Q: It's important for employees to understand their role in customer retention. Your employees are sometimes the only contact your customer has with your business, so be sure that your employees have the same respect and treatment of your customers as you would yourself. Develop training manuals and methods that appeal to varied learning types of the employees, incorporating video, reading, and even customer service role-play into your training routine. Designate a more seasoned employee to mentor the new employees. Offer your employees incentives such as "employee of the month" or "customer favorite" to gain their interest in treating customers well. If your business is open Monday, Thursday, Saturday, and every other Tuesday from 1:45 to 3:00 and 9:00pm to midnight, you're going to struggle to retain customers. Don't make it impossible to remember when you're open. Adapt to your customers and be open when they require your services. Keep in mind the average working week. If you're only open from 10a-3pm, Monday through Friday, people who work a regular 9-5 job will never be able to shop at your place. Consider staying open later, or opening on the weekends. If you serve breakfast until 10:30 and a customer comes in at 11:00 wanting the pancakes, it can be a tricky situation. You don't want to back your kitchen up and compromise your service just as they're shifting over for the lunch rush, but you also want to keep your customer happy. What do you do? Be as flexible as possible, given the situation. Let your customer know that you're doing them a favor in as friendly and genuine a tone as possible. "We technically stop serving breakfast at 10:30, so it might take a bit longer, but we'll have that right up for you. Deal?" Customer issues do arise from time to time. How you handle this dispute will determine if you lose a customer or retain them. Listen to what your customer has to say about the issue at hand. Be sure to hear them out before making a conclusion. See if there is some way to appease your customer in order to have them happy to return to your business. Settle disputes amicably and with a positive attitude. Let the customer know you are more than happy to make them satisfied. The customer must not only trust the product, they must trust what you have to say about the product, how you present it to them. The customer is looking to you to produce for them real reasons why the product will fulfill a need. Coach your staff to seek more information from the customer about how the customer plans to, or wishes to, use the product in a sales environment. Use probing questions to put the spotlight on the customer, showing a personal interest in who they are and what they do. Up-selling can be an important part of any business environment, but only insofar as it doesn't become obvious to customers. Nobody wants to be badgered with prompts to buy extra things they clearly don't need. There's no right way to design and organize a store. What may make one customer feel at home may turn another off. But one thing that's consistent is that your store needs to be cleaned every day and organized in a professional and welcoming way. Whatever style you go with, modern, vintage, homey, or elegant, you need to keep it consistent and clean.
A: Train your employees to treat customers with respect. Set regular and accessible hours. Be flexible. Settle disputes in a timely manner. Learn to sell truthfully. Make your business clean and welcoming.

Q: If you are out and about, blot the stain carefully, but do not rub. If you have a laundry pen with you, you can dab the stain with that. If not, immediately remove the stained article of clothing upon coming home and use either a stain remover or a toothbrush and your standard detergent to pre-treat the stain. When pre-treating, always use a white cloth to dab away the stain, as a colored cloth may leave behind some dye. You can even go so far as to have a pile of more dingy whites, such as underclothes and socks, and a pile of crisp whites, such as dress shirts, or work attire. Whatever you decide, this is a step that cannot be skipped under any circumstances. While it may be tempting to throw really light colors in with your whites, or even light grays, stick to white alone. Keeping your whites separate may mean washing whites in small loads. If this is the case, adjust your washer's settings accordingly; using too much water could interfere with the laundry soap's ability to clean properly. After each spot treatment, rinse and soak them for 30-60 minutes in hot water. This will help lift any lingering stains, and will give the treatment a chance to dissolve. If you used a lot of soap, you may need to repeat this step twice, gently squeezing the garment in between soaks. If your laundry is sensitive to hot water, a warm or cold soak will achieve the same effect, though to a lesser degree. The type of fabric will determine the ideal wash cycle; some fabrics can withstand extremely hot water, while others will shrink or become disheveled. Sort your white laundry according to color, as well as fabric, to avoid discoloration and disrepair. Cotton is a tough fabric, while wool and linen are both prone to shrinking. While cotton can withstand high temperatures, wool and linen should be washed in cold or warm water. Synthetic fibers vary from manufacturer to manufacturer.
A: Immediately take care of stains. Separate whites from other colors. After a pre-treatment with a detergent or stain spray, soak your whites in hot water. Sort according to fabric.

Q: It helps to diminish stress by releasing positive chemicals into your brain, which can help to cope with the many adaptations and changes of first having a baby. Breastfeeding also diminishes post-pregnancy bleeding. This is because it stimulates the release of a particular hormone, called oxytocin, which helps the uterus to contract more quickly and lessens bleeding after the birth. Oxytocin (known as the "love hormone") also promotes bonding with your baby, and helps to strengthen the relationship you share. Breastfeeding, if done continually, can sometimes serve as contraception (birth control) for up to six months. This is because the hormone balance created in your body while breastfeeding is not conducive to becoming pregnant with another child. This is not, however, the case for all women some women will get pregnant while nursing, so don't consider it a fool-proof method of birth control. If you don't want to get pregnant again while nursing, then you need to utilize another form of birth control. Breastfeeding will also postpone the return of your period. Moms that breastfeed and eat a well-balanced diet as they try to lose weight find it easier to shed pounds than mothers who bottle feed. Breastfeeding automatically burns calories every time you produce new milk, which equates to approximately 500 calories per day for the average nursing mother. You will not have to purchase bottles, refill bags, replacement nipples, bottle cleaners or the many cases of formula it will take to feed your baby if you are not breastfeeding. Infant feeding costs are estimated to cost around $1,000 USD for the first year. Also, due to the increased immune system function of a baby who is breastfed, you will save yourself money from visits to the paediatrician for potential illnesses. It is always available without waiting for preparation. There is no need to get up to prepare a bottle or heat the formula before offering it to your baby. Also, consider your breastfeeding as an environmentally friendly gesture. Think of all the trash you will not be contributing as waste. It has been proven medically that women who breastfeed have a lower risk of developing breast cancer, ovarian cancer, postpartum depression, and type 2 diabetes.
A:
Be aware of the hormonal benefits that breastfeeding offers your body. Know the possible contraceptive effects of breastfeeding. Help yourself to lose weight post-pregnancy via breastfeeding. Save money by breastfeeding. Welcome the ease of feeding your baby from the breast. Know that research shows overall health benefits for the mother, too.