Check Yourself: Five Habits that Destroy a Productive Workday

Ditch these five habits to instantly increase your productivity. 

Do you work really hard but never seem to get much done? We feel your pain. Mojo Helpdesk is all about streamlining tasks and making it easier to see what work requests are in progress.

With that in mind, check out five habits that we’ve ditched in order to be more efficient and productive:

1. Keeping a cluttered office.

Clutter causes anxiety, so we recommend getting rid of it altogether. Keep the majority of your documents in one place or in the cloud. Your workspace should allow you to jump right into a project with no paper shuffling needed.

2. Multitasking nonstop.

Working with ticketing software requires a certain amount of multitasking ability in order to be effective. However, there’s a difference between being flexible and being unproductive. Make sure to allocate several chunks of time each day to just completing one set task or working on one specific project. 

3. Encouraging distractions.

Working in an open environment is common, especially if your organization encourages employee collaboration (like we do at Mojo Helpdesk!) But there are plenty of ways to both work closely and stay focused.

4. Writing lengthy to do lists (and never completing them).

If your to do list is unmanageable, you’re not writing it correctly. Trying to fit too many tasks into one day leads to mistakes and uncreative work. Focus on executing a set amount of projects, and be sure to leave enough time for troubleshooting.

5. Refusing to have fun at work.

Work is an inevitable part of life. But that doesn’t mean that it has to be monotonous torture. Find ways to fit some excitement in your day, either by listening to upbeat music while working or getting to know your coworkers. Never forget: Those who play together stay together.

Now we want to hear from you. What habits have you ditched in order to be more productive? Share with us on Twitter @mojohelpdesk or leave us a comment below.

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The Trials of Providing International Customer Service

The rise of the internet has created an international marketplace unlike anything the world has experienced before. As technology progresses, geography is an increasingly minor concern in how companies do business and professional communities interact. There are many benefits to this: an expanded marketplace for products, greater opportunities for innovative collaboration between different countries and the rise of the virtual business model, just to name a few. With the territory many businesses serve expanding globally, the ability to effectively provide international customer service is a growing concern.

Positive word of mouth is one of the best marketing tools available to any company and repeat business is a crucial component to staying competitive. Social networks and online review sites have further heightened the power that a customer service experience has on future sales and branding efforts. Having a committed staff, well trained in the techniques of keeping customers happy is one of the most crucial resources any business can have.

How does a company equip staff with the proper knowledge to handle the distinct set of issues that arise with international customers? There are several primary challenges one is likely to encounter; listed below are some suggestions to improve customer service and avoid many common issues.

Language Barriers and Cultural Differences
This is probably the most conspicuous of the distinct issues a customer service representative will have to address with international customers. While it’s surprisingly common for individuals in much of the world to have some grasp of English, a company can’t depend on this and even many who have a conversational ability may have a hard time successfully communicating the problems they experience.

Utilize Bilingual Employees
Assign international customers to the appropriate bilingual employee and seek out people with a grasp of the most common languages you encounter in future hiring efforts. With Mojo Helpdesk it is possible to filter all tickets from international customers into specific queues prepared to handle the language barrier or directly to support staff that speak the language.

Use E-mail Correspondence and Mojo Helpdesk
Phone conversations are especially difficult when a language barrier is in play, but utilizing written options such as e-mail and Mojo Helpdesk affords both parties the opportunity to consult dictionaries and translating services to improve clarity.

Be Aware of Different Customs

Amongst other differences, international employees will have different holidays, different ways of addressing one another and different topics that are considered appropriate for discussion. Make sure customer service representatives are trained in the basics of the cultures of customers they’ll be working with.


Different Time Zones
International time differences are often considerable. Most customers will recognize a company’s inability to provide an immediate response to inquiries that arise, but it’s possible to take steps to ensure quick response times.

Use E-mail or Mojo Helpdesk to Communicate
Both options allow the customer and representative to send and receive messages during their respective business hours. It is important to try to respond to these customers within 24 hours to ensure their issues are handled in a timely manner.

Set Up Phone Calls in Advance
When a phone call does become necessary to work out a customer service issue, both parties can ensure availability by setting up a time in advance.

Expand Business Hours
It can be beneficial to employ a customer service representative to be available during the hours the business is traditionally closed. If the need for this is relatively light, assigning representatives particular days to be on call to respond to customer service inquiries that come in during off hours, whether from home or in the office, is an option.

Additional Costs of Doing Business
Most companies are aware that providing international customer service is going to increase their support budget. However, with technology and good planning, it is possible to lessen these costs while still providing quality customer service.

Long Distance Calling
If the company’s phone plan doesn’t allow for affordable long distance calls, Skype, or other online calling services, can offer a more cost conscious alternative and even make it easier to determine the correct country calling code.

After Hours Customer Support
Having employees work longer will increase labor costs, but it is possible to implement a system in which employees can trade out the extra hours worked for time off at another period to save the company money.  Also, hiring a night shift may be the best solution to ensure you have staff on hand for international customers.

Additional Offices
If you have enough international business to merit it, you may find it necessary to open up new offices in the countries you work with the most, requiring additional costs such as new staff, equipment, real estate costs, maintenance and office supplies. Depending on the company's needs, it may be possible to avoid many of these costs by hiring contractors who work from home.

The greater accessibility to global communication in today’s age of technology offers countless benefits in commerce, but it can also complicate the process of providing consistently exceptional customer service. A devoted team can offer positive international customer service experiences with just a little bit of extra effort and awareness of the unique trials involved in working well with customers across the globe.

Would you like to try our free, hosted ticket tracking/helpdesk application? No long-term contracts, signup fees, or termination fees. You can upgrade, downgrade, or cancel anytime. We offer a wide variety of plans to fit any budget.

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Low Tech Tip #2: Smile When You Talk

It's not only low-tech and low cost, it is also totally free to be friendly.

I'm sure many businesses would agree their customer service team is customer-friendly, but just because the support agents have been trained to ask things like, 'how are you today' and 'did I solve your problem', does not necessarily mean they are friendly: it's all about the tone of voice.

The tone of voice warms up when someone smiles and shows genuine friendliness. So tell your service agents to smile when they talk, it will instantly light up the tone of their voice and make them sound friendly.  And because most customer service interactions happen over the phone, agents don't even need to be pretty: a good warm and energetic smiling voice will do the job. That's all it takes.

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Low-tech Tip # 1: Print vital information and tape it to your wall

It’s “go” time, and you’re on the spot to respond to a client’s question. Do you have the answer at the ready? Do you need to ask someone, search the intranet, call them back, or worse, forward them to another person?

To answer questions the fastest possible way, keep answers of common questions handy on printed paper. Yes, paper: the old fashioned way. For example, print the company price list, return policies, shipping costs, current promotions, etc.

While it isn’t always possible to have all the answers taped to the wall, having some FAQs prominently displayed will allow you to be the quickest responder.

This tip is part of our tip series to help businesses improve customer service.

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Tips to Exceptional Customer Service: The Series

Great customer service is about attitude, care and respect of customers. Technology and processes only help deliver and monitor it.

Over the last 10 years we made many of the common mistakes that can be made: not returning calls, slow to respond, losing customer requests, mixing priorities, you name it.
We, as a company, strive to improve our customer service constantly. When we do not hit customer expectations, we review what went wrong and fix the problem. Our team at Das Keyboard (Metadot has four products including Mojo Helpdesk), is getting pretty good at it (link).

We now want to share the improvements we have implemented in a series of tips.

Very often we forget that great customer service does not start by rolling out the latest whizzbang technology but with low-tech, common sense rules and behaviors. Therefore, our first 5 tips are going to be low-tech tips that your company can implement instantly if they see fit. Stay tuned.

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