Choosing an entrepreneurial program is an important decision which can have a significant impact on wether or not an entrepreneur is successful.

With a large number of entrepreneur programs to choose from it can be difficult to make the ideal selection. Shown below are some important aspects to consider when selecting among the large number of entrepreneurship programs:

Location

Some experts recommend that individuals seeking a career in technology select a school located in a major tech entrepreneurial center such as Silicon Valley or the Boston region where venture capital deals are made all the time. For technology entrepreneurs, some experts suggest a second-tier school located in a major tech market is preferable to a prestigious school located in the Midwest.

Reputation and Track Record

A school’s ranking and having a national reputation of academic excellence are often important factors to potential employers. They can also be important factors to venture capitalists.

Questions: What is the percentage of graduates of a particular entrepreneurship program that begin their own business? One expert estimates that up to 20 percent of people majoring in entrepreneurship begin a business immediately after they graduate. Who are the successful entrepreneurs who graduated from the program?

On-Campus Resources

It’s important to select a school that provides active opportunities for students to meet investors. On-campus small business development centers and entrepreneurial centers can also be useful.

The school’s affiliations with businesses and business related organizations can also be helpful to students during an externship and in their careers. A school’s affiliation with national and international student organizations including Students in Free Enterprise may be a desirable factor for some students.

Curriculum

In some programs, students as individuals or as part of a team have the opportunity to operate their own company during a majority of the program. A significant trend is the tech-transfer model in which entrepreneurship is taught across the curriculum.

At some institutions faculty members and graduate students from medical and engineering schools team up with MBA students to take innovative ideas and commercialize them.

 Questions: What areas of concentration are available? Does the school have entrepreneurship clubs? Does the school have mentorship programs?

Flexibility

Online classes allow students to work at their own pace from home. They can take classes while building their business. Many school offer accelerated programs. Prospective students should make sure the online program they are considering offers all the important parts of on-campus programs.

Training

Externships provide valuable experience and networking opportunities.

Questions: Does the program provide a variety of externships? Do students have to find their own externships? Are they paid or unpaid externships?

Prerequisite Work

Some entrepreneur programs focus on entrepreneurial studies throughout the program, whereas other programs require an extensive amount of prerequisite work including business classes and general studies classes.

Faculty

Quality programs are taught by instructors that have been successful entrepreneurs.

Questions: What percentage of faculty members are entrepreneurs? How does the percentage compare to top ranked schools? Do some of the instructors have experience at developing Internet businesses?

Top Rated Entrepreneurial Undergraduate Programs

Some of the top rated entrepreneurial undergraduate degree programs are provided by the following schools:

• Babson College
• University of Houston
• Baylor University
• Temple University
• Drexel University
• University of Dayton
• DePaul University
• City University of New York – Baruch College
• University of Southern California
• University of Pennsylvania
• Indiana University – Bloomington
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Syracuse University
• University of Arizona
• Miami University
• University of Texas Austin
• Ball State University
• University of Oklahoma
• Northeastern University
• University of Alabama

Top Rated Entrepreneurial Graduate Programs

Some of the top rated entrepreneurship graduate degree programs are provided by the following schools:

• Babson College
• Stanford University
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Carnegie Mellon University
• Cornell University
• DePaul University
• Georgia Institute of Technology
• Harvard University
• Howard University
• University of Pennsylvania

About the Author: Brian Jenkins writes articles on management for Braintrack.com, including this article on General Management Careers.

Photo Credit: epak

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How many times have you heard that customer service is a cornerstone to a successful business? It is a fairly simple concept, yet so many companies fail to deliver even a reasonably decent customer service experience. Following is my latest experience of a customer service epic fail.

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I am fairly mechanically inclined and enjoy working on our vehicles. It was coming time to change the oil on our new car, so off I went to the Internet to find the oil filter wrench that I can’t get locally.

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The tool I was looking for was not that easy to find online so my choices of where to order it from were fairly limited, but there were choices. Having never ordered this type of item online before left me with having to roll the dice in choosing which online merchant I was going to deal with.

A Promising Start

I found one very promising online store that sells nothing but tools and lays claim all over their website about how good their customer service is. I mean, they lay it on thick with statements like “unbeatable service”, “commitment to our customers and superior service” and “your business is truly appreciated.” Not to mention their claims that 98% of the orders are received within 2-5 days because they have a massive inventory that is replenished several times a week.

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I thought I was in business. After all, if my experience was half as good as what was implied on the merchant’s website, I was going to be one happy camper. I quickly submitted the order and shortly thereafter received the order confirmation email. A day later, I received two more emails – one indicating the order was processing and the second indicating how the order was shipping. That is where the problem started.

The Unbeatable Service Starts To Crumble

The shipping email I received indicated that the part I ordered ships directly from the importer or manufacturer. Hold on a minute! What about having the great inventory and shipping quickly? Suddenly my order is being drop shipped? I quickly went to the merchant’s website to start an online chat because the website indicates that I can try the online chat for instant help. I waited and waited and waited. Finally, I received a message in the chat window stating it might be a good idea to fire off an email because there were no agents available. Guess I wasn’t going to get any instant service that day!

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I fired off an email with my order number asking about where the order was shipping from and if I could get tracking information. A couple of hours later, I received a two sentence response indicating it was shipping from the US importer and they would get back to me regarding tracking information. The email had no salutation. No signature. No “thank you for your order”. No nothing in the way of making me feel truly appreciated, even though their website says I am.

Things Start To Go Downhill Fast

I am a fairly patient person and I don’t get excited about many things. I figured I would wait a day or so and see if I hear back from the merchant regarding my tracking information. One business day passes, then it is the weekend. Come Monday morning I  pick up the phone, as I still have no tracking information. As it turns out, I can’t even get ahold of anybody via the phone because when you are making an order inquiry, you have to leave a voicemail and they will get back to you via email. So I hop on the “instant help” online chat and wait and wait and wait (again) until the chat window times out and tells me nobody is available. ARGH! Really?

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Off I go to fire off yet another email to beg for the information that should already have been supplied to me from the get-go. The response comes fairly quickly, but with not much more than a UPS tracking number. Again, no warm and fuzzies to let me know how much my business is appreciated. I guess I have to take their word for it since their website claims I am appreciated. Just not feeling much love at this point. Definitely missing the small town service they claim to give, unless small towns have suddenly gone cold.

Lessons To Be Taken Away

Listen, if you claim to give unbeatable service and truly appreciate my business, then at least try to give the impression you care. Communicate with me. Let me know on the product description that the item is drop shipped so I can set realistic expectations and not expect to see my order in the 2-5 day time frame you claim on your website. Greet me in our email conversation and sign your name at the end of your response. Tell me how much you appreciate my business, because your website claims you do. Give me the level of customer service your website claims you give so I don’t have to write about your epic customer service fail.

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A previous article about 3 Examples of Awful Customer Experience  states that “Companies that excel in communicating often excel in service as well.” See, I am not making this stuff up! The key to a happy customer is communication. Give me plenty of ways to get in touch with your company (and actually answer the phone, or chat, if you are going to provide these communication methods) and treat me like a valued customer. Be personable and grateful in your emails and don’t make me keep asking you for information.

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There is no excuse for a small business to provide a poor customer experience, especially when they plaster their website with all sorts of self-praise about how good of a job they do. I can almost excuse a large corporation for giving a poor customer experience, because an individual employee at a large company is just collecting a paycheck and has no vested interest in making the customer happy. Whereas, a small business depends on repeat customers to survive – something I won’t be for this company that treated me poorly.

Make Your Customers Happy So They Come Back

Unless you happen to be operating in a niche with zero competition, you have to fight tooth and nail for every customer. Believe me when I say that a superior customer experience will greatly increase the chance that you will have repeat customers, which you need in order to survive. After all, it is much cheaper to retain existing customers than it is to get new customers. So make sure to live up to the customer service expectations that your company sets. 

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What should this company I had the less than stellar experience with have done? It is simple – do what they say they do on their website, which is give unbeatable service. Instead, all I got was an experience that I will remember for all the wrong reasons.
 
About The Author: Marshall Davis runs Business Service Reviews, a website that reviews products and services for the small business owner and entrepreneur to help them be competitive. Read his reviews of small business services to find products and services to help you better run your company. Heck, you will even find virtual phone system reviews to help you better communicate with your customers. Hint, hint.

Photo Credit: Alex E. Proimos

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Admit it…at one point in time we’ve all not met our customers needs.

 A change in the way we do business, a product we just can’t offer anymore, or a delivery time that is less than stellar has left them with a frown on their face.

Can You Turn a Negative to a Positive?

But what if we could take these negatives, and turn them in to long term positives for our customers, essentially turning their frown upside down?

Let me give you a story to illustrate a point, I’ll leave it to you to decide if you can do something similar in your own business.

The Story

A couple weeks ago was my birthday and my mother in law sends me a Zappos gift card – score one for mom in law!  I’m not a big shoe shopper, but when I do I use Zappos.

So, I’m looking for a pair of “dress sandals” since summer’s coming (guys, you know what I’m talking about – those are the sandals we wear for nice occasions, weddings and such. Ladies – you’d still just call them sandals). Anyway, I find a pair I like, click “buy” and all is well.

Later that night I get an email from Zappos saying “Congratulations, your order has been upgraded to overnight shipping for FREE!”

Yahoo! I’m excited I’ll be getting my sandals quick, and I feel rather special my order was upgraded for FREE!

…then it dawned on me.

Not that long ago, free overnight shipping, both ways, was standard at Zappos. And here I am a short while later getting excited over something they took away from me, and now selectively give back once in a while.

Anybody else see the brilliance in this?

They had to change the way they did business, and no longer could guarantee me overnight shipping both ways unless I paid a little more for it. Think about that, that is a HUGE negative for the customer. That free overnight shipping is the reason why many people shopped with them, and (along with stellar service) was the “thing” they were known for.

I don’t know how many orders get upgraded, 50% maybe?  But what Zappos did was brilliant. They took a service that was once standard, eliminated it, then selectively gave it back to customers and made them feel special.

Possibly Value Adding In Process

When something becomes “standard”, it is then the new normal. So while Zappos built a brand around customer service and overnight shipping, after a while that was the normal for them – it was expected. What they’ve done now is brought back the value in overnight shipping, while increasing customer satisfaction.

Conclusion

Business is still booming some two years after the free overnight shipping went away. Customers still rave about the service. And now people talk about how cool they feel when they win the overnight shipping lottery and get their dress sandals 3 days quicker than they bargained for.

Think it was a coincidence that a company built around customer service figured this out and turned their biggest negative into a positive? I’m betting my new pair of dress sandals it’s not.

 Photo Credit: Phil W Shirley

Managing your reputation is not always easy. You work really hard to build a respectable brand and then someone comes in and tries to tear it down. Luckily for you though, here are some great online reputation management tips and tools that can help you stay on top of the game.

Think Domain

The first thing you have to do is buy domain names. Yes, multiple ones. Buy .com, .org, .net, and almost every other domain extension associated with your brand so that no one else can use it against you. If you use an exact match keyword domain name, then it may be hard to get the .net and .org versions, which is fine. But if you are a VA mortgage lender, you best be sure that you own every exact match domain name for your brand. And thanks to Google suggest, things like ‘reviews’, ‘sucks’, and ‘scam’ along with your brand keyword are a lot more prevalent, so buying domains with these keywords in them (ex. brandsucks.com) can help manage your reputation.

Choose Your Tool and Start Monitoring

My favorite tool for monitoring your brand on the web and blogosphere by far is Google Alerts. It’s simple, free, and sent straight to your email. You can have it set up to send an email once-a-week, once-a-day, or whenever something comes up. And since most people use Google to find businesses online, knowing what Google is keeping track of is very important. Set up a Google alert for your brand name and you can even use it to keep track of other keywords (and competitors if you really want).

Content Builds Brands

The biggest thing you can do is be a content creator. The real-time web is now in the search engine results. And the pervasiveness of Facebook and Twitter mean that people will seek you out on these platforms for good or bad. You must participate in them. It would be foolish not to. Set up an account (personal and/or company) and start engaging and creating content. Also, make sure to have a blog that is consistently being updated. Use it to post news, industry trends or whatever fits for your company/brand. This will become valuable if you ever need to respond to a situation.

Manage Your Social Web

Use a program such as HootSuite that allows you to manage all three social networks with one easy to use interface. It allows you to schedule tweets, status updates, and even integrates with Ping.fm. Plus, by keeping your search column open, you can monitor your brand at all times allowing prompt response. And you can post to your Wordpress blog through the application. Having an application like this can greatly increase your productivity regarding online reputation management. If you don’t like HootSuite, try CoTweet or something similar but managing a company’s social media platforms cannot be done on twitter.com itself.

Proactive Not Passive

By actively managing your reputation online now, it will make it a lot easier when something bad actually does happen and you need to do damage control, so it’s good to be proactive and not passive about this. If you have a voice, you’re much better positioned against attacks, and will gain credence with the online generation.

About the Author: Kevin Kaiser is a entrepreneur who deals with online marketing and reputation management for start-ups he’s involved in and can be found writing at Startup Biz Blog.

Photo Credit: nicasaurusrex

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Small business owners don’t always have the luxury of having an exorbitant budget to spend on travel and lodging expenses related to client presentations.

Luckily, videoconferencing technology has brought the presentation to their front door step.

While videoconferencing has become a fairly standard practice, many small business owners still lack the basic knowledge of proper videoconferencing etiquette. I hope this post can help shed some light on the proper considerations when preparing and engaging in a web conference.

Test, Test, Test

As the old business adage goes, time is money. The last impression you need to be making to your client is that you don’t value their time and by simple deduction, don’t care that you are costing them money.

Significant time should be allocated to setup and testing of all systems prior to the start of the videoconference. Inattention to these details sends the wrong signal and can potentially ruin the possibility of a successful business relationship before it’s had a chance to blossom. Discovering all issues and resolving them in advance to the meeting ensures that the conference starts on the right foot.

Details to consider when setting up include:

• Camera placement – When placing the camera, try and fill the frame as much as possible with people, rather than extraneous room objects such as tables, chairs, etc.
• Camera and TV presets – Check and make sure that your TV’s brightness and contrast is optimally set. This ensures that you can see the client and more importantly, their gestures and reactions to your presentation. Additionally, make sure that your camera is optimally set to make certain that those on the other end of the meeting can properly see you.
• Lighting – Lighting is one of the few variable factors in a videoconference and needs to be considered when setting up. Sunlight from windows can throw off the camera’s exposure, making it difficult for the client to see you. Having drapes or shutters drawn will help mediate this problem.
• Microphone volume – Unless your client is accomplished at reading lips, problems with your microphone could render the videoconference meaningless. Not only should you check and see if the mic is working, but you should verify that the volume is at a sufficient volume.
• Computer Applications – Collaborate with your client’s IT specialist beforehand and make sure that all software applications such as PowerPoint or Word will work successfully.

Dress in Your Sunday’s Best

On the day of the presentation, set your alarm clock 15 minutes earlier than normal to make certain that you will allow an adequate amount of time to look your best.

Men should certainly shave/trim all facial hair. Dress attire should be professional, but busy patterns should be avoided.

Cameras seem to have difficulties interpreting these detailed patterns and may create unwanted artifacts in image quality. Believe it or not, pastel or muted colors tend to do best on screen.

Extend Greetings

Once the conference begins, treat it as any other meeting. Just because it’s broadcasted over an Ethernet cable does not mean that introductory formalities should be forgotten.

First, ask if they can hear you. Once sound is confirmed, introduce yourself. Speak in a normal voice and avoid shouting.

Microphones are fragile pieces of equipment and loud sounds can lead to uncomfortable feedback or echo for those on the other end of the call.

Try not to interrupt and/or “double talk”. Not only is it rude, but “double talking” is another source of unwanted feedback/echo. Lastly, when listening or passing the microphone, verify that it is muted.

Consider Learning Styles

All people learn differently. For every person who considers themselves an audible learner, there is another who considers themselves a visual learner.

Best practices would tell us to use both audible and visual sources in our messaging. In fact, studies have shown that hearing AND seeing a message has been shown to increase message recall and message understanding.

I can’t verifiably show that using these steps will help improve your web conference communication, but I’d like to extend it as a challenge. Follow these few tips in your next videoconference and I’ll let you come to your own conclusions. I think you’ll be surprised with the results.

Guest post by DBS>Interactive, a Full-Service Web Design and Internet Marketing company located in Louisville, KY. Pay them a visit at http://dbswebsite.com for more information on how DBS>Interactive can help you with your Internet marketing needs.

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What constitutes really great customer service? What constitutes really awful customer service? While conducting research on this subject for budget hosting company 34SP.com, I came across a few examples that really stretched some boundaries.

Some Truly Awful Service

Although these are stories of big brands, the lessons learned can be applied to small business customer service as well. Here are a few brief examples – all of them pretty bad.

Verizon’s Callousness

Let’s say that someone in your family dies. It’s a bad time, lots of stress and details to be sorted out. What if you tried to cancel the dead person’s phone service, but the phone company wouldn’t let you? What if you even produced the official death certificate and they still refused to shut the account off? That is precisely what happened to Cynthia Lacy according to a published report at the St. Petersburg Times eEdition.

Ms. Lacy’s father passed away in June of 2009, but since Ms. Lacy didn’t have her father’s PIN number to access the account – Verizon didn’t discontinue the service until March 2010. This is despite the fact that Ms. Lacy sent the company a copy of her father’s death certificate. It took the intervention of the media shining the spotlight on her case to get it resolved. You can read the whole story here.

Kevin Smith “Too Fat to Fly”

Then there is the recent dust up involving Hollywood direct Kevin Smith and Southwest Airlines. Mr. Smith is known for directing such films as Clerks, Mallrats, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and the recently released Cop Out.

During a recent flight, Mr. Smith was asked to leave the plane prior to takeoff for ”being too fat”. Being a media savvy promoter, Mr. Smith proceeded to live-Tweet and fully publicize his ordeal. According to published reports (this story was picked up by numerous large national media outlets including Wall Street Journal, USA Today, ABC, and the Los Angeles Times) Mr. Smith said he was already seated on the flight with armrests down and seatbelt fastened.

The Southwest captain deemed him a ‘’safety risk” due to his weight and he was ejected from the flight. The ensuing backlash abated somewhat when Southwest issued apologies on Twitter and on the Southwest website.

From the apology post, ”First and foremost, to Mr. Smith; we would like to echo our Tweets and again offer our heartfelt apologies to you. We are sincerely sorry for your travel experience on Southwest Airlines.” So good job by Southwest to admit a mistake and take responsibility. If you’d like to hear a lengthy description of the incident as told by Kevin Smith himself, you’ll find it here.

Toyota’s Fall From Grace

Automobile manufacturer Toyota recently demonstrated that even a firm known for high quality and service can quickly fall from grace.

The short story here is: Toyota began to receive complaints regarding ‘’sticking accelerator pedals”. Since the problems were first revealed, the company has continued a slow-motion service and communication debacle. In late January the company issued this statement, ”Toyota announced it would recall approximately 2.3 million vehicles to correct sticking accelerator pedals on specific Toyota Division models.

Toyota has investigated isolated reports of sticking accelerator pedal mechanisms in certain vehicles without the presence of floor mats. There is a possibility that certain accelerator pedal mechanisms may, in rare instances, mechanically stick in a partially depressed position or return slowly to the idle position.”

Subsequent quality issues arose with the brakes on the Prius as well. Although the company has now taken more aggressive steps to correct these issues, rival car manufacturers have eroded the company’s market share in new car sales. You can follow all of the details via Toyota’s news pages.

So What’s the Key to Great Customer Service?

If there is a common thread of learning that connects these incidents it is: proper communication is key. First, properly communicating and adhering to strict operational rules regarding how the business is run to employees. This means that everyone in the organization knows and understands policies and proper procedures. Second, communicating with the customers and being as transparent as possible in the face of any problems. Companies that excel in communicating often excel in service as well.

Recommended Reading

So how to deliver truly great customer service as a small business? The Ten Commandments of Great Customer Service outlines some salient points in this regard. I suggest that the company’s mentioned above should focus on number 7: ”Know how to apologize”.

Derek Vaughan is a web hosting industry veteran, marketing consultant and writer. Mr. Vaughan has architected the marketing growth of several prominent web hosting success stories leading to acquisition including Affinity Internet, Inc., Aplus.Net and HostMySite.com. Prior to his entry into the web hosting industry, Mr. Vaughan was responsible for online marketing at The Walt Disney Company where he marketed ecommerce for the ESPN.com and NASCAR.com brands. Mr. Vaughan received his M.B.A. from Vanderbilt University and currently serves on the HostingCon Advisory Board.

Photo Credit: B Rosen

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Around this time of year I start doing a lot of online ordering of custom printed merchandise for spring events my business manages. This means I am searching numerous supplier websites trying to find the right items, at the right prices, from companies I know can deliver on time.

It also means I see first hand how some small business (and larger businesses for that matter) integrate their online stores, customer service, and product delivery.

One merchant I deal with has a procedure that I can’t figure out if I like or not…

A Little Background

This supplier I’ve been dealing with for a couple years now. They have a quality product, for a good price, and they deliver on time…overall I am very satisfied using them for some of my branded merchandise needs.

But, they have me flummoxed when it comes to one of there practices.

On their site I will choose the items I want printed, make numerous choices on the printing options, and finally see a final product and cost for my order once I’ve added the items into the shopping cart. Until my items go into the cart I don’t fully know what my costs are (there’s the item costs, setup fees based on printing options, and miscellaneous charges for extra services).

So I get everything into the cart, look at my costs, and then decide if I want to purchase as is or make some changes to the order to get back on budget. Sometimes I make changes and complete the order, other times I go a completely different route altogether and abandon the cart to start another search on their site.

My Question for You

Which leads me to my question for you all. Every time a cart is abandoned they follow up with a phone call to me to inquire about why I abandoned the cart (they have my info on file since I order from them regularly). They usually say “we notice you were looking at custom printed pink flamingos but did not complete your order, can we help you finalize it?”

Okay, I get it – shopping cart abandonment is a real thorn in online retailers sides, but really, a phone call every time I leave a cart – even if during the same session on their site I place an order?

I’ve suggested that if I could see total costs before placing items into a cart I wouldn’t be abandoning the cart as often, but I don’t think there is much energy around changing that since then they wouldn’t be able to see uncompleted orders.

This must work on some level or they wouldn’t commit the resources to make the calls all the time, but it has me wanting not to check things out on their site because I don’t want the phone calls if I change my mind.

The whole thing has me confused. Is this the best way to go about dealing with abandoned carts? Is it good service, or just annoying? I don’t know…so I need your help figuring it out.

You Make the Call

So which is it….great service, good business, or just annoying? Let me know in the comments below.

Photo Credit: Divine in the Daily

Story Time

There are two, nearly identical, Mexican food places from which to get a fully loaded vegetarian burrito at lunch, within walking distance to my home office.

Both are “fast food” resturants, lunch counter types, not a typical sit down with a waiter and what not.

Which One Would You Go To?

Burrito Place A is about 3 blocks away and takes me maybe 5 minutes to walk there.

Burrito Place B is roughly 13 blocks away and takes me 15 minutes walking commute time.

Burrito Place A is 10% across the board cheaper than Burrito Place B.

Both use top quality ingredients, and both make an excellent burrito that leaves me satisfied.

Which One Do I Choose? 

I go to Burrito Place B every time, all the time, without even thinking about going to Burrito Place A.

I walk farther (30 minutes round trip vs. 10 minutes), and pay more, for a burrito that is nearly identical in every way to Burrito Place A.   And here’s why…

My first trip into Burrito Place A was a sterile, faceless, nameless, cookie cutter experience. Great burrito, great price, but that was it. I was a number, $5 more bucks in the register.

My first trip to Burrito Place B was couldn’t have been more different.

I was greeted when I walked in, asked how my day was going as they made my burrito by hand behind the counter.  In general the staff were affable, friendly people, who looked like they enjoyed the interaction with the customers, as much as working with each other.

 As I was eating, one of the staff members came by to see how every thing was, and then get this…said “Good to hear everything was made to your liking. I just wanted to tell you we appreciate your business, if you need anything let me know”.  This guy didn’t own the place, heck he wasn’t even the manager, he just took pride in making a great burrito, and wanted to be sure I enjoyed it – wanted me to know he appreciated my business – how cool is that?

When I walked out I heard  ”Thanks a lot, have a good one and come see us again”.  Like a friend telling me they’d see me later.

And come see them again I do, over and over again anytime I need a burrito for lunch. I walk farther and pay more for the same product I could get elsewhere. But why would I go anywhere else?

How Far Would Your Customers Walk?

There’s a lesson in there for any business – would your customers walk farther and pay more for you?

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If you’re like me you’ve spent many a day and night racking your brain on ways to attract new customers and keep the customers you have buying from you.

This acquisition/retention model is the foundation of what it takes to grow, reinforce our brands in the minds of our customers and bring us new customers for years to come.

Problem is we aren’t always flush with cash or time to work on ways to attract and retain.

Luckily Matt Heinz, of Heinz Marketing, released a new report called:

13 Ways to Win Customers for Free – Proven Best Practices for Increasing Current Customer Frequency and Driving New Customers to Buy

What’s in the Report?

In his report Matt identifies 13 ideas that will apply to nearly every reader, and they represent the mere tip of the iceberg for other opportunities across your business to organically grow revenue.

Use these first ideas as a starter pack, a launching pad to brainstorm more opportunities across your unique business to grow your customer base, and keep them coming back for more.

What Are the 13 Ways?

1. Better Voicemails
2. Your Email Address
3. Freebies
4. Newsletters
5. Open Houses
6. Testimonials
7. Seminars and How-To Workshops
8. Trivia
9. Name Tags
10. Tell-a-Friend Incentives
11. Charities
12. Thank You Notes
13. Business Cards

Want the Details?

Download this report for free: 13 Ways to Win Customers for Free (.pdf – 16 pages)

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My unbelievably exquisite, lovely, and beautiful wife (she may be reading this) came home from work yesterday and was bubbling over with excitement.

I first thought she was just excited to see me after a long day, but in her hand she held a 5 berry milkshake that was ¾ of the way empty and I immediateley identified that as the source of her good mood.

“What’s up?” I ask, “Why so cheery?”

“Not much”, she says all perky like, “Just enjoying my FREE 5 berry milkshake is all”

It was completely obvious she was not only enjoying her sweet delight, but couldn’t wait to tell me about the fact that it was free.

“Free…how’d you manage that?”

They Messed Up My Salad – It Was Great!

And from there she launches into a story about how she went to a local burger chain for lunch, and they totally screwed up her salad order, had to remake it, and it took an extra 10 minutes before she got her food.

The story doesn’t end there. Recognizing they maybe needed to do some service recovery with my wife, they gave her a $10 coupon for her troubles, and the salad was free (notice the free salad didn’t carry the same weight with her as the free milkshake).

So with her new found riches she had stopped off and got a milkshake on the way home, thus the good mood.

She had been telling everyone she knew, myself, the people at work, probably even the gas station attendant about her “good fortune”.

In her mind, the burger joint that completely botched her salad and cost her 10 minutes out of her day, walked on water and could do no wrong, and she was even recommending them to anyone who’d listen.

What’s Can We Learn

I think this story is a good illustration of the power righting a wrong. Had my wife’s salad been perfectly made I don’t know that she’d be extolling the virtues of this place as much as when they needed to do some service recovery.

It’s almost as if she was happier that they screwed up, and made it right, than if they had of done it right the first time! They turned their mistake into a positive “word of mouth” worthy event.

How to Apply This to Your Business

1. You have to be doing things right most of the time for this to work.

2. Correct all wrongs immediately, and take ownership of them (the wrong salad could have been blamed on the new cook, but instead the establishment took responsibility and didn’t place blame)

3. Sometimes, take responsibility for miniscule mistakes. Once, Starbucks gave me a free drink because it took them 1 minute to make my mocha instead of 30 seconds. This reinforces in your customers mind your high standards, and service expectations.

Why It Works

1. You’re taking ownership, and in the customers mind acknowledging they did not get something from you they should have. Too often businesses try to sweep mistakes under the rug, fearing customers will be upset, only to upset customers more by skirting the issue.

2. You give your customer a reason to come back and try you out again. Once they see you normally get it right, you’ll have won them over. They’ll know it’s a rare occurrence you aren’t perfect.

3. You give them something very easy to talk about. They’ll be singing your praises for righting a wrong, just like my wife did. And a good story like that spreads.

Try it with your own business. The next time you don’t meet a customers expectations, do some service recovery. Or better yet, use the Starbuck’s method once in a while to reinforce your extremely high standards for quality and service. See if you can get them to talk about how great you are for screwing up!

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