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We hope you find this arcthve useful. A subscription to The Small Business Advisor Newsletter is free. Subscribe now - it's easy! The Small Business Advisor Newsletter for January, 2002 ======================== ======================== How often have you said, "Where did the year go?" in the last few days? Well it's gone! No more opportunities but wait! … It's a NEW year and you have plenty of time to do lots of thing right and take advantage of opportunities that will surely come your way. Here are a few items to keep in mind that will make your money or save you money; + Do everything in your power to KEEP an existing customer. Remember, it's expensive to acquire a new customer - selling to an existing customer is always easier. Send an e-mail and/or note to all last year's customers thanking them for their business. Offer some sort of time-sensitive discount for additional purchases. + If you have a problem with a customer surprise him or her with how you solve it. A personal call, a small gift, etc. These things get remembered. One company I know always sends a t-shirt when a customer cancels a subscription service - as a "thank you" for their previous loyalty. Good idea. See the article by Meredith Pond elsewhere in this newsletter. + Check your phone (land-line and portable) rates - it's a good bet you can do better. A few dollars saved each month adds up in a hurry. + Check office supplies used last year. Buy in bulk for next year based on this usage and save. + Review your computer backup procedures! TEST your backups. + If you have acquired some sort of wideband service during the year, make sure you have an adequate firewall installed. This is important! + If you are considering new computers or upgrading get plenty of memory - it is extremely inexpensive right now. Visit http://www.crucial.com as one very good source of memory. + Don't have a business website yet? Don't wait any longer - do it this year. There are a hundred reasons why you should do this and none why you should not. + Communicate via e-mail whenever possible and save personal time and phone charges. + Check your insurance program. Make sure you are adequately covered but not "over-insured." Do you have a money or time-saving idea? Let us know at bobs@isquare.com. ======================== As a small business owner, I know that finding the right combination of advertising techniques and marketing strategies is key to getting the beginnings of a solid customer base. People have to have heard about your business before they can patronize it, right? It would be nice if you could afford network TV commercials, full-page magazine ads, and an expensive ad agency to handle all the details, but if you're a small business just getting off the ground, this is highly unlikely. Having a huge advertising budget can be great, but it can also create a lot of problems. For example, I firmly believe a super-sized ad budget may make your marketing boring and ineffective. Why? Small businesses and startups who don't have much money to spend must rely on good old fashioned creativity. Since big media ads are out of the question, they look for cheap or free ways to market. Those methods are often fresh, innovative, and attention getting. Here are some terrific low-cost ways to market your business (and they get noticed a lot more than you might think!): * Take extra care in how you answer the phone. Be bright, helpful, and eager to go the extra mile. * Put a colorful flyer in with invoices and sales letters. Highlight special deals that only current and past customers can get. * If your store or office is on a busy corner, stand outside for a period each day and get to know those who pass by. * Write a letter to the editor of your local paper. * Spot radio stations setting up for a live remote. Arrange to offer free prizes to their listeners (in turn they will mention you, even interview you on the air.) * Throw a monthly party at your store or office. Have cake, balloons, even a magician. Invite customers, prospects, and neighbors. * Send a handwritten thank you note after every sale. Another great way to market your business is to figure out WHO you should be marketing to. Nothing gets sales like good targeted direct marketing. Targeting is the key. If you send your sales letter or postcard to only those people who are intensely interested in what you sell, you will have more customers than you know what to do with. Here is an easy way to get super-targeted names. Contact clubs and associations who have members who would be very interested in what you sell. Show the leader of the club why his members would love to hear about your business. You can often get a list of members and addresses for cheap or free. Anika designs and sews costumes for dance students. She has an attractive web site and can work with customers just about anywhere. Using a search engine, Anika finds several associations of dance teachers and their students. Two are in her city, one covers her state, and several more are national. First, she calls the presidents of the clubs in her city. She explains over the phone how her service can benefit teachers, students, and their parents. She schedules an appointment to visit with the club leader, show samples of her work, and leaves a brochure filled with enthusiastic comments from past customers. She will also leave with the club's mailing list. Many national groups sell their member list at low cost. One businessman I know does exceptionally well getting member lists from the local chamber of commerce in cities he wants to target. However, once people have heard about your business, you want to give them an incentive to choose you over your competitor. A great way to do this is to promise (and deliver) speedy service without compromising quality. No question, in our hurried world, few things please customers like fast turnaround. Deliver fast and many customers will come to you. State your turnaround time in your marketing materials. If you can do the job fast, say so loud and often. Recently, I was looking for an item online. One web site said they could get it to me via FedEx within two days. Another site said they also used FedEx, but it would take them 3 to 5 days to get the item ready for shipment. Even though I was in no hurry to receive my purchase, I picked the one that could deliver faster. But even more than fast turnaround, customers crave helpful problem solving. Most customers want to understand your product or service better before they buy. Some get frustrated while ordering. Others feel something is wrong with the product once it is delivered. Help customers solve these problems. Let them know you are there to help them and it is easy to reach you. These days when customers are frustrated with companies that keep them on hold or never respond to email, your helpful problem solving will make you a favorite. Once you've thrown the name of your business out there, whether it's through your own inventive marketing methods, targeting a potential group of clients, or a cheap television ad, remember that customer service is the key. This will likely make your clientele return and potentially recommend you to other people who require the same type of service. Kevin Nunley provides marketing and copy writing. Reach Kevin at: kevin@drnunley.com or (801)328-9006. ======================== No matter what business you're in, it never fails. Every so often, you get one of those customers that seem to make an effort to find something to complain about. Maybe they're unhappy with your customer service, accuse you of selling faulty products, or claim you misrepresented your offer. Whether you really made a mistake or not, it's your job to do whatever you can to make your clients happy. Some people may seem impossible to please, but if you're nice enough and really make an effort to meet them halfway, almost everyone will end up with a positive impression of you and your company. When someone complains about your price, make an effort to be flexible. If it won't kill you to give them ten dollars or ten percent off, do it. Maybe even offer them a discount on their next purchase or a voucher for some kind of freebie. If someone is unhappy with the quality of your work, try to accommodate their standards. Offer to do the job over, or at least revisit the work and polish it up a bit. If that fails, try offering them a discount. Almost any unhappy customer will change their tune when you offer to save them a few bucks. If customer service is the hot issue, there's only one word you need to remember: communication. You should keep in constant touch with all your customers, especially the unhappy ones. Let them know what kind of progress you're making on their order, when you expect their project to be finished, and when they should have it in their hands. Express your desire to please them, and apologize profusely for mistakes. Whatever you do, don't blame foul-ups on the customer, even if you'd be right. Accept responsibility, apologize, and speedily correct the problem. Last but not least, always ask customers if there is anything else you can do for them. Give them your phone number or email address (even if they already have it) and ask them to contact you if they ever need anything else. To make a long story short, the customer may not ALWAYS be right, but they ARE the lifeblood of your business. Even if they're difficult to deal with, remember that if they're happy, your bottom line will be happy, too. Even the ones who complain can be turned around and made into repeat customers. Meredith Pond is
editor and manager of DrNunley's http://CheapWriting.com. Reach Meredith
at meredith@drnunley.com. Return to top of page - Back to Home Page - Back to Archive Index |