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Customers

Customer Service Facts

Good News: In 2011, 7 out of 10 Americans said they were willing to spend more with companies that provide excellent customer service (american express survey)

Bad News: In 2011, 86% of consumers stopped doing business with a company because of bad customer service (Harris Interactive)

Good NewsResolve a complaint in the customers favor and 70% will do business with you again (Lee Resources)

Bad News: 91% of unhappy customers will not willingly do business with you again (Lee Resources)

70% of the buying experience is based on how the customer feels they are being treated. (McKinsey)

78% of consumers have bailed on a transaction or intended purchase because of a poor service experience (american express survey)

Provide outstanding customer service and you have a 60-70% probability of selling to an existing customer.  (marketing metrics)  The probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20%.

 

 

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Uncategorized

How to Handle Unhappy Customers

All businesses need to know how to handle unhappy customers.  Every business will have them. There is no cookie cutter approach for handling dissatisfied customers.  Here are a few fundamentals that may help.  Knowing what to say and how to say it may save the relationship.

I. Listen actively to their problem or complaint.

2. Try not to interrupt.

3. Do your best to understand express empathy and apologize.

4. If you know what will fix the problem offer a solution.  If you are not sure what the solution is ask the customer what you can do to make them happy.  If it’s doable, take action as soon as possible and follow up in a few days to make sure they are happen with the resolution.  You can even go above and beyond and send a hand written note or give a gift certificate or great discount.

5. If there is absolutely nothing that will make the customer happy, remain polite and professional. Apologize that things didn’t work out as they would have liked.  Offer a refund or partial refund if possible and move on.

Remember, your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. (Bill Gates )  Use this valuable feedback from the customer and continue working on improving your business practices.

 

 

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Customers Featured

How Can I Find New Customers?

Finding new customers can be a challenge for many businesses. The best scenario is that customers find you. They find your business through an internet search, social media or are referred to you. If customers aren’t finding you here are some ideas we found in our research to help get new customers.

Attend meetings and seminars that your prospects might attend and follow up with any contacts you make.

Study your successful competitors. Where do they advertise and network?

Claim your listing in Google Places and other big directories like Yahoo, Bing and Chamber of Commerce. Keep your company name and contact information consistent in all listings, add a good business description and photos. Spend a little time on your profile. Readers want to get to know you and adding a professional looking photo of yourself will help. Explain how your business will provide solutions to their problems.

Ask for feedback from customers. Use whatever you learn to make changes to your website. Did they have trouble ordering, were they just shopping around for better prices?

Sponsor events. Contact the organizers of the event and offer to give away your product or service as a prize during the event. In exchange ask the group to promote you.

Organize an event. It is a good way to introduce your business or service to participants and prospective sponsors.

Put a little money into updating your website. Did you know that 80% of Americans now spend as much time online as they do in front of the television? This means you have to have a top-notch site to grab those customers.

Provide outstanding customer service. Customer service can make or break a business. Treat people with respect and patience to establish your company as a caring and reputable brand. People will learn about you by word of mouth.

Be a little old fashion. Call businesses who advertise on their cars if you feel your product or service could be beneficial to them. Be honest, open, straight forward and let them know right off the bat how you can help them.

Lastly, be professional and kind to every one you meet. Every relationship could be a potential customer or lead to a potential customer. You just never know where that next customer will come from.

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Featured SEO

Video Marketing

Are you SEO strategies not working out well and you feel like you are behind your competition?

You may want to try Video Marketing.

Video marketing and mobile marketing are on the rise.

According to the Content Marketing Institute’s (CMI) benchmark report released in 2012, approximately 52 percent of B2B brands reported using video marketing as a content strategy in 2011.  In 2012 it went up to 70 %.  CMI reports that 58 percent of B2B marketers believe video is an effective tactic and helps conversion rates.

People love to share video across the web.

Video engages people and after watching a good video of your product or service consumers might be  persuaded to call or  fill out a form.  Using popular video-sharing websites can help a company lessen the technical burden and help mix video with social media marketing campaigns.  Two popular video-sharing services are YouTube and Vimeo.

When using video include strong descriptions and keywords in the titles.  It may also be beneficial to add text of the content posted.  Combining video with well written content may jump start your SEO for 2013.

Video Marketing Can Help your website convert more visitors to clients.

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Uncategorized

What MotivatesYou?

Running a business in today’s economy on a good day can be a tiring and stressful venture.  On a bad day it can be even harder.  It’s easy to get overwhelmed if you don’t find ways to stay motivated. What motivates you?  Is it just the fact that you love what you do? Do you read daily motivational quotes?

This question: How do you stay motivated everyday was asked of the community members on Manta.com.  Here are some comments in response to that question. The number one answer seems to be

1. “Being my own boss motivates me.

Other motivators:

2.  “I look at my kids. That’s all the motivation I need.”

3.  “I think of all the people whose lives will be positively impacted by what I do.  How I can help the community.”

4.  “I love what I do and am motivated by others who love what they do and are successful. “

5.  “I read my mission statement which reminds me of my goals and purpose.”

6.  “I attend motivational seminars or view podcasts.”

7.  “I pray for guidance and encouragement.”

Whatever your motivation, each day is a new chance to get it right, to be stronger and better.  Make sure you find your motivation and have the courage to continue.  Yes, running a business can be a roller coaster but when the roller coaster goes down it has to go up again.  That uphill ride can be exciting and rewarding so here is a quote to get you started.

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up ”  Thomas Edison

 

 

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Customers

Is There a Good Way to Ask for a Referral?

Is There a Good Way to Ask for a Referral?

Asking clients for referrals can be uncomfortable.  Are you concerned seeking referrals will make you sound like you are begging for business?   Will it turn your clients off or hurt your current relationship with them?  You wouldn’t want that.  But asking for referrals can be a pretty simple and cheap way to try and get more business.  It depends on how and when you do it.

Here are a few suggestions.

Approach the clients who you are in contact with regularly.  A good time to ask is when your client is telling you how they appreciate all you have done for them or after they have posted a raving testimonial or sent you an appreciation email or note.   Thank your client for the positive words and say something like this, “Are there one or two people you think I should meet who may benefit from  our services?    I’d be happy to call them and introduce myself.”   Most customers who are happy with the experience and solution you provided them will be willing to give a referral especially if you remind them of the value your service provided them.  Do a great job, be professional, reliable and create credibility and clients will tell others and you won’t have to ask.

If you do have to ask it will take confidence and practice.  You can’t worry about people saying no.   Not everyone will need your service or product but if you don’t ask you may miss an opportunity for a new client.  Remember it never hurts to ask, but make sure you ask the right way.

Lastly, remember to thank the person who gave you a referral.  Give them a call, send them a note or show your appreciation in some way.   That will leave a good impression.

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SEO

Marketing Goals for 2013

We rang in the New Year, sang Auld Lang Syne.  Will your business see growth in 2013?  If you haven’t already done so you should be working on some of these marketing goals for 2013.

Google’s Panda Update in 2012 hit a lot of websites hard and a lot of businesses are still trying to recover.  Some may not recover without a lot of work.  In my reading, I came across these SEO strategies to incorporate for 2013.

1.  Social Media and Mobile Marketing- This will not be going away.  Expect to see an increased emphasis on mobile marketing during 2013.  Every business should consider a mobile website as the majority of people are using smart phones.  Being able to reach consumers on the go is a huge advantage.

2.  Content- Focus on original and frequently updated valuable content so returning visitors can find something new to  enjoy and learn from.  This will keep your audience coming back.  Infographics,  (information presented in text and graphics) are popular.  When people like these graphics they will share them and we all know sharing is good.  Updated content can keep you a step ahead of the competition.  Do not give your visitors a reason to doze with stale content.  They will stop paying attention and so will the search engines.

3.  When writing articles don’t add extra words to your articles to make them longer.  A long  article doesn’t make you a better expert especially if it is full of extra words that  really aren’t  needed.

4.  When helping visitors with a question or problem show solutions in as many ways as possible.  Video tutorials are very good for keeping the attention of your visitors. Graphics, infographics (mentioned above) and pictures also help.

5.  Focus on high quality natural links for your website but don’t “buy” links or go overboard with reciprocal links.  That can backfire.

6.  If you have a blog keep it updated.  Like your website, “stale” doesn’t look  good in the eyes of search engines.  So make an effort to write on a regular basis.

Set monthly goals and monitor your progress.  See what’s working and what isn’t and make any necessary adjustments.  Your marketing strategy should not only focus on sales but on you your entire business.

 

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Speed

Connection Speed

Internet Connection Speed

Sometimes I think my internet connection is fast as a rabbit being chased by a leopard, and other times it seems as slow as snails robbing a turtle.  I like to check my connection speed at this link:  www.speedtest.netSpeedTestThis morning I tested at 0.74 mbps download speed, then later in the day it tested at 5.12 mbps.  As you can see, the fluctuations can be staggering.

By the way, when the detectives asked the turtle for further details about being robbed by the snails, he replied, “I am not sure, it all happened so fast.”

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SEO Uncategorized

Why Do I Need SEO?

SEOSEO is the acronym for Search Engine Optimization.  Every website needs this as it is the proven way to help get your business found online in organic searches.  It is just not enough to have a nice looking website and have it live on the internet.  With SEO you get more visibility, which means more visitors and more prospects.  If your competitors are spending time and money on SEO and you are not, you are going to get lost in the crowd.

If you ask different people what is the most important part of SEO you will get many different opinions.  There is On page optimization which  includes keywords, meta tags,  page title,  content, including text, video, and images.  Off page optimization may include  link building, press releases, directory submissions, forums and blogs.  To make your site search engine friendly both of these techniques should be used.  One thing is for certain. SEO along with social media will give you the best chance of  increasing your exposure.

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Categories
Fun

Junk Email and Phone Calls

Junk Email and Phone Calls: How to Handle them and Stay Safe!

I received this in an email, I am not sure who the author is, but the information looks good.

Advice from snopes.Com VERY IMPORTANT!!

1) Any time you see an email that says “forward this on to ’10’ (or however many) of your friends”, “sign this petition”, or “you’ll get bad luck” or “you’ll get good luck” or “you’ll see something funny on your screen after you send it” or whatever — it almost always has an email tracker program attached that tracks the cookies and emails of those folks you forward to. The host sender is getting a copy each time it gets forwarded and then is able to get lists of ‘active’ email addresses to use in SPAM emails or sell to other Spammers. Even when you get emails that demand you send the email on if you’re not ashamed of God/Jesus — that is email tracking, and they are playing on our conscience. These people don’t care how they get your email addresses – just as long as they get them. Also, emails that talk about a missing child or a child with an incurable disease “how would you feel if that was your child” — email tracking. Ignore them and don’t participate!

2) Almost all emails that ask you to add your name and forward on to others are similar to that mass letter years ago that asked people to send business cards to the little kid in Florida who wanted to break the Guinness Book of Records for the most cards. All it was, and all any of this type of email is, is a way to get names and ‘cookie’ tracking information for telemarketers and Spammers — to validate active email accounts for their own profitable purposes.

You can do your Friends and Family members a GREAT favor by sending this information to them. You will be providing a service to your friends. And you will be rewarded by not getting thousands of spam emails in the future!
Do yourself a favor and STOP adding your name(S) to those types of listing regardless how inviting they might sound! Or make you feel guilty if you don’t! It’s all about getting email addresses and nothing more.

You may think you are supporting a GREAT cause, but you are NOT!

Instead, you will be getting tons of junk mail later and very possibly a virus attached! Plus, we are helping the Spammers get rich! Let’s not make it easy for them!

ALSO: Email petitions are NOT acceptable to Congress of any other organization – I.e. Social security, etc. To be acceptable, petitions must have a “signed signature” and full address of the person signing the petition, so this is a waste of time and you are just helping the email trackers.

Handling Robo Calls

T ips for Handling Telemarketers

Three Little Words That Work!!
(1)The three little words are: ‘Hold On, Please…’

Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off (instead of hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so much more time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt.

Then when you eventually hear the phone company’s ‘beep-beep-beep’ tone, you know it’s time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently completed its task.

These three little words will help eliminate telephone soliciting..

(2) Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end?

This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone.

This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a ‘real’ sales person to call back and get someone at home.
What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, is to immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times as quickly as possible. This confuses the machine that dialed the call, and it kicks your number out of their system.. Gosh, what a shame not to have your name in their system any longer!!!

We hope this helps you handle your junk email and phone calls and gives you some practical ideas on what to do and not to do.

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