PSPINC Official Company Blog

What is “Big Data”?

7月

20日

Big data is exactly what it sounds like: an enormous, exponentially growing amount of data. Data versus big data really comes down to three factors known as the three V's: volume, velocity, and variety. Volume refers to the sheer amount of data. Velocity, however, looks at how fast it generates. Lastly, variety includes structured (numerical data), semi-structured (machine-generated documents and data in a no-SQL database), and unstructured data (text and image files). But over the last few years, two more V's have emerged: value and veracity. They involve determining how accurate your data is, how much you can rely on it, and what kind of value you can gather from it.

The Benefits of Big Data

a business woman pumping her fist int the air while holding a piece of paper sitting in front of a laptop

Big data is, like the name suggests, big. But it means nothing if you can’t derive value from it. Cleaning, curating, and preparing data for clients takes up a significant amount of time. But in the end, valuable data remains prime for companies to use to their advantage. So, it’s no surprise that data is behind some of the world's biggest companies' success. Those companies have figured out how to use their data to develop products better, improve customer experiences, and drive innovation.

For example, Spotify and Netflix look at what their customers listen to or watch and use that data to determine what else they might like. Then, they can recommend content based on predictive models created from collected data. Businesses can also gather an immense amount of data from social media, website visits, call logs, and other customer actions to analyze how they interact with the company. Then, they can use it to see where they can improve. And that includes enhancing their overall efficiency and identifying new ways to drive innovation.

How Big Data is Changing

a finger pointing at a dark screen with a bunch of numbers

As great as big data is, the real challenge comes in keeping up with it. Year after year, newly developed technologies emerge to help store all that data. But data volumes continue to increase exponentially. Because of that, organizations struggle keeping up with the accelerating pace. And it doesn't look to be slowing down anytime soon. But when businesses can find relevant meaning behind all that data, that can lead to true success.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#bigdata #blog #business #businesstips #businesstools #customerfeedback #customerservice #data #innovation #marketing #netflix #smallbusiness #socialmedia #softwaredevelopment #spotify #tech #technology #update #web #webdevelopment #websites #webtools

PSPINC What's New Newsletter Vol. 120 "Cultivating Meaningful Business Relationships"

6月

17日

A vital part of maintaining a successful business is cultivating meaningful relationships. Loyalty from your customers is essential to build a truly sustainable brand. Sales transactions are great, but what you’re really looking for as a business owner are customers who continually come back. It shows people that your brand and the products you sell are reliable. And it’s a big reason why the most successful companies in the world are as successful as they are. When our customers call PSPINC, they know they aren’t just calling our company. They know exactly who to ask for because our support team is full of experts who know how to build that relationship with them.

But this doesn’t just go a long way toward potential customers. The business community is enormous so having solid connections within it is also important. Business relationships help establish your reputation in the business world. And the best part is that they can also foster long-term and even lifetime friendships with others. From that, beneficial partnerships can form and bring in new and repeat customers. Meaningful business relationships open the door to incredible opportunities for success. And it’s why we value it so highly at PSPINC.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#b2b #blog #branding #business #businesstips #customerfeedback #customerservice #customersupport #digitalmarketing #marketing #networking #pacificsoftwarepublishing #partnerships #pspinc #relationships #smallbusiness #technology #whatsnewnewsletter

The Benefits of Online Forms

5月

18日

Online forms are largely used by businesses for a variety of business and marketing purposes. They’re much more modern compared to paper forms and simplify and optimize the entire process for businesses. Online forms are generally cloud-based, meaning that the data’s instantly digitalized and stored in the system. This gives business owners instant access to accurate, verified, and up-to-date information and makes it easier to process this data further. Online forms also greatly reduce cost while optimizing for efficiency because it’s no longer necessary to physically print, mail, store, and organize them. It also decreases the possibility of misplacing, burying, or even destroying the data, which is a very likely occurrence when dealing with paper forms.

Marketing Purposes of Online Forms

Other than simplifying and digitalizing processes on the administrative side, online forms can be great for marketing as well. Much like other digital marketing efforts, it’s easy to track how well online forms are performing and adjust them as needed. When placed on your business website, it can be a great way to drive lead generation, serving as an email newsletter opt-in, or an alternative for users to contact your business.

Other than that, you can get feedback directly from your customers about your company’s offerings and/or their overall experience on your website. For example, after purchasing a product/service, customers can review the product/service they bought or answer questions about the checkout experience, both of which can be done with an online form. After that, businesses can even create an automated and personalized response to people who filled out the form. Because it’s an online form, the responses are immediately sent after they’re filled out and submitted.

Online Form Builders

someone holding a tablet open to an empty online form

As great as online forms can be for your business, creating one can involve a lot of coding, which isn’t a capability all business owners have. This is exactly why PSPINC created InforMakers, our intuitive form builder. With InforMakers, you can easily create, customize, and embed as many online forms as you need. Once created, you can customize the messages users get upon completion. After embedding and placing it on your site, you can view all your form submission data and export it into a tidy CSV file for your records. InforMakers is just $8/month. Or if you’re one of our Dreamersi customers, you can get it for free in addition to your web and/or email hosting.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#blog #business #businesstools #customerfeedback #customersupport #digitalmarketing #dreamersi #hosting #informakers #marketing #marketingdigital #newsletter #onlineform #pspinc #review #tech #technology #web #webhosting #website #websites #webtools

PSPINC What's New Newsletter Vol. 72 "How do you deal with bad reviews?"

7月

16日

Vol. 72

The Internet has surpassed media such as television and newspapers in terms of being seen by many people. It has become commonplace to use social media and other mediums to promote a company. When you use social media in this way, you have to understand that it is not a one-way platform like TV or traditional print material.

What I mean by that is with social media, not only the sender but also the receiver can write comments and evaluations. Naturally, some of the comments and feedback are positive (favorable), but there is also negative (unfavorable). Naturally, you would want to erase the bad comments. However, there is no value in a social media platform that can erase all bad reviews. Social media is a place to create opportunities for those who send out information to improve if there is room for improvement.

Often, the first response to a bad review or a problem is to defend oneself: "That's not true,” or "We don't have a problem.” This is the same as deleting bad reviews, which can cause what is often called "flaming." When a flare-up occurs, the story expands to something completely different from the facts, this should never happen.

If you receive a bad review, the right thing to do is to apologize to the other person. Even if you did what you thought was correct, if you made the other person feel bad, the proper way of handling it is to apologize. After that, it is necessary to conduct an actual investigation to clarify what went wrong. Even if it turns out to be a misunderstanding on the part of the other party, don't just say, "That's it.”

I believe that bad publicity is not always a bad thing. If you are in business, it is very difficult to be liked by all people. Try to understand where the other person is coming from, and think about how to respond in a way that is understandable to them and you, so that a response will not cause a flame war.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.
info@pspinc.com
https://pspinc.com
1404 140th Place NE, Bellevue, WA 98007 USA
800-232-3989
425-957-0808

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPINC Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

#Business #CustomerFeedback #CustomerReviews #CustomerSupport #Marketing #OnlineReviews #PSPINC #Reviews #SmallBusiness #SocialMedia

3 Online Tools for Restaurants During the Covid-19 Pandemic

1月

6日

We may have turned the calendar to a new year, but we are still facing the same challenges that we had in 2020. Many industries have been hit hard, one of the hardest hit has been restaurants.

At PSPinc, we have developed a number of tools designed and developed to help struggling restaurants.

Customer feedback for your restaurant with Opinion Stand

Opinion Stand Customer Feedback

Price: Pay what you can

A service that allows restaurants to embed QR codes or text message codes in their posters, menus, table-tents, to-go flyers, etc. A patron simply scans or enters the code, click on an icon to rate their experience, and provide their information and additional comments on their service.

Restaurant owners can quickly evaluate their customer service, delivery experience, quality of food, and so much more! On top of that, they gain valuable customer information for future marketing and promotional efforts to encourage return visitors.

Learn More About Opinion Stand

Create a contact-less digital restaurant menu for your customers with ImaMenu

ImaMenu Contact-less Digital Restaurant Menu

Price: Free

This is a brand new service to PSPinc that provides restaurants with the power of creating an online digital restaurant menu. It is totally free-to-use and once you sign up you can quickly add menu categories and each of your dishes. For each dish you can include an image, description, allergen information, and price.

Once created, restaurants can embed a QR code, or provide a URL to their digital menu web page anywhere and everywhere. It works perfect on your Google business page, your website (we will get to that later), coupons, promotional ads, and so much more.

Sign Up For ImaMenu For Free

Have a website built for you with WebdeXpress Done For You

WebdeXpress Website Done For You

Price: $550

WebdeXpress is our easy-to-use web-builder tool that is included with all of our Dreamersi web hosting plans. It is built so you don’t have to know HTML, CSS, or JavaScript to create a fully functional website. However, not all people have the time or design sense to create a beautiful experience for their website visitors.

WebdeXpress DFY (Done For You) is an unbelievably affordable service where we do the heavy lifting for you. A customer simply chooses a pre-designed template (we have one specifically designed for restaurants), provides us with content and images, and we build the site for you.

For $550 you not only get the website, but you get 1 year of hosting, email, and an SSL certificate. For each additional year, all you pay for is the low hosting price!

View WebdeXpress Templates

We Are Here To Help!

If you are interested in any of the above services or have a specific need that you think we can help solve with software development please contact us. We have the business and technical experience to solve problems your company may be facing.

Contact us by phone at 1-800-232-3989, online at PSPinc.com, or email us directly at contact@pspinc.com.

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.

1404 140th Place N.E., Bellevue, WA 98007

PSPinc Creates Tools For Your Business

Pacific Software Publishing, Inc. is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington and provides domain, web, and email hosting to more than 40,000 companies of all sizes around the world. We design and develop our own software and are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow and thrive online. For more information you can contact us at 800-232-3989, by email at info@pspinc.com or visit us online at https://www.pspinc.com.

The term "QR Code" is a registered trademark of DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED.

#Contactless #CustomerFeedback #ImaMenu #OpinionStand #PSPinc #Restaurant #WebBuilder #WebdeXpress

Opinion Stand Now Supports Text Message Feedback

2月

22日

A table tent and delivery flyer featuring the new Opinion Stand text message feature.

The Opinion Stand is a great way to get valuable feedback from your customers on your business. It also allows you, as a business owner, to have a direct line of communication with your customers when they send you their contact information.

Opinion Stand Papyrus is a versatile application that puts the power of the Opinion Stand into your customer’s hands. You can print flyers, menus, table tents, and receipts with instructions on how they can use the Opinion Stand with their smartphone.

We are focused on providing your customers with the absolute simplest and quickest way of letting you know how well your business is performing. With Papyrus, that just got a whole lot simpler. Previously users would need to scan a QR code to gain access to the Opinion Stand on their mobile device. Which is a fantastic and simple feature. Though if you were unfamiliar with QR code technology, it involves educating yourself a bit on it.

We are happy to announce the release of the text message feature!

Almost everyone knows how to send text messages these days, so this feature will help reach audiences of all backgrounds. With Opinion Stand Papyrus you can now define a unique text message code for each of your Stands. Simply add the text message code and the pre-defined phone number to your print collateral and you are set! Customers can now text the code and instantly receive a reply with a link to the Opinion Stand. Customer feedback just got even easier.

Have questions or want to learn more?

Visit OpinionStand.com or call us toll-free 1-800-232-3989 and our team will be there to answer any questions you have. We would love the opportunity to learn more about your business and see if Opinion Stand is the right fit for you.

You can also find us on the road!

This year we will be at the Restaurant Leadership Conference in Phoenix, AZ from March 22nd - 25th. We are excited to show restaurant owners and executives how powerful the Opinion Stand is for gathering feedback, collecting contact information and engaging with their customers. If you are a restaurant owner, we hope to see you there!

The term "QR Code" is a registered trademark of DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED.

#Blog #CustomerFeedback #CustomerReviews #OpinionStand #Technology

Customer Surveys: Ask the Right Questions

4月

16日

image source: pixabay.com

We often ask questions with some expectation of the answers before we hear them. When asking our customers for their input, however, we must willingly set aside our opinions and remain neutral if we want to get honest feedback and learn something valuable from them.

According to Peter Drucker, guru of business management, the fax machine is a prime example of the influential power in our questioning techniques.

Before the fax machine came to market, U.S. manufacturers conducted market research asking, "Would you buy a telephone accessory for upwards of $1,500 that enables you to send, for $1 a page, the same letter the post office delivers for 25 cents?" You guessed it; the answers were no and U.S. manufacturers did not pursue the fax machine.

On the other hand, as Drucker pointed out, Japanese manufacturers asked a more straightforward question: “Is there a market for what the fax machine does?" And they realized fax machines could replace courier services like FedEx in the 70s. As a result of asking the right question, Japanese manufacturers were first to market and more dominant in fax machines than U.S. companies in the 80s and 90s. It was too late for many U.S. companies to follow suit.

Collecting feedback from our customers is beneficial, but only if we phrase our questions in such a way that allows them to be honest and think for themselves. If we are going to take the time to survey people, make it worthwhile. Prepare ahead of time, keep it straightforward, and take the bad with the good – because it all helps to better your business.

#Advertising #B2B #Blog #CRM #CustomerFeedback #CustomerSatisfaction #CustomerService #ENnews #FocusGroups #Marketing #OfficeTips #OnlineSurveys #PSPinc #SmallBusiness #Surveys

How to Host a Focus Group

4月

11日

image source: pixabay.com

Hosting a focus group to get more granular feedback from your customers is a great way learn what’s working, what’s not, and what the people want. The feedback can help you make better informed decisions when it comes to introducing, modifying or discontinuing products or services – instead of relying solely on your gut instinct.

Follow these five steps to host a successful focus group:

1. Define your Mission

What do you want to learn from your participants? Plan your focus group around a purpose and stick to it.

2. Recruit Participants

Carefully consider the people you invite. Think back to your plan for the focus group. Should you invite business people or consumers? What ages? Does income level or location matter? And should you be talking with people who are loyal to your company or people who have stopped purchasing your products or services? Maybe you need a good mix of everyone. You might consider sending out a questionnaire to pre-screen participants.

3. Provide Incentives

Time is money so be sure to reward the people who participate. Perhaps a discount or a gift card. Whatever that is, put yourself in their shoes and determine if the incentive is worth your time.

4. Interview

Interviewing participants in person is beneficial because there is much more to answers than words. Tone of voice and facial expressions can say a lot too. You can really capture the feelings in person. Prepare questions in advance and be very straightforward when delivering them. Don’t use a lot of adjectives or language that can be leading. Stay objective and try to get non-biased answers.

5. Take Notes

This is your chance to get more than a yes or no answer, so take advantage. Take notes on how the users engage with you. How do they appear? Do they smile? Are they agitated? Are they struggling to answer right away?

For a successful focus group, you need plenty of preparation ahead of time. You can find lots of sample questions online to give you ideas!

#Advertising #B2B #Blog #CustomerFeedback #CustomerSatisfaction #CustomerService #ENnews #FocusGroups #Marketing #OfficeTips #OnlineSurveys #PSPinc #SmallBusiness #Surveys

Simple, Immediate Surveys get Results

4月

9日

image source: pixabay.com

The best time to ask a customer about their experience with your business is immediately after your transaction or interaction with them. Life is busy and our memories get muddled because of it, so don’t wait too long to get feedback. Ask when when it’s fresh in your customer's mind.

If you want to keep it really simple, ask just one question: “Are you happy?”

Here are two ways PSPinc is doing that:

Feedback Form

We implemented a simple email survey through our CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system so whenever our support staff helps a customer, the customer immediately gets a follow-up email asking them to rate their experience with us. This can tell us a lot about how we are doing, and also what kinds of issues customer are having.

Opinion Stand

On a tablet next to our lobby entrance, we ask customers, “How did we do?” and they have the option to give their feedback on the tablet as they exit.

Don’t miss an opportunity to connect with your customers. These simple and quick surveys can provide a lot of great insight into what you’re doing right and what you need to do better.

#Advertising #B2B #Blog #CRM #CustomerFeedback #CustomerSatisfaction #CustomerService #ENnews #Marketing #OfficeTips #OnlineSurveys #PSPinc #SmallBusiness #Surveys

How to Get Customer Feedback

4月

4日

image source: pixabay.com

Learning from our customers equips us with information to better our business. In a previous article we discussed using analytics as a tool to understand our customers’ online behavior. Now let’s talk about reaching out to those customers to get their feedback.

One of the best and easiest ways to engage with your customers is to create a survey for them. Surveys are easy to make and you can customize them to ask broad questions or get very specific – it all depends on what your company needs from it.

Here are some key points for you to consider before you start your survey:

- Determine your goal for the survey, and what you want to get out of it.

- Compile your customer list, preferably emails, to which you can send the survey.

- Consider offering an incentive (coupon, freebie, discount) if they take the survey.

- Come up with your questions. Keep it simple and neutral, don’t lead your customers toward a particular answer. Stay completely objective. Consider questions like: How do they like your product or service? Where did they learn about you? What else would they like to see your company offer? What is your strength / weakness?

- Keep it short and tell them up front how long it should take to complete the survey. Everyone’s busy, don’t get greedy with their time.

- Be sure to follow-up at some point so your customer doesn’t think their time and feedback was wasted.

- Consider asking some of the tough questions, even if you’re worried about receiving criticism. Remember, you’re not looking for a testimonial; you want to understand how you can improve. Customers might appreciate it.

Once you figure out your questions, then you can find the survey tools. PSPinc has an online form program, so if you need any help, contact us! We would be happy to assist you.

#Advertising #B2B #Blog #CRM #CustomerFeedback #CustomerSatisfaction #CustomerService #ENnews #Marketing #OfficeTips #OnlineSurveys #PSPinc #SmallBusiness #Surveys

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PSPINC Official Company Blog

フリースペース

What is “Big Data”?

The Benefits of Big Data

How Big Data is Changing

PSPINC What's New Newsletter Vol. 120 "Cultivating Meaningful Business Relationships"

The Benefits of Online Forms

Marketing Purposes of Online Forms

Online Form Builders

PSPINC What's New Newsletter Vol. 72 "How do you deal with bad reviews?"