“You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.” –Zig Ziglar

If you provide great products/services with fantastic customer service you’ll find your customers keep coming back. And it’s much easier to KEEP a customer than it is to FIND a new customer. Be sure you treat your customers well so they stay customers! Here are some great ways to keep your customers happy to keep purchasing from you: Special offers for customers: Email your customer list with special offers every so often. This will help you stay in their minds and bring them back to purchase again. They’ll also be more likely to recommend you to friends and family when they’re reminded of your business. Don’t have a customer email list yet? Create one today! You absolutely need a newsletter or sales list that you can contact occasionally. www.ymlp.com offers a nice free version. www.aweber.com has a very nice paid version.

Free advisory service: Think of questions your market has related to your products, then answer those questions free. – Custom clothing seamstress? Offer tips on how to measure you child or how to choose fabrics that work well for active children. – Cloth diaper sales? How about free advice on which types of diapers work best for certain body shapes, life styles, sensitive skin types or budgets? – Artist? How about advice on where or how to hang art? Write and distribute a great FAQ about your products: This one falls both under customer service and viral marketing. I’ve seen some great tips on how to wash wool clothing items and I’ve passed those links and information to others. Think of something you can offer, then write it, convert it to PDF format, and add it to your website. Be sure to include your business information and contact info in the PDF. Then give permission for it to be shared. Create multi-item samplers for customers: People are most likely to purchase from you again when they’ve already purchased one item.

Send them free previews or samples of other items! This is especially easy to do with info products or service based businesses but you can also find creative ways to do with for other product businesses. If you offer a product in a variety of fabrics, how about a small fabric sampler so customers can feel the other fabric options you offer? Or a brochure of photographs of other styles you offer and happy models wearing those styles? Just brainstorm outside the box a bit and you’ll think of a good way to offer a look or taste of your other products/services. The Customer Welcome Kit: This is a great way to make new customers feel special. Put together a “welcome kit” that includes your business card, a brochure, and a short welcome letter. No need to write it by hand, just print these off and put them together in advance so it’s quick and easy to include in packages. You can also do a digital version if your products/services are delivered online. Make PDFs then zip it all up. You could also include referral cards so it’s easy for the customer to pass your information along. P.S. If you like the ideas in this week’s article on providing fantastic customer service for your customers, you’ll love the Marketing Brainstorm Workshop! Find out more at http://www.marketingbrainstormworkshop.com

Do you value your relationship with your customers (and potential customers)? Do you really want to connect with them and help them? If so, make more available on your website than just your catalog of items for sale or services for hire! Here’s an example: My kids love to shop at Costco–they enjoy the free samples. Several days ago we were in the frozen aisle and I was discussing with my son (who is gluten intolerant) that a particular product wasn’t gluten free so it would be better to find something. As we passed a woman offering samples a few feet away, she offered him a sample of potato wedges and included “they’re gluten free!” After his taste test, a bag of potato wedges jumped right in the shopping cart and came home with us. By offering free samples and paying attention to the particular needs of a customer, they made a sale and a very happy five year old who’s sure to tell others about his experience (and insist on returning to purchase more potato wedges).

Any business can find a way to give more to their customers so the customers feel valued and listened to. When your customers feel like you understand their needs they are much more likely to purchase, become repeat customers, and share your products/services with their friends and family. Add something of value to attract more shoppers and to serve them better. Free articles, eBooks or eCourses, “how to” guides, a newsletter, instructional videos… there are lots of great ideas you can use to create a valuable free service or offering for your customers. The most effective free items or giveaways will be closely targeted to your market. For example, if you offer items for nursing mothers such as nursing bras, you could create (or hire a designer to create) blinkies promoting breastfeeding and give them away to visitors to use on their websites or MySpace pages. If you’re an artist, you could setup a script to offer free ecards that feature some of your artwork. You could give away craft project ideas if you sell children’s items, or recipes if you sell home related items to women. Just grab a piece of paper and take five minutes to write down everything you can think of that your target market is interested in, and then go back over your list and highlight the ones that also relate to your products or services. Those are good things to consider focusing on to find ideas that will add value to your website and better serve your customers. “You will get all you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.” –Zig Ziglar

Next week… Making Your Website Work for You! Part 7 of 7, Customer Service

Building Credibility

Selling requires building a relationship of trust with a potential buyer. This applies online as well as offline. You must build a relationship with the consumer through your website that creates trust before that consumer will feel comfortable making a purchase. Here are 6 easy ways you can help build that trust through your website.

1) Add Familiar Logos

This will help a customer’s comfort level. Place them where they can be seen immediately upon the page loading, so that it doesn’t require scrolling to see them. * If you accept credit cards, add the Visa/Mastercard/Discover/American Express logos to your website. Many customers expect to see these at a company that accepts cards. If they aren’t sure you accept them they won’t hunt for the information, they’ll just leave your site and shop elsewhere. If you accept PayPal, add the PayPal logo. * Add a “Secure Payments” type logo – either from your CC processor, or create your own with a padlock design to show customers you protect their financial information. * If you have your own SSL certificate and your SSL issuer offers a “Click to Verify” type graphic, be sure to add it to your website.

2) Company Contact Information

Include full company contact information on every page of the site. The footer is a good place for this info. Include both a postal address and a phone number if possible. You may also want to include various online methods of contact such as email, webform, or social networking sites you have business profiles at. Customers want to feel secure that they can easily contact you if something goes wrong or they don’t receive their purchase.

3) Photographs to Connect With

Consider adding a photograph of your, your family, your store, or something else concrete that people can connect to. Shoppers buy from people they know, like, and trust. Including a photograph can help build that feeling that they “know” you.

4) Clear Sales & Privacy Policies

A well-written privacy policy is crucial to customer confidence. Please create a separate page for this, and link to it from every page of your site. Also be sure your sales policies are very clear. If you offer services, provide your terms of service. If you sell products, be sure your shipping, return/exchange and other policies are clear. You can download a free guide to help you write your policies at: http://www.elementalmuse.com/freebies/creatingmypoliciespage.pdf

5) Testimonials from Customers

Testimonials are both a powerful selling method and a confidence booster. Sprinkle them throughout your website (but only honest, real ones!). Always include a name with a testimonial – full name if possible, or first name and state at least. Testimonials are more believable if there is a name and place associated with them. Written testimonials are good. Written testimonials with pictures are better. Add audio and it’s even better. And video testimonials are great!

6) BBB and Other Organizations

Consider joining an organization like the BBB so that you can add that logo/link as well, and any other applicable online organizations or associations related to your products. Look for guilds, associations, or other similar groups. In addition to these 6 tips, next time you shop online notice what it is about the websites you choose to shop at that makes you feel safe and secure purchasing from them, then apply those lessons to your own website. Look at your website through a potential customers eyes. Then do whatever you can to help them feel confident and to answer all their questions about shopping with your business.

Next week… Making Your Website Work For You! Part 6 of 7, Beyond Just Sales

Answering Customer Questions

An effective website should focus on meeting the customer’s needs and helping them be sure that the products you offer are exactly what they want. To help customers determine if your products or services are right for them, you need to answer their questions. Only when their questions are answered will they feel comfortable making a purchase. Think about your products or services from a different perspective. If you were looking at it for the first time, what questions would you have about it? What would you want to know to determine if it were the right product for you? Think about your business from a different perspective. When you make your first purchase at a new store or website, what questions do you have? Here are three tips to help you answer your customer’s questions effectively:

*Make Your Policies Clear

Are your policies easy to find and clear? Customers will feel more comfortable purchasing when they know what payments you accept, how you ship and when they can expect their order to arrive, and in what circumstances you allow refunds or exchanges. I offer a free PDF download to help product sellers write their policies. You can grab your copy here: http://hyenacart.com/elementalmuse/index.php?c=21&p=81843

* Describe Your Products (or Services) in Detail

Include plenty of detail in your descriptions. The more detailed you are in writing up your product descriptions the less likely a customer will leave the page with questions, not sure whether to purchase.

* Clear Photographs

Online all buyers can see are your photos. So take time to make sure they’re clear and easy to see. Include photos from different angles, different uses, whatever views could be helpful for your customers. Consider asking a friend or colleague to look through your website and let you know what questions they’d have as a shopper.

Next week… Making Your Website Work For You! Part 5 of 7, Credibility

This week we’ll continue focusing on ways to make your website work FOR you instead of against you in making sales. “Bells & whistles” can be fun, but be careful with fancy features.

Here are four things to keep in mind when enhancing your website with fancier features-Quick Page Download Time With too many fancy features or large photographs, the time it takes for visitors to load your page may slooooow to a crawl. And if it takes longer than a few seconds, you’ll lose shoppers who don’t have the patience to wait. This is especially important on your home page. Be sure that your images are optimized (try the free tool at www.resizeyourimage.com).

- Browser Compatibility

Be cautious with features that only work in Internet Explorer or any other specific browser, or features that are only available in the latest versions of browsers. Some of your visitors may not be running the latest upgrades so always check to be sure that your website will work with older versions of popular browsers. You can do a basic check at www.browsershots.org to see if your layout comes out right.

- Let Your Visitors Be in Control

Please don’t set up your audio files so they start automatically. Offer a “click to play” button instead. Let visitors be in control of video and sound. This is especially important if your target market includes women with small children since they may be holding a sleeping little one who will not be happy if woken by a loud, “Hi! Buy my products!” type message or music that plays itself. Video and sound can be a nice addition and help increase your sales, but show respects for your visitors by allowing them to control it and choose when to turn it on and off.

- Flash Only Websites

If you must use flash or animation, use it only on non-essential parts of the site. Do not turn your entire site into a flash file unless you are absolutely positive that your target market will be able and willing to wait for it download and have the appropriate plug ins to view the site. Do not use flash for your navigation. If you do, anyone with an older computer, older browser, or slow internet connection may not be able to navigate your site at all.

Next week… Making Your Website Work For You! Part 4 of 7, Customer Questions