Is "walking the talk" a tired old cliché or a bold new concept? Very few managers today are receiving formal management training. As a result, many are poor communicators and weak in their delegation and leadership skills.

According to a Gallup poll, 25% of U.S. employees would fire their bosses if they could. Why? Because many managers set high service standards for their employees, yet fail to abide by those same standards.

If you are a manager, you are in an excellent position to lead by example. Your employees will only respect your authority if they observe your excellent customer service skills on a daily basis. Customer loyalty must be a top-down initiative.

Here are five ways you can earn greater respect and increase employee loyalty:
 

1.	Always give performance reviews and salary increases on the promised dates.

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●Quote for Today

Opportunity is missed by most
people because it is dressed in
overalls and looks like work.

Thomas Edison
 

●Just for Laughs

It's your worst Excel nightmare: a damaged or corrupted workbook. This can happen for a variety of reasons -- and the good news is that there is a variety of ways to retrieve your damaged file.

If a file is corrupted, Excel should normally perform an automated recovery. However, if that doesn't work, there are a few other options you can try.

1. Recover or repair the file manually with Excel
The steps for manually recovering a workbook are quite simple.

1. Select "Open" from the File menu. In Excel 2007, click the Office button and select "Open".
2. Using the Look In control, locate and specify the corrupted workbook.
3. From the Open button's dropdown list, choose "Open and Repair".
4. If this is your first attempt to manually recover the workbook, click "Repair" in the dialogue box that appears.

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Work is stressful enough without the added annoyance of an aching back, cramped fingers and a sore neck. But the fact is that people who are generally sedentary -- which can include anyone who spends most of their day behind a desk -- is at risk of developing these sorts of problems, as well as more serious conditions like carpal tunnel syndrome or repetitive stress injuries.

Ready to feel more comfortable at work? Then read on to discover how a few simple changes to your workspace can make a big difference.

1. It's all in the wrist
Wrist pain and cramping often occur after long periods of working at a computer. To combat this problem, try using the lightest possible grip on your mouse, or skip the mouse altogether and use a touchpad. You can also try alternating between the two.

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Have you ever left a store vowing never to return? If you answered, "yes," did you leave because of the way you were treated? Most customers stop doing business with a company because one employee treated them poorly.

Have you ever met a salesperson you did not like? If you answered, "yes," did you buy from that salesperson? Most customers have met a salesperson they didn't like and chose not to buy from that salesperson unless it was a product or service they could not get anywhere else. Customers and sales are lost every day because of a lack of understanding of the customer's behavioral style.

People tend to conduct business with people they like. But style differences often create barriers that can prevent you from building positive relationships with your customers.

My husband, Larry and I have very different behavioral styles.

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Technology can go a long way in helping your business stay competitive, meet customer expectations and improve operational efficiencies. But most small businesses simply don't have the resources to evaluate technologies and aren't sure where to find the right technology partner. That's where a value-added reseller can help.

A VAR enhances an existing product, such as hardware, with additional features, such as software, and then sells it as an integrated package often tailored for specific industries. VARs add further value to the products they sell through consultation and design, training, implementation, and ongoing service and support.

The right VAR can serve as a small business's IT advisor and help it deploy the same technologies that larger companies use, such as CRM software and IP communications. You can then use those tools to enhance customer experience--a key step in growing customer loyalty and the bottom line.

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