Assessing your Customer Service Pros

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Customer service is a major industry that is responsible for billions of dollars.  A vast majority of that money passes through call centers at one juncture or another.  However, your customer service can suffer immensely if the call center you deal with does not implement widespread call center assessment tests.  Call center assessments are useful for determining whether or not your phone answering staff are following the highest standards of customer service.

customer service assessmentIf your phones are being answered by rude people, it will negatively impact the public reputation of the company you provide call center service for.  A comprehensive customer service assessment almost always includes a proper assessment of the phone answering staff of your company.  Call centers are a major part of the customer service operations of many companies.  Without properly screening your people, you risk a customer service catastrophe that garners media attention.  It has happened before.  Many call centers think they are insulated from the backlash of customer service failures.

That is blatantly false.  Call centers are held accountable in the media.  Companies like Comcast and Electronic Arts are notorious for their incompetent customer service. In some cases, a customer service issue can cost hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue for these larger companies.  With the sheer number of employees they have, it can be an incredibly daunting task for human resources to peruse the entire staff list to ensure everyone has top-tier customer service skills.  Thanks to the customer service assessment, it becomes clear whether or not someone is cut out for a customer service oriented position.

A Peruvian Adventure

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Machu Picchu trekkingI knew that for my college graduation gift I was going to take a trip somewhere that I had never been. A full year before I finished school I started researching different options for trips. Machu Picchu trekking is the thing that really grabbed my attention though. Since I am a history student, and the trek to Machu Picchu passes through many Inca ruins, I knew I had to do it. I spoke with my parents and they were on board, so I needed to start preparing immediately.

Hiking Peru demands that you be in great shape. The Andes Mountains are at a very high elevation and it makes it harder to breath. The terrain is also incredibly difficult to traverse. Fortunately, I live in Colorado and my lungs are already adjusted to higher altitudes. But still, I had to prepare physically for such a demanding trek. For the year leading up to my trip I was in the mountains hiking at least four times per week. I felt better than ever before by the time I was leaving for Peru.

The trek was absolutely fantastic. I took the Inca Road and it took our group several days to get to Machu Picchu. I didn’t mind though, I spent so many hours crawling through ancient ruins and I cannot wait to go back. Next time I think I will travel on a less famous trail, so that I have more time to explore and don’t have to worry about large tour groups. The hiking was exhausting, I’m very glad that I decided to get into great shape before I left. I would definitely recommend that anyone who loves adventure and hiking try out a trek through the Andes.

I Need Trustworthy Home Health Care

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Home CareA number of aging parents will become physically challenged and unable to drive themselves to and from different errands and activities. The home care agencies provide very useful services in the Colorado region, to bring elders around. The activities could be community events, family or friend celebrations, medical appointments, bill payments, shopping and more. To ensure that your parent doesn’t skip a beat, and you don’t become frazzled about yet another car run, you can find comfort in home health care. Even though specialties will include health services, there are add ons that include transportation. Then again, you’ll have to verify that this is offered. It’s important that children allow their aging parents to partake in activities within the community, rather than being cooped in the house. Getting out and about contributes to everyone’s health, both young and old. Other ideas for going around on their own if the activities are within close distance to the home, are motorized scooters. Even with transportation services checked off, these can also help for users to get around without hassle or placing pressure on joints. Check into the online communities to find new ideas about making the most comfortable life and amenities for your aging parent without blowing your budget. When it comes to home health care services, the price quotes for individual or all-round services, including feeding, changing, administering medicines, and more, can be sourced online. Another alternative would be picking up the phone and requesting an in person interview or visit.

Harley-Davidson Legend

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Harley-Davidson is a company with over one-hundred years of service.  It has built up its reputation through years of putting out the best bikes on the planet.  In doing so, a legion of followers has been born.  Individuals across the globe associate the brand with an ability to be free and rebel against conventional authority.  I like Harleys and as a result I like Arsenal football club.  The club grew from modest beginnings in the Woolrich warehouse factory that produce arms for the British army and navy.  From that period, the club has grown to become the fourth most valued in the world behind Manchester United, Real Madrid, and Barcelona.  While a gulf exists between these clubs, Arsenal remains the one that is not tied to the morally corrupt or the beneficiary of a single oligarch.  Not that Madrid or Barcelona are, but rather they are able to leverage their popularity in Spain to gigantic television contracts that sees them making mountains more than any other team in Spain.  But the rebel attitude that Harley-Davidson and Arsenal have make the brands endearing.  It cultivates the most loyal of followers.  People that identify the brands of having a form of purity and resistance to the decay of influence and dollars. Harley-Davidson has remained in the same family since the beginning of the organization.  It has grown considerably from a modest biking company to one that most typifies the motorcycle class.  As a result, the Harley-Davidson brand of motorcycles has become timeless.

harley-davidson

Refinishing Hardwood Kitchen Cabinet

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Because of moisture, dust, heat, and grease, our beloved hardwood kitchen cabinets get worn. Although, it won’t be too obvious to us at first, however, if the degradation gets serious, it would not look any good. It will look old, worn, and dull. To solve problems like this, we can do some cabinet refinishing.

cabinet refinishing

How can we refinish hardwood kitchen cabinets?

Well it is quite simple and you can do it yourself. However, if you don’t have that time to work it yourself, then, hire some professional to do the work.

To complete the refinishing project, you need to depend on materials such as screwdriver, cloth, brushes, stain, 150 grit sandpaper, 220 grit sandpaper, sanding sealer, putty knife, and a chemical stripper to get the final finish you desire.

Disband each part of the hardwood kitchen cabinet like drawers, doors, handles, and hinges with a screwdriver. Next, apply a thick coat of chemical stripper on the entire surface of the hardwood kitchen cabinet using a soft clean brush. Wait until you see the old finish of the cabinet start to bubble and peel. You can now remove the old furnish by using a putty knife. Scrape it off until all the old finish is removed. Next, sand the surface of the cabinet. You can use first the 150 grit sandpaper in doing so. Wipe the surface of the cabinet with a damp cloth and start sanding again using the 220 grit sandpaper. Wipe it again and make sure that all the residues from sanding are gone.

Apply a layer of sanding sealer before applying any coat of stain. The sanding sealer will help in absorbing stains more evenly. Apply the wood stains using a clean brush.  Afterwards, apply the first coat of polyurethane to the cabinet. Sand it again with 220 grit sandpaper. Apply more coats of polyurethane again. This is to make sure that the cabinet will be more resistance to moisture.

Your wood refinishing project is now done.

Even carpet cleaning is going green

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carpet cleaningIt seems like almost everyone is going green these days.  This green movement even applies to carpet cleaning companies.  More and more carpet cleaners are turning to environmentally safe solutions to get the dirt and grime from your rugs and carpets.

These new evironmentally safe options are not only kind to the environment but they are safe to use around small children and pets.  Which is super important to most people, especially for someone like me whose cat left a lovely present on the carpet.  To fix this issue, we were able to take the rug to an environmentally sensitive cleaning company to get out the awful stain.  My cat is probably planning on how he is going to destroy everything else in the house because that is what he does.

Last night, I am getting ready for bed and I am cleaning dishes, picking up glasses that seem to multiply throughout the house and I find that my cat has knocked over a plant in the house and has chosen not to clean it up at all.  Can you imagine that?  He knocked over a Chinese snake plant, spilling soil and bark pieces all over the floor and he did not clean it up.  In the future, I expect for him to be a better contributor to our house and not poop on the carpet and clean up after himself.  Fortunately, there are many environmental to take care of us until he learns. Plus these solutions are tailored for pet odor cleaning which is what I am in most desperate need of.

 

The custom home theater of my dreams

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custom home theaterMy family has this couple that have been friends of the family for many years.  However, this year was the first time that I went into their home. It was immaculate, and the best part of the home is they had a room dedicated to the best home theater system I have ever scene.  Let me walk you through just how incredible this home theater was.   Every square inch of this room is a custom home theater.   It starts with a lit box office facade on the out side of the room, complete with a marquis.   The window portion of the box office even had old timey custom curtains.

Next, you step inside the theater.  It is decked out with velvety walls, surround sound speakers, and a giant screen at the forfront.   There are also custom seating. The seating is small couched set upon a few platforms that rise like a stadium.    On top of that they also added custome movie theater lighting. Which means that they are on a dimmer. Which means just like a real theater, the house lights go up when there is no movie showing, and they go down when the movie starts to play.

Over all their theater room is quite impressive.   I was so impressed, I had never seen a home theater with so much detail.   It made me want to sit right down and watch a movie.  If only, it was my house.   Oh well, at least a girl can dream right?  Sigh, well maybe one day I will have the home theater of my dreams.

 

 

 

Beating Breathalyzers

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One of the more interesting articles I’ve read recently was about how to beat a breathalyzer test.  It’s actually extremely difficult and probably would be pretty embarrassing if you failed.  That said, I think that people should be knowledgeable about the situation because if they are right on the brink that one one hundred or two one hundreds of a percent could be crucial.  According to the article the best way for some people to beat a test is to hyperventilate prior to the testing. This does a couple of things and now that I think about it, doesn’t make sense.  Anyway, according to the source, the best way to do it is to hyperventilate.  This ensures that the partition ratio, which I have no idea what that is, is significantly lower if the air inside your lungs is cooler than the air outdoors.  Obviously, this is not to be tried if the air outside is above 98 degrees.  Nonetheless, could you imagine getting that drunk in temperatures over 100.  That would be miserable.  I digress, according to the article the act of hyperventilating could potentially lower the reading of blood alcohol up to twenty-two percent.  Think about that know.  That is an incredible amount and could make a huge difference.  So the lesson: if you find yourself in the position where you’re about to get a driving under the influence ticket, start breathing as hard as you can before blowing into the breathalyzers and hopefully you will come out on top.

breathalyzer

America’s Steel Industry

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One industry that surely has revolutionized what can be done in America is that of the steel industry. Steel is used to build large structures including buildings. Because of the great strength of steel you can make these types of things possible. General steel can be used to make a large structure that makes it possible for more people to live and work in certain areas. Steel can be used to build large ships and other large structure which can haul massive amounts of cargo. Even large train cars can be built and attached one after another to haul large amounts as cargo as well. Steel is also largely used in the manufacturing industry as well. Machines are built in order to process all kinds of fabrics plastics papers and many more items that we use today. When you look at it, it is truly amazing how many products can be made thanks to steel. You could truly say that steel is the backbone of just about everything that we have in our country today. From all the manufacturing that is done to even the creation of things like cars steel played a major role in the development. In general steel has all the great properties that American needed to start its building force. By having steel and using general steel you are able to build magnificent structures that can be used in many ways. It is a valuable and precious resource that we have and can use. Almost everything we use on a daily basis could disappear if it was not for the fact that steel makes it possible.

steel for all seasons

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What is also true is that I am thinking about building my own house and that house will be made of general steel. It will probably be a very small house though. Maybe it will be a house that is on some property in the mountains. Maybe it will b my summer home and it can be where I take my dog when I need to get away and relax. Lets be a little honest here, though, and say that I will probably never be that person who owns a house that does not have running water, a toilet or a shower. I just will never be that person. But I like to fantasize about having such a small house someday and designing the whole thing for myself and not needing much. I suppose this apartment I have now is a good practice for that. It is a small space, but I do not need much more than this space. I would probably like to have a more updated place that has a tv and maybe a dishwasher, but it has not been too bad yet. I have lived here for almost 3 months, which is rather unbelievable and also I am now a fourth of my way through the lease. That is just crazy. I guess that means that I need to be ok with possibly living here for more than a year.  I guess that if I meet someone who wants to move in we will have to figure that out when we get to it and talk about general steel.

general steel

Is natural pet food best?

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Natural dog foodWhether you are just visiting Colorado, or you live here you are bound to notice that we are a dog friendly state.  It seems everywhere you go you will see a dog or at least a water bowl hanging outside of store fronts. We love our furry little friends in Colorado.  Which is why we always make sure to feed our dogs Natural pet food.  Why natural you may ask? Well there is a ton of fillers and unhealthy items found in the pet food found in your local groccer for one.  In fact, most dog food is full of cornmeal and other fillers with very little protein. Which means the nutritional value of these foods are very little , if any at all.

This is news to many pet owners, as our pets are like a member of the family. So, why would you feed a member of your family anything but natural dog food?  The answer is you wouldn’t.  You would want to make sure that the food your pet is devouring everyday is tasty but also full of nutrition. After all, we want our dogs to live long and healthy lives don’t we. Well like our human companions, dogs require the proper balance  of nutrition and diet to ensure life long health.  Which is really all anyone, furry or not, can wish for in this life. So do not waste another minute on the poor nutrients of store bought food, go natural and your pet will feel the difference.

 

marketing the design

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Web design is an interesting thing. I know that I am no more qualified to do this than an one else, but here goes nothing. I had stated on my resume that I had a lot of experience as a designer of web sites and that was a complete lie. I had no experience in any of that. I knew that if I could just be given a job I could do whatever was asked of me and more and I would do it with a smile on my face and I was so thankful for a job for such a long time that I did not think about the fact that once I was int he job that i would have to do all these things that were asked of me. It is really funny how that works. I thought I could just show up and people who had hired me would just like me for who I am and who I could be when I smiled at them/ Surprisingly, this is not the case. People want you to actually live in a place that included the selection of the people who you most cared about. But when you are the person who was working and doing all those things that was asked of you you end up wanting things to go the way that you want them to go. I think that the best part of the people around you are the ones that are doing video marketing. This is very true.

Website Design for the 21st century

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anchor textRecently I joined a new company that excels in digital marketing and website design.  It has been a great learning experience for me and the team environment has been amazing.  What I find most intriguing is when people come in to get a quote for a new website. Our team of highly trained and skilled website developers know the ins and outs web design and they can transform any boring website into something others will envy.

How you may ask?  Well they sit down with every client and determine first what the client wants from their website.  Next they determine what the client’s expectations are and how they can achieve those within reason.  Then the website design team in charge of the project will go over the entire scope of the project. They will outline the due dates for everything and what the client can explain.

During the scope meeting , the clients will be able to address any issues they may have or questions about the process.  Next the designing will take park.  This will give the client an opportunity to see the progress and make any revisions they see fit, withing reason.  Next the website development phase will take part. This is a process that is pretty much invisable to the client so you will just have to be patient.

After the development and coding portion is done the website will be able to go live. This is where you will be able to see your website in action. You will be able to play around and make sure all the links work properly.

Limited and Full Protection and Containment in Mold Remediation

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We discussed in two previous posts the recommended guidelines in removing mold in households and businesses with water damage in Dallas. The United States Environmental Protection Agency published those recommendations so that remediation managers can be guided accordingly. But it is essential that they also use their skills and experience in assessing which remediation efforts should be used.

We discussed the specific remediation methods that can be used for items which have contaminated surfaces of up to 100 square feet. For those with contaminated surfaces from 10 square feet to 100 square feet, these protective gears should be used:

  • disposable overalls,
  • Gloves,
  • Goggles or eye protection gear, and
  • N-95 respirator or half-face respirator with HEPA filter,

During the clean-up, polyethylene sheeting should be installed from ceiling to floor to contain the area.  A covering flap and slit entry will be used, as well, for entry and exit of clean-up personnel. Air vents and supply returns should be blocked and covered. There should be negative pressure within the contained area so air would not blast out of it. Maintaining negative pressure can be done using a fan with HEPA filter. HEPA means high-efficiency particulate air.

For those with contaminated surfaces with more than 100 square feet of contamination, these protective gears should be used:

  • disposable full body clothing,
  • foot coverings,
  • full-face respirator with HEPA filter,
  • gloves, and
  • head gear,

With this level of contamination, polyethylene sheeting which have two layers of fire-retardant and one airlock chamber should be used during the water damage restoration and remediation efforts. Air vents and supply returns should be blocked and covered. Maintaining negative pressure can be done using a fan with HEPA filter.

Things to do when hiring a caterer

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There are many reasons why people hire caterers for their many events.  Whether it is for a wedding or corporate event, a catering company is the most important vendors you will ever work with when planning an event. They are the ones that turn a simple party into an event to remember.  They are the ones that escalate a baisc party into a sophisticated affair.

So there are a few things you will want to keep in mind before you hire a caterer.

1.) Come up with a budget and stick to it.  It is easy to let expenses creep up, so if you start with a finite number the better your finances will be before and after the event.

2.) Make an appointment with a few different caterers to discuss their menus and price plans.

3.) Hire the caterer of your choice, pay a deposit  and come up with an agreement for what to expect the day of.

4.) Once you have narrowed down your choice of caterers do a tasting.

5.) Do a final taste test of your menu weeks before the event and make changes if needed.

6.) Meet with caterer day of and answer any question before even begins

7.) Make final payment for service after event.

Once you follow these few steps you should have a caterer and great food for your big event. After all, what is the one thing that people either rave or rant about at a party? It is the food.  So, you will want to make sure the food is excellent and that your guests are satisfied.