Business

Johnson Funding and Harrison Funding Won’t Help With Your Budget

Published

6 years ago

January 3, 2021

Harrison Funding and Johnson Funding may be running a debt consolidation scam according to multiple personal finance sites. Harrison Funding has begun flooding the market with personal loan, debt consolidation and credit card relief offers in the mail with the website My Johnson Funding. The problem is that the terms and conditions are at the very least confusing, and possibly even suspect.

The interest rates are so low that you would have to have near-perfect credit to be approved for one of their offers. Best 2020 Reviews, the personal finance review site, has been following Harrison Funding, Johnson Funding, Taft Financial, Georgetown Funding, Credit 9 and others.

The holidays are just around the corner, and they bring with them lots of festivities and joy. Another, not so fun thing that accompanies the holidays is the urge to spend. Statistics show that the average consumer easily spends $1000 or even more on the holidays.

The issue here is, if you’re swiping your credit card or taking some money out of a savings account to pay for all the decorations, presents and everything else, you are likely to find yourself in a lot of extra debt by the start of 2021 and in need of credit card consolidation.

Don’t worry,though; your wonderful Christmas shall go on!

The best way to enjoy your holiday season to the maximum without having to worry about future debt is by making a holiday budget and following it to the THere is a step-by-step guide to creating the perfect holiday budget that will make sure you have a merry Christmas without falling in debt. You don’t want to end up in a position where you don’’t take out a loan because you don’t qualify.

1. Determine the Total Amount You Can Spend

The very first step should always be to estimate just how much you can afford to spend this holiday season so you don’t . Only then can you create a reasonable budget and start purchasing the gifts.

To estimate your total spending amount, be sure to consider all the expenses of the holiday season. It should generally include the money you will spend on:

Gifts for your family, friends and coworkers.
Wrapping paper for the gifts.
Any holiday cards and postage.
Travel costs if you’re flying to be with family.
Decorations for your tree.
Entertainment for your holiday guests.
Food if you’re hosting Christmas dinner or a party.

An excellent rule to follow is to set aside approximately 1.5% of your total annual salary for your holiday budget. This is around two weeks’ worth of income. Your total budget for gifts should be no more than half of this amount, which is around one week’s pay.

2. Figure Out Who You’re Buying For

Now that you know how much you can spend in total, it’s time to figure out who you’ll be spending money on. Buying gifts randomly and then deciding who you can give them to will often leave you with extra stuff lying around.

To avoid this, create a proper list of all the people in your life that you want to buy a present for this holiday season. Then, set up a points system instead of having a specific dollar amount for each gift. This will allow you flexibility in picking out the gifts and make your Christmas shopping a lot easier.

For example, you can give 3 points for immediate family members and best friends, 2 points for close friends and dear cousins, 1 point for everyone else like coworkers or distant relatives.

Add up the total points, and then divide it by your gifting budget to find the money to spend per point. Now, you can easily multiple it by the number of points to find out how much to spend on each person. You can also consider redistributing the points if you feel like you aren’t giving enough to certain people.

The most crucial factor to remember is that you stay within your budget, no matter what.

3. Create a Proper Shopping Plan

Once you know how much you can spend on each relative or friend, it’s time to make a solid shopping plan. Do your research and lookup online stores before heading to the mall. You can often find exclusive holiday sales or discounts online that may not be available in-store. It will help you cut back on your expenses and perhaps spend on new clothes for a holiday party or a bigger tree.

4. Try DIY-ing Memorable Gifts

Remember, gifts of time are way more special than gifts of money. You can show your family and friends how much they mean to you by setting aside some time over the weekend to DIY a few unique gifts.

Homemade gifts are highly personalized and more memorable than anything you buy off the counter. After all, you know what your best friends would like better than any retailer or mall shop. Look up videos on YouTube or search for DIY gift ideas on Pinterest to help you out here.

Some Tips To Adjust Your Budget

You might find yourself a little short on money when you start buying gifts and decorations. Here are a few quick tips you can follow to adjust your budget and still have a good holiday.

Sell Unwanted Things

If you need to give your holiday spending budget a boost, don’t reach out for your savings! Instead, consider de-cluttering your closet or storage space and take out all the things you don’t need. Things like tools, clothes, collectibles, electronics, and home goods can fetch you a fair price on Craigslist. You can even have a little garage sale for all these items to increase your holiday spending a little.

Stop Yourself from Indulging

A good practice to follow, especially a few months before the holiday season, is to cut down on indulging. Instead of grabbing your morning coffee from the local Starbucks and going to the movies every weekend, try to make your coffee at home and stay in every now and then. These expenses may not seem like much, but over a few months, you’ll find yourself saving up an impressive amount.

The Final Words

There you have it! All the steps you need to follow to stay within budget and not end up with stressful debt over the holidays. If you need further help or guidance, consider talking to a credit and debt counsellor. They will help you create your budget and offer useful solutions to get you out of debt ASAP.

Business

Ipsos Helps Brands Understand How They Get Customer Experience Wrong & Why It’s Costing Them Millions

Published

4 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Matthew Wiles

For brands looking to succeed in the modern business ecosystem, the customer experience (CX) is not something companies can afford to ignore. CX is a direct driver of revenue, loyalty, and growth for organizations.

Ipsos, one of the world’s leading market research firms, helps brands understand that failing to focus on the customer experience can lead to lost sales, which in turn can translate to not only millions in lost revenue but also lost trust and credibility in the market.

How brands still get CX wrong

“The customer decision and desire to do business with brands directly affect the bottom line,” says Brad Christian, Chief Commercial Officer at Ipsos – Experience Practice.

Customer experience may sound like a simple concept, but many brands still get it wrong. CX goes beyond surveys and feedback. Leaders who fail to connect feedback in a meaningful way to goals such as retention, repeat visits or purchases, advocacy, and operational performance fail to deliver on their service promises. The emotional and functional disconnect can spell trouble for brands. The most polished advertising campaigns cannot make up for a frustrating customer interaction or a promise that a business cannot fulfill.

According to Ipsos’s internal research, many customers today see service as too automated and impersonal. More than half report that their experience is worse than promised.

These findings don’t just result in disappointed buyers. They result in lost customers, negative feedback, and a long-term impact on the business as a whole.

“Brands have to manage the entire customer experience across each and every touchpoint,” explains Christian.

Poor CX can be expensive

Executives can often underestimate how expensive a history of poor CX can be. Global losses can reach into the billions while leaders wonder what went wrong. In an age of rapid social media communication, a single negative interaction can spell disaster for a company, leading to reduced customer spending or the entire loss of its most loyal customers.

Those losses are not just reflected in lost revenue, however. Customer acquisition and marketing dollars can also be lost as companies continue to spend money trying to retain their customer base, often skipping right over the experience part of retention.

Poor customer experience can be a deep operating problem that creates a domino effect, decimating businesses from the inside out. These poor experiences can impact not only present and future customer acquisition but also business leaders and employees.

CX matters more in today’s business landscape

The customer experience has always mattered, but it may matter more to brands trying to make it in a modern, ultra-competitive, digitally-driven business landscape. Good experiences encourage repeat purchases, boost loyalty, and increase the likelihood that customers will go online and recommend a brand to others.

“Customer experience isn’t an isolated function,” says Christian. “It’s ‌part of a larger system that ensures that brands measure and manage customer experience data and then act on that data to drive action where customer experience gaps exist.”

Brands also have to seek to understand today’s customers, who expect experiences that are seamless, authentic, and relevant. As more and more companies hop on the automation train, they will want to reassure their customers that the human element that many people consider important still exists.

At Ipsos, six drivers of strong customer relationships form the bedrock of the company’s CX platform, something that they refer to as the “Forces of CX”: certainty, fair treatment, control, status, belonging, and enjoyment.

Customers want to feel that if they have an issue with a brand, it will be handled and that their concerns will be understood. They don’t want the customer experience to feel like a battleground; they want it to feel fair and human.

“Customer experience isn’t just a nicer experience,” says Christian. “It ties directly to specific financial outcomes, whether that be increased sales, greater market share, or stronger brand loyalty.”

How Ipsos helps businesses deliver customer experiences that matter

Ipsos turns customer feedback into reliable, actionable, decision-ready information. The company goes beyond simple satisfaction metrics and implements voice-of-the-customer programs, journey analytics, relationship feedback, and quality research.

“Brands don’t just need data,” Christian says. “They need measurements as to how they are delivering on their brand promise and predictive modeling to tie financial performance measures to those measures to help them determine where to invest to maximize the customer experience and understand what financial impact those investments might deliver for the business.”

Ipsos measures the interactions that matter ‌most and shows brands how each interaction can affect retention, share of spend, and efficiency. For brands that are trying to reduce the guesswork behind CX, Ipsos helps them move beyond cosmetic fixes to achieve real, meaningful change.

Customer expectations can shift on a dime, influenced by society, social media, and even changing trends. Ipsos helps brands meet those rapidly changing customer expectations with hard evidence and comprehensive metrics.

Today’s brands need to understand how to get the customer experience right. Ipsos has the insights needed to drive home the deep importance of CX in today’s marketplace.