911 Essay

911 Essay

Dan

Empathy: An Increasingly Critical Skill to Enhance Customer Experience

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The idea that feelings don’t belong in business is an old one whose time has passed. In the modern business world, the value of having empathy has never been higher. From customer service to sales to marketing, organizations are asking their personnel to “walk in their customer’s shoes” more than ever.

Any person within your organization that deals with customers, or even the public, has the ability to impact your company’s image and bottom line results. Empathy may not be something that everyone naturally possesses, but it is now considered an essential skill to enhance the customer experience.

What is Empathy?

Empathy is the ability to share and understand the feelings of another. It is the act of putting yourself in someone else’s shoes, usually the client, and seeing the issue from their point of view.

In a customer service scenario, empathy is the ability to take the interaction with a client to a more human level. Too many businesses believe that being empathetic equates to being agreeable. This isn’t necessarily the case. To have empathy means that you truly hear the other person while still representing your company’s values in the best way possible.

The Advantages of Empathizing in Business

Everyone has had a poor customer service experience at some point. What is true every time is that a person reaches out for help from a company is that they are looking to be heard and understood first. While a company can’t always provide the perfect solution, they can deliver empathy 100% of the time.

The benefits of doing this are enormous for both your clients and your business. Some of them include:

  • You solve more problems. While it’s not always the case, the truth is that having a better understanding of people will improve your company’s ability to address their issues.
  • Customers feel valued. Even if you have to say “no” to a customer, practicing empathy in every interaction is going to make them feel as if they’ve been heard and have value.
  • Higher conversions and referral rates. Clients who feel listened to are more likely to give you their business and give a positive review.
  • Greater innovation. A more open-minded approach to customer interactions also leads to more innovation within your business.

How to Teach the Critical Skill of Empathy

Empathy may come naturally to some, but not everyone has a background that emphasizes customer service or emotional intelligence. The good news is that this is a skill that can be taught.

Toast, a restaurant technology company, has a goal of employing people that have experience in the industry of its customer base. Even so, it also runs a “Toast in the Wild” program that takes sales and support staff into the field to experience its products working in a local restaurant. This is one way to build empathy with clients.

Aside from having staff use the product and immersing them in the industry, you can also teach empathy through stories. Keep a running catalog of your company’s greatest customer service success stories as well as some teachable moments. Be sure to paint a complete picture of the customer’s situation and the way that it was handled, good or bad.

When it comes to empathy in sales, it’s more important than ever that sales staff spend more time on customer homework. This means taking an empathetic approach to every interaction with each member of the client’s team, even if they aren’t the final decision-maker. This begins with the first contact through the close.

Where has the bar been set for your organization and its employee’s response to client issues? When a customer receives a human response to their problems instead of an uncaring or even hostile comeback, they are so appreciative that they will not only generating business, but they will also tell others about their exceptional experience.

4 Tips for Optimizing Your Ecommerce Lifestyle Business

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There are a lot of ecommerce stores out there that specialize in lifestyle products. You, however, believe that you offer products and services no one else does, and therefore consumers should turn to you. How do you let them know of your existence, though? How can you raise your voice over the online cacophony? If you want to draw new customers to your business and retain old ones, you are going to have to pay attention to the details. Here are a few ways to optimize your lifestyle brand.

Make your website beautiful and functional

Your website is the digital equivalent of a brick-and-mortar establishment’s physical space. You cannot adorn it with paintings and plants, but you can make the UI and UX design aesthetically pleasing and seamless. No one wants to have a challenging time navigating a website, so put in necessary efforts to improve how users will experience their time with you. Make sure it’s fast, too: slow loading times can have a significant influence on who stays and leaves your site.

Pay attention to the details when it comes to your product images and copy. Product descriptions should be intriguing, proofread, and paint a picture of what your merchandise would look like in someone’s life. Your photography can do something similar: because you are a lifestyle store that sells products people typically like to see and feel for themselves in-person, you can use pictures to fill this need and give them an idea of what using their orders would be like. Videos never hurt, too—they’ll enhance your legitimacy and put you ahead of your competitors.

Streamline the payment process

How annoying is it that when you are online shopping, the retailer requires you to enter information on multiple pages and maybe even create an account in order to purchase? You want to find your items, add them to your cart, enter payment information, and expect them on your doorstep in three to five business days. If you have to go out of your way just to pay for something, you might be inclined to find similar items somewhere else.

Do your best to streamline the payment process to avoid online cart abandonment. According to Baymard Institute, an average of 69.89 percent of virtual carts are abandoned amongst 40 other studies from major companies (like SaleCycle, Adobe, and IBM). Don’t make life hard for your customers. Make the transaction process simple and accept multiple forms of payment (such as wire transfers, eChecks, and Bitcoin).

Keep your brand consistent

Don’t spread yourself too thin. It’s tempting to appeal to as many people as possible, but being slightly good at multiple things won’t attract customers who prefer to go to businesses that are very good at one or a few things. Reflect your commitment to your niche in your branding, too—expert Carolina Rogoll says:

“Consistency pays out. Frequent exposure to the same brand identity and message helps increase brand recognition and awareness. If you have a well-defined and managed brand identity combined with messaging that’s compelling and executed consistently, your media investment will also have higher returns and go further in building the strength of your brand.”

You might be able to leverage your personal brand. If both your personal and business brands are intertwined with one another, what boosts one will hopefully prop up the other, but what drags one down will certainly do the same with the other. People like to do business with companies they know are run by people (as opposed to faceless corporations), so remind customers that you are, indeed, a person who wants them to have the best experience.

Make sure your products are high-quality

You would hopefully not be in business if you wanted to sell products that are anything other than high-quality. If you are using the drop shipping model and not making products yourself, however, the decision is not always up to you. To provide the best merchandise possible, you need to find the best drop ship lifestyle suppliers available.

Vet any manufacturer you consider partnering with. Are they ethical? What are their materials made of? What are their locations compared to your highest concentration of customers? If something goes wrong, customers will contact you, not them, which means you will need reliable allies to avoid damages to your brand and a world of headaches.

Lifestyle e commerce is a competitive landscape, but offering the best shopping experience possible will help distinguish you from the crowd and keep customers coming back. How will you optimize your online store?

4 Important Practice Tips for Guitar Beginners

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Many new guitarists often have a difficult time practicing. It may be that they’re overwhelmed with the number of chords they need to master or are simply feeling doubtful of themselves because of the lack of progress.

Having a great beginner-friendly guitar certainly does help in making practice sessions more productive and fun. In fact, it can even motivate you to pick it up even on days when you don’t feel like practicing at all.

If you’ve just started to learn to play the guitar, you can make your practice sessions more efficient and fulfilling by following these tips.

Make a schedule and stick to it.

Even if you have school, work or other commitments, you can surely allot at least 10 minutes for guitar practice. Take a look at your daily schedule and find time you can dedicate specifically for practice sessions. Be realistic about the time you have. Here’s a tip when making your practice schedule: A 10-minute daily practice is better than a 3-hour session on just one day of the week.

Have a mini goal for every practice session.

Every major goal has a set of mini goals you need to achieve. Mini goals for practice sessions can include something like ‘learning the E chord’ or ‘switching from the D chord to the A chord easily.’ Set your mini goals according to the amount of time you have for practice.

When you set smaller goals for your practice sessions, you will feel more accomplished at the end of the day. You will then become more motivated to practice so you can achieve other mini goals that add up to reaching your major goal.

You can monitor your progress by keeping a journal and writing down what you’ve accomplished for the day and how (like what exercises you did and if you used a metronome) and what you still need to work on. You can even make a more detailed practice log where you list down the number of sets and repetitions you made for each exercise and at what tempo. If you’re feeling down or doubtful, take a look at your journal or practice log and see how far you’ve come from Day 1.

Take slow baby steps.

We know you’re probably raring to go and memorize as many chords as you can in a day, but it’s more important to take things slow when you’re a beginner. Focus on getting things right the first time, because it can be harder to correct things like poor posture or grip later on. Concentrate on developing good technique when fretting and picking.

Starting slow also allows your fingers to develop the muscle memory needed to perform more complex drills and exercises. Again, focus on technique, not speed.

Take breaks.

Taking a breather every now and then is also important when learning to play the guitar. Let your fingers rest, stretch your back and arm muscles and listen to your favorite songs or a music podcast. Listening to music is a great motivator, giving you the drive to improve as you go on your journey toward becoming a truly skilled guitarist. Have fun practicing!

Exclusive Information to Aid you in Booking a Flight from Dubai to London

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Want to book a flight from Dubai to London, United Kingdom, but you are stranded on the best flight? Don’t worry, we will provide you with the information that might be of help to you by answering the following two questions. Exploring the world is obviously magical and a great experience that each one of us wishes to go through. However, the booking can be challenging. With the 37 airlines and 2382 flights weekly to London, getting the best available flight can be a nightmare.

Where to find and buy the cheapest flight to London from Dubai

The only best way that you can find a wonderful deal for your flight to London is through searching the multiple sites available. You are advised to run a search on the FareCompare as it searches various sites and their respective fare simultaneously. This process gives you the prices of all the flights and you will be able to choose the lowest among them. Ignore the myth that cheap flights are equal to bad experiences while flying.

Airlines are known to adjust their flight fares from time to time and therefore, FareCompare advises you to book your flight from Dubai to London on Saturdays, Tuesdays and Wednesday when prices are usually low as compared to other days of the week.

There are various airports in Dubai you can book your flight from but the most common airports to departure from are Dubai International airport (DXB) and Sharjah International airport­­ (SHJ). The comfort and services offered by DXB are excellent. Although Wi-Fi is sketchy in parts around the airport, it is free. Regardless of the airline you choose, all flights from Dubai to London must take more than four hours, you are served with a free meal.

You can also book for swimming, gym session, Jacuzzi, or massage service at the fantastic health club, usually referred to as G-Force. One can touch down at various points in London; Heathrow (LHR), Gatwick (LGW,) and London City (LCY.)

How much does a flight from Dubai to London cost?

Comparing different airlines, the average cost of the flight is AED 1,304.

Conclusion

Looking for a flight from Dubai to London is made easy and convenience by use of Expedia. It allows you search through all the airlines and settle on a great and affordable flight. Also, you will also be able to get the perfect time and date for travel.

Tips For Choosing Wedding Chair Covers

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One of the elements we think of that will look great in conjunction with the tables are the chairs, as we usually want to match the type of theme of the wedding, that’s why we give you several options that you will love.

Have you thought about how many chairs you need to use at a wedding?

No doubt your response will be based on the type of reception you will be holding, whether it is an intimate ceremony or a mass one, it will always be necessary and essential to receive your guests.

Nowadays, simple things have taken hold, and without a doubt, the scissor chair is a fashion for receptions and ceremonies, and you can rent it in white, colour, rustic or wooden.

As with wedding dresses or costumes, you can find a host of original wedding ideas adapted to the style you want and fantastic. Moreover, as far as the chairs go, they couldn’t be less. The seats you decide to include in your wedding stage will be an essential part of the furniture. However, they will not only be part of the decoration…. they will also be the place where those who received your wedding invitations should feel comfortable during the ceremony and the banquet.

Which chairs will best fit your “I do”?

Although in many occasions it will be the place of celebration itself that will inspire you by giving your ideas for wedding decorations and offering you elements such as chairs, choosing yours will give a unique touch to the stage. You will find them in various shapes, styles, materials, and colours, and you will have to choose the ones that best match the style of the link and the rest of the stage.

Below we give several examples of trends in chairs, so you can choose the one that best suits your style and wedding theme.

  • Classic design

The Tiffany or Chiavari chair is a design widely used in North American receptions, the design of these chairs comes from an Italian village and has survived since 1807 to date, and never goes out of fashion because it is already a classic at weddings, and can be found in black, wood, silver, gold and white.

  • Design Versailles

It has a similar design to the Tiffany chair, but with some differences in colour, although the white is much more elegant.

  • Minimalist Design

The Ghost chair, designed by Philippe Starck, has become an icon of the 21st century, as it is a reinterpretation of Louis XVI’s chair but with materials such as transparent polycarbonate, a lightweight design that fascinates and contrasts with art deco decoration.

Chair Cover Depot takes care that your wedding has the best and most beautiful wedding chair covers so that your special day is part of unforgettable, say to recreate, it’s your time, take advantage of it.

Finally, we suggest that you avoid implementing the typical chairs with a cover, since in addition to having bad quality, they are usually made of plastic and have a cover to cover the material, they are not fashionable, and they impoverish the space of the ceremony.

Let’s remember that a good quality chair makes the difference between an elegant or a traditional decoration.

What kind of chair style would you choose?

Sono Bello Can Help You To Win The War Against Cellulite

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Oh, Cellulite. Don’t take it personally, but you’re among the things women hate the most. Still, you keep showing up in places you’re not welcome. Finally, though, there are cosmetic treatments specifically designed to get you evicted — they’re called Venus Freeze and Legacy. And these treatments, offered by companies such as Sono Bello — which highlights them on LinkedIn and other social media platforms — have received rave results so far.

Be warned.

If you’re tired of battling cellulite, you may want to take advantage of Venus Freeze and Venus Legacy, advanced non-invasive treatments specifically designed to boost your natural figure’s appearance. They combine magnetic pulses and radio frequency to decrease cellulite and to tighten and smooth your skin. The best part? You can effortlessly, tighten, shape, and trim your body’s problem areas in just five sessions.

When you get to your cosmetic surgeon’s office, you can make yourself comfortable on a deluxe treatment bed. Then, the provider of your treatment will glide a Venus applicator over your target area. That’s it. The treatment will cause new elastin and collagen to develop, thus helping to further shape the target area and give you the suppler skin you desire.

With a little boost from Venus, you can feel good about your figure for the first time in a while — or maybe the first time in forever. You can walk away from the procedure with natural-looking results that make you feel proud of your body and comfortable with wearing clothes you would never have gone near before the procedure.

A cosmetic surgeon can give you more information about what these advanced treatments involve and why they have become so in demand in recent years. Finally, the battle with cellulite is coming to an end for many women, and you could be included in this number, too.

10 Tips For Finding Great Venues For Your Next Business Meeting In Manchester

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For professionals, if neither a café nor a restaurant is an option, it is quite tricky to find a decent place to meet up for business purposes.

There are countless websites for you to seek a great space for business appointments, but too many options might make it difficult for you to find the right place.

Below are 10 tips that will help you make the right choice to prepare for your next successful business meeting:

Lighting

Lighting is a decisive factor to make sure people in the meeting are alert. It is also wise to find a meeting point with natural lighting to help reading the printed documents clearly. To find a proper option, Venuefinder is a good platform that will help shorten your time when searching for meeting rooms in Manchester.

Size

The size of the meeting room decides the intensity of the meeting. If there is a group of 10 people holding a meeting, then it is important to think about how to fit in all of them to engage the process of conversations.

Decoration

Apart from the size, the decoration of the meeting room also decides the mood of the discussants. Imagine how it changes people’s moods when they see a Georgian terrace with ornate fireplaces and high ceilings.

Package

Business meetings can be boring and long. If it is a full-day meeting, then usually the convenors will arrange meals in between meetings. Considering it might be a meeting that crosses all three meals in a day, then it has to be three different meeting rooms with three different meals, creating a sense of freshness that will help to accomplish great business deals.

Spacing

Not only does size affect the quality of meetings, but the spacing is another factor beyond the size of the meeting room to take into consideration. A small room can elicit a sense of space if it has a minimalist setting; a big room can seem to be crowded if it is filled with art installations and paintings.

Architecture

Needless to say, business also means luxury. The design and architecture of the meeting room can create a high-class feeling. It offers a more isolated feeling from hustle and bustle, prompting a better sense of decision-making.

Location

The location decides the punctuality of discussants. The closer it is to the city centre, the more likely it is for all discussants to be punctual.

Food

Meetings require energy. Making a deal after enjoying gourmets served by a qualified chef is a sheer depiction of altitudes. With good food, any business meeting is guaranteed to go well.

Colour

The right combinations of colours of the meeting rooms dictate the tone of the meeting. Warm colours like beige and red facilitate a friendly deal; cool colours like blue and grey simulate a hard-core deal.

Facilities

Like the tip on the package, facilities are crucial before and after the meetings. Sometimes, the real deal happens before the meeting even begins, or, if there is no deal during the meeting, then a follow-up event will make it work.

Startup Business Loans

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New company credits are an extraordinary method to dispatch a fruitful business. Tragically they are some of the time the hardest to get from loaning organizations. Cashfloat on demand New company advances are one of only a handful couple of territories that even the Private venture Organization don’t offer to aid and this turns into a noteworthy obstacle to banks and credit associations making this sort of advance accessible.

The Private venture Organization is an office of the national government with a particular order to help independent company in America. It gives a great part of the subsidizing to business credits made by banks as assurances for these advances. In the event that an obtaining business defaults on a business credit or goes bankrupt the Independent venture Organization will advance in to take care of the bank’s expenses.

In any case, with regards to new company credits, the organization tells banks and independent companies that they are without anyone else. That obviously does nothing to console the banks who are sufficiently anxious about loaning fledging organizations any of their stored gold and it underpins the banks’ own particular tendency to not give new company credits. Keeping in mind the end goal to get endorsement for new company credits the banks will typically require an individual certification from the entrepreneur or a promise of an insurance resource for secure the advance.

Meeting those conditions will just get a business to a respectable starting point with the banks as far as new company advances. After this underlying audit the banks will nearly look at the strategy for success of the forthcoming business borrower and need to be persuaded that the business has a fantastic opportunity to prevail before give financing as new company credits. What’s more they will probably survey the individual financial record and records of the entrepreneur to guarantee that their record does not give any potential peril hints.

The most ideal way is get new company advances is likely not through banks or credit associations by any stretch of the imagination. It is significantly less demanding to get cash from companions or family on the off chance that they have the budgetary ability to help. Another road for new company credits is to acquire accomplices or financial specialists who trust that the business bodes well and need to partake in the incomes that will be made. A third place to search for new company credits is in the neighborhood business network.

There are regularly effective specialists who need to help new organizations to begin and they might be a hotspot for new company credits or they might have the capacity to give references or referrals to individuals who can. There’s no damage or loss of face in requesting assistance from these individuals. Indeed, even the best among them has presumably been turned down for new company advances before and a significant number of them will give somewhat back to help the newcomer on the square begin in the business world.

How To Drive Traffic To Your Engagement Platform

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Social media platforms are immensely popular these days for a good reason. Based on a study, 92% of small business owners believe that social media is an important component of marketing their business. Aside from providing the fastest way to communicate with friends and loved ones around the globe, it is also an avenue for marketers to establish genuine engagement. The digital age takes marketing to a whole new level and is essential for success in small business.

In the past, the first thing that comes to mind when talking about marketing is pitching a sale. Today’s marketing approach dramatically changes for the better. As many prospects turn to social media to obtain valuable information about a product or service, having an active engagement platform is important. However, using social media marketing to drive traffic to your website does not guarantee promising results. You will still need sure-fire techniques to increase website traffic by using engagement platforms.

Social Media for Business

Many businesses have realized the potential of social media in tapping into their target audience. Some of the most popular social media platforms include Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Pinterest, and Google+. Each of these platforms offers different things. This is why as a business owner, you need to know what you should focus on.

The first thing to keep in mind when identifying your target is to research the demographics. This is essential because it helps you to analyze whether the platform you are using suits your buyer personas. In choosing your engagement platform, you will also have to set clear goals. What is your objective in driving traffic to your engagement platform? Is it simply to increase your followers?

Drive Traffic To Your Website Via Social Media

  1. Create a complete profile

Your business profile tells your prospects about your products and services. The information you provide is critical to increasing your engagement. If your audience sees that you are offering what they need, it will be easy for them to hit like or follow. The type of content you share matters. This is why adding backlinks is important.

If you are going to use multiple social media platforms, make sure you include a link to your website on all of your profiles. Backlinks serve as an overview of what you do and what your business is all about.

  1. Share interesting and compelling content

Your website may have tons of great content, but without sharing them, your audience will never know your business has more to offer. Your social media platforms allow you to promote your blog content. Never underestimate the power of likes and shares because a great post can go viral and convert leads into sales.

You can promote both original and curated content. The idea of sharing content on social media is to let your audience know that your page is active and you genuinely engage with your customers. Use tools that automatically publish your blogs such as Buffer and Hootsuite. You can also schedule your posts based on your preference.

  1. Enable content sharing option

If audience shares your content, it is an indicator that they are reading it. Make it easier for your readers to share your content by embedding a tool for social sharing. These tools will also give you insights on the number of shares you earned by each blog post. You build trust by making information available to your prospects and existing customers.

Sharing your content also increases the possibility of getting leads. Your target audience can attract other prospects especially if you crafted an engaging content that people can relate to.

  1. Promote post when your readers are active

Timing is everything when it comes to sharing your blog content. This is why social media managers create calendars to schedule their post based on the time where they can get many hits. Knowing the peak time helps you to drive more engagements. If you want to drive traffic to your website through social media, be active when your prospects are online. You can figure the best time to share your content by using tools that provide information about the time of day your prospects are active.

  1. Engage with your target audience

It is not enough that you share your blog content because you will need to engage directly with your readers as well. Consistent engagement answers questions and gets feedback. Direct engagement also improves customer experience. You also leave an impression on your audience that you are regularly managing your page and you are willing to solve their problems. Use relevant hashtags, respond to comments that mention your business and contribute to online communities.

For many business owners, implementing these social media strategies to drive website traffic may be daunting. You need help from SEO experts to know which audience you should target and what strategy yields desirable results. Learn how omegaseo.co can generate a steady flow of traffic to your website. We tailor our services to the individual needs of our customers. We do not offer “one size fits all” solution because we believe that each customer’s needs are unique.

How To Style A Smart Casual Outfit For A Man And Woman

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If you’ve been invited to an upcoming event which has been promoted as having a smart casual dress code, simply continue reading to discover a foolproof guide to styling a chic, smart casual outfit.

How to style a smart casual outfit for a man and woman: A handy guide to dressing appropriately for a smart casual event.

How to style a smart casual outfit for a man:

Men have two safe options when it comes to choosing pants for a smart casual outfit. Men can opt for a tidy pair of dark blue or black jeans or a pair of neutral, slim cut chinos. Just be sure to choose a pair of pants which don’t feature any rips or loose threads.

Next pair your pants with a crisp shirt or a polo-style shirt and a classic leather belt. If it’s cold out, make sure to layer a casual linen blazer or a stylish leather jacket with your smart-casual ensemble.

In order to take your outfit to the next level, make sure to wear a classic silver or gold wrist watch and to pair your outfit with a smart pair of dress shoes, brogues or desert boots.

Lastly, don’t make the mistake of wearing a tie or cufflinks to a smart casual event as both items are more suited to business events or more formal events, rather than to smart causal events.

How to style a smart casual outfit for a woman:

Women have even more options when it comes to stylish a smart casual outfit than men. As an example, while women can choose to wear black or white skinny jeans as part of a smart casual outfit, women can also choose to wear a knee-length dress or a maxi dress to a smart casual event.

If you feel the most confident in a pair of well-fitted jeans, simply pair your dark wash skinny jeans with a shirt or blouse and a cardigan or blazer. You may even want to consider adding a silk scarf to your outfit, to look a little more polished.

When it comes to shoes you’ll also find yourself spoilt for choice as women can get away with wearing classy sandals, ballet flats, wedges or high heels to a smart casual event. If you plan on wearing a dress to a smart casual event, you may want to opt for wedge style heels over stilettos to ensure that you don’t turn up to your upcoming event looking overdressed.

When it comes to jewelry, opt for classic pieces such as a tennis bracelet, a silver charm bracelet or a gold locket. All of which will instantly elevate your smart casual outfit to the next level. If you love wearing earrings opt for classic gold, silver or pearl studs which look classy without detracting attention from the rest of your outfit.

Hopefully, after reading the smart casual style guide which is listed above, you’ll have no trouble putting together a stylish smart casual outfit which you’ll be confident wearing to your next smart casual event. If you’re not sure where to start, Chums has a large selection of smart casual clothing for both men and women. #SmartCasualCovered