Customer service live chat

Do you shop online? Do you buy machines that may need after-sales service? Do you get the help you need? How do you get it? Manufacturers that have a voice or telephone customer service support are always preferred. However, in the ecommerce era, live chat customer service support is the most helpful way to get assistance when you need one.

How does it work?

Live chat customer service works like a voice support; this however is not on the telephone but rather through chatrooms. This is the best case of course, because there are times when you may not have live operators to handle your request for support, and thus you will receive an automated response for your queries.

This live chat support system is of course provided with pre-encoded questions and answer where the operators will refer to.

If you need more technical information, you will be referred to a higher-level technical support. You may likewise chat live with this customer support personnel or technician but if he is off-line, an email message will be sent to the requesting party.

There may also be an option in the live chat system where you queries will be directed to the proper department. If you are inquiring about the product, its details, and price, sales personnel may attend to you in the chat room.

If you need service like installation and how to operate the machine, it may be the technical department to attend to you.

Software for live chat may be programmed to direct you to the proper department. This is useful for the consumer because it saves his time. It also helps alleviate frustration for the customer because he knows that should problem exist, someone will be available to help him.

Live chat support is also useful for the manufacturer because they can attend to many inquiries at the same time.

Now, if you are the manufacturer of a product, it may be easy for you to outsource the customer relationship management to live chat customer service entities or call centers. This will give you more time to do your work best. You can then focus your attention in developing products that will compliment what is currently in the market.

Live chat support is a real-time customer service support, buyers prefer this method but then, your operators may have full hand and the email support complimenting live chat is likewise necessary.

Many customer service oriented call centers can handle all your customer relationship issues, partner with them and you surely will be on your way to success knowing that your products are used to full advantage.

As a customer, I know what it’s like to be on the customers side of the counter. You want to turn over your hard earned money for goods or services. You are then confronted with attitude, rudeness and utter disregard for just how hard you have worked for your dollar. Either the service is slow and the quality of the goods are poor, or worse the company you are patronizing rigidly enforces poor policies for handling customer issues.

As a business owner I realize the cost of poor service. Poor service decreases impulse purchases, leads to a reduction in repeat business, causes lack of referrals and negatively impacts customer relationships. When you are trying to build a business in a competitive market each of these are critical to your success. In an environment where customers have a dozen or more purchase options it is imperative that great care be taken to build your business.

How are you doing at building your business with customer service? Consider how you would handle the following customer interactions:

(1) A customer purchased a $10 item and now wants to return it. Your policy is no refunds. This a customer who has shopped your establishment many times. Do you return the item or enforce the policy? If you must, gently remind the customer of your policy, but you should absolutely refund or exchange the product to the customers satisfaction.

(2) When customers enter you business are they greeted warmly or ignored? At the very least do you make eye contact and smile? A warm and hearty “Hello” will fit almost any environment. Do this with each customer. A smile would be the icing on the cake.

(3) Do your employees say “Thank You” and smile after each customer purchase? Or do they simply hand the customer their bagged item and say “next.” Thank You … Its just two little words, and only eight characters long. Just say it. It goes a long way to build goodwill and customer relationships. It gives the perception that you are nice and friendly. Don’t forget to smile.

(4) During customer interactions are you on the phone or talking with other employees? Or are you focused 100% on the customer? It is downright rude to be doing ANYTHING, other than focusing on your customer, during a transaction.

(5) A Customer comes into your establishment and is there incessantly reading product labels. Do you leave the customer there to fend for themselves or do you offer the customer your expert opinion on the products you offer. More often than not the customer will be left alone. Go help them. If they want to be left alone let them tell you so.

What do you think customers do when they encounter great customer service? They become advocates for you and help to build your business by referring others. They become loyal to you, completing like purchases exclusively at your establishment. Fantastic service is what makes customers want to shop with you despite a higher price or the inconvenience of distance. Even if you are providing a lesser quality product or service, fantastic customer service can help you compensate for it. It gives you an incredible, low cost competitive advantage.

To improve your customer’s experience, start by changing yourself. Change your attitude when handling customer issues. Be friendly and liberal versus stern when implementing policy. This may require you to convince yourself that you can afford great service. Do the math and discover that it will cost you less to take care of that customer now and build a life long patron. Set the example by regularly chatting with customers and enthusiastically pitching in to solve hard problems.

Next challenge your employees by asking them to step up their game. Catch them providing great service and provide some simple verbal recognition. Constantly bring up and talk about how important it is to set yourself apart with great service. Create a bulletin board in your employee only area, and post positive comments from customers - if a customer verbally tells you something great, type it up and post it on the board. For employees that just don’t get it try to understand why and help them with some training, coaching and counseling.

Starting with your next customer begin building that essential customer service foundation. Offer a friendly smile, a warm greeting, and a caring attitude. Engage in aimless small talk, genuinely go the extra mile and try to truly understand the other person.

Think quick. In 10 seconds, can you list the 5 key benefits you offer your customers?

I bet you said “Yes”. But are you sure you listed benefits? If you’ll bear with me for another 10 seconds, I’d like to test out a theory on you.

Recap your answers &ndash maybe even write them down. Now list the 5 main things your business does. In other words, what are your 5 core services? What are the 5 core features of your product?

If your first list looks anything like your second, chances are you’re mistaking features for benefits. As a result, it’s likely that your marketing materials aren’t engaging your customer. Customers don’t want to know what you can do. They want to know what you can do FOR THEM.

Don’t talk features &ndash talk benefits.

Don’t be alarmed. You’re not alone. Most business owners and marketing managers are so close to their product or service that they have a lot of trouble distinguishing benefits from the features of their offering. Ask a web host “what are the benefits of your service?”, and you’ll likely hear something along the lines of, “we offer load-balanced server clusters.” But that’s not a benefit… that’s what they do. The benefit is superior uptime and performance.

In fact, so many people think features instead of benefits that it can work in your favour &ndash to dramatic effect. If you can accurately identify your benefits, and convey those benefits to your market, you’ll be light-years ahead of most of your competition. You’ll be converting leads into sales while they’re still bogged down trying to promote features.

So if you’ve ever sat down to write a sales letter and wondered how you’re going to grab your reader’s attention, or you’ve ever gone ‘round in circles writing draft after draft of web copy without ever hitting the mark, now you know where you were going wrong.

The only question remaining is, how do you do it right? Advertising copywriters and website copywriters do it all the time &ndash and most of the time, they do it with benefits. Benefits are the copywriter’s holy grail. But if you’re not a seasoned copywriter, how do you identify the benefits you offer your customers?

There are any number of ways to identify the benefits you offer. This article discusses just three:

1) Customer Research

2) Speak to Your Sales Team

3) Make it Easy for Your Customer to Get Buy-In

The method you choose depends on your time constraints, budget, and level of customer interaction.

1) Customer Research

The most obvious way to identify benefits is to ask your existing customers. They’re spending a lot of money on your offering, so you can be sure they know what benefit they’re getting from it. (In many cases, it can be handy to ask them what benefits they’d like to be getting from you too!) Unfortunately, like everyone else, your customers are busy people. In most cases, you won’t get useful feedback by simply sending an email enquiry. You have to make it easy for them to respond, and you have to make it worth their while. Think about questionnaires and surveys for quantitative data, and interviews and focus groups for qualitative data. These are the simplest techniques, but you still have to make sure you interpret the results appropriately. And always remember that they’re self-report methods. People will sometimes tell you what they think you want to hear. (That’s also why you have to word your questions very carefully &ndash try not to ask leading questions.) Of course, there are plenty of other research techniques around. Do a bit of homework and find the methods which best suit your business requirements. But don’t get carried away by the possibilities. All the research data in the world is pointless if you’re not talking the language of your customer.

2) Speak to Your Sales Team

Sadly, not every business can afford to invest in market research. If your budget doesn’t stretch far enough, try talking to your sales people. They’re out in the field every day, talking to customers. And because their livelihood depends on their success in engaging customers, chances are they’ll be able to tell you what your customers want to know. (A word of warning, though… Be careful not to make lofty promises. Unlike your sales team, written collateral doesn’t generate a rapport with your customers. Customers won’t make as many allowances, so you can only stretch the truth so far in writing before your credibility suffers. What’s more, if you do push the boundaries, you’re more likely to be held to your word!)

3) Make it Easy for Your Customer to Get Buy-In

If you don’t have the budget for in-depth customer research, and you don’t have a sales team, a good tip is to imagine how your customer gets buy-in from their boss. Quite often, the decision maker is someone higher up the food chain than your direct audience. Your audience will probably be the key stakeholder &ndash they’ll be the user of your product, or the recipient of your service. But when they find an offering they like, there’s a good chance they’ll have to sell it to someone further up the line. If you can make this sale easier, you’ll have a foot in the door. Don’t just appeal to the sensibilities of the direct audience. You also need to ask yourself what they need to know to convince the decision maker. If the decision maker is a CFO, think Return on Investment (ROI) and Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). If the decision maker is a CIO or MIS, think performance, technological sustainability, availability, manageability, and ease of integration. If the decision maker is a CEO, think liability, risk management, and ROI. And only use jargon to prove you know your stuff. Remember… jargon will probably have the ultimate decision maker scratching their head, not reaching for their cheque book.

There are many many more ways to identify benefits. This is just a very superficial snapshot of some techniques you might like to try. At the very least they’ll get you thinking benefits.

In the end, the message is simple. Forget all the fancy talk about complicated revolutionary marketing principles. Forget new-age hard-sell advertising quick-fixes. Forget looking to so-called “experts” for solutions. Just think benefits. And if you can accurately do that, the rest is just mechanics. Once you know what you want to write about, you just need to put pen to paper. And that’s a whole ‘nother story!

Happy writing!

Two weeks ago I scribed a note of praise for Office Depot on PlanetFeedback.Com. Two hours later I got a personal response from Office Depot’s executive office. Last Friday I logged a complex complaint via email to my wireless phone company. Less than 3 hours later a researched response landed in my email box. It wasn’t the response I hoped for, but it was a timely response. Both companies exceeded my expectations of timeliness and personalization of response. How would your customers rate their experience on your “Contact Us” page? Here are 4 tips to help you create an e-commerce experience that keeps customers in love with you after a service mishap.

1. Prominently display phone number. Many customers visit your “Contact Us” page for the sole purpose of locating a phone number. Don’t force your customers to fill out a form or contact you via email if they want to personally talk with you. Your phone number, preferably toll-free, should be prominently displayed on your home page and on your “Contact Us” page.

2. Create a list of Frequently Asked Questions. Identify the top 5 &ndash 10 questions or complaints logged on your website and post them with answers. This will be a time saving convenience for customers and reduces your email/call volume. Amazon.com has one of the best FAQ sections I’ve seen on the web. When visitors click Help on .amazon.com, they are soon viewing a page of more than 50 frequently asked questions and answers. Visitors almost never have to contact Amazon.com directly for assistance.

3. Develop response standards. In 1998 I conducted an informal survey by shopping customer service departments on the Internet. In my survey, in which I logged complaints or posed questions, 60% of the companies didn’t even bother to respond. Of those that did respond, the average response time was 4.5 days. Today, e-commerce customers will not give you days to respond. They expect a response within hours. Determine your response targets and then line up systems and processes to deliver your goal. Keep in mind that your initial e-response should never be delivered more than 24 hours after the customer contacts you.

4. Dedicate staff to email response. Well-intentioned companies are failing customers miserably because their representatives are juggling too many tasks. Customer Care staff cannot effectively respond to high volumes of phone calls, postal mail and email complaints and maintain quality service standards. If your Customer Care Department is receiving at least 400 email inquiries/complaints monthly, you need at least one person dedicated to reviewing, researching and responding to email complaints and this needs to be their primary job.

Quality credentialing verification organizations (CVO’s) create an environment beyond simply generating credentialing reports for medical providers. A CVO with good customer service responds quickly to questions; has trained staff that is assigned to a particular client; can streamline the credentialing process; has good technology resources; and offers extra support, such as internal audits and tracking license renewals. An emphasis on customer service means that the CVO can supply substantive information and support to establish a true working relationship with a medical organization.

There are five areas of a CVO’s customer service to consider: flexible credentialing processes which can be adapted in response to client needs; a range of quality services; quick responses to clients; individual support; and solid technology practices. Although some service points, such as a fast response to questions, can seem small, these areas display the quality of the CVO, which will define the long-term relationship between the CVO and its clients.

Adapting credentialing services to client needs.

CVOs should be responsive to their clients’ needs. The CVO should be accredited by either accrediting organization: National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) or the Utilization Review Accreditation Councile (URAC) or comply with their credentialing standards. In addition, the CVO should add new credentialing standards for their clients and should also be able to adapt their credentialing processes by adding special criteria or using a subset of criteria. This flexibility includes making recommendations to streamline processes and working with clients to determine what they need rather than following a preset checklist.

Individualized support and quality controls.

Individualized service means that there is a dedicated representative for each client. There should be a known manager to handle difficult situations and an established route to lodge complaints. All personnel should be trained to perform credentialing reports according to the accrediting organization’s standards.

There should also be an established quality control system and regular internal audits for managing feedback, rewarding good service, and evaluating bad practice. The CVO should be able to supply a copy of their quality control policies and practices documentation. If they are accredited by NCQA or URAC, then there is a guarantee that these practices have been reviewed and audited and that their service meets industry standards.

High quality services.

Two attributes of quality work are timeliness and thoroughness. Good CVOs will return credentialing reports as quick as industry norms, meaning around 60 days for hospital standards (JCAHO) and 30 days for managed care standards (NCQA and URAC). The credentialing reports will also be complete &ndash no missing data or criteria and with full supporting documentation. CVOs should have an established maximum number of requests they make to organizations for information and other avenues of finding information. Problem files should be brought immediately to the review committee’s attention. All of these practices work together to make a thorough credentialing report.

Additionally, good CVOs offer services such as tracking licensing dates and requirements (expirables) and disciplinary actions by various organizations (surveillance); consulting and training classes about credentialing processes; and support during internal audits.

Quick response to client contact.

Good CVOs respond to questions within 24 hours. They should answer any questions fully and as quickly and directly as possible rather than postponing or transferring them.

Technology resources.

CVOs should be using the most recent technology, such as databases, paperless credentialing, and web access with adequate security and access control.

Customer service is key to creating a good relationship between CVOs and medical organizations. Quality control policies, flexible credentialing processes and criteria, quick response time, good technology use, and responsiveness to questions and requests are five major areas where a CVO develops good customer relations. All these areas mean the CVO is responsive &ndash that the CVO is paying attention to individual customer needs and consistently doing its best to meet them.

How much value do you place on your customers? Let’s face it…without customers you have no sales…no profit…no business. Yeah, they’re the keyplayers in the marketing game. In other words, wise marketers keep their finger on the pulse of their clientelle. The know what makes them tick and how to keep them coming back time and time again. Here are a four ways you can keep your customer’s happy and loyal.

Make Customer Satisfaction # 1

Hey, forget about how many sales you make in a day, and look at how many customers you satisfied today! Every satisfied client means repeat sales. Yep, it might be a product that they purchase over and over again, or it may mean different products they pick up every time they walk through the doors. Heck, it might mean both repeat products and added impulse products as well.

Happy customers talk to their friends, and friends trust what their friends have to say about a business. Yep, even though it’s an opinion…they’ll take it as the gospel and set a lot of stock in it. Keep your customers saying good things about your products and services…it’ll pay off.

Deliver…Don’t Promise More Than You Can Handle

No one likes to be let down. Yeah, that means your customers will be happier if you promise less, but deliver more. Think about this…happy customers tell 3 of their friends about you, but disappointed customers gripe to 11 friends about what you didn’t do right. Yep, it pays to keep your word!

What about those unhappy clients? Deal with them as quickly as possible and do what it takes to keep them happy. Yeah, you might lose a little profit today, but think of it like this…if you keep them on your side they’ll come back again and again - and so will their friends.

Keep an Element of Surprise Alive

Have you ever gone shopping and at the counter discovered the item you purchased was on sale? Yeah, it feels great to save money you weren’t expecting to save! Along with your advertised sales, slip in some unadvertised specials. Your customers will look forward to the unexpected savings they encounter at the cash register.

Think about this…would you rather shop at the new store across town where the clerks are unfriendly and you’re not sure of the quality of the product when you’ve already got a good thing going on somewhere else? We all have a zone of comfort and are creatures of habit. When your customers are in the habit of smiling every time they walk out of your door, they’ll be less likely to experiment with an uncertain competitor.

Tell Your Customers You Appreciate Their Business

We all enjoy the warm fuzzy feeling that comes with being appreciated. Yep, a smile…a thank you…a pat on the back…they all leave us feeling great. How can you send your customers out of the store with the knowledge that they are valuable to you? Just say it…I appreciate your business! Say it with a special sale…by letting them in on a new product or service your are adding just for them…or simply with a smile and heartfelt thanks.

Think about this…how do you feel when you know your opinion counts? Yeah, we all like to think people respect our thoughts and ideas. When your customers know you put a lot of stock in what they think of your business, they’ll be more likely to talk it up to their friends and family. Reward them every time they share their opinion about your business. Set up a special referral reward program and watch the news travel.

Invest in your customers…the dividends are great!

Consumers will spend millions of dollars on electronics this year.

Now we all know the frustration that can quickly set in if the new piece of electronic equipment you purchased doesn’t work as described out of the box. That situation can be even more frustrating if there are children involved.

There generally are two types of issues that come into customer support centers. First is a standard “not working properly” problem where a piece of equipment doesn’t work as it’s supposed to. For example, you purchase a new digital video disk player and the movie won’t play.

The other type of issue is missing parts or accessories when the manufacturer doesn’t include all the necessary components in the package. For example, your new personal computer does not have the power cord.

These types of issues are inconvenient to the consumer but are often very easily resolved. Consumers can take several steps to prepare themselves before they call customer support:

* Research. We’re all eager to get the new electronic gizmo up and running, and we sometimes forget to look over the manual. There are plenty of basic problems that consumers encounter that are often addressed in the user’s manual or on companies’ Web sites.

* Information. Make sure you have all the information the customer support representative is going to need. Having everything in front of you will speed up the process. This information is the real basics like make, model and serial number of the equipment.

* History. You should be prepared to detail what happened before you encountered the problem or explain previous issues the device may have had that were resolved.

* Timing. If you don’t want to wait on hold, the best time to call customer support is in off-peak hours. Typically, call centers deal with their heaviest volumes in the morning and late afternoon. If you can call during late morning or early afternoon, you’ll get quicker assistance.

Finally, remain calm. Take a deep breath before you pick up the phone. Remember, the customer support agents are there to help you, so having a friendly tone and attitude will make your experience a better one.

Bill Owens is vice president for service and support for IBM. - NU

This guy doesn’t need you, but you might need him. He’s good. He knows it. He’s prepared to tell you how to do it. His “wisdom” is laid out for you to see. Make of him what you will, thing is, he’s made it in a big way.

Sometimes we need to be told outright what’s going on, how to do something, how to make it, without huge amounts of hype, gloss and flash and he does just that.

He calls himself The Rich Jerk. He’s got a viewpoint that’s straight down the line, calls it as it is and doesn’t care if you don’t act. He’s successful and he knows it. He knows how to make money online and he’s making his method available. Now you’ve got a chance to take advantage of it.

If you’re serious about making money online you really have to look at all of this. The information is condensed to the essentials. Clear, detailed and precise information about multiple successful strategies that’s he’s used and is still using today.

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“Try my strategies for 60 days. If you aren’t successful, I’ll tell you that you are in the wrong profession, I’ll question your IQ, but I’ll also give you a 100% refund. I only require that you let me know which strategies didn’t work for you, and how you used them. See my FAQ page for complete details. If I see that you’re REALLY pathetic, I masy even help you personally”. The Rich Jerk

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Fast and easy retrieval of you information is critical to your business success. And your documents, both on hard drive and paper, are the lifeblood of your organization. So it makes sense to preserve them for any eventuality. But should you try to do it yourself of find a professional firm to do it for you? Read on to find out.

Document Storage: Why You Should Outsource

Fast and easy retrieval of you information is critical to your business success. And your documents, both on hard drive and paper, are the lifeblood of your organization. So it makes sense to preserve them for any eventuality.

But whether your documents are on paper or in electronic form, your data can still be at the mercy of natural or man-made disaster or hard-drive failure. Such loss could cripple your business so it’s essential to have an effective back-up system in place. So how to do it?

Transferring you paper documents and hard-disk data to optical media is the first step. This allows easy retrieval of any information you need. With an efficient indexing system, just pop the disc into the drive and voila. No need to search through dusty storerooms and cart out heavy boxes.

Once you’ve decided to go ahead and backup your critical data, you have to decide whether to do it yourself or outsource to a professional company.

It really depends on the volume of documents you have to work with. But considering the importance of your company information, it makes sense to bring in a professional firm for the following reasons.

Firstly, they’re up-to-date on the latest and most effective methods of data storage. For example, perhaps you’ve already backed up some of your hard disk data to standard Cd’s. After all, they last forever, right? Unfortunately not. Some statistics on the shelf life of recorded Cd’s might shock you. Unless you take great care, standard CD/DVDs can degrade to the point of being unreadable in as little to 2-5 years. Professional data storage firm will be knowledgeable of the latest media such as the latest Kodak Gold discs which offer effective lifespan of 80-300 years.

Another important reason to outsource to a document imaging solution provider is that their staff are trained and knowledgeable experts in data conversion. Scanning workflow, for example, is a complicated undertaking, especially if large volumes of documents and deadlines are involved. This really needs an expert’s touch. Solution providers also offer data entry services to key-in important meta data from documents to create a searchable database of your paper.

Then professional firms have the state-of-the-art equipment to handle any kind or size of job. The resulting efficiencies lower production costs which leads to lower costs for you. Buying, installing such hardware yourself and then training you own staff in its use would be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming.

In addition, a solution provider will manage your entire document conversion project. This means there’s no need to tie-up any of your own resources in the conversion process. Such projects can be complex, requiring needs assessment, planning and estimating before the actual scanning begins. And the imaging company’s staff can work on-site on your own premises so there’s no need to your confidential documents to leave the building.

Considering the inestimable value of your documents, you need to entrust your project to a reputable firm. Look for one with a proven track-record of working for blue chip clients which should include vertical market expertise. If you deal with large format documents, make sure the firm employs technicians familiar with architectural or engineering drawings and who can effectively handle such jobs.

ew York Document Scanning, a global outsourcing company, is headquartered in New York, NY with offices in Kolkata, India and provides scanning services and data entry at some of the best prices found anywhere. Get free quotes for all your document scanning needs.

Not many would be aware of this, but the government has legislation for health and safety of people at work. The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 requires the employers to have proper health and safety management systems at work. The Act makes provision for securing the health of people at work, welfare and safety of the employees including the people who are not directly employed by the company like contractors and visitors.

While the law exists and it is mandatory for the employers to follow the guidelines, it is also necessary for the employees to know about their rights and duties regarding their own health & safety. Employers should conduct a General Risk Assessment to ensure the health and safety of their employees.

To create awareness about health & safety at work, the employers should have proper employee induction & health and safety training programs whenever new employees join the company. The induction program should educate the employees about the safety standards, procedures and policies of the company.

The basics of health and safety at work start with having proper First Aid. Every organization big or small must have proper First Aid Kits and systems. While at work, people can suffer an injury or fall ill. It is very important for the company / firm to have proper arrangements so that the employees can receive immediate medical attention. A person who has received proper training for administering First Aid should be appointed for this.

Fire safety is of prime importance at work. The potential hazards and sources of fuel, oxygen & ignition etc should be identified. Proper Fire detection and warning systems should be in place to prevent any mishaps. Fire extinguishers should be kept ready in different places throughout the building. There should be exit doors and escape routes in the building. Electrical equipments and wiring should be proper and checked at regular intervals. The employees should be given training on dealing with fire emergencies. Fire drill and Fire Risk Assessment should be done at regular intervals.

Stress at work place is common. But if it starts affecting the health of the employee then it is a problem. Employers should identify the factors causing excessive stress to the employees. A stress risk assessment should be done to identify the potential hazards and risks. Proper measures should be adopted to control excessive employee stress. Employees should be given proper training, support and care to help them prevent & relieve the stress.

Employers should follow the norms of the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations. They should assess the health risks faced by the employees from the chemicals or substances used at workplace. Proper control measures should be adopted and the same should be followed by the employees. Training and information about the health risks should be provided to the employees.

The employers are also required to have proper policies for disability health & safety. Employees with cognitive, physical, sensory, ambulant and other disabilities have a right to proper arrangements and facilities at the workplace. There should be proper access, lighting, signage, seating arrangements for the disabled. Other employees of the company should also be sensitized about the same.

New and expectant mothers have a right to proper care at the workplace. The employers should identify the potential hazards to the mother as well as the baby while at work. The employers can offer alternative work, different or less work timings or paid leave to ensure the health and safety of the mother and baby. Similarly, arrangements should be made for young persons at work and lone workers. A general risk assessment should be done for the security, health and safety of such employees.

It is important that the employer as well as the employee is aware of the rights and duties pertaining to health and safety at workplace. For details you can take the services of a health and safety consultant or just search for “health and safety at work” on any major search engine.