How to Handle Bad Online Reviews for Your Small Business

A good reputation is vital to the success of a small business. Today, with so many customers researching businesses online before they decide where to buy, a bad online review on sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, Foursquare, Google Places, and even your own social media pages can do some serious damage to your reputation. In some cases, these bad online reviews can end up on the first page of results when people search for your business.

How should you respond if your reputation comes under fire and you receive a bad online review?

The tips below will help you perform damage control the right way, and even turn negative experiences into a positive influence for your small business. But first, let’s take a look at what you should not do because there are steps you can take in response to a bad online review that will only make things worse.

What Not To Do When You Receive a Bad Online Review

Deny the Problem Exists

When a customer has a complaint, insisting that they’re wrong in a public forum is a big mistake. Even if you’re convinced that the problem was on their end, you should acknowledge the issue.

Argue with the Reviewer

It’s only natural to feel hurt or angry when someone posts negative criticism about your business. But responding in anger could cripple your reputation permanently because information stays on the Internet forever. In other words, never do this.

Game the System

Some business owners, faced with multiple negative reviews, have paid people to write positive reviews and counter the impact. This is not only a bad idea, but also comes with the very likely possibility that you’ll get caught. Some consumer review sites, like Yelp, have systems in place to warn readers of suspected paid reviews.

Do Nothing

While a few negative comments are obviously the work of people who just like to say nasty things, for the most part, ignoring bad reviews in the hopes they’ll go away is a poor strategy. It sends a message that your business doesn’t care when people have negative experiences.

What To Do When You Receive a Bad Online Review

In order to take action against negative online reviews, you have to be aware of any that exist.

It’s important to monitor your social media pages and respond to concerns there. But you should also check out major consumer review sites like Yelp to see what people are saying about your small business. The simplest way to do this is to set up a Google Alert for your business name. You can also use a free tracking tool like Social Mention to keep up with online reviews.

If you find any less-than-stellar reviews:

Take an Objective Look

If the review or comment is obviously not serious, or if the poster is using anger and abusive language, your best option is probably to ignore it. If possible, have it removed. Most consumer review sites offer a way to flag or report reviews that violate their terms of service.

Respond with Tact

 When addressing a negative review, keep it professional. Passive-aggressive or sarcastic comments will only fuel the flames. You can choose to respond privately (useful when you disagree with a reviewer’s take on a situation) or publicly, which helps to demonstrate to other readers that you’re addressing the problem.

Apologize and Ask for Input

Most often, the best response to an upset customer is to say you’re sorry without qualifying the apology to redirect the blame toward the reviewer’s feelings. Admit that a mistake was made, and ask what you can do to resolve the situation.

Most importantly, keep it consistent. When you actively respond to negative online feedback about your small business, other potential customers can see that you’re engaged and that you care about your customers.

With a consistent response policy, you can turn a bad online review into a positive outlook for your business.

Dislike Photo via Shutterstock

How to Handle Bad Online Reviews for Your Small Business

A good reputation is vital to the success of a small business. Today, with so many customers researching businesses online before they decide where to buy, a bad online review on sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, Foursquare, Google Places, and even your own social media pages can do some serious damage to your reputation. In some cases, these bad online reviews can end up on the first page of results when people search for your business.

How should you respond if your reputation comes under fire and you receive a bad online review?

The tips below will help you perform damage control the right way, and even turn negative experiences into a positive influence for your small business. But first, let’s take a look at what you should not do because there are steps you can take in response to a bad online review that will only make things worse.

What Not To Do When You Receive a Bad Online Review

Deny the Problem Exists

When a customer has a complaint, insisting that they’re wrong in a public forum is a big mistake. Even if you’re convinced that the problem was on their end, you should acknowledge the issue.

Argue with the Reviewer

It’s only natural to feel hurt or angry when someone posts negative criticism about your business. But responding in anger could cripple your reputation permanently because information stays on the Internet forever. In other words, never do this.

Game the System

Some business owners, faced with multiple negative reviews, have paid people to write positive reviews and counter the impact. This is not only a bad idea, but also comes with the very likely possibility that you’ll get caught. Some consumer review sites, like Yelp, have systems in place to warn readers of suspected paid reviews.

Do Nothing

While a few negative comments are obviously the work of people who just like to say nasty things, for the most part, ignoring bad reviews in the hopes they’ll go away is a poor strategy. It sends a message that your business doesn’t care when people have negative experiences.

What To Do When You Receive a Bad Online Review

In order to take action against negative online reviews, you have to be aware of any that exist.

It’s important to monitor your social media pages and respond to concerns there. But you should also check out major consumer review sites like Yelp to see what people are saying about your small business. The simplest way to do this is to set up a Google Alert for your business name. You can also use a free tracking tool like Social Mention to keep up with online reviews.

If you find any less-than-stellar reviews:

Take an Objective Look

If the review or comment is obviously not serious, or if the poster is using anger and abusive language, your best option is probably to ignore it. If possible, have it removed. Most consumer review sites offer a way to flag or report reviews that violate their terms of service.

Respond with Tact

 When addressing a negative review, keep it professional. Passive-aggressive or sarcastic comments will only fuel the flames. You can choose to respond privately (useful when you disagree with a reviewer’s take on a situation) or publicly, which helps to demonstrate to other readers that you’re addressing the problem.

Apologize and Ask for Input

Most often, the best response to an upset customer is to say you’re sorry without qualifying the apology to redirect the blame toward the reviewer’s feelings. Admit that a mistake was made, and ask what you can do to resolve the situation.

Most importantly, keep it consistent. When you actively respond to negative online feedback about your small business, other potential customers can see that you’re engaged and that you care about your customers.

With a consistent response policy, you can turn a bad online review into a positive outlook for your business.

Dislike Photo via Shutterstock

5 Unique Services That Help Keep Your Small Business On Track

Technology has made life easier for most people, providing conveniences without breaking the bank. Nowhere are those conveniences more clear than in the daily life of a small business owner, who is able to leverage technology to mimic the behavior of big business without the big-business budget.

But there are so many technology solutions to each daily activity, it’s hard to narrow down exactly which services are best for each function. Here are a few unique services that can help the busy small business owner be more productive on a daily basis.

Citi Bikes

Rolled out in New York City, with similar offerings around the country, bikes allow consumers to easily move about the city, relieving traffic while still letting pedestrians get from point A to point B efficiently. Recently, the company announced it would be renting helmets to go with those bicycles.

Although Citi Bikes are only available in New York City, similar offerings are available in many major cities around the country through B-Cycle. In cities where bicycle-sharing programs are available, residents and visitors can usually find them stationed at numerous locations around town. They can rent a bicycle ahead of time, show up at the location, and rent the bicycle with the swipe of a credit card. The bikes can be returned to any station, making it a great way to quickly and easily move around town.

Uber

If you either live in or regularly travel to a city where you rely on cab drivers to get you around, Uber is a service worth checking out. Instead of calling the local taxi company, you simply contact Uber through its mobile app, which then connects you with a reliable, affordable driver in the area. Instead of riding across town in an uncomfortable cab, you’ll be treated to a comfortable, enjoyable ride in a luxury car.

Currently, Uber is available in 22 cities with a $6 base fare and $12 minimum fare. Travelers can learn more about the company or make a reservation on the website or through the mobile app.

HomeAway

For business professionals who log hundreds of thousands of frequent flyer miles, life in a hotel room can be daunting. With HomeAway, those professionals have access to homes, condos, townhouses, and other specialized accommodations in an area. Instead of being couped up in a hotel room while you’re traveling, you could pinpoint a convenient home in an area and stay there each time. Because many HomeAway properties have washer/dryers, full kitchens, and other comforts of home, you’ll have a “home away from home” feeling as you return each night from a long day of meetings.

HomeAway also owns VRBO (Vacation Rentals by Owner), so if you don’t see a property that interests you on HomeAway, VRBO could be a great alternative. Be sure to read the reviews to make sure a property matches what the owner is saying about it.

Seamless

Whether you’re traveling or working in your office, every worker needs to eat. Seamless helps you find restaurants nearby that deliver, allowing you to order and pay directly on the app. For businesses, corporate accounts are available, giving authorized workers the ability to order using the corporate account wherever they are.

The bad news is that Seamless isn’t available everywhere, so unless you live somewhere like New York, San Francisco, or Seattle, you may want to enter your address information on the website before you download the app.

Fancy Hands

For everything else, there’s a virtual assistant. You can hand over your to-do list to Fancy Hands and they’ll take over, checking off each of those simple and mundane daily tasks you don’t have time to do. Currently a corporate version is in Beta that will allow each person in an organization to share the service. The corporate version of Fancy Hands will integrate with Cloud-based project management solution Basecamp.

Online solutions can make your life easier, freeing up your time so that you can concentrate on the task at hand. Each of these solutions is both affordable and accessible, so check them out and start saving time today.

Gmail Opens Decrease by 18 Percent, Jury Out on Tabs

You can understand why small business owners and other email marketers get worried about email opens. After all, if a person never opens your email, they never see your great offer. No open, no sale.

And you can definitely see why these same people freaked out when Gmail introduced a new tab format to its inbox. Essentially, promotional emails were placed in a completely different tab or archived immediately, perhaps not to be read until much later.

So, it’s no surprise that conclusions could be drawn when an email analytics firm like Litmus says it has seen an 18 percent decrease in Gmail opens in the last three months.

No Rush to Judgement

But wait. There are a few things to remember before making any assumptions.

First, only about 7.75 percent of this decrease happened since May 29 when the new tabs were introduced.

Second, only about 19 percent of Gmails are actually opened in a Gmail account. Other users may open Gmail in Outlook, Apple Mail or mobile devices which may or may not support tabs, said Litmus marketing director Justine Jordan.

Add to that the fact that Gmail opens have fluctuated a bit in the past, from as low as 2.9 percent to as high as 5 percent. Though the trend has generally been upward, this could simply be another fluctuation.

As low as those numbers sound, opens can still be an excellent opportunity to build a customer relationship or make a sale.

The Size of Your Gmail Customer Base

In the end, Jordan observes, remember that Gmail opens only represent about 4 percent of total email opens and less than 41 percent of those occur in an account that supports tabs.

So, while there are certainly steps you can take in your email marketing strategy to compensate for the new tab fo, you may want to ask yourself how many Gmail customers you really have on your list.

For more analysis, see Jordan’s full video below.

Image: Wikipedia/Google

5 Unique Services That Help Keep Your Small Business On Track

Technology has made life easier for most people, providing conveniences without breaking the bank. Nowhere are those conveniences more clear than in the daily life of a small business owner, who is able to leverage technology to mimic the behavior of big business without the big-business budget.

But there are so many technology solutions to each daily activity, it’s hard to narrow down exactly which services are best for each function. Here are a few unique services that can help the busy small business owner be more productive on a daily basis.

Citi Bikes

Rolled out in New York City, with similar offerings around the country, bikes allow consumers to easily move about the city, relieving traffic while still letting pedestrians get from point A to point B efficiently. Recently, the company announced it would be renting helmets to go with those bicycles.

Although Citi Bikes are only available in New York City, similar offerings are available in many major cities around the country through B-Cycle. In cities where bicycle-sharing programs are available, residents and visitors can usually find them stationed at numerous locations around town. They can rent a bicycle ahead of time, show up at the location, and rent the bicycle with the swipe of a credit card. The bikes can be returned to any station, making it a great way to quickly and easily move around town.

Uber

If you either live in or regularly travel to a city where you rely on cab drivers to get you around, Uber is a service worth checking out. Instead of calling the local taxi company, you simply contact Uber through its mobile app, which then connects you with a reliable, affordable driver in the area. Instead of riding across town in an uncomfortable cab, you’ll be treated to a comfortable, enjoyable ride in a luxury car.

Currently, Uber is available in 22 cities with a $6 base fare and $12 minimum fare. Travelers can learn more about the company or make a reservation on the website or through the mobile app.

HomeAway

For business professionals who log hundreds of thousands of frequent flyer miles, life in a hotel room can be daunting. With HomeAway, those professionals have access to homes, condos, townhouses, and other specialized accommodations in an area. Instead of being couped up in a hotel room while you’re traveling, you could pinpoint a convenient home in an area and stay there each time. Because many HomeAway properties have washer/dryers, full kitchens, and other comforts of home, you’ll have a “home away from home” feeling as you return each night from a long day of meetings.

HomeAway also owns VRBO (Vacation Rentals by Owner), so if you don’t see a property that interests you on HomeAway, VRBO could be a great alternative. Be sure to read the reviews to make sure a property matches what the owner is saying about it.

Seamless

Whether you’re traveling or working in your office, every worker needs to eat. Seamless helps you find restaurants nearby that deliver, allowing you to order and pay directly on the app. For businesses, corporate accounts are available, giving authorized workers the ability to order using the corporate account wherever they are.

The bad news is that Seamless isn’t available everywhere, so unless you live somewhere like New York, San Francisco, or Seattle, you may want to enter your address information on the website before you download the app.

Fancy Hands

For everything else, there’s a virtual assistant. You can hand over your to-do list to Fancy Hands and they’ll take over, checking off each of those simple and mundane daily tasks you don’t have time to do. Currently a corporate version is in Beta that will allow each person in an organization to share the service. The corporate version of Fancy Hands will integrate with Cloud-based project management solution Basecamp.

Online solutions can make your life easier, freeing up your time so that you can concentrate on the task at hand. Each of these solutions is both affordable and accessible, so check them out and start saving time today.

Skip The Bank. Hackers Want Your Car, Home and Implanted Medical Devices

I hope I don’t scare you or freak you out. But hackers might find breaking into banks and other formerly tasty targets boring. Instead, modern hackers are exploring how they can hack into your car, your home or even access the medical devices implanted in your body.

There’s little we consumers can do except to put pressure on device manufactures to ensure their products are as secure as and that they educate buyers in how to make them as “hacker unfriendly” as possible.

The New York Times writes, “Hackers and security researchers are moving away from simply trying to break into â€" or protect â€" people’s e-mail accounts, stealing credit cards and other dirty digital deeds. Now they’re exploring vulnerabilities to break through the high-tech security of homes, cause car accidents or in some extreme cases, kill people who use implanted medical devices.

“Once any single computer in a car is compromised, safety of the vehicle goes out the window,” Mr. Miller said in an e-mail interview. Modern cars typically have 10 to 40 little computers in them.”

Want to read more about digital security? Check out our series of security articles, sponsored by AVG, here.

While I don’t think you need to panic I do think you need to be VIGILANT. Keep in mind hacks done for research often work much different and more optimally than in the real world - but still - be vigilant.

Benefits of CRM Software and How to Choose a Platform

Forming and maintaining relationships with customers is one of the most important aspects of any business. Without positive relationships, it’s hard to thrive in any industry and long-term success can be jeopardized. That’s why it’s so advantageous to implement a customer relationship management (CRM) system into your operations.

Let’s discuss the basics of how this technology works, the benefits of CRM and some guidelines for choosing a CRM platform.

Function

The primary purpose of CRM software is to streamline all major areas of customer interactions. This can include managing contacts, setting appointments, monitoring a marketing campaign, handling customer service, and numerous other tasks.

CRM software makes use of a dashboard, analytics and reporting tools to provide business owners with an all-encompassing vantage point of operations. By spotting patterns and identifying trends, this puts you more in control of customer engagement so your business can run more efficiently.

With that being said, there are some major benefits of utilizing CRM software.

Task Tracking

Meeting deadlines is very important in today’s business world. By inputting information like scheduled appointments and important tasks, it takes the guesswork out of project completion. Many platforms also allow this data to be synced with a calendar to keep you informed of upcoming tasks and deadlines.

For instance, if you have a sales call scheduled with a valuable lead, CRM software would send you an email in advance so you remember to make the call.  Whenever a customer has an upcoming birthday, you or a sales rep would be notified so you promptly send out birthday wishes. Consequently, you can make customers feel more valued and build deeper relationships.

This way you can juggle all of your tasks while ensuring that each customer gets the attention they need and nothing is forgotten.

Sales Rep Management

If you have assembled a team of sales reps, it’s important to keep tabs on their progress and know just how effective they are at nurturing leads and closing sales. Using this type of software will provide a firsthand look into each team member’s sales statistics, including information like average lead contact time, task completion time and conversion rate. This way you can reward the top performers and coach individuals who need some extra help.

Over time, your sales department should operate like a well oiled machine where sales are maximized.

Increased Organization

When dealing with hundreds or even thousands of customers, it’s easy to become disorganized and overwhelmed. Fortunately, the right CRM software makes it simple and intuitive to keep customer information organized and retrievable. By maintaining a contact list, it gives you quick access to a wealth of information like customer email, telephone, buying history and birthday.

Performing a search will provide an overview of this information so you can extract what you need without the hassle of searching through paper folders or using other outdated techniques. Since many platforms incorporate metadata, you can search via broad terms instead of highly specific ones.

This is beneficial because you can find the customer you need by entering general keywords instead of a specified term.

More Selling Opportunities

As information on customers accumulates, it’s common for more opportunities to present themselves. For example, keeping track of a particular customer’s buying patterns would make it clear what they are most interested in.

When launching a new product that’s similar, you could make it a point to contact that customer and let them know. Consequently, this makes it possible to increase sales without having to constantly advertise to new customers.

By capitalizing on an existing customer base, you can get more repeat sales while keeping customers happy.

Improved Social Media Marketing

Another feature that most platforms offer is the ability to integrate with social media networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterest. This can have major advantages because it allows businesses to track all aspects of their social media campaign. For example, business owners can identify which networks are resulting in the most traffic, what followers are saying about their brand and the overall customer experience. As trends emerge, adjustments can be made so you get the most from your efforts and boost your brand’s presence across the Web.

Now that we know the benefits of CRM software, let’s talk about how to find the ideal product for your business.

Determine Individual Needs

Prior to checking out any products, it’s important to have a clear idea of what you are trying to achieve. According to Michael Krigsman, CEO of Asuret:

You need to get a package that’s tailored to your company’s size. At the most basic level you have simple contact management. Then you have contact management with a shared database. You can have sales tracking or opportunity tracking or customer service functionality. Match the capabilities of the software with what your business goals are.

After identifying specific needs, it should be easier to choose a suitable software platform.

Scalability

Besides immediate needs, it’s important to consider long-term needs and take future growth into account. That’s why software that’s adequately scalable is so critical. Ideally, a platform will be Cloud-based to accommodate increased data storage and more contacts as they are acquired. It will also have the option to conveniently purchase upgrades as needed.

Otherwise, getting locked into a lengthy contract with a vendor with limited scalability can be detrimental to your efforts.

Integration with Existing Platforms

One issue that businesses run into is when the CRM they choose isn’t compatible with programs like Outlook, Microsoft Excel and Quickbooks. If you already have some form of an existing infrastructure for monitoring customer interactions, it’s smart to find software that can be integrated with relative ease. This should reduce your learning curve and help you put the software to use quickly.

Otherwise, the integration process can be arduous.

Mobile Capabilities

In the modern business world, mobile devices like smartphones and tablets have become the norm for many businesses. They make it possible to complete tasks and stay up to date on projects regardless of location. If your business uses any type of mobile technology, it’s necessary to look for CRM software that can be accessed on these devices.

This should help all team members boost their productivity and get things done on the road.

Support System

Even if you’re tech savvy, it’s not always easy to figure out all of the components and features of a CRM platform. Consequently, a comprehensive support system with easy access to technicians can save you from a lot of headaches during the transition and afterward. This might include phone support, online chat and email correspondence to resolve issues.

While 9 to 5 support is helpful during the regular hours of the workweek, it’s best to have 24/7 support in case of an emergency at an odd time of day.

Stability

Finally, the vendor you choose should have a positive reputation for providing a quality product and professional service. This should reduce the possibility of having to jump ship and find another CRM software provider in the future. Generally speaking, the longer they have been in business, the better.

Reading some reviews and/or contacting a few references should give you a good idea of a vendor’s reputability.

CRM Photo via Shutterstock

Skip The Bank. Hackers Want Your Car, Home and Implanted Medical Devices

I hope I don’t scare you or freak you out. But hackers might find breaking into banks and other formerly tasty targets boring. Instead, modern hackers are exploring how they can hack into your car, your home or even access the medical devices implanted in your body.

There’s little we consumers can do except to put pressure on device manufactures to ensure their products are as secure as and that they educate buyers in how to make them as “hacker unfriendly” as possible.

The New York Times writes, “Hackers and security researchers are moving away from simply trying to break into â€" or protect â€" people’s e-mail accounts, stealing credit cards and other dirty digital deeds. Now they’re exploring vulnerabilities to break through the high-tech security of homes, cause car accidents or in some extreme cases, kill people who use implanted medical devices.

“Once any single computer in a car is compromised, safety of the vehicle goes out the window,” Mr. Miller said in an e-mail interview. Modern cars typically have 10 to 40 little computers in them.”

Want to read more about digital security? Check out our series of security articles, sponsored by AVG, here.

While I don’t think you need to panic I do think you need to be VIGILANT. Keep in mind hacks done for research often work much different and more optimally than in the real world - but still - be vigilant.

Skip The Bank. Hackers Want Your Car, Home and Implanted Medical Devices

I hope I don’t scare you or freak you out. But hackers might find breaking into banks and other formerly tasty targets boring. Instead, modern hackers are exploring how they can hack into your car, your home or even access the medical devices implanted in your body.

There’s little we consumers can do except to put pressure on device manufactures to ensure their products are as secure as and that they educate buyers in how to make them as “hacker unfriendly” as possible.

The New York Times writes, “Hackers and security researchers are moving away from simply trying to break into â€" or protect â€" people’s e-mail accounts, stealing credit cards and other dirty digital deeds. Now they’re exploring vulnerabilities to break through the high-tech security of homes, cause car accidents or in some extreme cases, kill people who use implanted medical devices.

“Once any single computer in a car is compromised, safety of the vehicle goes out the window,” Mr. Miller said in an e-mail interview. Modern cars typically have 10 to 40 little computers in them.”

Want to read more about digital security? Check out our series of security articles, sponsored by AVG, here.

While I don’t think you need to panic I do think you need to be VIGILANT. Keep in mind hacks done for research often work much different and more optimally than in the real world - but still - be vigilant.

Benefits of CRM Software and How to Choose a Platform

Forming and maintaining relationships with customers is one of the most important aspects of any business. Without positive relationships, it’s hard to thrive in any industry and long-term success can be jeopardized. That’s why it’s so advantageous to implement a customer relationship management (CRM) system into your operations.

Let’s discuss the basics of how this technology works, the benefits of CRM and some guidelines for choosing a CRM platform.

Function

The primary purpose of CRM software is to streamline all major areas of customer interactions. This can include managing contacts, setting appointments, monitoring a marketing campaign, handling customer service, and numerous other tasks.

CRM software makes use of a dashboard, analytics and reporting tools to provide business owners with an all-encompassing vantage point of operations. By spotting patterns and identifying trends, this puts you more in control of customer engagement so your business can run more efficiently.

With that being said, there are some major benefits of utilizing CRM software.

Task Tracking

Meeting deadlines is very important in today’s business world. By inputting information like scheduled appointments and important tasks, it takes the guesswork out of project completion. Many platforms also allow this data to be synced with a calendar to keep you informed of upcoming tasks and deadlines.

For instance, if you have a sales call scheduled with a valuable lead, CRM software would send you an email in advance so you remember to make the call.  Whenever a customer has an upcoming birthday, you or a sales rep would be notified so you promptly send out birthday wishes. Consequently, you can make customers feel more valued and build deeper relationships.

This way you can juggle all of your tasks while ensuring that each customer gets the attention they need and nothing is forgotten.

Sales Rep Management

If you have assembled a team of sales reps, it’s important to keep tabs on their progress and know just how effective they are at nurturing leads and closing sales. Using this type of software will provide a firsthand look into each team member’s sales statistics, including information like average lead contact time, task completion time and conversion rate. This way you can reward the top performers and coach individuals who need some extra help.

Over time, your sales department should operate like a well oiled machine where sales are maximized.

Increased Organization

When dealing with hundreds or even thousands of customers, it’s easy to become disorganized and overwhelmed. Fortunately, the right CRM software makes it simple and intuitive to keep customer information organized and retrievable. By maintaining a contact list, it gives you quick access to a wealth of information like customer email, telephone, buying history and birthday.

Performing a search will provide an overview of this information so you can extract what you need without the hassle of searching through paper folders or using other outdated techniques. Since many platforms incorporate metadata, you can search via broad terms instead of highly specific ones.

This is beneficial because you can find the customer you need by entering general keywords instead of a specified term.

More Selling Opportunities

As information on customers accumulates, it’s common for more opportunities to present themselves. For example, keeping track of a particular customer’s buying patterns would make it clear what they are most interested in.

When launching a new product that’s similar, you could make it a point to contact that customer and let them know. Consequently, this makes it possible to increase sales without having to constantly advertise to new customers.

By capitalizing on an existing customer base, you can get more repeat sales while keeping customers happy.

Improved Social Media Marketing

Another feature that most platforms offer is the ability to integrate with social media networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterest. This can have major advantages because it allows businesses to track all aspects of their social media campaign. For example, business owners can identify which networks are resulting in the most traffic, what followers are saying about their brand and the overall customer experience. As trends emerge, adjustments can be made so you get the most from your efforts and boost your brand’s presence across the Web.

Now that we know the benefits of CRM software, let’s talk about how to find the ideal product for your business.

Determine Individual Needs

Prior to checking out any products, it’s important to have a clear idea of what you are trying to achieve. According to Michael Krigsman, CEO of Asuret:

You need to get a package that’s tailored to your company’s size. At the most basic level you have simple contact management. Then you have contact management with a shared database. You can have sales tracking or opportunity tracking or customer service functionality. Match the capabilities of the software with what your business goals are.

After identifying specific needs, it should be easier to choose a suitable software platform.

Scalability

Besides immediate needs, it’s important to consider long-term needs and take future growth into account. That’s why software that’s adequately scalable is so critical. Ideally, a platform will be Cloud-based to accommodate increased data storage and more contacts as they are acquired. It will also have the option to conveniently purchase upgrades as needed.

Otherwise, getting locked into a lengthy contract with a vendor with limited scalability can be detrimental to your efforts.

Integration with Existing Platforms

One issue that businesses run into is when the CRM they choose isn’t compatible with programs like Outlook, Microsoft Excel and Quickbooks. If you already have some form of an existing infrastructure for monitoring customer interactions, it’s smart to find software that can be integrated with relative ease. This should reduce your learning curve and help you put the software to use quickly.

Otherwise, the integration process can be arduous.

Mobile Capabilities

In the modern business world, mobile devices like smartphones and tablets have become the norm for many businesses. They make it possible to complete tasks and stay up to date on projects regardless of location. If your business uses any type of mobile technology, it’s necessary to look for CRM software that can be accessed on these devices.

This should help all team members boost their productivity and get things done on the road.

Support System

Even if you’re tech savvy, it’s not always easy to figure out all of the components and features of a CRM platform. Consequently, a comprehensive support system with easy access to technicians can save you from a lot of headaches during the transition and afterward. This might include phone support, online chat and email correspondence to resolve issues.

While 9 to 5 support is helpful during the regular hours of the workweek, it’s best to have 24/7 support in case of an emergency at an odd time of day.

Stability

Finally, the vendor you choose should have a positive reputation for providing a quality product and professional service. This should reduce the possibility of having to jump ship and find another CRM software provider in the future. Generally speaking, the longer they have been in business, the better.

Reading some reviews and/or contacting a few references should give you a good idea of a vendor’s reputability.

CRM Photo via Shutterstock

5 Tips for Improving the Digital Marketing Strategy for Your Business

As the owner / marketing head of a growing enterprise you are undoubtedly well-acquainted with the potential that digital marketing holds for your business. But as you assess your marketing strategy, how do you evaluate whether you are investing adequately in digital marketing or using the right digital communication tools?

A recent survey on digital marketing efforts of smaller businesses conducted by Vocus, (a leading provider of cloud marketing software) throws up some interesting results that can help answer these questions.

The Vocus survey was conducted on 408 digital marketing decision-makers in small and medium sized businesses. Of these 196 businesses had more than $1MM in annual sales.

Key takeaways  for your growing business from the Vocus survey:

Have clear defined business objectives for your digital marketing campaigns. As per Brendon O’Donovan, product marketing manager at Vocus, “SMBs are approaching digital marketing with a decidedly practical bent: the number one objective for companies in this space is to drive sales”. The graph below shows the top digital marketing efforts rated by the survey respondents on a five-point scale.

The percentage of your overall marketing budget to be allocated to digital media depends on your business requirements. Investment in digital marketing as a percentage of overall marketing expenditure varied greatly across the businesses surveyed ( refer graph below). Even among the larger businesses there was no common ballpark figure for investing in digital marketing. So while some businesses focused entirely on digital marketing, others allocated only a small portion of their overall marketing budgets.

Consider dedicating an employee for managing digital marketing efforts. More than 60% of the respondents had between 1- 5 full-time employees managing the enterprise digital marketing efforts. Some of the businesses had either outsourced their digital marketing efforts or hired part-timers for the job.

Use multiple digital marketing tools/ solutions for achieving desired business objectives. Larger businesses with greater than 1$MM in sales, rated  the business website, email marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) to be the most effective digital tools. In comparison smaller sized businesses also showed a preference for social media as a digital marketing tool.

Measuring  the success of digital marketing campaigns is crucial. The success of digital marketing efforts can be evaluated largely through generation of sales, leads, improvement in search engine rankings, social network following, publicity generated and influencer buzz. Larger businesses within the survey were significantly more focused towards measuring leads generated and converted through digital campaigns, click- thru-rates (CTR) and count of unique visitors.

Clearly growing businesses are going well beyond the traditional websites to engage and interact with customers online using a combination of digital marketing tools.  

However, the Vocus survey also concluded that small and medium businesses lag behind the bigger corporations when it comes to advanced digital marketing techniques such as customizing content , E-commerce solutions, paid-online banner ads and mobile strategies.

With more than 90 percent of businesses intending to improve their digital marketing efforts either significantly or moderately over the next 3 years, digital marketing in the small and medium -sized business space certainly holds great possibilities.

The question now arises - have you decided the next exciting digital marketing move for your business?

5 Tips for Improving the Digital Marketing Strategy for Your Business

As the owner / marketing head of a growing enterprise you are undoubtedly well-acquainted with the potential that digital marketing holds for your business. But as you assess your marketing strategy, how do you evaluate whether you are investing adequately in digital marketing or using the right digital communication tools?

A recent survey on digital marketing efforts of smaller businesses conducted by Vocus, (a leading provider of cloud marketing software) throws up some interesting results that can help answer these questions.

The Vocus survey was conducted on 408 digital marketing decision-makers in small and medium sized businesses. Of these 196 businesses had more than $1MM in annual sales.

Key takeaways  for your growing business from the Vocus survey:

Have clear defined business objectives for your digital marketing campaigns. As per Brendon O’Donovan, product marketing manager at Vocus, “SMBs are approaching digital marketing with a decidedly practical bent: the number one objective for companies in this space is to drive sales”. The graph below shows the top digital marketing efforts rated by the survey respondents on a five-point scale.

The percentage of your overall marketing budget to be allocated to digital media depends on your business requirements. Investment in digital marketing as a percentage of overall marketing expenditure varied greatly across the businesses surveyed ( refer graph below). Even among the larger businesses there was no common ballpark figure for investing in digital marketing. So while some businesses focused entirely on digital marketing, others allocated only a small portion of their overall marketing budgets.

Consider dedicating an employee for managing digital marketing efforts. More than 60% of the respondents had between 1- 5 full-time employees managing the enterprise digital marketing efforts. Some of the businesses had either outsourced their digital marketing efforts or hired part-timers for the job.

Use multiple digital marketing tools/ solutions for achieving desired business objectives. Larger businesses with greater than 1$MM in sales, rated  the business website, email marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) to be the most effective digital tools. In comparison smaller sized businesses also showed a preference for social media as a digital marketing tool.

Measuring  the success of digital marketing campaigns is crucial. The success of digital marketing efforts can be evaluated largely through generation of sales, leads, improvement in search engine rankings, social network following, publicity generated and influencer buzz. Larger businesses within the survey were significantly more focused towards measuring leads generated and converted through digital campaigns, click- thru-rates (CTR) and count of unique visitors.

Clearly growing businesses are going well beyond the traditional websites to engage and interact with customers online using a combination of digital marketing tools.  

However, the Vocus survey also concluded that small and medium businesses lag behind the bigger corporations when it comes to advanced digital marketing techniques such as customizing content , E-commerce solutions, paid-online banner ads and mobile strategies.

With more than 90 percent of businesses intending to improve their digital marketing efforts either significantly or moderately over the next 3 years, digital marketing in the small and medium -sized business space certainly holds great possibilities.

The question now arises - have you decided the next exciting digital marketing move for your business?

10 Ways to Optimize Your Website

What’s one new thing you’ve done to optimize your website(s) this year that’s made a huge impact on your business thus far?

The following answers are provided by the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

1. Simplify Design and Messaging

We live in a fast world where people get what they want now. If your website is cluttered or you don’t explain your value proposition, you’ll lose conversions simply because people don’t want to take the time or risk figuring out what you are. In fact, it seems like people don’t read anything longer than a tweet! By focusing our messaging and reducing clutter, we get much better conversions.

- Andy Karuza, brandbuddee

2. Install Google Business Photos

Embedding Google Business Photos into our website has reduced our transnational cost and increased conversions. The software uses Google’s Street View software to create a virtual tour of any brick-and-mortar location, so customers can book with confidence.

- Christopher Kelly, Convene

3. Add Engaging Videos

Adding short but fun animated videos created using PowToon has enabled us to provide a quick overview of what we do at Startup Training School and with other projects in a more engaging way than just text-based content. This has increased engagement levels off-site and encouraged visitors to stay on the site for longer and read more about our offer.

- Lea Woodward, Inspiring Ventures

4. Install WordPress SEO by Yoast

This is a WordPress plugin that allows you to see how each of your blog posts and pages is optimized with a simple red or green light mechanism. It’s so easy that anyone on the team can run through it and make sure that all of your content is properly set up for search engines.

- Nathalie Lussier, The Website Checkup Tool

5. Become A/B Positive

We implemented Optimizely and A/B tested everything. At any given moment, we are running several A/B tests and taking a very Darwinian approach to improving our user experience. You’ll be amazed when you’re 100 percent certain one version of a screen will convert the best, only to find that you are wrong. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but data doesn’t lie.

- Danny Boice, Speek

6. Optimizely

Using this tool has transformed our internal conversations. Our internal debates have changed from, “what looks better on this page” to “let’s test both options.” Optimizely’s testing is robust, detailed and transformative. It’s changed the way we do business, increased our lead generation funnel and allowed us to be more transparent to clients.

- Mitch Gordon, Go Overseas

7. Make It Mobile Friendly

We spent a lot of time redesigning our website to be responsive and doing a lot of testing on mobile platforms and tablets. With an increasing amount of traffic coming from mobile, we know how important it is to make the mobile experience flawless so that we keep people engaged no matter which device they visit us on.

- Natalie MacNeil, She Takes on the World

8. Better and Bigger Pictures

We are a product company, so this may be unique to other product companies, but it amazes me how poor some photography and videos are for certain industries. We had an immediate conversion increase after taking new higher-quality photos for our homepage and increasing their size.

- Sam Saxton, Salter Spiral Stair and Mylen Stairs

9. Update Your Blog

The addition of a regularly updated blog has driven more visitors to my business website. This is likely for two reasons: people like to feel a personal connection to the “person behind the business,” and I keep it interesting. I talk about things that are going on at that very moment and how they impact business. I use anecdotes about my business and others to make it relatable.

- Jay Wu, A Forever Recovery

10. Increase Your Website’s Speed

As an infographic company, we have a very visual website. This makes it very pretty, but also super slow. We’ve been working on optimizing the site for speed so visitors can not only see more content, but also get to what they’re looking for much faster. We’ve already seen an increase in page views and requests for work.

- John Meyer, Lemon.ly

10 Ways to Optimize Your Website

What’s one new thing you’ve done to optimize your website(s) this year that’s made a huge impact on your business thus far?

The following answers are provided by the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, the YEC recently launched #StartupLab, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses via live video chats, an expert content library and email lessons.

1. Simplify Design and Messaging

We live in a fast world where people get what they want now. If your website is cluttered or you don’t explain your value proposition, you’ll lose conversions simply because people don’t want to take the time or risk figuring out what you are. In fact, it seems like people don’t read anything longer than a tweet! By focusing our messaging and reducing clutter, we get much better conversions.

- Andy Karuza, brandbuddee

2. Install Google Business Photos

Embedding Google Business Photos into our website has reduced our transnational cost and increased conversions. The software uses Google’s Street View software to create a virtual tour of any brick-and-mortar location, so customers can book with confidence.

- Christopher Kelly, Convene

3. Add Engaging Videos

Adding short but fun animated videos created using PowToon has enabled us to provide a quick overview of what we do at Startup Training School and with other projects in a more engaging way than just text-based content. This has increased engagement levels off-site and encouraged visitors to stay on the site for longer and read more about our offer.

- Lea Woodward, Inspiring Ventures

4. Install WordPress SEO by Yoast

This is a WordPress plugin that allows you to see how each of your blog posts and pages is optimized with a simple red or green light mechanism. It’s so easy that anyone on the team can run through it and make sure that all of your content is properly set up for search engines.

- Nathalie Lussier, The Website Checkup Tool

5. Become A/B Positive

We implemented Optimizely and A/B tested everything. At any given moment, we are running several A/B tests and taking a very Darwinian approach to improving our user experience. You’ll be amazed when you’re 100 percent certain one version of a screen will convert the best, only to find that you are wrong. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but data doesn’t lie.

- Danny Boice, Speek

6. Optimizely

Using this tool has transformed our internal conversations. Our internal debates have changed from, “what looks better on this page” to “let’s test both options.” Optimizely’s testing is robust, detailed and transformative. It’s changed the way we do business, increased our lead generation funnel and allowed us to be more transparent to clients.

- Mitch Gordon, Go Overseas

7. Make It Mobile Friendly

We spent a lot of time redesigning our website to be responsive and doing a lot of testing on mobile platforms and tablets. With an increasing amount of traffic coming from mobile, we know how important it is to make the mobile experience flawless so that we keep people engaged no matter which device they visit us on.

- Natalie MacNeil, She Takes on the World

8. Better and Bigger Pictures

We are a product company, so this may be unique to other product companies, but it amazes me how poor some photography and videos are for certain industries. We had an immediate conversion increase after taking new higher-quality photos for our homepage and increasing their size.

- Sam Saxton, Salter Spiral Stair and Mylen Stairs

9. Update Your Blog

The addition of a regularly updated blog has driven more visitors to my business website. This is likely for two reasons: people like to feel a personal connection to the “person behind the business,” and I keep it interesting. I talk about things that are going on at that very moment and how they impact business. I use anecdotes about my business and others to make it relatable.

- Jay Wu, A Forever Recovery

10. Increase Your Website’s Speed

As an infographic company, we have a very visual website. This makes it very pretty, but also super slow. We’ve been working on optimizing the site for speed so visitors can not only see more content, but also get to what they’re looking for much faster. We’ve already seen an increase in page views and requests for work.

- John Meyer, Lemon.ly

How Far Is Too Far: 5 Lessons From Retail Stores On Technology

If you’re like me, you appreciate it when employees go out of their way to help you. Whether you’re shopping for clothes or looking for groceries, it’s always nice to know that someone is there to help. But there’s always that customer service representative that goes too far - you know, that floor person who’s really nice but needs to leave you alone.

In today’s hyper-competitive market, major retailers and small businesses alike are going out of their way to enhance the customer experience.

But how far is too far?

Nordstrom has recently come under fire after the revelation that the company was using wifi signals from smartphones to track customers’ movements in the store. Sound creepy? That’s not even the worst part. Although Nordstrom’s experiment was only to keep track of customer volume (and stopped in May after customer complaints), other businesses have taken it much further.

Aside from simply tracking customers’ movements within the store, some businesses are able to collect incredible amounts of data. For instance, the store could collect information from your phone that reveals your sex, where you are standing and for how long, and whether or not you eventually make a purchase.

While the use of technology was designed to enhance the consumer experience, it left some people asking, “Where are the boundaries?”

While all businesses can take advantage of the benefits technology has to offer, how do we balance that fine line between good business and going over the top?

By keeping these 5 lessons in mind, we will ensure that we’re a big help to customers, not their Big Brother.

Know Your Boundaries

Coupled with cameras already monitoring the store’s perimeters, retail store’s data gathering struck a minor chord with shoppers. Small business owners need to understand where that “invisible line” exists and avoid crossing or toeing over it.

Whether it’s how often you send out email newsletters or your in-store policies, it’s always important to respect your customers and their privacy.

Experiment First

Nordstrom’s wifi method was an information gathering experiment. Instead of implementing a tested or proven method of improving customer service, a controversial method of gathering information was set in play.

Nordstrom did respond well though, halting the experiment when customer’s complained.

Be Aware of the National Discussion

Even if your business stays away from political happenings, it’s always important to be aware of the national dialogue. With so many news stories about NSA programs and wiretapping, the nationwide sentiment against information collection has been hostile.

By being aware of the larger conversation, you can avoid falling into potential pitfalls.

Be Transparent

One of the reasons customers were anxious about Nordstrom’s wifi data collection is because they weren’t sure what data was gathered and how the data was going to be used. Likewise, if your business collects email addresses or key pieces of information, let consumers know what they’re signing up for.

Whether it’s a newsletter or monthly coupons, you should always be as transparent as possible with your customers.

Be Prepared to Answer Questions

Having an answer prepared for the most frequently asked questions that customers have about your business will help dispel any anxiety or concern.

While your business might not be investing in research efforts as technical as Nordstrom’s, or as creepy as other retailers, it’s important to keep these tips in mind as you seek to improve your customer service.

Remember, you want to be a big help to consumers - not Big Brother.

Nordstrom Photo via Shutterstock

How Far Is Too Far: 5 Lessons From Retail Stores On Technology

If you’re like me, you appreciate it when employees go out of their way to help you. Whether you’re shopping for clothes or looking for groceries, it’s always nice to know that someone is there to help. But there’s always that customer service representative that goes too far - you know, that floor person who’s really nice but needs to leave you alone.

In today’s hyper-competitive market, major retailers and small businesses alike are going out of their way to enhance the customer experience.

But how far is too far?

Nordstrom has recently come under fire after the revelation that the company was using wifi signals from smartphones to track customers’ movements in the store. Sound creepy? That’s not even the worst part. Although Nordstrom’s experiment was only to keep track of customer volume (and stopped in May after customer complaints), other businesses have taken it much further.

Aside from simply tracking customers’ movements within the store, some businesses are able to collect incredible amounts of data. For instance, the store could collect information from your phone that reveals your sex, where you are standing and for how long, and whether or not you eventually make a purchase.

While the use of technology was designed to enhance the consumer experience, it left some people asking, “Where are the boundaries?”

While all businesses can take advantage of the benefits technology has to offer, how do we balance that fine line between good business and going over the top?

By keeping these 5 lessons in mind, we will ensure that we’re a big help to customers, not their Big Brother.

Know Your Boundaries

Coupled with cameras already monitoring the store’s perimeters, retail store’s data gathering struck a minor chord with shoppers. Small business owners need to understand where that “invisible line” exists and avoid crossing or toeing over it.

Whether it’s how often you send out email newsletters or your in-store policies, it’s always important to respect your customers and their privacy.

Experiment First

Nordstrom’s wifi method was an information gathering experiment. Instead of implementing a tested or proven method of improving customer service, a controversial method of gathering information was set in play.

Nordstrom did respond well though, halting the experiment when customer’s complained.

Be Aware of the National Discussion

Even if your business stays away from political happenings, it’s always important to be aware of the national dialogue. With so many news stories about NSA programs and wiretapping, the nationwide sentiment against information collection has been hostile.

By being aware of the larger conversation, you can avoid falling into potential pitfalls.

Be Transparent

One of the reasons customers were anxious about Nordstrom’s wifi data collection is because they weren’t sure what data was gathered and how the data was going to be used. Likewise, if your business collects email addresses or key pieces of information, let consumers know what they’re signing up for.

Whether it’s a newsletter or monthly coupons, you should always be as transparent as possible with your customers.

Be Prepared to Answer Questions

Having an answer prepared for the most frequently asked questions that customers have about your business will help dispel any anxiety or concern.

While your business might not be investing in research efforts as technical as Nordstrom’s, or as creepy as other retailers, it’s important to keep these tips in mind as you seek to improve your customer service.

Remember, you want to be a big help to consumers - not Big Brother.

Nordstrom Photo via Shutterstock

Twitter says accounts were not compromised despite hacker\'s claims

Is every Twitter account at risk of being compromised?

A hacker operating under the name 'Mauritania Attacker' has claimed so - but even though he released purported account information for more than 15,000 users on Tuesday morning, officials with Twitter said the service was not affected.

The pro-Islam hacker, who takes his moniker from the West African Arab Maghreb country in which he is said to reside, posted the Twitter information - 15,167 accounts in total - to file-hosting website Zippyshare on Tuesday morning. He claims to have access to numerous more.

Each account on the list included Twitter nickname, numerical identification number and OAuth token and OAuth token secret exposed. Passwords were not compromised, but the OAuth information may be all a hacker needs to access a Twitter account.

OAuth is an open standard that allows services to interact with each other without needing to share all types of private information, such as usernames and passwords. Specifically on Twitter, “OAuth is an authentication protocol that allows users to approve [an] application to act on their behalf without sharing their password," according to the service.

However, OAuth can be manipulated by the Firefox extension Tamper Data, Mauritania Hacker told Indian news site Techworm on Tuesday.

When used maliciously, Tamper Data allows users to meddle with data being sent back and forth between a client and server, according to a post by Andy O'Donnell, a senior security engineer and analyst. He said the extension can allow people to bypass restrictions built into websites or web applications.

O'Donnell did not immediately respond to an inquiry from SCMagazine.com on how a user could actually gain access to Twitter accounts using OAuth and Tamper Data, but Twitter representatives do not seem too concerned.

“We have investigated the situation and can confirm that no Twitter accounts were compromised,” a Twitter spokesperson told SCMagazine.com on Tuesday. "We always recommend that users regularly review the third party apps that [they] have granted account access to, just as a general best practice. In this case however, no one was able to gain access to any Twitter accounts."

OAuth, meanwhile, had not listed any security advisories on its website at the time of going to press.

"The OAuth community is committed to identifying and addressing any security issues raised relating to the OAuth protocol and extensions," it said. "Any identified threat will be published on this page as soon as it is safe to do so. Due to the nature of many security threats, they cannot be disclosed before sufficient notice is given to vulnerable parties."

Coincidentally, nearly four months ago, security researcher Ryan Kelker contacted Twitter about being able to produce similar results by using an app he created himself. He based the app on TweetDeck, a third-party social media dashboard for management of Twitter accounts.

Kelker posted his findings to Coderwall after a lack of response from Twitter, although SCMagazine.com could not confirm if his findings had any influence on Mauritania Attacker.

The hacker, according to a Reuters story in June, is responsible for coordinating groups of intruders whose goal is "defend Muslims by peaceful means".

In light of claims from the hacker, McAfee research head David Marcus took to Twitter on Tuesday and advised all users to change their Twitter passwords. “Great point about changing logins while an attacker may still have access,” he responded to one user. “I say change now and [change again] post disclosure.”  

Alan Woodward, a security expert in the UK, suggested obtaining new OAuth tokens. He told GigaOM.com on Tuesday that Twitter users should “go in and revoke third party's apps rights and then just re-login when [or] if you want to re-access Twitter via that app. This way a new token will be issued".

Fraudsters target \'wire payment switch\' at US banks to steal millions

Instead of targeting the bank accounts of individuals or organisations, criminals recently took over the wire payment switch at several US banks to steal millions from their choice of accounts, according to a security analyst.

Avivah Litan, vice president and distinguished analyst at research firm Gartner, told SCMagazine.com in an interview that at least three banks were struck in the past few months using 'low-powered' distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks meant to divert the attention and resources of banks away from fraudulent wire transfers simultaneously occurring. 

Last week, Litan wrote a blog post on the attack method, which could have resulted in the banks losing much more money than they did, though the fraudulent transactions were in the 'millions', she said in a follow-up interview with SCMagazine.com.

Litan declined to reveal the names of the victim banks, but said that the attacks didn't appear to be linked to the flood of hacktivist-launched DDoS attacks that hit these institutions last autumn and winter. These new incidents are entirely financially driven, she said. 

“It wasn't the politically motivated groups," she said. "It was a stealth low-powered DDoS attack, meaning it wasn't something that knocked their website down for hours."

Litan told SCMagazine.com via email that the attacks “added up to millions [lost] across the three banks”.

The concern with the wire payment switch - a system that manages and executes wire transfers at banks - being targeted is that it could result in much more costly loss scenarios for banks. Traditionally, digital crooks stealing from banks have opted to compromise the computers of banking customers in order to obtain their bank login credentials, access the accounts and then funnel out money.

In this case, the vandals went directly after the banks, according to Litan.

While it is unclear how the attackers gained access to the wire payment switch at banks, saboteurs could have targeted bank staff with phishing emails, an easy way to plant credential-stealing malware on target machines.

Researchers at another security firm have called attention to the trend of DDoS attacks being used as a cover for fraudulent activities at banks.

In April, Dell SecureWorks Counter Threat Unit (CTU) released its '2012 Threatscape Report', (PDF) which highlighted notable trends that developed last year among cyber attackers.

The Dell SecureWorks research team noted that fraudsters have been utilising Dirt Jumper, a $200 crimeware kit that launches DDoS attacks, to draw bank employees' attention away from fraudulent wire and ACH transactions ranging from $180,000 to $2.1 million in attempted transfers.

Last September, the FBI, Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC), and the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), issued a joint alert about the Dirt Jumper crimeware kit being used to prevent bank staff from identifying fraudulent transactions.

In the alert (PDF), the organisations said criminals used phishing emails to lure bank employees' into installing remote access Trojans (RATs) and keystroke loggers that stole their credentials.

In some incidents, attackers who gained the credentials of multiple employees were able to obtain privileged access rights and “handle all aspects of a wire transaction, including the approval”, the alert said - a feat that sounds daringly similar to recent attacks on the wire hub at banks. 

“In at least one instance, actors browsed through multiple accounts, apparently selecting the accounts with the largest balance,” the alert said.

Litan suggested that financial institutions 'slow down' their money transfer system when experiencing DDoS attacks in order to minimise the impact of such threats.

In an email sent to SCMagazine.com on Tuesday, Limor Kessem, a cyber crime and online fraud expert at RSA's FraudAction Research Lab, said her firm had not seen the wire payment switch attacks in the wild, but that RSA's customers had shared information about this threat with the research team.

"The service portal is down, the bank is losing money and reliability, and the security team is juggling the priorities of what to fix first," she said. "That's when the switch attack - which is very rare because those systems are not easily compromised [and require] high-privilege level in a more advanced persistent threat style case - takes place."

Good for Enterprise

Combining full mobile device management (MDM) with end-to-end encryption, Good for Enterprise from Good Technology offers an expansive suite of products, which allow administrators to embrace BYOD policies while remaining confident in their ability to maintain a data security posture.

The product infrastructure was provided pre-installed, so we cannot speak to specifics of that setup process. To provide database services, it requires Windows Server 2003 or 2008, Active Directory, and either Microsoft SQL or Oracle. Virtualisation is explicitly supported, and the company offers specific advice on those types of deployments in the documentation.

On the mobile device side, the application is available on the App Store for iOS and Android devices, or as a download from Good Technology for older devices. Once a user account is added to the administration panel, administrators can generate a PIN, which can be emailed to the end-user. The end-user then inputs their corporate email address and the PIN, and the device is automatically provisioned and policies applied. 

Good for Enterprise is administered entirely via its web interface. Administrators are able to craft MDM policies that allow for full device control, including disabling/enabling the device camera and native device browser, pre-configuring WiFi credentials, mandating device PINs, or black/whitelisting of other applications. Jailbreak/rooting detection is included, allowing devices to be automatically locked or wiped if jailbreaking is detected. Administrators can also force-install applications they view as required. In fact, the built-in compliance manager allows administrators to set a list of applications that must be present on the device for the Good Mobile Messaging application to run.

With the secure browser plug-in, administrators can maintain lists of URLS that must be viewed via the secure browser, and those that should not be permitted to load. Those URLs can be blocked or redirected to the device's native browser if it is enabled. Devices can be remotely locked or wiped. 

Documentation is voluminous. In addition to a quick installation guide, more in-depth manuals for installation, administration and day-to-day use are all available on the company website, along with a device-compatibility matrix, guides on using the product on different mobile device operating systems, and even custom guides on some specific devices. Each document is extremely thorough, with bookmarks, hyperlinks and screenshots where appropriate.

Two tiers of support, basic and advanced, are offered. Basic provides eight-hours-a-day/five-days-a-week phone and email assistance, while the advanced tier expands that to 24/7. Web-based support, along with an online knowledgebase, FAQs and user support forums, are also available. 

Good for Enterprise offers a perpetual licensing model. Each server license is c£977, and each device licence is c£103. Both basic and advanced support options are available for extra costs based on per server and per device per year levels.