May
21
2013
Two weeks ago I scribed a note of praise for Office Depot on PlanetFeedback.Com. Two hours later I got a personal response from Office Depot’s executive office. Last Friday I logged a complex complaint via email to my wireless phone company. Less than 3 hours later a researched response landed in my email box. It wasn’t the response I hoped for, but it was a timely response. Both companies exceeded my expectations of timeliness and personalization of response. How would your customers rate their experience on your “Contact Us” page? Here are 4 tips to help you create an e-commerce experience that keeps customers in love with you after a service mishap.
1. Prominently display phone number. Many customers visit your “Contact Us” page for the sole purpose of locating a phone number. Don’t force your customers to fill out a form or contact you via email if they want to personally talk with you. Your phone number, preferably toll-free, should be prominently displayed on your home page and on your “Contact Us” page.
2. Create a list of Frequently Asked Questions. Identify the top 5 – 10 questions or complaints logged on your website and post them with answers. This will be a time saving convenience for customers and reduces your email/call volume. Amazon.com has one of the best FAQ sections I’ve seen on the web. When visitors click Help on www.amazon.com, they are soon viewing a page of more than 50 frequently asked questions and answers. Visitors almost never have to contact Amazon.com directly for assistance.
3. Develop response standards. In 1998 I conducted an informal survey by shopping customer service departments on the Internet. In my survey, in which I logged complaints or posed questions, 60% of the companies didn’t even bother to respond. Of those that did respond, the average response time was 4.5 days. Today, e-commerce customers will not give you days to respond. They expect a response within hours. Determine your response targets and then line up systems and processes to deliver your goal. Keep in mind that your initial e-response should never be delivered more than 24 hours after the customer contacts you.
4. Dedicate staff to email response. Well-intentioned companies are failing customers miserably because their representatives are juggling too many tasks. Customer Care staff cannot effectively respond to high volumes of phone calls, postal mail and email complaints and maintain quality service standards. If your Customer Care Department is receiving at least 400 email inquiries/complaints monthly, you need at least one person dedicated to reviewing, researching and responding to email complaints and this needs to be their primary job.
About John Curran:
John helps clients who struggle with fear, procrastination, stress, time management, overwhelm, self-doubt, or feeling STUCK. He is a Life and Business Coach skilled in the arts of organization, strategy, and accountability who can give you the tools for achieving clarity of purpose and the ability to move forward. To receive a FREE 30-minute coaching strategy session visit=>THE SOLUTION COACH
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May
20
2013
Most businesses spent time attracting customers to a product or service, trying to win their trust and then ending the whole process with a sale. That tactic seems obvious to most people. What often is neglected is the post-sale follow up with customers, particularly when it comes to online businesses. We should look at the time after a sale as an opportunity not only to improve our products but also to establish long-lasting relationships with our customers.
It takes much more effort to win a new customer than to maintain a relationship with an existing customer. But maintaining current customer relationships is just as critical and I’d even dare to say, more important than gaining new customers. What can we do to keep our established customers feel appreciated? You need to follow up with your customers.
Following up may be as simple as writing an email or giving a phone call to a customer a few weeks after a sale. At Screaming Bee, I make it a personal goal to contact every customer that buys our voice-changing software, MorphVOX, within 2-3 weeks after a sale.
Does this take time? It sure does. Is it worth it? Absolutely! Not only does this allow us to get good feedback from customers in order to improve our software, but also it establishes a more solid, long-lasting relationship that goes beyond the point-of-sale.
Most people were surprised that I would be willing spend the time to talk with them and were touched by the personal attention they received. And I was also surprised at how uncommon it was for online businesses to follow up on their customers. Some of the typical comments that I have received as the result of my efforts include:
”I really appreciate the personal touch, vs. the usual automated ‘we have received your email’ garbage, followed by… well, nothing usually…”
”Huh, never had customer support quite like this I appreciate it…”
People don’t like being ignored and definitely like being heard. There are many businesses that are ignoring their customers and, as a result, losing them.
Your current customers are the heart and core of your business. These customers provide return business and also provide the essential word-of-mouth promotion that no clever advertisement or marketing scheme will ever out-perform. Treat your customers like your own family. Go out of your way to communicate with them. If you neglect them, they will go elsewhere.
About John Curran:
John helps clients who struggle with fear, procrastination, stress, time management, overwhelm, self-doubt, or feeling STUCK. He is a Life and Business Coach skilled in the arts of organization, strategy, and accountability who can give you the tools for achieving clarity of purpose and the ability to move forward. To receive a FREE 30-minute coaching strategy session visit=>THE SOLUTION COACH
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May
19
2013
The very foundation of outsourcing means getting someone to handle your work, a partner in business. Ideally the outsourcing consultant or company should have a similar vision as yours and solid work ethics.
Success in business would depend greatly on finding the right outsourcing company and for this you must:
• Determine clearly what your core business competencies are. Know your strengths and weaknesses.
• Clearly define your goals, future business plans.
• Create an outsourcing proposal that outlines your objectives as well as needs. State clearly the details of the project, expectations, timelines, as well as budgets.
• Do in depth research on outsourcing companies to find out which ones will satisfy your needs. Alternately one can hire a consultant to carry out the search.
• Search for an organization that can source many talents. Flexibility in operations is crucial.
• Interview at least 3-4 organizations. Check out their referrals and projects completed. Be sure to meet key personnel to gauge their competencies. And check out their technological expertise.
Do a cost effectiveness study as also how the selected company will fulfill your needs. Whether their infrastructure and training will be in synchrony with yours. Systems must be compatible. The costing should address impact of increased flexibility, difference in productive and time management, which is the time taken to reach the market and its effect on competition.
• Study thoroughly the non-financial costs as well as advantages of outsourcing.
• Check with local chambers of commerce like the California chamber of commerce at www.calchamber.com or other associations that focus on human resource like the Sacramento Area Human Resources Association at www.sahra.org.
• Before making a final choice check whether the outsourcing company or vendor is trustworthy, find out what kind of security measures they use, check the company’s reputation in the market; determine in no uncertain terms whether they have the right qualifications.
• Seek answers to: are they an established and financially sound company; what is their customer service philosophy; what is their service record; who are their current clients; is their estimate transparent or are there any loop holes; are they limited or can they expand along with your growth; is there an implementation plan; what about disaster recovery mechanisms; can they deliver?
• Check whether communications will be smooth and trouble free and if there are any cultural differences between you and the vendor. If yes will you be able to bridge the difference.
The cornerstones of a good and ideal outsource is a company that will enhance your performance; partner you in growth by infusing talent and technology; will share your visions; and contribute positively.
Interview the companies. After you select one discuss in detail the contractual terms. Be sure to protect your own interests well. It takes trust, collaboration, communication, and chemistry to make an outsourcing successful.
About John Curran:
John helps clients who struggle with fear, procrastination, stress, time management, overwhelm, self-doubt, or feeling STUCK. He is a Life and Business Coach skilled in the arts of organization, strategy, and accountability who can give you the tools for achieving clarity of purpose and the ability to move forward. To receive a FREE 30-minute coaching strategy session visit=>THE SOLUTION COACH
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May
18
2013
There are many ways available on net to publicize and market your business, but one of the cheapest methods is to use online press release websites, as many of these offers free of cost or low-cost PR options.
With online press release one can simply reach the significant online community. PR web-sites offers article submission database of free content and reprint articles. Publishers, who are in quest of free reprint articles and the business community who wants to shoot their business, can make the best use of this significant resource to enhance their marketing weapon.
Online PR is a unique way for your content to reach huge mass of people without spending too much money. Actually, many online PR sites allow submitting press release free of cost.
Another form of online press release is internal PR, or PR on web-site. Posting press release on a separate web page helps to hike profit ratio. One can easily step further by using keywords in each page these releases appear on and then registering them individually in search engines.
The writing and distribution of feature articles is another way to take advantage of the efficiencies of online PR because web publishers, editors, journalists and website are always in search of good contents. Feature article writing is one of the best online or offline marketing techniques.
One of the key benefits to posting articles online is that it lets one the opportunity to include a biography/contact/resource box at the bottom of the article. This box should include contact information for your business and company background information. This resource box just might bring you more response than most paid advertisements, and it’s completely free of cost.
Other cost-effective online PR strategies that work well include online kit, e-mail marketing, announcements, posting on forums, online bulletin boards, newsgroups and online radio, which is just getting popularized.
PR on the internet is so expanding rapidly because of its vast distribution network, the broad potential of contacts and, of course, its cost-effectiveness.
About John Curran:
John helps clients who struggle with fear, procrastination, stress, time management, overwhelm, self-doubt, or feeling STUCK. He is a Life and Business Coach skilled in the arts of organization, strategy, and accountability who can give you the tools for achieving clarity of purpose and the ability to move forward. To receive a FREE 30-minute coaching strategy session visit=>THE SOLUTION COACH
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May
17
2013
Viral Marketing is all about giving away your own free product or service along with your ad copy (contact information, link, email, etc.). In turn, recipients of your free product are allowed to pass it along to their own clients, prospects, visitors and others as a freebie. This is a quick way to multiple your marketing at no extra expense and without extra effort on your part.
Here are some popular viral marketing techniques to follow:
1. Ebooks – Share your no cost ebook with your website visitors. Include a nice full-color ad for your most popular product line with links to your website and email. Tell recipients to share copies of the ebook with their own site visitors and other contacts.
2. Software – Share a trial or “lite” version of your software with your website visitors as a freebie. Don’t forget to include that ad for your most popular product line with links to your website and email. And tell recipients to share copies of the software with their own site visitors and other contacts. For help creating software, hire help from online bid sites like Elance.com.
3. Web Host – Offer to host small business web sites on your server at no charge. In exchange, place your own banner ad at the top of the site for viral marketing. You can setup a fold for their site and they can choose their own domain name and have it redirected to that folder.
4. Templates – Design your own website or other templates, include your own marketing information on them and give them away as free downloads or as an electronic package. Grant permission for recipients to pass them along.
5. Articles – Write articles about your industry. Include your website and contact information in the byline and grant permission for others to publish as long as they keep the byline in tact. Then people can use your contact on websites, in ezines, newsletters and other places where once again, viral marketing will speed the spread of information about your business.
6. Discussion Board – Set up a Discussion Board on your website with your banner ad attached at the top. And invite others to link to it and use it for their own sites.
In summary, by using viral marketing strategies, you can reach out all over the Internet with much less effort. See which methods work best for you and repeat them as often as needed.
About John Curran:
John helps clients who struggle with fear, procrastination, stress, time management, overwhelm, self-doubt, or feeling STUCK. He is a Life and Business Coach skilled in the arts of organization, strategy, and accountability who can give you the tools for achieving clarity of purpose and the ability to move forward. To receive a FREE 30-minute coaching strategy session visit=>THE SOLUTION COACH
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