Have you thought of using videos to promote your business? Just the mere thought of creating a video stops even the most creative best business owners in their tracks.

If you want to move your company name to the top of the Google searches using video can be a viable option. But if you think that creating a video will take too much time or will not give you the SEO you are looking for, well I have an easy, fun and quick solution.

Every Monday afternoon, I log onto a sales call with a terrific sales consultant, group trainer and entrepreneurial junkie, Howard Howell, also known as ‘That Sales Guy’ of Sensible Selling. Howard demonstrated a fairly new and fun technique to promote a business using Google Search Stories video creator.

(You may remember Google Search Stories being advertised during half-time on this year’s Superbowl.)

The requirements: You must have a story you want to tell about your business. Your story needs to be told in less than one minute using the search feature in Google. You will also need to open a YouTube account.

The Google Search Stories program is designed to create the video for you and upload it automatically to YouTube. The program also provides a code which can also be embedded in your site or blog to get more bang for your efforts.

Here’s an example of the one I put together. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OR1WmUAuUQ

Here is the link to make your own Google Search Story with instructions on how to do so right on this site.

http://www.youtube.com/user/SearchStories

But there is More! Here’s How to Get SEO for Your Company Name!

I can take this useful tool one step further and offer other video tips on getting more SEO for your company name using the YouTube platform.

Once you have completed your Google Search Video and have uploaded it to YouTube, do a search there using your keywords. For example, my keywords are ‘virtual assistant’. I then find other people’s videos whose keywords appear in the search. I then select the top 2 or 3 viewed videos from this search.

Every few days I leave a comment each one of these videos with a good, well-crafted, meaningful observation. What will transpire over time is that when someone types in your keywords into Google, your keywords will appear higher and higher in the searches with your website name and your YouTube profile.

To explain this in greater detail, I found a great blog by Paul Rudo B2B Marketing Specialist of Small Business SEO who has written How to Get SEO Value from NoFollow Tags .

Rudo writes, “Increasingly, it’s getting harder and harder to find sites willing to give you high-quality SEO links. Instead, most web sites today will only give you links that are blocked using a NoFollow tag.”

The author continues, “However, despite the fact that their [YouTube] outbound links are worthless, there are 2 interesting things about YouTube (and other sites) that SEOs should consider:

• Google considers YouTube to be a very high-quality and authoritative site
• Internal links within the site are DOFOLLOW (Google considers these to be of value in the SEO ranking process)”

“In crafting your SEO strategy, your main goal should be to get your company to the front page of Google. And your web site is NOT your company. (Stay with me. This will make sense in a bit.)

So Here’s The Plan

For this concept to work, you’ll need to think a bit outside of the box.

The first thing you’ll want to do is create a YouTube profile name containing your important keywords. If, for example, you sell goods made from extremely rare “unicorn leather”… a good YouTube username would be UnicornLeather.

This will help you rank for that specific keyword.

Now, you should create a few high-quality videos that showcase your company and make a strong call to action. Your new YouTube channel will be the landing page that you hope to get listed highly in the search rankings.

Finally, try to find every single video that is remotely relevant to your subject matter, and make a well-thought-out, insightful comment that contributes to the content of those videos. It’s EXTREMELY important that these comments be of high-quality. Do not spam YouTube or you’ll run into problems.

With every comment you make, YouTube will add an internal DoFollow link… using your keyword (UnicornLeather)… and pointing to your YouTube video channel. Now, when people look for “Unicorn Leather” on Google, they’ll be directed at the most authoritative page on this topic… at the most authoritative site… which is your YouTube channel.

This Won’t Happen Overnight

Another tip would be not to overdo it. Search engines take timing into account when evaluating your links. If you come out of the gate with guns blazing… blasting out 1000 comments in the first week… you’ll be labeled as a spammer and sent to the penalty box.

Instead go slow and steady. No more than maybe 3 or 4 comments a day… and keep doing this steadily for months. Eventually, you should notice your rankings start to improve.

And another interesting side benefit that you’ll notice will be a gradual snowball effect… where all of these comments will start producing more and more referral traffic to your channel and your main web site.

If you do this properly, you can make it so that the top 2 results for your keyword are your web site and your YouTube profile. This strategy can also be applied to other social networking sites until you own every result on the front page for your keyword.”

Read Paul Rudo’s full article here http://www.smbceo.com/2010/05/10/nofollow/

Be sure to read a poster’s comment on the referenced article link above that offers yet another SEO tip.

I offer the tip to use Google Search Stories to get you started but you can also create great videos using PowerPoint and then convert them easily to vide to be uploaded to YouTube. Rudo recommends creating a few high-quality videos.

Creating easy PowerPoint video:

• Open PowerPoint; create your slides with text and images.

• Save the project.

• Download TechSmith’s Camtasia http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp for 30 days. Use this program to create the video using your PowerPoint slides.

• Upload to YouTube and add these videos to your YouTube account.

• Follow the instructions above to creating effective SEO in YouTube.

Janine Gregor

About The Author (quoted in this article): Paul Rudo has been a freelance business consultant for over 5 years. He specializes in B2B marketing for technology companies and organizations targeting geographically local clients. For more information, you can visit his web site at Paul Rudo.

A colleague emailed me that he was terminated from a social networking site on which he had been a paid member for more than three years.

There was no real explanation given for the termination other than “…[his] style of participation … [and] … contributions to the community are not moving it forward, and have begun to harm its reputation. “Consequently, we have terminated your membership…”

His profile consisted of hundreds of network connections, forum posts, compliments, and event postings.

I personally could find no reason why this occurred as I found him to be a reputable sales person whose postings were continuously professional. But it does not matter why he was bumped from the site nor does my opinion matter. The site does have the documented right to do whatever they want with posted information.

This blog is a reminder to keep copies of all the contacts you make on any of the social networking sites including the content because once someone is terminated, everything is removed from the site. I suggest keeping a spreadsheet with contact information and copies of your posts.

This brings up an interesting point about who owns the digital intellectual content on any one of the social sites. Of course the fine print (that very few really read) on numerous social networking sites states that once an account, paid or free is terminated every contact and post is removed. So the rules to ‘play’ are apparent but I wonder if this is just.

I see two sides to this argument. When an employee leaves a company most are allowed to take their personal items with them. Although many companies do not allow employees to take client contacts with them if they are terminated even though that employee might have nurtured those contacts. But typically the latter rule is in place to protect the company as usually both the employee and the company are in the same business; governed by a disclosure statement.

In the case of a social networking site, which is merely a platform to post digital material and not a direct business competitor to the user, I question why the information is inaccessible for use by the terminated user.

What do you think?

Janine Gregor

Lately, I have had to practice a bit more open-mindedness when using email to communicate with non-email users. These are folks who are experts in their own industries but do not use email as a major means to communicate.

In my virtual assistant-world nearly all of my communication is through email but ‘on the outside’ I know there are many who are not familiar with email protocols. And that is OK.

After receiving several ‘iffy’ emails of late, I needed to rethink my reaction to non-user correspondence and view these messages from a special perspective. In other words, I did not let a ‘knee jerk’ reaction prevail when email etiquette was not applied.

Language is a learned skill. We speak what we have been taught to articulate. Vocabulary improves and increases as we age. Understanding and using proper email etiquette is no different than learning a language. Email users learn what is correct to communicate through practice and experience. Crafting a good email, which gets a point across in a manner that is pleasant, respectful and clear is a learned skill.

Lessons Learned

1) Appreciate first that people are experts in what they do for a living. Everyone has a specialty. A business owner may not use email as their main means of communication and without practice, they might not understand email protocols.

If you receive an email from a business owner who sends the message in ALL CAPS, I say, ‘let it go’. I tend to believe that the individual most likely does not know that ALL CAPS means ‘shouting’ and should not be used in an electronic message.

I received a notice from my Home Owner’s Association the other day written in ALL CAPS. The information was a directive so I only envisioned while reading the document that the sender was standing at a podium with a megaphone screaming this message to the entire neighborhood.

I am sure that was not the message this person wanted to send but it came across that way. Unfortunately, I do not remember what the message was about but I do remember the use of CAPS. Not only is this format difficult to read and interpret but the message can be lost through the use of CAPS.

Most know that CAPS is shouting but never assume that everyone understands this very basic rule.

2) People who do not use email might not understand that body language, facial expressions, fluctuations in voice and in tone can not be sent through an email.

For example, I emailed someone in academia who is best at being a teacher. I asked her about a date for a project and expressed my concern about this date. Her reply was, “I am not concerned about that date!” When I first read the reply, I read this as a negative message. However, after careful thought, I gave the teacher the benefit-of-the-doubt. I believe she was being matter-of-fact which often is the type of message better expressed verbally than through email correspondence…

Some messages should not be sent through email and it is best to pick up the phone and have a good, old-fashioned conversation.

Unfortunately her response left doubt in my mind which is what any good communicator does not want to do.

When objecting to a point through email it is best to qualify the message, first, with a positive thought. She might have said, “I appreciate your concern for this due date being so late but such-and-such date might be a better choice to finish the project.”

3) Using the standard true type fonts such as Times New Roman and Verdana are standard for a reason. Not only are these fonts simple to read and easily interpreted by most word processing programs but they are less distracting than fonts such as Comic Sans or Scrap Kids.

I received a business email in the form of a quote from a pool dealer written in Scrap Kids. The font was changed to red which also meant that I had to strain my eyes as the color was an enormous distraction. Red means ‘alert’ or ‘hot’ but the contents of the message did not match the urgent nature of the font color.

I suspect that this business man thought that by adding color and design to his emails, I would be impressed with his creativity.

That was not the case at all and I ended up contracting with another dealer because even though his quote was competitive, I felt his presentation was unprofessional.

My Own Lesson Learned

Even with my many years of email experience, I am still learning to fine-tune my own electronic correspondences. I found that I needed to be more aware of who I was emailing before I hit send.

Several months ago, I was corresponding with an expert blogger. This individual reads many, many blogs per day and writes as many blog posts. Blogging is his livelihood. I was sending him details in an email I carefully crafted because I wanted him to know everything contained in one document. I did not want to repeat myself later.

After I sent off my detailed explanation, he replied with a nice ‘thank you’. Well, the time came for me to work with him and he sent me several emails asking questions about the information I so carefully composed in my original text.

He did not retain any of the detailed instructions I sent to him.

I realized later that this person reads emails by scanning them for keywords. He reads quickly. As a blog expert, he leaves himself no time to absorb detailed information. What I should have done was to bullet some of the major details in a scanable format. I know now to think about by whom my email will be received and adjust my message to be better served with a different reading format.

As a virtual assistant, I have to be ready to receive and send communication in ways that I least expect. I made myself more aware that non-email users do not always know the rules of email etiquette and have made behavioral adjustments accordingly.

[singlepic id=91 w=320 h=240 float=left]I am often asked for my opinion about how to do something. It is the nature of the virtual assistant business. Having worked on a variety of projects, people believe I can either answer a question or at least give them the tools to find the answer themselves. I’m OK with that. I like to help.

I opened up my email Inbox today and found seven emails from people looking for an answer about how to do something. It took about an hour to get through all the responses and I was pleased to have answers to everything asked.

Of the seven, two responded with a ‘Thank You’.

Was I looking for a ‘Thank You’? Well, yes. It would have been nice. It would have been a validation of my efforts. Given the low response to the favor, a ‘Thank You’ from anyone actually would have helped that person to stand out from the crowd. This small gesture might have helped them receive future favors from me on a priority-status. That’s not to say I will dismiss their future requests but I might put the favor on a ‘low flame’ given the limited hours in my workday.

So why did only two people take the time to type two simple words and hit the ‘send’ button?

5 Reasons Why People Do Not Send a Thank You

1) They simply do not have good manners.
2) They take my good will for granted. They got what they wanted and as far as they are concerned, the query has ended.
3) They can not find the time to thank me.
4) They do not realize the value in a Thank You.
5) They forgot or they do not care, or both.

5 Reasons Why People Should Say Thank You

1) A Thank You shows appreciation for the time I took to handle their question. Very simple and very obvious.
2) They have good manners and their mother taught them well. A Thank You is automatic; without a second thought as it should be.
3) A Thank You is remembered by people who, in turn, are more likely to help them out in the future.
4) Finalizing an email with a note of thanks is indeed the proper way to actually end an email. It is a way to leave an appropriate ending to a piece of correspondence. A favor which is not ‘settled’ with a Thank You is the same as telling a story and not having a final solution or an ending to the tale.
5) The absence of a Thank You can mean that the efforts were not appreciated. You may have appreciated the favor but no one will ever know.

However, the bonus reason why people should should say ‘Thank You’ (drum roll, please!) is that performing this simple gesture is nearly FREE to accomplish which could reap benefits that might become profitable in the future.

The next time I open my Inbox and find several inquiries, I will respond to them but tucked in the back of my head will be the names of those who took a moment to appreciate my time. I might not spend an inordinate amount of time answering their questions because my time is valuable. I might steer them in the direction where they can find their own answers or I might wait to respond and do so only when my work hours are light.

Those who thanked me though, may get a faster response.

It’s human nature.

It is well-documented amongst my VA colleagues that working with a virtual assistant means good value for the dollar.  Afterall, clients only pay for the time they use and they do not pay for the overhead expenses to seat a VA in a heated office providing a computer and the necessary software to do the job.  There are many, many blog entries and articles written for the potential client explaining how much money is saved by not having to pay all of the employee expenses such as vacation time, downtime, etc. 

The message is clear and people get it.

But I do not want to dwell only on the dollar-saving value of my services. I do recognize the importance of saving money for clients but my own real worth as a virtual assistant and business owner is in the merit I provide as a business partner.

It is very difficult to place a dollar assessment on the directive and collaborative services I provide to my clients.

As a VA, I act as a sounding board for those clients who come to me for feedback and evaluations.  I often receive communication asking me for my opinion regarding website information, articles, blog posts, etc., as my role with the client develops to a level beyond just completing tasks. I am not just someone to assist with client work but I have evolved into the audience that the client is trying to reach and herein lies another value-added service. 

I have handled phone calls from distressed business owners who need a hand to hold during rough times. I have logged onto Skype during a client’s teleseminar giving feedback on the audience’s comments.  I have made the final decision for clients who cannot make up their mind on which logo or WordPress theme to choose.  I have been given the responsibility of dealing with a client’s difficult customers during busy times and turned those calls into sales. I answer customer questions on behalf of the client because quite simply, I can. I write blog entries as the client’s voice because I am trusted enough be the righthand person.  When asked, ‘How can I create more traffic to my website?” Rather than just say, “Create a better website”, I’ve successfully convinced clients to dabble in more social networking activities. 

I’m the peanut butter to a client’s jelly. And nothing beats a good sandwich.

Sue L Canfield recently released her book, The Commonsense Virtual Assistant – Becoming an Entrepreneur, Not an Employee. Today, she’s stopped by my blog. 

Janine:  Sue, why did you write this book?

Sue:  My husband, Joel D Canfield, and I co-authored the book to help newer and aspiring virtual assistants understand what it takes to run a successful business. Over the last two years, I found that many newer and aspiring virtual assistants were asking for and following my advice on how to run their business. Though they had the skills to be a virtual assistant, many had no idea how to run a business, write a business or marketing plan, how to market, and other basic business skills. Since my husband had already written a book for small business owners on how to be the best foundation for their business, we decided to add to the material and focus on the virtual assistant industry in our new book. 

Janine:  Sue, Please tell me about yourself

Sue:  I’ve worked as an administrative assistant for over 25 years and began my virtual assistant business in 2005 before I even knew there was such a thing. This past year I added virtual assistant coaching to my services to help newer virtual assistants succeed in their businesses. My husband and I work together from home along with our five-year old daughter in Roseville, California. 

Janine:  What qualifies you to write this book?

Sue:  Joel and I have more than 50 years of combined experience supporting and operating small businesses. My success as a virtual assistant is in large part due to the advice I received from Joel. Our success in our businesses provides testimony to our qualifications. 

Janine:  What is the book about?

Sue:  The book helps virtual assistants to understand that they are now business owners, entrepreneurs, no longer employees. Successful business owners need good business sense and a good understanding of what it takes to run a successful business. The book provides basic, commonsense information every entrepreneur needs to know along with advice specific to virtual assistants. 

Janine: What do you want the readers to get out of the book?

Sue:  The most important concept I would like my readers to understand is that they are now business owners and what that means. After reading the book, readers will have a clear understanding of how to set rates, manage their time, and market their business. 

Janine:  How can the readers contact you if they want further information?

Sue:  Joel and I can be reached toll-free at 877.771.7746 or by email at Contact@BizBa6.com. They can also visit our website athttp://www.bizba6.com. 

Janine:  How much does your book cost?
$19.95.

Janine:  Where can the readers purchase your e-book?
Sue:  They can visit our website at www.bizba6.com.

JanineL  Sue, thank you for stopping by my blog.
Sue: You are very welcome. Thank you for having me. 

About the Authors:

Joel and Sue have more than 50 years of combined experience supporting and operating small businesses. They operate BizBa6 Small Business Support Services and love not only their work but the life it allows them to live. This book (Joel’s third business book, Sue’s first) shares how they think about business–it’s a ‘why to’, not a ‘how-to’ because it focuses on how people think and what they want–not just your clients, but you, too. 

Book Summary:

So, you want to be a virtual assistant. The virtual assistant industry is growing rapidly. Just about anyone can say they are a virtual assistant. You have a computer, internet access, and the desire to work from home. Voila! You’re a virtual assistant. But is that enough to succeed as a virtual assistant? Do you have what it takes to run a business? Yes, a virtual assistant is a business owner. Successful business owners need to have good business sense. As a business owner, you, the virtual assistant, need to understand what it takes to run a business. Pick up your copy for $19.95 at http://www.bizba6.com.

1) Have a good understanding of what you want the VA to do for you before you search. Keep an ongoing list next to your desk of responsibilities you really want to delegate. List those items which keep you from doing the work you enjoy.

2) Prioritize that list. Break the list down to three categories: Items which should have been done yesterday; those which need to be done this week and those which can wait until next month.

3) Decide how much your budget will allow to contract with a VA. If you can spend $200 a month then stick to that budget.

 
4) Post a request for proposal (RFP) on the Virtual Assistant Forums for free. (This is the premier virtual assistant forums website. VAs are not charged for services here, so the site is open for all VAs and business owners with diverse backgrounds.) Make your RFP as detailed as possible and do not forget to include your website address and alternate email address. Most VAs will research your business online before posting for a position so any information you offer ahead of time only helps to weed out those who may not meet your needs.

5) Give a timeline as to when your request for proposal response has to be submitted but give a fair amount of time to respond. Anyone who is really interested will respond right away but it does take time to reply properly to RFPs as they are often customized to clients’ needs. Specify what you want the VA to send you in the first pass…i.e., links to sites, blogging samples, graphic samples, articles, etc. It is not necessary to ask for a resume. This is not an employee-employer situation. A VA is a business owner as well.

6) Ask for references. And by all means send out for those references asking for feedback on the VA’s work and turnaround time.

7) If you know someone who uses a VA, then ask for a referral from that colleague. Many VAs handle multiple clients. If you like the work you see, then this can be indicative of a VA you might wish to work with.

8 When you have decided upon the right person for the job, expect that in the beginning you will need to ‘hand over’ passwords and usernames and business information to get started. Be sure that your VA has a confidentiality agreement. You will need to open up your business to another person with whom you have never been physically introduced. Trust will grow over time.

9) Review the service contract needed to begin and return back to the VA in a timely fashion. If you are not in agreement with something in the contract, say so upfront.

10) Communicate…communicate…communicate…Set aside time during the work week to answer your VAs emails and questions. The faster you return your replies, the faster the work will be completed. Share ideas…send your VA articles and blogs which spur conversation and brainstorm to grow your business. Suggest that the VA read online newsletters or mail her/him publications which are related to your business.

You will have more time to do the work you enjoy. You can focus on your business plan. Best of all you can partner with someone who has an interest in the growth of your business.

Janine Gregor

Hello,

I’ve had a ‘cherry’ good response to last week’s free online resources and tips that I may try to make this a consistent blog event.

I look for resources which not only help business owners improve productivity but those benefits which offer greater exposure and publicity. I have also decided to expand this selection to include ‘fun stuff’; namely sites that entertain without being terribly distracting.

www.helpareporterout.com Looking for ways to get your name and business recognized? Do you want to be quoted in major publications? Help a Reporter Out, also known as HARO, is a venue set up by celebrity blogger Peter Shankman to help reporters find material for article topics. Once you sign up at Shankman’s site, he sends a morning and an afternoon email listing of topics which reporters wish to address. Shankman organizes reporter queries with contact information so it is very easy to click on a topic for reply and then quickly send your expert advice to the inquirer. If your thoughts are deemed worthy and are published by the reporter, this can only mean greater exposure for your own business. Several of my clients have been quoted and published in books, major magazines, newspapers and online sites through HARO. (It can be a little tedious going through the email topics each day…which is why hiring a virtual assistant to do that for you is tremendously useful. Whether you do it yourself or hire someone to scan the topics for you, the public relations exposure from this public relations opportunity is priceless.)

http://www.15secondpitch.com/new/ Has anyone ever asked you want it is that you do for a living and you’ve replied with, “I’m a speaker” or, “I’m a publicist.” This type of a response does not always elicit great interest. If you are attending a networking event, people really want to know what it is that you can do for them. 15secondpitch is one of the neatest sites for creating an elevator speech, which is a short speech that you would give to someone explaining in brevity exactly what it is you do and what it is that you can do for them. Follow the prompts in the 15secondpitch link and the end result is a speech you can practice and fine-tune to use the next time someone asks you, “What do you do?”

http://www.echosign.com/ Aiming for a paperless office? Bogged down by paper contracts, expensive postage rates and the lag time waiting for a client to return a signed document to you? Enter EchoSign. This is an exceptional electronic signature program which is great for sending contracts electronically for legal signatures. Sign up free for 5 transactions per month. Once a contract is created, upload a document to the EchoSign site where a signed copy can be sent to the client and returned to you with the client’s signature. Contracts can be stored and tracked in EchoSign for future reference allowing for a completely paperless sign, copy and file system.

http://www.hulu.com/ Hulu enables you to watch popular TV shows and movies online. There are no downloads required and there is no charge. This is not a YouTube-type site, rather this is a comprehensive directory of TV programming offering good quality reception. Quoted from the site itself, “Hulu has thousands of videos and movies from Fox, E! Entertainment , MGM, Sony, NBC and many, many more. Popular shows like The Simpsons, The Office, House, Firefly and others are archived and made available for audiences. They are all archived and you can view the content by genre, or alphabetical order, or by doing a search.”

My Hours http://www.myhours.com/ This is a time management, timesheet, time tracking solution. It enables you to track your work time, projects you work on and tasks you perform. It is web-based and can be used from any location at any time.

Pandora http://www.Pandora.com – If you like to work to music this is a great site to set and forget. It will play your favorite songs from any number of genres you choose. Nothing to download and no cost to the user.

RoboForm http://www.roboform.com/ Is an online program for managing, filling in, encrypting and generating random passwords. This is a great tool if you handle multiple client websites. RoboForm saves website passwords into Passcards. Then RoboForm can automatically fill in login information from these Passcards. RoboForm can save secret text snippets such as ATM passwords or lock combinations in to what is called Safenotes. Once registered, there are videos to take users through every aspect of this useful program.

I’ve got plenty more useful sites to blog so please check back next week for more.

In addition to working as a virtual assistant, I also work a few hours a week in a popular children’s clothing store. I took a seasonal position last year and was honored when the manager asked me to stay on as a permanent part-time employee. While news of layoffs was on every media channel, it seemed foolish to turn down any job and one that I enjoyed. The merchandise is of great quality, bright and trendy while the interaction with customers and co-workers served as a nice diversion from my frenetic but thriving virtual assistance business. Although managing my professional time around the two jobs has been a challenge, the flexibility of being a virtual assistant affords me such opportunities.

Retail work is very difficult. There is no other way to describe it. Anyone who has worked in retail knows how trying the job can be emotionally and physically. Each customer transaction is different, so a good sales associate has to be ready to handle a variety of personalities as well as have the ability to ‘stomach’ the way customers treat sales associates. Some customers feel I am the ‘bottom of the food chain’ while others are grateful for the service I provide.

Often we read about how a sales associate should treat the customer who is ‘always right’. But little is said about good customer etiquette. A positive attitude toward the associate can actually bring out the best in the sales transaction.

10 Rules of Customer Retail Etiquette

1) When checking out at the service desk and you only have a large bill to pay for your items, it is respectful to ask the associate if she can ‘break’ the bill first before handing it to her.

Reason: I am not an ATM machine and my drawer is usually set up with change (bills and coins) for about $100 for security purposes. If I just signed on for my shift, chances are I cannot make the change for your large bill. If you ask beforehand, often times I can tell you if I can break the bill or not and move the transaction along. Please do not assume I can make change.

If I cannot break the large bill…

2) Please do not take it out on me. There is no reason to get testy if I say I do not have change for a $100 and the receipt is for an $8.00 item. I do not have access to the store safe and I cannot open a co-worker’s register to make the change.

3) Please hand the money to me in my own hand. Please do not lay the bills on the counter with change. It takes time to pick money off the counter and the transaction will go much faster if you hand me the money. Although it is my job to take the money from you it is just courteous to hand the money to the associate just as I directly hand you the receipt and your filled bags.

4) Please do not act upon any last minute shopping while you are on the line. Decide before you get up to the register if you want to buy something or not. I am responsible for keeping the line moving and other customers look to me to move everyone in and out quickly. Our time is as important as your own.

5) Please do not come into a store with open food container even if you do not see a sign that states so. Children are messy. I cannot take the time to clean up spilled ice cream or fruit juice. Please do not throw your food trash in my own counter trash can. There is a mall garbage can outside the store to dispense of food items. Someone handed me a leaking smoothie the other day that would have made an even bigger mess in my counter trash can.

6) Please keep your children busy while you shop. I cannot babysit your children while they pull down clothing from the racks or play hide-n-go-seek in the dressing rooms. I once saw a father throw a football to his son in my store near the store entrance. Teach your children that public shopping places should be respected. A store is not a playground.

7) Please do not take the tags off clothing and shoes and let your children wear them out the door. Wait until they are paid for. I will gladly cut off the tags for you. If you rip the clothing before paying for it while trying to take the tag off, we incur a loss which is passed onto the customer in the form of higher prices.

If you need something on a high display, please do not grab the hook yourself and try to take it down. Ask me, I will help you and I can do it much faster. Someone can get hurt trying to use the metal hook.

9) Please use the public restroom in the mall. Please do not ask to use our employee bathroom which is located in our busy and stacked stockroom unless it is an emergency. We cannot leave customers in the bathroom by themselves so it is not a good use of my time to stand in the stockroom waiting for the customers to come out of the restroom. If it is an emergency, I understand and can make an exception.

10) Please do not place your baby on the counter while you check out. Diapers leak and the counter needs to stay clean. This is my workspace. Please respect that. Children are curious, often grabbing my register supplies and credit card digital pens.

Thank you.

Janine