience report, auto dealerships were ranked thirteenth among twenty industries, earning an “Okay” rating on average. Why was that?   Temkin generated the ratings by asking 10,000 US consumers how they would rate their recent interactions with 318 companies, specifically according to three dimensions: success, effort, and emotion. So the auto … Continued

In today’s marketplace, it’s necessary to have a reliable, user-friendly website. With the right combination of intuitive design and functionality, your online presence can generate traffic, strengthen your brand and increase sales. Here are a few ways you can optimize your website to capture more leads. Improve Your Website’s UX We are living in era … Continued

When you’re in the business of selling cars, reputation is king. And in the online world, building that reputation, or recovering from a one that’s less than stellar, can be the difference in your success.   There are several factors that contribute to your online reputation, and live chat technology for car dealers can be … Continued

When you’re a “solopreneur,” you have to do everything: the sales, the books, the customer service, even the coffee runs! Maybe you plan to continue going it solo, or maybe you’d like to expand to have a staff someday. Either way, juggling every aspect of your business can be a pain, but considering the high … Continued

“The car-buying experience is infamously frustrating to American consumers and especially to millennials, who want to handle as much of the process as possible online,” says Dale Buss, an auto business expert. How can you make your auto dealership stand out as a pain-free place to buy a car? Research by Hyundai found that all … Continued

When it comes to real estate, it seems everyone knows an agent. The field is crowded, and competition can be fierce at times. So how do you stand out and differentiate yourself to grow your clientele and close more deals? Know Who You Are and Stick with It Understanding who you are and what you … Continued

As someone in the car sales business, you have probably heard these fears and complaints customers have about buying a car: “I’m afraid I’ll get ripped off.” “Feel like salesmen always take advantage of my ignorance about cars.” “Am not good at negotiating.” “I don’t like car shopping because it seems like salesmen try to … Continued

There’s only so much you can do during the work day. And if you’re a real estate agent, that day doesn’t usually fit neatly inside the typical 9 to 5. (Sorry, Dolly Parton).   Even though we all want to be able to do it all, for most of us, that’s a pipe dream.  And … Continued

There’s a stereotype that millennials are self-obsessed and over-opinionated, but when you work in higher education, you know that’s rarely true. Many millennial students are dedicated to learning all they can about a variety of important subjects and are willing to consider alternate opinions. These, of course, are great qualities. But they do mean that … Continued

Whether your guests are traveling for business or pleasure, you want their accommodations to be the least of their worries. But when your website is written in a language your guests aren’t comfortable with, that can pose a problem. In fact, one study found that 56 percent of consumers thought the ability to obtain information … Continued

In the highly competitive world of higher education, lead generation—and, better yet, qualified lead generation—is where it all begins for college and university marketing teams. Having a few extra ways for colleges and universities to provide customer service, such as live chat and text, can make all the difference in the sales process by making … Continued

Picture this: You’re interacting with a guest, helping her with her unique needs, when she asks you a question you just don’t know the answer to. You know where to find the person who knows the answer–he’s downstairs in the lobby–but you don’t want to make the guest wait, and you want her to have … Continued

Leaving one’s family behind to move to another country is hard enough; when we add second language learning and university coursework to the mix, we can see how foreign language students might struggle to feel connected to and stay engaged in our schools. How can we eliminate this barrier? How can we help foreign language … Continued

For years texting and social messaging have been becoming the main form of communication for Americans—as early as 2017, Americans sent 781 billion texts monthly. By 2018, they were sending over 6 billion texts daily. (Text Request). But consumers aren’t just texting one another; they’re texting businesses. SMS is growing in popularity in all industries, … Continued

In business, the best customer is the one you already have. When it comes to customer service for colleges and universities, that means keeping your students engaged and re-enrolling through graduation. One way to keep students enrolled and coming back each term is by making it easier for you to communicate with students and for … Continued

Give Your Customers a Voice—and Empower Your Team—with Guest Satisfaction Scorecards In hospitality, knowing how your guests feel about you is important, and guest satisfaction is always worth improving upon. A Cornell study found that “a 1-point increase in a hotel’s 100-point Global Review Index™ (GRI) leads up to . . . a 1.42% increase … Continued