Follow These Steps to Improve the Customer Experience | AllBusiness.com

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Improving the customer experience doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be broken down into a three steps that allow you to examine how different parts of your business contribute to the overall encounter. Improved customer experiences usually result in increased customer retention and more referrals.

All you need to do is look at your business and its processes from the customer’s perspective, to see your company as the customer sees it. There are three steps: before, during, and after the customer interaction.

Before the Sale

“Before” includes how customers become aware of your business and the influences that drive them to walk up to your door. Marketing and word-of-mouth advertising is a big part of this step. In today’s world, advertising includes everything from traditional mainstream media to social media platforms such as Facebook, blogs, and Twitter. For retailers, store signage and point-of-sale advertising is still important.

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Caffeine — how much is too much? | MayoClinic.com

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If you rely on caffeine to wake you up and keep you going, you aren’t alone. Caffeine stimulates the central nervous system, alleviating fatigue, increasing wakefulness, and improving concentration and focus.

When to consider cutting back

For most healthy adults, moderate doses of caffeine — 200 to 300 milligrams (mg), or about two to four cups of brewed coffee a day — aren’t harmful. But some circumstances may warrant limiting or even ending your caffeine routine. Read on to see if any of these apply to you

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Ancient Life-Size Lion Statues Baffle Scientists | LiveScience.com

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credit:American Journal of Archaeology

Two sculptures of life-size lions, each weighing about 5 tons in antiquity, have been discovered in what is now Turkey, with archaeologists perplexed over what the granite cats were used for.

One idea is that the statues, created between 1400 and 1200 B.C., were meant to be part of a monument for a sacred water spring, the researchers said.

The lifelike lions were created by the Hittites who controlled a vast empire in the region at a time when the Asiatic lion roamed the foothills of Turkey.

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Don’t Allow Loopholes for Genetically Modified Crops | ForceChange.com

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Target: U.S. legislators

Goal: Do not allow temporary permits for untested genetically engineered crops.

Congressmen have silently introduced what are called “Monsanto riders” to a major agricultural bill, requiring the Secretary of

Agriculture to allow genetically modified crops before an Environmental Impact Statement is complete. Tell Congress these loopholes for unsafe crops are unacceptable.

Representatives of the House and Senate have been crafting the multi-billion dollar FY 2013 Agricultural Appropriations bill for so long that when congressmen quietly slipped in the Monsanto riders, neither the media nor the public stirred. Thankfully, alert citizens have raised awareness of these new additions to the bill. These dangerous riders would require–not allow, but require–the Secretary of Agriculture to grant a temporary permit for the planting or cultivation of a genetically engineered crop, even if a federal court has ordered to halt the planting or cultivation until an Environmental Impact Statement has been completed.

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The real reason you’re broke | Squawkfox.com

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If you’re broke, please don’t email me to whine about it. I know money sucks when you’re stretched to the limit. I know buying a house is expensive. I know credit cards can be devices of torture masquerading as shiny pieces of plastic pleasure. I know buying quality foods can cost more than buying processed crap. I know that digging oneself out of a pit of dark debt seems insurmountable. I know that school is expensive and paying back that massive student loan is difficult, especially when your degree pays peanuts. I know life is hard. I know being single is expensive. I know being married is expensive. And there’s no doubt that getting divorced can be a drain too. I don’t have kids, but I hear they ain’t cheap either. Yes, working two (maybe even three) jobs is exhausting. I haven’t been all of these things. Maybe you have. But on the surface all these reasons for being broke are just the result of a much bigger problem. So if you’re ready to stop complaining about life’s circumstance, then here’s the remedy — the real reason why you’re broke.

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