4 Tips on Building Quick Friendly Support
If you are running some business, which is aimed at provision of different services and involves direct communication between you or your staff and your customers, you need to do all your best in order to look the most polite, the most friendly and the most professional service provider in the niche.
Some things described there may sound familiar to you, but I believe that many will find this article and the tips below useful. Here they are:
Separate the Departments
I bet you would be confused if a serious company had only one mailbox in order to sort out all the queries. Believe me they would be confused as well. Thus, instead of providing just a common info@yourdomain.com mailbox, it is always advisable to share several email addresses of different departments, let’s say sales@ billing@ and support@yourdomain.com. This will let you filter all support requests, while your customers will feel confident about the staff they are addressing to.
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If you also provide online support – via chats or phone, you should distinguish the departments, too. Of course, the customers can be put through some live coordinator, which may resolve some issues personally or transfer the call/chat to the correspondent representative, but I don’t think that “Thank you for you call (Welcome to our chat support), please hold” is the right start of the conversation. Especially when the customer is experiencing an urgent issue. Many people do find it irritating, when their conversations are being constantly transferred or put on hold. Thus, it is recommended to create several extensions under your VOIP server and configure your online chatting software with department selection option.
Limit the Support Options
The company representative should know all the rules and regulations of support terms, they provide. Especially if there are a lot of staff members with different training level. This is very important since some may help with a wider range of issues which are not actually supported, while some fail, causing the customers’ frustration like “Wait, I remember a different guy helping me out the other day! How come you don’t support it?” Such situations should be escaped. Thus, the first rule about this is “Nothing personal – just business.” This may be your favorite customer and it’s alright, but if your company doesn’t support let’s say step-by-step phone co-ordination of router installation and adjustment – then you should politely ask this customer to consult the manual supplied along with the device.
Keep Your Emotions
When talking about customers’ frustration, we can’t hide the fact we may get irritated, too. We are all human and it is natural. However, you should never let your emotions go. First of all, you are the professional, who should stay calm in any situation. Secondly, you are a representative of the company and your attitude does not have anything to do with the others and shouldn’t spoil the good name of the company. Finally, when the customer blames you or the company – do not ever take anything personally – and do not forget that you have a right to quit the conversation in case the customer uses bad language. This is very important since communication policies are required to be introduced. Such policies do not only save your nerves, but also protect the company in case illegal charges from the customer’s end emerge.
Drive Your Support to Social Media
Good customer service is the service which can be exposed to the public with no blushing. Apart from using social media on promotion purposes, the company can also use its social network profiles to discuss the quality of support and the peculiarities of service. Testimonials, suggestion boxes and polls are the very points to address to when escalating some conflicts that may grow from chat conversation or correspondence with management to flaming on forums and in social networks.
Thus, using social media you will get active support. If the fault was not on the company’s end. Such manner works well for both services improvement and promotion. On one hand your current customers will be able to share their views and ideas, while on the other hand those of your followers, who do not yet have any service with you will get a more complete clear picture of what is happening behind the screens.
To Summarize
Being competitive is not only providing the best service or product, it is also providing the best support. Many think that when the client meets the seller their relations begin and end as soon as the purchase is made. Well, if it is not a square market – it is wrong. The business-to-client relations start only when the product or service is purchased, since once a person becomes someone’s customer, the vendor takes the responsibility for the offered product or service. Thus, those relations need to exist in a friendly non-conflict way. Sure, all this requires mutual understanding, which may sometimes lack on any side, but if we take a few steps to get ourselves better organized – we will see that we can be faster and avoid many unpleasant phenomena.
Author’s Bio: Arkadij “Archie” Shkolnik, PR Manager of SiteValley.com web hosting company, the provider of affordable and reliable Linux hosting for personal and small business web sites. Current administrator and author of the corporate blog – svhostingblog.com. Follow Archie on Twitter: @archiescol
Photo Credit: Tim Green aka atoach
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2 Emerging Social Media Platforms You Should be Using RIGHT NOW
In the brave new world of Social Media for Small Business there are the big, well known and highly lauded vehicles for promotion (Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, Yelp, LinkedIn) that almost every business has heard of, if not tried.
And then there are the new entrees into the scene, which get a lot of buzz in certain industries but which have not yet reached mainstream awareness. The obvious barrier to embracing these tactics as an “early adopter” is that your target audience may not have jumped on board either which will delay the potential benefits of directing your energy into these strategies.
However there are a multitude of advantages to being among the first in your area/industry to embrace these new platforms and a potentially greater payoff in the long run then directing your efforts to competing in the over saturated Social Media spheres.
These newer tactics are not as widely used, and therefore not as competitive, as the older social media platforms. There is plentiful room for growth on these platforms, potential for untapped markets and above all else an advantage to having more time to getting a toehold in the space before others flood the market.
These two tactics are heavily favored to succeed (both by investors and by predictive trending based on early adoption). By being the first to embrace them your business has a distinct advantage in capitalizing on the potential business expansion opportunities.
Platform: Social Q&A
Sites: Quora, Yahoo Answers, LinkedIn Questions , OnStartups Q&A, Focus, Matchpoint, Facebook Questions, Aardvark
Social Q&A is relatively new to the Social Media Market. Quora launched with much fanfare this summer following in the heels of high profile social search acquisitions by big names like Apple, Google and Yahoo. Social search and crowdsourcing information and Q&A is here to stay. Yahoo Answers, one of the oldest and therefore more pervasive of the Q&A models, consistently shows up in search queries and no doubt these other sites will also start to pop up as they grow in notoriety and popularity.
In fact, several hours after answering my first question on Quora we experienced immediate results in the form of site visits and conversions. Although not everyone can expect immediate turn around, there is no doubt that these communities are by their very nature active and seeking, and that demonstrating your expertise can give you a toehold in your field and give your business exposure in a highly directed way.
If you sell custom made bicycles and someone is researching a purchase and comes across a thoughtful (and well ranked answer) how much more likely will that potential customer be to seek you out when it comes time to purchase?
The reason to embrace this tactic right now is simple, to get there and answer questions before other people do. If you look at older sites like Yahoo Answers or LinkedIn, some questions have tens (even hundreds!) of answers. Being first, and at the top, increases the likelihood your response will actually get read and have an impact, much like keyword and search ranking ensures that your website will get visited. In fact some of the sites close questions after a period of time, which means if you don’t answer a question while it’s open, you may never get to answer it.
Platform: Geolocation
Sites: Facebook Places, Loopt, Foursquare, Gowalla
Before the launch of Facebook Places, only 7% of Americans were even aware that Geolocation services exists (according to Mashable). After the launch of Facebook Places, the burgeoning field of geolocation has been exposed to Facebook’s community of 500 million active users, according to Facebook’s own statistics. Each user has an average of 130 friends, 50% of whom log on to Facebook in any given day.
Facebook Places is therefore a huge windfall for the geolocation market. Not only did they dramatically increase the awareness of the “check in”, they also opened up the technology to people who don’t have smartphones (while it may seem that everybody has a smartphone, the actual statistics reveal that only about 30% of mobile users are using their browser!). With the introduction of Facebook Places, even if you can’t check-in you can see and comment on other people’s check ins.
The result is an widespread awareness of geolocation which coincides with market predictions that indicate that by the year 2013 1 billion people will have smartphones. This means that adopting and cultivating your geolocation strategy now will give you a distinct advantage of operating in a less competitive space, much like the early Yelp users and facebook fan page adopters before the novelty of the technology wore off and people began to feel over solicited.
Another motivator is that unlike Facebook Places (which requires you to upload documents that demonstrate proof of ownership of your business) the other geolocation services do not have such rigorous protections in place at this time, which means someone else could claim your business.
These two tactics both possess inherent advantages for early adopters. Why wait? Check out these new social media platforms and explore how they can enrich your existing social media strategy!
About the Author: Dena Stern is the Community Resources and Marketing Manager at WorkingPoint, a financial accounting tool for Small Businesses. She is responsible for community outreach and is a frequent contributor on the subject of technology trends, social media and marketing on the WorkingPoint Blog.
Photo Credit: webtreats
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How to Find a Great Business College
Perhaps you’ve always dreamed of running your own business (or several). Or maybe your plan is to start in marketing or management and work your way up.
You might be interested in commerce, economics, government, or politics. Or your talents may lie in more creative fields like art or writing.
Whatever your interests and goals, a degree in marketing could help you. It is quite possibly the most versatile and misunderstood of college majors because many people labor under the assumption that it is only for the corporate-minded among us. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Anyone who is interested in a business of any kind (from working for a major oil company to book publishing to running an eBay store) can benefit from a degree in business. But where should you go to get one?
Do Your Research
While most colleges and universities offer a business program, you want to find the one that’s right for you. Certainly there are people who want the best and biggest, and if you are entering a specialized and competitive field, you should certainly do some research into which universities offer the top programs (while the best known listing is probably the one compiled by US News & World Report, Bloomberg also publishes an annual list of the top twenty schools based on qualifications like post-graduate job rates).
However, not everyone is seeking placement at a Fortune 500 company, so you may not want to shell out close to $50,000 per year to attend top-ranked undergrad or MBA programs at Harvard, Stanford, or MIT.
Cost vs. Quality
The truth is, most programs are going to teach you the same basic principles of business. You’ll take the expected courses in areas like math, statistics, accounting, economics, and management (plus whatever relates to your specific field), but you may be surprised to learn that many schools now require you to take a more diverse range of supplemental classes such as writing, psychology, and (thanks to scandalous practices by Enron and others) ethics.
But in all honesty, you can pretty much engineer a tailor-made business degree by choosing to minor in literally any other topic. So you may want to seek out a school based not only on the value of their business program, but also on the level of training they provide in your secondary area of interest.
If your dream is to manage a publishing house, for example, you may want to look into a school that also offers an excellent English program. Or if your interest lies in marketing for a non-profit organization that provides AIDS relief, you may want to select a school that has specialty programs related to social work or disease control and prevention.
Be Selective
Whatever your reasons for attaining a business degree, you’ll want to be selective about the school you choose. You don’t want to amass a huge debt only to get a job that will never allow you to repay your student loans, or attend a state school when you know your career plans are to work on Wall Street.
Your ability to make a smart move with your schooling is the first step towards making intelligent business decisions, so be prepared to do some research to find the school that’s right for you. After all, you’re going to have to get in the habit of working hard and paying attention to the details if you want to succeed in business.
About the Author:Ryan Patridge is a writer for Grants for College. Ryan also gives advice on the pursuit of higher education and career options for young adults.
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Learn From This Customer Service Epic Fail
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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Turning Frowns Upside Down Zappos Style
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
Do You Know How Your Customers Secretly Perceive You Online?
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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3 Examples of Awful Customer Service Your Biz Won’t Want to Imitate
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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Great Service, Good Business, or Just Annoying? You Make the Call
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
Would Your Customers Do This For You?
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” restaurants, 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 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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How a Bad Salad Leads to Happy Customers and What Your Business Can Learn From It
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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The Small Things are the Big Things in Business
Sometimes in business we assume it’s the big things that get us noticed. The “go big, or go home” mentality prevails and unless we have the capability to go big, we believe we are stuck with going home and not getting our business and brands out there.
The Story
A couple of days ago I was contacted by Matt Heinz of Heinz Marketing, whom I didn’t know prior to his first email to me. He paid me a compliment about Small Biz Bee and said he had a free report called “Six Essential Social Media Tools for Every Small Business (PDF)” and thought readers of Small Biz Bee may be interested in it.
I took a quick read over it, and he was right. It was exactly the kind of information I like sharing, and I told Matt I’d send it out to the
Twitter followers that day, which I did. Start to finish took about 10 minutes of my time.
That same day Matt asked if he could add me to his contact list, which I happily did since he had just provided such a nice resource for those who follow me on Twitter.
Two days go by and I get an envelope in the mail, from you guessed it, Heinz Marketing. Now I’m thinking, “oh great…what kind of list did I get on?”.
When I opened the envelope here is what it contained:
Not a pitch to do business with him, or an offer for 20% off his services – nothing like that.
Just a business card, a drink coaster (at least I think it’s a coaster Matt – it’s nice, and that’s what I’ll be using it for), and the piece of the mailing that impressed me the most:
A hand written note which read: “Matt, Thanks for the Retweet! Best of luck in the rest of 2009 & beyond. Cheers, Matt”
Hands down the best thank you for a simple retweet I’ve ever received.
The Lesson
Matt obviously understands it’s the little things that get you noticed. It’s the unexpected, small things, that can have a big impact on potential customers.
It doesn’t have to be ground breaking, or earth shattering to work. And if you don’t have the budget for a custom made drink coaster, don’t think you can’t do this same thing with almost no budget.
The next time someone helps you out in a small way, make a big deal out of it. Send them a hand written card, say thanks, don’t try to sell them anything – this is what gets you noticed, gets people talking, and eventually gets you business.
If you got something like this, who would you think of the next time you needed the service they offer? Be that kind of business.
Front page photo credit: laurenatclemson
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Want Free Business Advice? Listen to Your Customers!
How well do you listen to what your customers have to say?
It’s easy to hang on every positive word a customer utters, and quietly dismiss any negative criticisms, but as Richard Branson points out in this short interview segment with Seth Godin, listening to all customer feedback should be part of your business strategy.
Listening is Free
In the past week we’ve featured many ways for you to save your business money, but listening may be one of the best uses of your energy. And the best part of it is, listening is free!
Mr. Branson points out that when you really listen to what your customers have to say you’re opening yourself up to a world of innovative ideas. Think about it, customers tell us:
- What we’re doing well
- What we can do better
- What they’d like to see us do
- What they have no interest in
- What’s important to them
- What’s not
- What they’d pay more for
- What they think should be cheaper
Customers give us all the information we need to get better for free.
Put More Smart People on Your Team
A concept that struck me during this clip was that some of your customers, my customers, our customers – are smarter than we are. They may be better at business, have more skills, or just plain brilliant, and that’s a good thing.
When we listen to their ideas we are effectively adding more smart people to our team to make us better. Usually in order to get smart people on your team you have to pay them – sometimes a lot – but that’s not the case with customers.
They willing share their thoughts and ideas with us for free, and then we can pick and choose the best ideas to implement. It doesn’t get better than having a perpetual think tank giving us fresh ideas about our business from people smarter than we are.
Granted not all feedback or ideas will be good ones, and our job will be to know the difference. But it begins with listening, and when something that doesn’t cost a dime and only takes a small amount of my time, can radically change my business, I’m on board.
Are you listening?
Photo Credit: striatic
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Guy Kawasaki on Listening to Your Customers
Here’s a short video from Guy Kawasaki that can serve as a reminder to us all what is most important when running our businesses.
Listening to our customers.
Listen to your customers and your noncustomers, emphasizes Kawasaki. People who are not your customers are going to buy your product and use it in ways that you would not expect.
Guy Kawasaki on Listening to Your Customers
Running time: 2min 14sec
Photo Credit:ky_olsen
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What’s the Next Curve for your Business?
Guy Kawasaki talks a lot about the “Next Curve” in the context of innovation. He uses an example of a printer company not coming up with a new kind of font, but inventing laser printing instead, in order to get their company to the next curve of innovation.
This is macro level “big thinking”, which has the ability to shape and alter the course of business. But can we take a piece of this type of thinking and apply it to our own business on a more micro-level and still achieve a “big thinking benefit”? You bet we can.
Next Curve Thinking on a Micro Scale
You don’t need to invent the next revolution in personal computing to benefit from next curve thinking.
Let’s look at some examples:
The titan of bulk shopping, Costco, resisted putting express lanes in their stores, and instead opted for lines of people at the register. What are they thinking, are they crazy? Don’t they know that shoppers want to get in and out quickly, and that surely it would be better customer service to add a 9 items or less lane!
Yes, they know this.
They also know that shoppers in an express lane spend less than shoppers without the option of such a lane. In a warehouse super store where you are buying items by the caseload, the last thing Costco wants is you to speed through. At the time going counter the express lane concept was next curve, and it also fattened their bottom line.
Another Example:
Zappos.com hopped on the next curve when it came to customer service.
Free overnight shipping (both ways) and hassle free returns over the Internet – are you kidding me, that’s not possible! It was possible, and Zappos.com is reaping the rewards as a result of thinking next curve in their customer service model.
And Lastly:
Not too long ago when you had a problem with your computer you called your local computer shop and they said “Bring it on down, I’ll look at it in a couple days and get back to you”. Then you unplugged your PC, boxed it up, and dropped it off for the computer guy to work his magic.
What was the next curve here? Mobile computer support. Now I call, they say “We’ll be right out”, a few minutes later computer guy shows up and fixes my computer. Pretty sweet.
Look Inside Your Business to Find the Next Curve
One trend we see in the micro-level next curve thinking is that businesses are taking preconceived notions and breaking them down. They are looking for things that are a “given”, an “industry standard”, or where it’s said “you can’t do that” and then doing it.
Can you see how this kind of thinking may apply to your business? Are there areas in your business model that you don’t do because you’ve been under the assumption it just can’t be done?
Look at areas of your business to spot the next curve — Know where your revenue streams come from, know your customers, and get creative in your delivery model to better serve them. You can go to the next curve without inventing laser printing.
Get out ahead of what your competitors think can’t be done, and remember innovation does not have to be macro, “big thinking”, to give your business the benefit of thinking next curve.
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Photo Credit: l.gence
Would You Like Fries With That? The Fast Food Approach To Thriving In A Down Economy
The following guest post by Matt Rodela explores what we can learn from the fast food industry and apply to our own businesses.
It’s hard to ignore the popularity of fast food and quick service restaurants (QSR) these days. Despite the commonly known fact that fast food is bad for your health; the fast food industry continues to thrive in this down economy.
Provide Focused Options
When ordering at any of the major fast food restaurants, you normally feel like you have a good variety of options to choose from. You can order food a la carte, or get a few items together in one of several value meals. Don’t want fries with your meal? Most places offer alternative sides like salads or fruit.
However, when you really start to look closely at the menu, the majority of the items offered are a variation of the same thing. McDonalds, even with its wraps and salads, basically only sells hamburgers. Taco Bell has the same few basic ingredients mixed and matched in different kinds of tortillas. Even Subway, with it’s plethora of topping choices, only offers one main product: a sandwich.
Fast Food teaches us that it’s important to find a niche (burgers, sandwiches, Mexican food) and then offer different customization options within that niche. By establishing only a few main products or services to sell, but then offering different combinations of those services, you give the perception of variety without causing confusion or diluting your business focus. You can experiment with this concept by combining two products together, or offering smaller add-on services to compliment your main service.
Be Convenient
Research shows that convenience is the main reason consumers choose a fast-food dining option. Although most people know that the cheapest way to dine is to cook at home, many are still are choosing to spend a little bit more for fast food because it’s convenient. This is the bread and butter of the fast food industry and why it continues to do well while not being the most affordable option. Customers never have to leave their car to order a meal. There’s a restaurant at every major intersection. Fast food knows that it has to be available to you whenever your hunger strikes.
This is an important lesson for small businesses. The modern American is hooked on finding the quickest way from point A to point B. Help them out by making your business easy to find and your options easy to understand. If you have a store front, make sure it’s easy to see and access form the road. If you offer products online, help your customers order with the least amount of clicks possible. These small things go a long way and your customers will show their appreciation with their pocket books.
Take Advantage of Trends
Lately, fast food is taking whatever happens to be culturally popular at the moment and integrating it into their business. For example, a few years ago, thanks to the popularity of Starbucks, gourmet coffee became all the rage. McDonald’s and Burger King answered back by offering premium roasted coffee on their menus. Then Starbucks retaliated by offering breakfast sandwiches on the menu as a way to pull customers back from fast food.
Now that healthy eating is en vogue, fast food is jumping on the bandwagon. Many popular QSRs are by offering “fit” meals and healthy menu alternatives like salads and fruit. It wasn’t that long ago that the only beverage options at fast food restaurants were sodas. Now the menu is full of less sugary alternatives like sports drinks and water.
Sometimes it may feel like riding the wave of a trend will somehow ruin the integrity of your business, but the effect is quite often the opposite. Customers will identify more with your brand if you show that you have your finger on the pulse of society. Pay special attention to other successful businesses in your industry and don’t be too proud to start using what is working for them.
The QSR business model is thriving. If you want your business to survive one of the worst economic downturns of our lifetime, it’s in your best interest to take a page from the book of the fast food industry.
Matt Rodela is the man behind Your Friendly Neighborhood Computer Guy, which chronicles the journey of this twenty-something “computer nerd” as he tries to turn his passion for helping people with computer problems into a successful home-based computer support business in Maryland.
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