Today’s customer has the internet at their fingertips with their hands full of what you want-cash. How cheap and how fast can you deliver whatever product or service it is that they need or want? It seems that this is the only set of questions that matter to the consumers willing to part with their money these days. If you don’t meet their needs, it’s no problem; someone else is just a click away. It’s really that simple.

It all begins to feel a little bit like speed dating; almost as if they are picking the right relationship for a one night stand. What happened to meaningful relationships? Are ideals like romance, courtship, seduction and commitment a thing of the past? Is it really just all about price? Where is the loyalty in that? Has cheap become a deity to be worshiped?

Think about this: Imagine you show up at a speed dating event and proceed to take too long at each table, demand that things slow down and insist on long deep conversations-what would happen? You would be asked to leave because you’re gumming up the works. The same holds true for your business, make sure you’re giving your customer what THEY want and expect at this very moment. After their immediate need is understood and met, only then can you begin the process of relationship building, not before.

The conundrum is that cheap has its place, but odds are your business was never designed to withstand long periods of price cutting. You may still believe in value added and concepts like quality work and long term relationships. You might be old school and refuse to be sucked into the black hole of the price wars. After all, who can’t name a competitor that rose like the sun based on price only to burn out like a super nova when the sales slowed? Having said that, something feels out of whack-the old methods and beliefs are failing to deliver during this tough economic cycle and you are losing sales or worse yet, customers. What should you do?

The answer may lie in a hybrid of the two opposing points of view. In other words, if a product or service you offer becomes commoditized you only have one real option-sell that product or service based on price and adjust costs accordingly while seeking out new, more profitable products and/or service opportunities. You see, if you are a complete slave to either model, right or wrong, you are losing.

Make adjustments to cater to the speed daters, they have little time and want instant gratification. Also, don’t forget the relationship work; which takes time, effort, loyalty and sincere concern for the other party. The important point to remember is that a speed dating encounter could end up as a long term caring relationship! What you need is a speed dating plan that works its way into a relationship plan.

The answer is not simple; you need two sets of plans. The first step is to identify speed dating trends in your industry and adapt to that model quickly. At the same time you need to look for relationship opportunities and train your staff in the art of becoming a Professional Services Firm. Remember the old retailers’ adage-the profit is in the corners. In this case, the profit comes from identifying relationship opportunities and guiding your client away from the false god of cheap and into the power of working and trusting in you.

It is very important for a person who is new to online web services for speed dating to know how it functions and what kind of challenges they have to face while dating on line. You can always read reviews about an online dating website before you are registering with the site.

It is important to take some safety measures when you enter into such a sites where a large number of people from different backgrounds come and meet. There are some tips for safeguarding yourself.

The first and foremost is do not divulge any person information right away. Keep in mind that you are dealing with a stranger. You have just met him or her. There is no guarantee that what this person giving you is true information. A lot of people are registered with such websites to play games. What they want to get out of this is mere fun. They do not want to have any serious relationship. Most of such people will lie about their relationship status. So giving out your sensitive personal information like your phone number, residential and office addresses, full name, name of employer can be a biggest mistake. So avoid giving personal ads or details in the right begging as you are stranger to this person.

It is important to believe your gut feelings. Some times you get this intuition when things go wrong. When you feel the person you are talking on line is hiding something from you or lying, you might get that feeling. In this case it is better to discontinue chatting with this person. You do have a number of other options in the dating websites. Move on and continue your search for the right person. When you talk with a date with the help of text message, or a voice chat or even in personal meeting, you get an intuition and most of the time this feeling prove as true. So always listen to your inner voice.

It will be better if you stick to an online dating service which is paid. It is considered as more authentic. Most of the time, such sites do background check of the people registering with them. This ensures you a little more safety and privacy than the free dating services. In free dating services one do not need to provide any credit card or other valid details. This makes them ultimately to play games against naive people in the online websites.

You can use an anonymous email account in the beginning. Some dating services provide such email address to its members to safeguard their privacy. You can always use this alternative email instead of your regular one. You can use a nick name instead of giving your real name. These are some of the safety measures you can take when you go for an online dating. These measures can safeguard you to some extent.