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Home Blog Page 2

Miro-Boards – virtual whiteboards

Tobias Nösel
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Miro-Boards – virtual whiteboards

Dear freelancer,


Post-its and flowcharts on whiteboards make working in teams interactive and contribute to the success of workshops. From collections of ideas (e.g. for project plans) to customizable flowcharts (e.g. for processes) – this technology is extremely versatile.


With Miro, you can now work with other users on virtual white boards from any location and at the same time.


Registration on the site is free of charge. Three boards can be edited with an unlimited number of people. Miro already provides over 2,500 templates here.

The premium versions start at 10$ per month. This already includes Jira integration and an unlimited number of boards can be created and edited.

Using the site and editing the boards is simple, very intuitive and user-friendly.


Miro impressed me at my first workshop and I still use it today to cluster ideas. Definitely recommendable!


Click here to go to the website: https://miro.com/


I hope you enjoy working with Miro!


Yours
Tobias

How to improve your customer service – part 1 – channels

Tobias Nösel
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0
How to improve your customer service – part 1 – channels

Reading time: 5 minutes

Dear freelancers,

In daily contact with your customers, customer service is one of the keys to success. Whether in the end customer sector (B2C) or in the business customer sector (B2B).

Because only through customer service can you stand out from competitors with a similar product.

This article is about the customer perspective.

How to maintain contact with the customer.

Why contact channels are crucial.

And how both can be significantly improved.

Customer contact – frustration or fans pre-programmed

You’ve probably experienced it yourself – an email is not answered or answered late, you’re put on hold on a hotline or a query to a provider’s technical support is not answered or answered with a long delay.

Frustration is inevitable. If no value is placed on the actual contact, you can lose the customer.

Good customer service, on the other hand, creates fans. Customers who, in the best case, recommend your service to others. So that you no longer have to invest an advertising budget to win new customers.

What is the customer perspective?

The customer chooses their own contact method. Whether they call, email, use a live chat, write by post or send a traditional fax – they choose their own contact channel, depending on their personality structure, their preferences, the perceived urgency of their request and their mood.

What is your perspective?

You are inundated with emails and tickets, in between your smartphone rings and a WhatsApp message beeps. And you can neither offer good customer service nor deliver or improve your service.

What is the solution?

The customer chooses the contact channel themselves.

But two points are crucial:

1. which contact channels you offer

2. your time management when answering customer inquiries (or the time you block)

1. Contact channels

Which contact channel is your favorite? Which one can you use well and effectively?

It is advisable to offer a modern written channel (by email, for example) and a direct telephone channel. Then you have both types of contact covered.

You can also think about bonus channels such as video calls.

All other channels such as chat, WhatsApp etc. are conversations that need to be held continuously and where you will inevitably disappoint the other person’s expectations. If the other person sends you a WhatsApp message, they will expect a prompt reply. If there is no reply or it is delayed for hours, the other person is usually disappointed. After all, your customers can’t see that you might be working on a product or service for them.

2. Time management

Time management can be, for example, three blockers over 10-20 minutes per day. One blocker in the morning to process the requests from the night. At lunchtime to answer the customer’s first response and the inquiries from the first half of the day. In the evening, the requests and responses from the afternoon. And YES, customer service requires an investment of time. It’s like a good partnership. It’s a relationship between you and the customer that only really begins when the contract is signed. The problem is usually that this time is not invested. It is not seen as productive time.

The alternative to blockers is to keep an eye on the email inbox and offer to call back customers who prefer to make phone calls. But set yourself a time limit per callback and help efficiently, because nothing is as valuable as the customer’s time and your time.

With this in mind – thank you for your time and feel free to write in the comments which contact channel you prefer and for what reason!

Yours

Tobias

Does freelancing have a future?

Tobias Nösel
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0
Does freelancing have a future?

reading time: 3-5 minutes

Dear freelancers,

Today, I would like to pose a very important question to you – does freelancing have a future? In my opinion, the answer is a clear and resounding YES.

In this day and age, additional income is becoming increasingly important. Building financial cushions, providing for one’s family, and planning for the future have become central today.

With imminent economic crises on the horizon, driven by the escalating debt of major industrial nations, the versatility of freelancing becomes a key resource for financial security.

Flexibility has seldom been as crucial in history as it is in our time. Traditional career paths, from education to retirement within the same company, are becoming a thing of the past.

The seemingly secure employment relationship is often temporary or poorly compensated. Employers offer fruit baskets as incentives instead of trusting their employees and providing remote work options. Companies mistrust their employees to the extent that, even after the pandemic, they reintroduce mandatory in-person attendance. Negative examples are often large corporations. Companies selling bossware like Activtrak and Kickidler have seen a massive increase in customers in recent years.

For most employees, location-independent work is an unattainable dream. Few companies stand out in this regard. Usually, these are young, dynamic enterprises that appreciate the lifetime of their employees and don’t want to lag behind in the competition for talent.

The development in artificial intelligence will revolutionize the workplace more strongly in the coming years than the invention of the steam engine and Ford’s assembly lines. Companies will cut positions and achieve efficiency gains at the expense of employees. AI will change, render obsolete, and create new professions. This trend is already visible in roles like Machine Learning Engineers and Ethical AI Specialists. Further changes will follow.

It is therefore even more crucial to be flexible. Only freelancing provides this flexibility because you can decide for whom you work and under what conditions.

What do you think? Does freelancing have a future? I look forward to hearing your opinions in the comments!

Thank you for your time and attention!

Let’s take your business to the next level!

Yours,
Tobias

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