How To Retain Your Customers Through Spectacular Customer Service

In a business world which is getting more competitive each and every day, there’s one thing which will keep your customers coming back again and again – a valuable customer experience. Your customer experience begins and ends with spectacular customer service.

What Is Customer Service?

It’s being there for your customer from the moment they meet you, whether it is online, on the phone or they walk through the front door of your establishment. It’s being there to prevent any potential problems and it’s being there to resolve any issues that come up. Finally, customer service is about being proactive and engaging your current customers so they always feel valuable and appreciated.

For many businesses, and you’re sure to have had this experience as a customer, customer service is an afterthought. It’s when the problem solvers step in and attempt to appease you. While this is certainly part of customer service if this is your approach you’re going to spend a whole lot of time solving problems.

Spectacular customer service means being in communication with your customers to make sure they’re happy, to find out what they need and want and to meet those needs with innovative products and services.

How To Provide Spectacular Customer Service

Be transparent and available 24/7. This doesn’t mean you have to answer the phone at all hours but it does mean providing all the information possible for your customers to have easy access to. A FAQ page and a customer service form on your website can fill in the off hours and you can hire a customer service company to answer phones, address problems, and even have a presence on your website in a pop up customer service chat screen.

However as mentioned earlier customer service is about more than answering questions and solving problems. It’s about creating strategies to solve problems before they occur, to embrace your customers’ needs and wants before they know what they are and solve them.

This can be accomplished with regular communication, surveys and polls, special offers for your loyal customers only and regular tracking and analytics. Data is a valuable asset to providing an ideal customer experience. Think about your last shopping experience at your favorite store. Chances are your satisfaction with the outing was influenced by the sales representatives you encountered but also by the layout of the store – how easy it was to find things – and how easy it was to check out. Online or off these little experiences add up to a spectacular customer service experience.

The happier and more satisfied your customers are the more they’ll come back and the more they’ll talk about you to your friends. It means a bigger and better business and more profits. Focus on your customer experience and you’ll be building the kind of success which lasts.

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How to Stay Committed To Your Business

When starting your own business it’s often easy to get yourself started, but a lot harder to keep yourself going when things get a bit more tough. Here are ten tips to help you stay committed.

1. Set goals. Without goals, there’s really not much reason for you to be in business. If you want to stay connected to your business, it helps to make yourself realize why you’re in business to begin with.

2. Keep those goals in mind. You started your business for a reason. You need to keep that in mind so you don’t get weighed down by the day-to-day of your work. Keep little pictures or other memorabilia around that remind you of why you’re doing this is the first place.

3. Be flexible. There’s not a one-size-fits-all method to success: you might have to try a lot of things before you find what’s right for you. The key is to be flexible and willing to try new things when things aren’t working for you.

4. Be persistent. While you may want to change when things aren’t working, you can’t give up on everything so quickly. You have to be willing to keep trying and keep going even if things don’t go well at first.

5. Make it fun. We all want to do things that are fun, and shy away from things that aren’t. Make sure the avenues you pursue are not only profitable, but enjoyable to you. If you have stuff you need to do that isn’t as fun, try turning it into a game, just like you probably do with your kids to get their chores done.

6. Find supportive people. It’s a lot easier to stay committed to something if there are people on the sidelines cheering you on. Take time to talk to people who are supportive of your business. If you don’t have many, try finding people like you online, on specialty forums like GBE,  and at local classes so you can encourage each other.

7. Get help. If you’re like most people, you probably think you can get your business going on your own. And if you’re like most people, you probably can’t. Starting your own business is a big job, and it’s perfectly normal to need a little help or guidance. Try to find a mentor who has already been successful in your area to guide you and give suggestions. They will also be a constant reminder that what you’re trying to do is achievable.

8. Review what you’ve done. If you’re feeling like you want to give up or just feel beaten down, take out a pen and paper and write down what you’ve accomplished since you started your business. Even if it’s just little stuff, write it down. By the time you’re finished you’ll probably feel better realizing how much you’ve accomplished. Then keep the list and review it and update it every so often to keep yourself going.

9. Expand yourself. You’ve probably found that when you have a new idea or project, you get very excited about it. Try to constantly expand yourself by going to seminars, reading books, getting newsletters, and doing other things to keep yourself coming up with new ideas and getting new projects. The more new things you do, the more excited you’ll be about doing your work.

10. Stay positive. A positive attitude goes a long way in keeping you motivated. Take steps to keep yourself looking on the bright side of life and work and it will be easier to keep yourself going.

Are You In The Right Business?

Today’s message comes from Jeanette Houser, owner of  Anything Goes Gourmet. Read on to find out how being passionate about her business impacted her success.

Many years ago, after becoming tired of the grind of working for a large, impersonal corporation, I made the decision that I wanted to be a self-employed business owner.  Knowing that being passionate about my business would be one of the keys to its success, I began to think about what I really enjoyed.  I looked around my home and realized my only magazine subscriptions were for Food and Wine and Gourmet.

I made a list of what I did in my free time and what I enjoyed doing with my friends.  Hiking and sporting events never appeared on the list.  Instead, dim sum on Sunday and the Italian Market on Saturday morning were highlights of my weekends.  My favorite place in London was Harrods’s Food Hall.  As I had no interest in being a chef, I decided to open a gourmet gift basket business.

As a new business owner, I was lucky to have experience and skills in marketing and sales, and an education in management and accounting.  Unfortunately, my talents do not include design, creativity or decorative skills.  I am not crafty and when I wrap my Christmas gifts, the bows are purchased at the store.  Clearly, producing and selling the most beautiful, elegant gift baskets was not going to be one of my competitive advantages.

Instead, I did what I enjoyed:  I researched and discovered the most interesting gourmet products that I could use in my gift basket.  I found the best tasting or most unique flavors.  I tracked down products from small family businesses that were unknown in local gourmet shops, let alone mass market grocery stores.  I visited farmer’s markets and small, obscure gourmet food shops.  At the International Fancy Food Show, I sampled as much as my stomach could take.

It was the classic case of “Find a job that you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life.” And the money did follow, just like the guru’s tell us.  Not that I became rich, and I did work hard, long hours.  But it didn’t feel like work – especially when people who had received those gourmet gift baskets called asking where they could buy that amazing salsa or those extraordinary white chocolate macadamia nut cookies or the boysenberry popcorn.  I told them all the same thing:  Only from me!

My little gift basket business became the third largest gift basket company in Phoenix, Arizona.  I never won any design awards at the Gift Basket Association Conventions (in fact, I never entertained the thought of entering), but my baskets became well-known for their unique and special gourmet products.  My clients received thank you notes expressing how great the products were rather than the pretty presentation, and those recipients often became clients.

I received the greatest gift of all:  The experience of knowing that I could be a successful business owner, filled with excitement every morning before going off to ‘work.’  Of course, sampling the cookies from the inventory was a great way to start the day!

Jeanette Hauser has sold her gourmet gift basket business, but continues her search for the best and most unique gourmet gifts on her website www.AnythingGoesGourmet.com.

The Importance of Website Marketing

It is a common misconception that if you build a website, the traffic will come. The process from building to profit making takes a little more elbow grease than that. Website marketing is important.

Advertising gets the word out about who you are and what you are selling. On the Internet, your site is one of thousands. To have a fighting chance, use every means available to you to advertise/market your company.

The Internet is a virtual reality: think of each website as a different store. Some stores you like to go in and some you haven’t had a need to visit. But, if you saw some catchy ads for other stores while you were shopping, you might be inclined to visit them.

Since you want to advertise what you are selling, you’ll need to find a place online where that is possible. Choose sites that have something in common with your product but are not in direct competition with your market. Most sites sell advertising space as a way of making extra revenue.

Make use of your signature line in emails. Include your business website address and a tagline in addition to your name. Now, anyone who gets email from you will know where to find your website. Your main purpose is to keep your website, and thus your products, in the forefront of everyone’s mind. Chances are people will visit you if they see the address everywhere they look.

Along that same line, you can advertise offline for online businesses. When you create your business cards, be sure to add your website address and in the same size font as the other pertinent information. It is easy to log on to the Internet in the office, at home, or at a cyber café and see what is going on at your website.

In fact, people would rather have a website address than a telephone number. A telephone number conjures up visions of someone with an annoying voice trying to pressure you into buying something. On the Internet, people can satisfy their curiosity without any strings attached. In that way, a website provides an excellent advertising opportunity.

The competition on the Internet is stiff. Each website is clamoring for their piece of the market right along with you. To increase your traffic, you have to stand above the rest. One way to do this is to advertise your website as often and in as many places as you can.

If you have trouble getting visitors to your website, or have questions about anything related to promoting your gift basket website, leave a comment below and I’ll try to help.

Quick Tips for Getting and Keeping More Clients

Here are five quick tips for getting and keeping more clients.

1. Ask your clients for referrals. There’s nothing wrong with doing this. In fact, customers are often happy to refer you to others, they just need to be reminded to do so. And, if you can create a referral program where your current clients receive a discount or credit for your services, then all the better.

2. Be a consummate professional. If you’re an excellent person to work with, you’ll keep your clients. The truth is, we place a high value on our business relationships, at least the clients you want to work with do. And if you can build a strong relationship with your clients, you’ll keep them for the long haul. They’ll also talk about you, and word of mouth is a great, and free, marketing tool.

3. Communicate with your clients on a regular basis. If you regularly connect with your clients, you stay in the front of their mind when they have a need or when someone asks them if they know of a good gift supplier or a great relationship builder. There are two approaches to regular client communication and you can combine the two approaches as you see fit. They are:

- Send your client list an email once a month, or more often if you like, highlighting a promotion. For example, “10% off any orders of $100 or more for the month of January.”

- Send your client a note when you’re thinking of them. For example, “I saw this article in the Wall Street Journal and thought of you.” This helps build a relationship to them and it’s a great way to stay connected.

4. Get out there and get noticed! Participate in networking events, blog and/or be a guest blogger. Generate awareness about you and your services. One new client can turn into thousands of dollars over the course of a year as they can refer other clients.

5. Be helpful. Be willing to help and inform others in your community even when there isn’t any apparent reward. Whether you believe in the law of attraction or not, when you give to others, they give back. This doesn’t mean you give away your services: what it means is that you’re willing to help others by providing insight, information and a listening ear when they need it without expecting anything in return.

If your client is trying to resolve an issue and you can help them with your experience, help them. They’ll appreciate it and you never know when they’ll be able to return the favor.

Much of the art of keeping clients has to do with building relationships, and it’s also intricately linked with getting new clients. Word of mouth from satisfied clients is a wonderful way to fill your schedule with your ideal clients and projects. Connect!