Fast fashion caused production and consumption to rise and prices to plummet, leading to a decline in the quality of our clothes. Despite this, well-made garments do exist, if you know what you’re looking for.

Well-made garments

<ul><li>The initial inspection. Check if the hem and seams are thoroughly sewn down. There should be no raw edges. Examine the stitching. Small stitches are durable. Inspect for flaws or loose threads.</li><li>Check the tags. If you want to wear the garment on a day-to-day basis, steer clear of garments labelled hand wash or dry clean only.</li><li>Check the seams to see if they are bubbling. See if the side seam hangs straight and the fabric isn't off-grain. See that patterns match along the seams.</li></ul>

Inspecting a garment

Material composition<ul><li>Anything made of a protein fibre like wool will keep you warm when it's cold and breathe if you get hot.</li><li>Plant fibres, including cotton, linen or viscose rayon, are breathable but won't keep you as warm. They're easy to wash but crease easily.</li><li>Synthetic fibres such as polyester or nylon don't breathe and trap body odour. However, they are suitable for waterproof or windproof jackets and athletic wear.</li></ul> High-quality fabric will feel better on your skin. Pull the fabric between your thumbs to see if it holds its form, and gently rub to see if it pills.

How to pick good quality fabric

From rubbing fabric on your neck to checking stitch size, there are ways to test how well made clothes are before you try on

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Fashion & Beauty

Seams pretty good: how to know you’re buying quality clothes

“People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude.”

“When you make a commitment, you create hope. When you keep a commitment, you create trust.”

Connecting is the ability to identify with people and relate to them in a way that increases your influence on them.
The principles to develop this skill include:
<ul>
<li>Find common ground</li>
<li>Keep your communication simple</li>
<li>Create an enjoyable and interesting experience</li>
<li>Inspire people</li>
<li>Stay authentic in your communication.</li>
</ul>

Key Principles To Develop The Crucial Skill Of Connecting

If you want to be successful in connecting with people, you need to make sure your communication goes beyond words, by connecting on four levels.<ul><li>Visually: You have seven seconds to make the right first impression.</li><li>Intellectually: To connect with people intellectually you must know two things: your subject and yourself.</li><li>Emotionally: People may hear your words but they feel your attitude.</li><li>Verbally: Words are the currency of ideas and have the power to change the world.</li></ul>

Connecting Goes Beyond Words

“People don’t remember what we think is important; they remember what they think is important.”

“If you want to get your message across, you have to learn how to communicate in someone else’s world.”

Constantly strive to simplify the complicated concepts and processes so you can make them accessible for the audience.
Don't try to impress the people in the room but to transfer information and to help make things understandable.

Keeping Your Communication Simple

<ul><li>Humor is something that will make the audience laugh and put them in a receptive mood. </li><li>Heart will captivate people’s emotions and get them engaged with your message. </li><li>Hope will inspire the audience and move them toward an objective. </li><li>Help is something that will assist the listener in some practical way as they listen and envision applying what you are sharing.</li></ul>

Humor, Heart, Hope, Help

“Even the choicest words lose their power when they are used to overpower.”

<ul><li>Assumption. "I already know what others know, feel and want."</li><li>Arrogance. "I don’t need to know what others know, feel or want."</li><li>Indifference. "I don’t care to know what others know, feel or want."</li><li>Control. "I don’t want others to know what I know, feel or want."</li></ul>

Top Four Barriers to Finding Common Ground

World-renowned leadership expert and bestselling author John C. Maxwell says if you want to be an effective leader, you must learn how to connect with people. While it may seem like some folks are just born with a commanding presence that draws people in, the fact is anyone can learn to communicate in ways that consistently build powerful connections. Everyone Communicates, Few Connect, helps you succeed by revealing Maxwell’s Five Principles and Five Practices to develop this crucial skill of connecting, including: finding common ground, keeping your communication simple, capturing people's interest, inspiring people, and staying authentic in all your relationships. Your ability to achieve results in any organization--be it a company, church, nonprofit, or even in your family--is directly tied to the leadership skills in your toolbox. Connecting is an easy-to-learn skill you can apply today in your personal, professional, and family relationships to start living your best life.

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Career

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Personal Development

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Communication

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Books

The most effective leaders know how to connect with people. It's not about power or popularity, but about making the people around you feel heard, comfortable, and understood.While it may seem like some folks are born with a commanding presence that draws people in, the fact is anyone can learn to communicate in ways that consistently build powerful connections. Bestselling author and leadership expert John C. Maxwell offers advice for effective communication to those who continually run into obstacles when it comes to personal success.In Everyone Communicates, Few Connect, Maxwell shares five principles and five practices to develop connection skills including:<ul><li>finding common ground;</li><li>keeping your communication simple;</li><li>capturing people’s interest;</li><li>how to create an experience everyone enjoys;</li><li>and staying authentic in all your relationships.</li></ul>Your ability to achieve results in any organization is directly tied to the leadership skills in your toolbox. Connecting is an easy-to-learn skill you can apply today in your personal, professional, and family relationships to start living your best life.

John Calvin Maxwell is an American author, speaker, and pastor who has written many books, primarily focusing on leadership. Titles include The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership and The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader. His books have sold millions of copies, with some on the New York Times Best Seller List.

John C. Maxwell

Everyone Communicates, Few Connect

They do get mixed up a lot. But there is a very important distinction.
<ul>
<li>Customer service is part of the broader customer experience. Customer experience means all of the interactions a customer has with a brand and how they feel about those interactions (the people you interact with, their advertising, the packaging, the physical location, the ambiance, the decor, etc.)</li>
<li>Customer service is the assistance a company provides to help a customer with its products or services. That’s a very specific part of customer experience, often the most important or most memorable part.</li>
</ul>

Customer experience vs customer service

The whole concept of an experience guarantee is based on the idea that your customer is trying to solve a problem, and that’s the insight you need to have to create a wonderful experience and experience guarantee. The way you do this is by listening to your customers. And while that seems simplistic, companies are not as good at listening as they’d like to believe.

The problems customers are trying to solve

To create an experience that allows you to win customers and retain them:<ol><li>Make a guarantee, promise to solve the problem. This could be a customer service provider saying. “I’m going to take care of this for you.”</li><li>Keep the promise: Making a promise in your marketing or advertising is not enough. You have to now act to make sure that promise is kept.</li><li>There will always be a time when you’re unable to keep your promises, or at least in your customer’s mind, you did not keep your promise. You have to find a way to restore trust so that your customer is willing to give you another chance.</li></ol>

Solving the problems customers have

“When you promise to solve a particular problem, you’re also saying, in effect, ‘If your problem falls outside of this, we might not be the best choice for you'”

“When companies try to be all things to all people, they end up not being very good”

Once you identify that problem and you make a particular promise, then you can focus on your customer experience. Whether it’s your marketing, operations, delivery, customer support, you name it, your focus can be on keeping that promise. That’s an important aspect because it gives you that focus. Having an experience guarantee allows you to be a lot more focused and make smarter decisions.

Laser-like focus

Guaranteeing a great experience for your customers isn’t hard, but are you actually delivering on that promise? Jeff Toister, author of The Guaranteed Customer Experience, joins us to talk about the key to earning (and keeping) our customers’ trust and business.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Marketing & Sales

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Business

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Podcasts

On Inside Intercom you'll hear the team from Intercom interview makers and do-ers from the worlds of product management, design, startups and marketing.

Inside Intercom

Jeff Toister on a guaranteed customer experience

... especially when it comes to customer service. Sometimes companies create strict rules and policies or have a “system” that makes it impossible for an employee to deliver the customer service the company actually wants them to deliver.The best companies hire people who are smart, problem-solving, customer-focused people who look for ways to work around having to say NO and come up with ways to say YES. They don’t get stuck on company policy. They work within the rules, but also understand flexibility.

Common sense must always prevail

Common sense must always prevail — especially when it comes to customer service. That said, sometimes companies create strict rules and policies or have a “system” that makes it impossible for an…

The Ship Is Sinking, Yet the Band Plays On | by Shep Hyken | Medium

You really can’t win an argument with a customer. It’s not that the customer is always right. They aren’t.So, how can you let them always win an argument? Well, don’t get in the argument, to begin with. Sure, you can win the argument, but you lose the customer. But, what you can always do is be respectful. You can let the customer keep their dignity. You can agree to disagree. You can work toward a mutually agreed-upon solution.&nbsp;

Agree to disagree

Learn what will make the customer happy. It may be as simple as just asking. (You don’t know if you don’t ask.) It’s definitely not arguing with the customer.&nbsp;Find out what’s behind any frustration, disappointment, and even anger. Talking it through with the customer, rather than pointing blame or making excuses may be the simple solution.

Sometimes a customer is legitimately upset

There is an old customer service saying that has to do with whenever someone disagrees with a customer: You really can’t win an argument with a customer. It’s not that the customer is always right…

Don’t Just Fix the Problem. Fix the Customer

<ul><li>Think about the effort a customer must make to reach someone in your company. There are two main ways the phone call could be answered: live or by an Interactive Voice Response system, also known as IVR.</li><li>&nbsp;A computer and a person answering the phone are both bad if the experience creates any amount of difficulty for the person calling in.</li><li>Just handle the call well, with respect and diplomacy. Any friction or extra effort the customer goes through to reach their party starts the call at a deficit. The first impression of that interaction is ruined.</li></ul>

Important First Impression: How the Phone Is Answered 

I recently spoke at a conference. After the speech, the client gave me a gift: the list of everyone in the audience with their contact information. She suggested I pick up the phone and let everyone…

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Remote Work

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Corporate Culture

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Teamwork

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Human Resources

How the Phone Is Answered Is an Important First Impression

Starbucks experienced a technology glitch that shut down its payment system in various stores throughout the U.S. and Canada. A failure like this could have cost the coffee shops millions of dollars in sales.&nbsp;Starbucks knew exactly what to do. Starbucks stated that its stores would stay open — and most locations did — and take care of their customers. That means they still gave the customers their drinks but didn’t take their money. Why? Because taking care of customers is sometimes more important than the money. Shutting down the stores would have cost millions of dollars in sales.

Starbucks Turns Coffee Beans Into Coffee And Lemons Into Lemonade

Every day, we go to work hoping to do two things: share great coffee with our friends and help make the world a little better. It was true when the first Starbucks opened in 1971, and it’s just as true today.

Earlier this week Starbucks experienced a technology glitch that shut down its payment system in various stores throughout the U.S. and Canada. A failure like this could have cost the coffee shops…

It doesn’t matter what type of business you are in, the bar for typical customer service is set very low. That is a shame because virtually any business that doesn’t yet have a stellar reputation can be more competitive and successful if they would pay more attention to how they deliver customer service. All they have to do is be better than average — higher than the bar. And, how much better do they have to be? Just a little better. A small improvement. A minor tweak. That’s what makes big differences.

Just a little above average

There are two parts to this concept you must pay close attention to.&nbsp;<ul><li>First, you have to find the places to be above average. Break down every interaction, or touchpoint, that you and your organization have with the customer. Then look for a way to make it better — even just a tiny bit better. Yes, it’s okay — even encouraged — to think small.</li><li>Second, you have to bake it into the process or in the system. It must be consistent. All the time. Not great one day and just okay the next. Anything less erodes the <a href="https://hyken.com/customer-confidence/guarantee-your-products-and-service-to-create-customer-confidence/" target="_self">customer’s confidence</a>.</li></ul>

How to be better than the average

It was a major meeting for my friends at Volkswagen Australia. This was their Customer Experience Summit, and the theme for the meeting was “Think Small: Big Differences Come from SMALL Details.”…

How Can Thinking Small Propel You to Greatness?

If you are hearing the same complaint again and again, realize that there are many other customers who have the same complaint, but just aren’t sharing it with you. If there’s a problem that’s happening repeatedly, find out what’s driving that <a href="https://hyken.com/customer-care/dont-avoid-customer-complaints-manage-them/" target="_self">complaint</a>.The statistic most commonly shared is that in an average business, for every complaint you hear from a customer, there are 26 others that have the same complaint, but choose not to tell you. Even if that stat is half true, that’s still a lot of unhappy customers. You think they are happy because they don’t complain to you. But, they aren’t.

Customer complaints

There’s an old joke that goes something like this: A guy goes to the doctor. He raises his arm and complains, “It hurts when I do this.” The doc says, “Then don’t do that.” That reminds me of a very…

Just Stop It!

<ol><li>The desire to take care of people: A customer-focused mindset includes the desire to serve.</li><li>Being in the moment: This is realizing when you are delivering a positive service experience.&nbsp;</li><li>Know where the line in the sand is: An environment that fosters a customer focus mindset empowers people to do what is necessary to take care of the customer — without crossing the line.&nbsp;</li><li>Always learning: The best of the best are continuous learners.</li><li>Recognizing the <a href="https://hyken.com/customer-care/your-awesome-responsibility/" target="_self">Awesome Responsibility</a>: This one person represents your brand and all their fellow employees.&nbsp;</li></ol>

Create the Customer-Focus Mindset

While good customer service training teaches the how-to’s, great customer service training goes into the mindset — and, that’s more than having a great attitude with lots of smiles and a warm personality. That’s important, but a customer-focused mindset goes beyond that.A customer-focus mindset encompasses all the how-to training, the positive attitude, and (here is where the mindset comes in) an understanding of the reason behind a relentless effort to deliver an amazing customer experience.&nbsp;

Great Customer Service Training

Your people attend customer service training. They learn techniques and tactics on how to deal with complaining customers, angry customers or customers who just need a little support. They are taught…

Seams pretty good: how to know you’re buying quality clothes

Everyone Communicates, Few Connect

Jeff Toister on a guaranteed customer experience

The Ship Is Sinking, Yet the Band Plays On | by Shep Hyken | Medium

Don’t Just Fix the Problem. Fix the Customer

Jill Turner