promoting research experiences

The Last Impression Is Just As Important As The First
The common wisdom is that the first few things you say to a person are going to be the most important, and so you need to make the best first impression you possibly can.

I am not saying a first impression should not be strong, or that it will not have an impact on you, but I do think people put a little more stock into it than they should. In the end, the last impression is often just as important, if not more so than your first.

Think about it. I have had many occasions where I spoke with someone who immediately said something wrong, maybe did not shake my hand when they really should have. While my first reaction was largely negative, not really expecting much from the conversation, it quickly became clear the first misstep had not been a trend, but a rare event, and I ended up enjoying the encounter more than I had been expecting.

You can make up for a bad first impression, but your last impression is different. This is what a person is going to walk away with, something you cannot take back and you cannot do your best to correct, because you won?t be there anymore to correct anything.

Business card printing is closely tied to the last impression you make in a variety of different ways.

The custom business card is a part of what impacts your last impression, and your last impression can also have an impact on your business card.

Let me elaborate. If you have a really strong business card it can help turn around a situation, or end on a very high note. You pull out that creative card and immediately the person is intrigued, want to look it over, to show it to their friends. That card has allowed you to walk away with a very good impression, and increase the odds of being remembered favorably.

At the same time, if you have been fumbling through the encounter, and you end on a particularly bad moment, they will look at your card in a different way due to your actions. Even the best card might be thrown away because it carries with it negative associations.

This means if you want to make the best last impression you need to have a combination of a strong closing on your part, along with strong business card printing.

Sure, a great impression can make up for a boring business card, and sometimes a business card can make up for a poor performance on your part, but having a strong showing for both yourself and your card can combine for a very memorable closer to the conversation.

You can guarantee after that they will remember who you are the next time they look at your card, which is the most you could hope for.

Handling Complaints


No company can avoid it completely. Eventually you?re going to have a customer come in who?s angry with you.

There simply isn?t a way to please everyone, but how you handle a customer who?s mad can do a lot to ease back any potential damage and improve your standing with them in the end.

The first steps are the most basic and can be done before that angry customer ever walks through your door. Creating a friendly office environment will do wonders to prevent any further hostility when a person first walks in. The simple gestures like printing greeting cards or other ways of acknowledging them says from the very beginning that you care about their business and the troubles they?re facing.

Make sure you listen to exactly what the complaint is based on the assumption that the customer is justified in being angry. Don?t jump to any conclusions until you?ve heard everything they have to say.

One of the most important things is to make sure that you don?t confront emotion with more emotion. Stay clam and collected and also be sure that you let them know that you care about the issue they?re bringing up. If you sound too cold and detached they?ll only become more agitated, and if you return their hostility with any of your own, the situation is going to get a lot worse.

Once the problem is known make sure you come up with effective solutions, no matter what the problem may be. If it?s something on your end, do your best to offer them different ways to make things right.

Make sure that you handle everything yourself from beginning to end. Nothing can annoy someone more than the feeling that they?re being passed around from one person to another. I?ve had to deal with it before just as I?m sure plenty of other people have and it isn?t a pleasant feeling. If they know that you?re going to get to the bottom of the issue they?ll be a lot more confident in your companies ability to handle complaints.

Once the initial meeting is over make sure that you follow up with the person. Using postcard printing in combination with postcard marketing to send a response directly to them letting them know that the issue has been taken care of will help coax them into coming back to do additional business with you.

The follow up is particularly important due to the opportunity it gives you. By using postcard marketing you?re taking a greater effort to show them that you care about their concerns, which will not only make them happy, but also give you a person willing to tell their friends about how effectively you handled the situation.

So long as you aren?t surprised when those complaints do pop up you?ll be in a much better position to answer them. If you go above and beyond by printing greeting cards and using postcard printing you?ll not only solve the problem, but gain a strong customer base at the same time.

Does Squidoo Lens Creation Really Work?


Nowadays, if you have been reading the SEO news, you will notice that the term social bookmarking is one very common technique you might have heard so many times in the internet marketing world. These are the proven strategies people are using to drive traffic to their websites. Squidoo Lens Creation is one more, which is massively used in SEO these days. Squidoo is a fairly new company built-in 2005, but it?s already created huge changes in the way people do SEO. Now, it has become one of the more common ways in SEO services.

What Exactly the Squidoo Lenses Do?

The Squidoo site is all about sharing knowledge. The first people on the site used it as FAQ?s or DIY guides for a variety of things. Meanwhile, it?s your chance to show how much you (or at least the people writing for you) know about your niche. With a professional-looking Squidoo lens (a ?lens? being an individual page on Squidoo), you could make you and your company look like experts or the authority for your niche.

Now, imagine if you could combine that kind of promotion with links that point to your site. Remember, Squidoo is now one of the most popular sites on the Internet. It?s a killer combo that will attract both customers and better search engine rankings – if you make your lenses well enough, that is. It all boils down to the quality of the lenses that you upload to the site.

Creating Effective Squidoo Lenses

There?s no ?correct? or ?prescribed? formula for Squidoo lens creation; most of the SEO guys out there developed their methods through trial and error. It?d be a lot quicker and more practical if you were to just get the services of an established professional SEO company to create each lens for you. Not only will you save yourself the trouble of going through that trial and error process, but you?ll also make sure that your lenses will get made right, right away.

Most online marketing companies have their own system and methods for creating lenses for Squidoo. Each one has a unique blend of optimized content and other SEO techniques in order to give maximum results. You may want to use trial packages for two or three different service providers if you don?t have one of your own yet.

Don?t Just Rely On Lenses

A common mistake of many online marketers is to get Squidoo lenses and nothing else. If you?re going to work with a professional SEO company, ask them about their packages that combine Squidoo lens creation with other SEO services. Keep in mind that SEO works best when you integrate several techniques together into a cohesive strategy instead of using them one at a time.

You could, for example, get services to promote your own Squidoo lenses, which in turn promote your site. This little trick magnifies the effect of using the lenses alone, making for results that become visible quicker. The SEO Company you?ll work with will probably suggest some of their article marketing or link building services in conjunction with the lenses.

In the end, Squidoo lenses can be effective if used properly and done the right way. You could jack up the output from your lenses by using them with other SEO techniques. The best idea for using lenses would be to get a reliable SEO company that could integrate all those for you.