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An investment property is becoming a more popular choice for those seeking to create a revenue stream and also achieve capital growth through the investment property value increasing over time.

This can also be part of a strategic financial plan and should be considered by investors as part of a diversified portfolio. When considering an investment purchase you should also source the best investment loan structure for you. With any investment your investment loan can make a difference to your return. If you are negatively geared through an investment loan the cost to you of that investment loan can effectively be reduced.

If you purchase wisely, once there has been capital growth in the investment property over time there is the option of using this built up equity to move into another investment property, take out another investment loan and thereby continue to further increase your investment portfolio.

Aside from the traditional belief that tax advantages are the key driver for taking out an investment home loan there are many other factors to consider when purchasing an investment property.

Below are some key points for your reference, by using these points as a guide in conjunction with a detailed discussion with your accountant or financial planner you will be in a better position to ensure your investment purchase and investment loan is a financially sound decision for the long term.

In relation to property enquiry therefore, you should consider:

* What is the infrastructure like in the area? Are there enough schools, hospitals, shopping centres, doctors and dentists, freeways or main roads?

* What has the historical capital growth been in the area over the last two decades?

* Is the local council planning to increase housing density or add a new road to increase traffic flow?

* If you are purchasing in a new subdivision, are there more new land blocks and house and land packages planned nearby. New developments can impact on the value of your home as purchasers often prefer a new home to one that might be 2 or 3 years old in the same area.

* What length of time will the investment be held? And will this tie in with planned infrastructure development which will in turn accelerate capital growth?

There has been recent press to suggest that investment and home property values in Sydney have a potential capital growth of 18% over the next 3 years so buying off the plan as an investor may be an attractive option in the current market. If you find a good property development, suitable for investment, which has a completion date in say 2010 – 2011 then you can exchange contracts with either a 10% cash deposit or a deposit bond (as a guide the cost of a deposit bond of around $86500 for say settlement September 2011 will cost you approximately $9000- $9500 (significantly less than the interest you would pay over the period if you borrow $86,500 at current interest rates of 9% p.a). The general feeling is that direct investment into property as opposed to into managed property funds is a better way to go – you are in control of your investment and avoid the high management fees so often charged by share and property investment funds.

Do some research on the internet to see which areas have the greatest potential for capital gains – remember if you are looking for an investment property you should invest with your head not your heart. An investment property needs to be well located to transport and other facilities so that those renting can easily access these services.

When considering which investment loan would suit you best take the following into account:

1. Does the investment loan allow you to split it into a number of investment loan accounts. This is a good feature to have in an investment loan because you are positioning yourself for the future – if you use the investment property at a later date to gear into another investment purchase then you can split the account so that the investment loan portion relating to the new purchase is clearly identified. This allows you, and your accountant, to easily track the costs associated with the new purchase.

2. If you use your home property (with an existing home loan) as security for the investment loan then it is imperative that you do not mix any home loan debt with your investment loan borrowings. The ATO in Australia requires you to apportion any additional repayments to a loan where the borrowings are “mixed”. You want to apply any additional repayments to your home loan before your investment loan. You are paying your home loan off in after tax dollars – whereas you can deduct the interest you are paying on your investment loan against the income form the investment property.

3. Does the investment loan allow you to capitalise interest? It is always a good idea to include a capitalising feature as a part of your investment loan to protect you against any unexpected costs in relation to the property. It also means that instead of subsidising the investment costs and interest shortfall on your investment loan you can capitalise these and make additional repayments to your non-deductible home loan debt.

4. If you have sufficient equity in your home then you may be better to consider a 100% + costs investment loan for the investment acquisition and use any savings you intended for the investment purchase to pay down your home loan debt.

If you consider all these points your investment loan will be working in your favour at all times.

Customer service representatives (CSRs)

Interact with customers to provide information in response to inquiries about products and services and to handle and resolve complaints. First point of customer contact for general inquiries like pricing, products, scheduling etc maintain business relation with clients by providing accurate service so as to promote customer loyalty.

CSRs are people employed by companies to serve as a direct point of contact for customers. In the 24/7 worlds today companies need to secure their customers receive an adequate level of service or help with their questions and concerns. Such customers may be individual consumers or other companies each with different needs. Many companies provide customer service to path of the telephone through call centers. The Customer service representatives interact with customers to provide information in response to inquiries about products or services. They also handle and resolve complaints and communicate with customers through a variety of means. Telephone is the most famous but increasingly customer service is supplied by e-mail. Faxes and regular mail parallelism and even a direct meeting can also be used by the CSR. Some customer service representatives handle general questions and complaints, whereas others particularize in a particular area.

Customer Service Representative is explain by the following points: –

1. Customer Services

“Good customer service is the lifeblood of any business.”

Excellent customer service is one of the few ways to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. Customers are satisfied or dissatisfied with the level of customer service provided by CSRs. Good customer service is the lifeblood of any business. You can offer promotions and slash prices to bring in as many new customers as you want, but unless you can get some of those customers to come back, your business won’t be profitable for long. Customer Services are increasingly changing the way customers interact with firms to create service outcomes. Good customer service can increase your customer loyalty rate, leading to greater profitability.

2. Customer Satisfaction

“No business can exist without customers.”

Customer Satisfaction may be measured directly by survey and expressed as a percentage, such as Percent of Customers Completely Satisfied. Providing good service in a pleasant manner and meeting the customer’s expectations is also known as Customer Satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is the fulfillment of customers’ requirements or needs.

Consider this, only 4% of all customers with problems complain. The average customer with a problem eventually tells 9 other people.

In other side, three types of relationship were identified:

1. Satisfaction-as-love

2. Satisfaction-as-trust

3. Satisfaction-as-control

Each responded to the same failure in different ways. Satisfaction-as-love customers had emotional bonds with the product category and thus reaffirmed their loyalty following the failure. Satisfaction-as-trust customers saw the service failure and inadequate recovery as a breach of the brand’s implied promise and thus excited the relationship. Satisfaction-as-control customers took charge of the situation, using their status to improve their situation and then defended the brand.

3. Customer loyalty

Multiple regression analysis assessed the impact on customer loyalty of four key constructs of relationship marketing: -

1. Trust,

2. Commitment,

3. Communication,

4. Conflict Handling.

These four variables have a significant effect and predict a good proportion of the variance in customer loyalty.

The stairs of Customer Loyalty shows you how to consciously shape a plan for developing your customer relationship skills in a more congruent manner and is a benchmark in fostering and promoting permanent customer relationships for businesses of all sizes.

4. Customer Orientation

There are seven keys that strongly indicate a customer orientation attitude:

• Thinking and talking about clients a lot

• Continually assessing your customers’ perceptions

• Resolving priority issues in favor of the customer

• Giving in, compromising, adding value for the customer

• Making amends to customers for poor treatment

• Employing a “whatever it takes” policy to satisfy special needs

• Redesigning processes, re-deploying resources and when they get in the way of service quality

5. Mass customization

Mass Customization is a way of building and selling products such that the product features are broken down and offered to the consumer as choices. Mass customization, in marketing, manufacturing, and management, is the use of flexible computer-aided manufacturing systems to produce custom output. Those systems combine the low unit costs of mass production processes with the flexibility of individual customization.

The flourish surrounding mass customization increased dramatically with the advent the Internet. Companies saw how e-commerce could allow an individual customer to tailor a product to his or her own specifications and then order it. The vision of mass customization seemed to promise manufacturers several benefits: They could offer service, achieve greater levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty, gather advance information on market trends, and reduce inventory levels.

So, what I learned from my research was delivering consistently good service quality is difficult but profitable for service organizations. In many services, quality occurs during service delivery, usually in an interaction between the customer and contact personnel of the service firm. So, that service quality is highly dependent on the performance of employees.

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