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1.) THE "EDITOR'S CHOICE"
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editor@online-exchange.com
 

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2.) HEADLINE ARTICLE
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 How Customer Friendly is Your Business?  Three Steps to Using the Web to Improve Customer Relations, Part 1
By Tom Swanson

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Last Friday, on my way to Appleton, Wisconsin, I had some engine trouble.  It was a holiday weekend, and I needed to get to my destination by Saturday.  So I did the only thing I could: I took my vehicle to the first service station I could find in Dubuque, Iowa.  I’m no mechanic, but I know a little bit about how a gasoline engine works. 

Apparently, however, the “trained technicians” at this particular establishment didn’t.  Or, if they did, they certainly didn’t give me the impression that they cared enough to really fix the problem.  Instead, they offered to replace two marginally related items – and charge me an arm and a leg for their efforts.  I was disgusted that they didn’t consider that I might not be a complete idiot and that they didn’t even come close to addressing the problem at hand. 

Does this experience sound familiar to you?  If so, you’re not alone.  There’s not one person I know that hasn’t been completely dissatisfied with a service at some point in their lives as consumers.  In some industries, lack of basic customer service is rampant – it’s no coincidence that I used auto repair as an example. 

Having good customer relations is not just about maintaining the status quo, either – it’s about building relationships in order to build your business.  Your profits can easily climb 25-125% by retaining an extra 5% of your customers.  

And nowadays, because of the Internet, word about poor customer service can spread like wildfire.  If you want your local business to avoid gaining a reputation for poor service, there are some simple things that you can do via the web to ensure that, when your customers are talking about you they’re saying positive things.

Step One: Honest, Good-for-the-Customer Business Policies and Practices

The first step to a good customer service program is honest, good-for-the-customer business policies and practices.  Whether or not you actually sell your products and services online, your policies and practices will directly dictate how your customers view and talk about your business, and they should all be accessible through your web site.  Some items to consider are:

Fair Prices – This one’s a no-brainer.  Consumers will return to your business because you provide exemplary service, but they might not buy in the first place if your prices aren’t competitive.  It’s not the only reason they buy, but people shop based on price.  That’s never been more prevalent than now due to the availability of just about any product or service online. 

If a potential customer doesn’t like your price, they can probably find it cheaper online.  The advantage that you have as a local business is convenience.  I’m a musician, and I patronize a local music store when I need gear for two reasons: I can get it the same day and, more importantly, because they’ll also match the price that a popular Internet music retailer is advertising.  If they wouldn’t, I wouldn’t buy from them – it’s that simple.  I could order the products I want online and wait for them to arrive, but since the local music store is aware that they need to be competitive, they match prices and I get the best of both worlds.   

Another timely item to consider is price gouging.  Price gouging just doesn’t pay.  You might make a quick buck, but you’ll lose the value of repeat business.  We’re all feeling the crunch of rising gas prices right now, and it’s a sure bet that the station owners who aren’t raising their prices as much are getting more business. 

Proof of this lies in the fact that web sites comparing local gas prices are being erected at an astonishing pace.  Users post the prices of stations in their neighborhood on these sites very regularly, and site visitors can take advantage of that knowledge and patronize the stations that have the best prices.  If you want proof that online content indeed influences offline purchases, here’s a perfect example.   
 
A Trustworthy Privacy Policy – With theft of personal information running rampant, it’s imperative that your business has a trustworthy privacy policy in place.  In order to customize your services to your particular customer base, create loyalty programs, etc., you’re going to need to collect personal information.  In order to do this, you have to assure your customers that you’re not going to abuse their personal information – or, more importantly, the trust that they’ve placed with you – by selling it to third parties or using it to exploit them by pitching every new offer under the sun to them.  Your privacy policy should be explicit, to-the-point, easily accessible, and enforced strictly. 

BBB OnLine has a privacy program that you can use to implement a policy of your own.  It’s designed to assure consumers that their information will be safe when they give it to you.  BBB OnLine's privacy seal is backed by the Better Business Bureau (BBB), and to participate a company must have a satisfactory record with the BBB. Their fees are reasonable, and the cost is well worth it to retain your customers.  Simply adding an image of this seal to your web site can do wonders for establishing how seriously your business takes your customers’ privacy. 

The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) also has resources to help entrepreneurs develop a privacy-policy statement. These resources encourage companies to create a privacy-policy statement consistent with the association's Privacy Principles for Online Marketing.  Again, utilizing methods of established, trusted organizations and letting consumers know that you do is an easy way to add credibility to your business policies and begin to build lasting relationships with your customers.  

Guaranteed Work and Generous Return and Exchange Policies – If you’re in a service industry, you should always guarantee your work.  There’s no reason not to.  If you’re confident that you provide quality services you should be willing to go back and make it right if for some reason the job doesn’t work out the first time. 

My mechanic does a wonderful job of this.  Even if he does the work correctly the first time but it doesn’t quite take – like the instance of an exhaust repair on a friend’s Subaru – he’ll take it in and try to repair it again free of charge.  I’ve recommended his shop to several people and they all rave about his service.  As a result, he’s booked solid at least a week out at any given time of the year.  You might lose a few dollars here and there by having to fix guaranteed work gone awry, but you’ll gain customers for a lifetime in exchange.

If retail is your specialty, your customers should always be able to return something if they don’t like it, provided it’s still able to be re-sold.  It’s the same with exchanges.  Again, giving your customers the sense that they can trust you and that you’re on their side is worth its weight in gold – they’ll keep coming back time and time again.  

Posting these types of policies and any affiliation to reputable organizations in an easily-accessible place on your web site will give your customers the confidence to move forward and do business with you before you even talk to them.  It’s a great way to warm them up for a sale without any real work or time on your part. 

In the next installment of this series, I’ll talk about some actionable items that you can implement to collect current and potential customer data and give you some ideas about what you can do with that data. 

Resources:

http://www.lowhangingfruit.com/cgi-bin/blog/?p=803">because 

http://www.bbbonline.org/">BBB 

http://www.bbbonline.org/business/">privacy 

http://www.the-dma.org/">privacy 
 
http://www.thedma.org/privacy/privacypolicygenerator.shtml">privacy 


Author: Tom Swanson
Web Site: http://www.lowhangingfruit.com
Email: tom@itimeinc.com
Phone: 563-323-4609

Tom Swanson’s experience in sales, design, marketing, copywriting, multi-media advertising, and publishing have given him incredible insight into the world of marketing both online and off.  Combining creativity with real-world, hands-on experience, Tom writes articles to help local businesses learn to strategically leverage their Internet presence and capture easy online profits.  His articles include thoughtful, down-to-earth explanations of various marketing media and philosophies, and local businesses can take away simple tools, ideas, and techniques that they can implement to shape their local Internet marketing efforts.

If you’re looking for some high-impact content that’s chock full of information, look no further than the articles of Tom Swanson. 

© 2005 Low-Hanging Fruit

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4.) PARENTS TIME-OUT
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Time Out for Parents

Welcome Parents. It is time for a little Time-Out. Running an online business or working outside of the home takes much time and effort away from your family.
This weekly feature is committed to helping parents take back that quality time and devote it more fully to spending it with their children.

Check out this week's features:

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Time Out for the Week - Family Fun Night
What's for Dinner? - Hoagie Bake
Just for You - Top 10 Most Important Health Tips
Site of the Week - Kidnetic.com
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Follow the link below to see what it is all about!  You owe it to yourself and your children!

http://www.parentstime-out.com

This page is designed to be simple and easy to follow.  Our goal is to keep it short and simple each week, allowing you to maximize your family time.

You can find all of our Time Out editions archived at http://www.parentstime-out.com/archives.htm
 

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5.) HOT BIZ*TIP
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E-mail Etiquette

Sending e-mail that's looks good is a reflection of your
professionalism. And an e-mail that is properly written not only
makes you look good, but is easier for your recipients to read
which will win you lots of points with that individual. Finally,
if you send an e-mail that looks good, you also look like you
know your way around the computer and the Internet.

Here are some tips to writing a winning e-mail:

MANY READERS DON'T LIKE ALL CAPS. IT'S HARD TO READ AND SEEMS
LIKE YOU'RE SHOUTING

Use punctuation - its hard to read stuff that doesn't have any
commas, capital letters, periods, or apostrophes.

Usee yur spall chacker. Its annyang to try to reede constent
spalling misstakes.

When forwarding an e-mail to someone, copy and paste what you
want to send into a new e-mail then send it off. This is
especially true if you had to dig through tons of "layers" to
actually get to the message of the e-mail.

Be courteous enough to use BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) when
forwarding an email to everyone in your address book. You don't
want the addresses of your friends to get sent around the net,
plus if it's a large list, it is a real pain to page down past
the names.

Remember that attachments over 50k are annoyingly long to
download, possibly causing your recipient's connection to
"time-out", or the email could even be blocked. Try to keep
those files manageable!

Re-read your e-mail message before you send it out. I don't know
how many times I thought I had everything just right then found
something that was way out of place when I re-read the document.

When replying to a message, don't quote back the entire message
if you are just responding to one or two points. Just include
what you are responding to.

Finally, don't use short hand. Stuff like "r u going to stp by
ltr" can be hard to read. Don't B lzy, typ the hol wrd. 



-----

Did you know that subscribers to Bob Osgoodby's F.ree Ezine the
"Tip of the Day" get a F.ree Ad for their Business at his Web
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Friday. Instructions on how to place an ad are in the Newsletter. 
Subscribe at: http://adv-marketing.com/business/subscribe2.htm 

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EZINE BUSINESS DIRECTORY
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CONTACT INFORMATION-

Editor: Debbie Solomon
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DISCLAIMER-

The appearance of advertising on OnLine Exchange should not be interpreted as an endorsement by the editors of the service, product, business, or program being advertised.  We take no responsibility for claims or representations made in any ads.  OnLine Exchange is for informational purposes only. In no event shall Debbie Solomon , Sara Hardy, or OnLine Exchange assume liability  for any damages whatsoever resulting from any action arising in connection with the use of this information or its
publication.  All advice should be weighed against your own circumstances and applied accordingly.  It is up to the reader to determine if advice is suitable for their own situation.

All opinions and viewpoints in each editorial of The OnLine Exchange Ezine is expressed solely by the editor and writer, Debbie Solomon. The opinions set forth by the editor is not necessarily an interpretation of viewpoints made by the company.

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