Thursday, September 6, 2007
Complaints against online retailers are on the rise with a new report from the Europe-wide consumer group, European Consumer Centres identifying a 74% increase in complaints from online shoppers in 2005.
As internet shopping has enjoyed incredible growth in recent years, retailers have invested heavily in enhancing the customer service of their online offerings, but traditional concerns from consumers still pervade. The most common causes for complaint identified are complaint handling and communication in finding a course of redress as well as the more widely recognised late or non-delivery of goods and faulty or damaged products.
Whilst the online retail sector reflects on the finding of the report and seeks to enhance the customer experience provided one segment of the online retail sector escapes criticism. Online comparison sites offering information and resale through price and product comparison are viewed more favourably by the customer. Sites such as Dial-a-Phone shun the direct sales approach of the more traditional online retailer and provide a more customer centric approach to product display. Recent surveys and reports suggest that this greater degree of interaction and impartiality is beneficial to reseller and comparison sites as opposed to their direct retail counterparts.
In the personal finance sector this is perhaps more true than in any other with credit card and loans sites revealed to be a particular source of dissatisfaction. Comparison sites which resell to retail sites again come out favourably with sites such as Moneynet providing additional information and services than the credit card or loans vendors.
But for the majority of online retailers the challenge is to reciprocate the customer interaction and course of redress that the more traditional high street retailers offer. Indeed, organisations such as the Citizens Advice Bureau are calling for more stringent consumer laws for online shoppers to obtain redress. Whilst there is no doubt that the convenience and choice offered by the online retail sector provides many consumer benefits and the sector will no doubt continue to show significant growth over the forthcoming years, the need for increased customer satisfaction indicates that the online retailers can perhaps learn a thing or two from comparison sites.
VoIP Tutorial – Things You Need To Get Started With VoIP
Now that you've decided that VoIP or Voice Over Internet Protocol is right for you, there are a few things that you have to do to get started. The following are steps you can take to immediately enjoy the benefits of VoIP.
Updating Your Computer
First on your list is to update your computer. You need to have a High Speed Internet connection. Also you would need to have updated video and audio Codecs as well as the latest version of DivX. Updating your computer is easy by utilising tools or programs such as your Windows Update.
Deciding on a Service Provider
The next step is for you to decide on a service provider that can offer you the right VoIP service plan. As there are many companies offering such services, you could make the decision easier by writing down a list of your needs, wants, as well as features in that fit your needs. Compare the many plans available and make your choice.
One thing to remember is that there are normally two plans available: Residential and Business. Residential plans can either be a basic plan which provides a certain amount of talk time, or an unlimited plan which provides unlimited local and long distance access. On the other hand, a Business plan can provide services such as multiple phones, longer talk time, better unlimited calling plans, added business features, voicemail and faxing features, as well as other extras like listings in the yellow pages. Make sure that you choose a plan that is catered to your needs. The service provider that you finally decide on can also assist you in determining what other computer requirements you will need to have. Again, it is important that your computer be up to date and complies with the service provider's requirements.
Getting a Telephone Adapter
The telephone adapter will be given to you by your service provider. With this adapter, you can now convert your everyday household phone into a phone that works with your VoIP service. Using an Ethernet cable, connect your telephone adapter to your Cable or DSI modem. Then connect your telephone to the adapter with a phone jack. Besides a regular phone, you could also opt to use a portable phone to the adapter, and have the ease of a portable phone that works with your VoIP service. However, this is just the standard portable phone used indoors, not to be confused with a cell phone.
Choosing Your Own Telephone Number
Now you have the option of choosing your own telephone number, one of the best features that VoIP offers. If you are contemplating on keeping your old number with your new VoIP system, discuss this with your service provider first. Most VoIP service providers will allow you to do this. However, keep in mind that selecting a different number or area code has many advantages. To start with, for family members and friends who do not have unlimited long distance calling options, choosing the same area code as theirs can immediately save them money. They will definitely thank you for having being given the opportunity to call you as if it were a local call.
On a larger perspective, this option is very advantageous to those who own businesses that are aiming at specific regions. Say you own a business in Florida, yet at the same time, you would like to expand to Los Angeles, California. In choosing the Los Angeles, California code, you could easily increase sales and productivity as you now have a local number that customers can call. This would also reduce the need for a toll free number.
Installing and Activating Your VoIP Features
Your VoIP service plan comes with an array of added features. For residential plans, these could mean Caller ID, Voicemail, Call Forwarding, Call Block and Do Not Disturb. Constantly check with your service provider to get a full listing of features that come with your chosen plan. If you opt for a business plan, you would enjoy services like free fax lines, multi phone users, and integrated VoIP and web features. VoIP also provides the same features in the basic plans. Again remember that when deciding on your service provider, compare the various plans available and choose one that best fits your needs.
Accessorising
As VoIP gets more and more advanced, a whole new group of accessories are introduced in the market. Today, you have the luxury of choosing from many types of VoIP phones, headsets, even VoIP videophones that incorporate your audio with video.
Enjoying Your VoIP Service
Now that you have everything you need, you can start enjoying your VoIP service. Regardless if you choose the basic or unlimited plan, you will realise that with VoIP, you now enjoy more freedom, reliability and greater standards of quality, not to mention the most cost effective method in meeting all of your telecommunications needs than you ever thought possible.
Juzaily Ramli is the owner of the site that provides VoIP tutorial to get people to switch to and get started on VoIP. He also writes about business VoIP targeted to those who are running their own business to increase their productivity. His site can be found at http://www.voip-revolution-info-site.com
Surveys – The Question is Will they Work for You?
You will have seen the advertisements on the internet if searching on ways to make money. 'Make money whilst sitting in your pyjama's', 'Make hundreds each week' etc.
These are the sort of adds that gets your mouth to water and that is exactly what happened to me, I fell for the ads, hook, line and sinker and splashed my cash to join one of the companies.
I soon found out that what they were saying was a tad over exaggerated. I was disappointed at first but I soon realised there's no use crying over spilt milk and got to work on making some money.
I do not regret spending the money on getting information on all the survey companies I could join as all the information is there for you straight away, you don't have to spend hours searching through a search engine. Another good thing about the database it that it tells you important information which can save you time:
Company Name
Countries of people that can join
What type of market research you will do, i.e. surveys, product testing etc.
Type of rewards you can get. i.e. money, vouchers, prizes etc.
The first thing I did was open a separate email account, I used Yahoo. I then went through the database and joined all the companies that I was able to. As I am from the UK this was not as large a number as the US but still a decent size.
I like to keep a note of everything that I do so I bought a note book and gave a page to each company I joined, I input important information like the website address, my user name and password (don't worry I kept it safe), what type of rewards I received and then I could input the date when I got the survey and what I received as and when.
This has been good as it has helped me see which of the surveys are worth doing and which ones are not really worth my time. I must say that the more you participate in surveys, the more you are likely to receive.
Surveys can be long and repetitive but I have never had to do one that has been longer than 30 minutes, I have had to product test many things with recent products been Pringles, cornflakes and some oat bars – who can grumble at that?
I enjoy completing surveys, I get the feeling of satisfaction of knowing I may have influenced if a product gets the go ahead, I haven't earned hundreds each month but the rewards are steady and only this week I received £16 Amazon Voucher, £30, £21 and £11 – which isn't bad going.
Surveys aren't for everyone but if you are wanting to make money without having to put any money forward then I would say go for it!
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