This is a break down of rule 1620 covering conduct for mediators in Court-Connected mediation programs.

Downloadble PDF for you available here:
Rules of Conduct for Mediators in Court-Connected Mediations

By Natalie J. Armstrong,
www.MarketingMediation.com

These 10 traps & mistakes are common to many entrepreneurs and small business owners:

1. Getting Wedded To an Idea And Sticking With It Too Long.
Don’t marry a single idea. Remember, ideas are the currency of entrepreneurs. Play with many ideas and see which ones bring money and success

2. No Marketing Plan.
A marketing plan creates the kind of attention you need to get in front of the right types of people, companies, etc. It is what attracts people to you! There may be as many as 25 ways to market your business at no or low cost. A good marketing plan implemented effectively, efficiently, elegantly and consistently, will eliminate the need for “cold calls!” (See below for how to create a results driven marketing plan).

3. Not Knowing Your Customers.
Changes in your customers’ preferences and your competitors’ products and services can leave you in the dust unless you get to know your customers well, what they want now and will likely want in the future, what their buying patterns are, and how you can be a resource for them even if you don’t have the right products or services for them now! (See below for low cost techniques to gather facts about your customers and the people you’d like to have for customers).

4. Ignoring Your Cash Position.
The world (aka customers) doesn’t respond to even superior products in the timeframe that you think they should. You’ll need plenty of cash to sustain yourself in the meantime. (See below for how to forecast your cash needs and protect yourself from cash crisis situations).

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By:Alf Nucifora

The response to a recent column I wrote on poor customer service resulted in an avalanche of reader e-mails. It’s the most dramatic outpouring of emotion that I’ve experienced in five years of writing this column. It supports my contention that corporate America is not listening to its customers, many of whom have the urge to vent and the need to seek retribution. Trouble is, no one’s at home in the corporation to take the message.

The best customer service organizations (few as they are) tend to possess four dominant traits. They have a culture of commitment and belief in the importance of the customer, commencing with a leader at the top who fanatically drives the message down through the lower ranks (think Nordstrom). They believe in repetitive training … in perpetuity (think the old Ritz-Carlton Hotels). They believe in constant monitoring of performance and attention to metrics (think GE). And they possess exceptional listening skills (think the Japanese upscale auto makers). Of the four, it’s the listening that garners the least attention from most marketers. Yet, it’s the one customer need that is most deeply felt, yet sorely missing.

Why do it?

The data very clearly show that customers will respond favorably to someone who listens. Seventy percent of customers who have suffered a bad experience will return to the brand if the problem is addressed in their favor. That number rises to 95 percent if the problem is addressed on the spot. A TARP study reveals that 9 percent of those who have a complaint and don’t voice it, won’t return to buy again. Hence, the importance of encouraging customers to vent … primarily through better listening skills on the part of the marketer.

Ironically, the American customer is essentially non-confrontational by nature. After all, it’s not worth the energy or the angst to argue. If you’ve had a bad experience, simply move to another company, supplier or brand. There’s always a surfeit of competitors that one can turn to. Then there’s the issue of personality. Ours is not an intimate culture. We tend to shy away from intimacy, particularly in our commercial transactions.

Bottom line, marketers must force confrontation with their customers, get them to open up just like former New York Mayor Ed Koch who, whenever he met a constituent, always asked the question, “How am I doing?”

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