Best Deal In Town, Temple Arizona

I asked my brother where he wanted me to get it from, and he said he knew this place that had the best deals anywhere in town – Ironically enough called Best Deal In Town. So we headed down to this place and I found an amazing 60 inch Sony Wega DLP that he had knocked down to $699 (originally $850) but gave me a deal cause I talked to him about it being my brothers wedding and all. I purchase it, take it to his house and go to hook it up and it no longer works as it did in the store – since this is a wholesale place and often times you are buying display (fully tested from factory) models I guess things like this happen.

At first I was pretty mad because they have a no return policy, and I get that – its much like buying a used car – you never know whats going to happen etc. I really do get that, but come on – broken right after turning it on? I need to add this, one of the main reasons I really wanted the TV for my brother is because his old one had just went out on him and he had this huge hole in his entertainment center and everyone was coming over for his reception. I didn’t want them to see a big ugly hole where a TV is suppose to go, and that’s why I chose to buy him a TV.

So we pack it back up and take it down and the whole time I am going down I am thinking of all the things I know from being in business for so long that I am going to tell this dude (because I think I just got taken) and boy I was ready. My brother was, lets just see what he says and go from there. So I listened to my big brother and guess what? The guy was blown away too by it doing what it did – he tried everything he could to fix it and nothing worked. There was nothing else in the store that was the same size and price because he said he had been cleaned out by all those “March Madness” people wanting to watch their games in HD. So he said … about the only thing I can do for you guys (and I thought … great here it comes) is refund your card and have you come back next week to see what we get in our next shipment. I almost didn’t know what to say, but I tip my hat to these guys for running a stand up business. I will continue to buy TVs from them, and send as many people as I can to them (and even blog about them) for doing the right thing.

If you run a legit honest business you will have a successful business that will last no matter what. If you practice shady business then I bet you won’t be in business that long – because in this day and age – people talk and share it with everyone!!!! I did a post a week ago or so on referrals and the power of taking care of people and this is just another amazing example of that.

If you are in need of an amazing deal on an HDTV I fully recommend checking out these guys.  They will take care of you!  This was no paid post either … its just kick ass customer service!

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The Biggest Catch of the Day

This most recent weekend I had the chance to go ice fishing with a group of friends.  We went to Fish Lake in Central Utah and it was great experience, considering it was my first time out on the ice.  I have been fishing on many occasions in the past, as it has been a hobby of mine since I was young, but have never been ice fishing.  While reeling in the biggest catch of the day (as you can see from the picture the fishing this round wasn’t great), I started thinking that often times business owners are looking to catch the big one, but in the process forget the many existing clients that have kept them going back to the lakes, and often times kept “food on the table”.  I thought about this on several occasions throughout the morning, and on the drive home, and it has inspired me to post today on what SEOs need to do to provide good customer service to their clients, thus keeping them as clients.

Step One: Set the Right Expectations

You’re sitting in a meeting with a potential SEO client and they ask you the question: So how long is it going to take for us to get 500 unique visitors a day to our website from the SEO work you’ll be doing for us?  For some SEO’s the response is something like, “You’ll start seeing traffic the minute we sign and I walk out the door.”  The problem with that is this sets the wrong expectations for your work from the client.  Any good SEO knows that it’s going to take time to see results, especially if you’re doing SEO on a new website, and you should be up-front and clear with your client about this fact right from the start.  This gives them the right expectations and will limit the phone calls you receive at day 45 with questions like, “How come we are not #1 at Google for X keyword yet?”  Depending on many factors you might be able to tell them that you might be able to see a top 10 ranking in 90 days or 180 days, or longer, but most importantly you need to let your potential client know that SEO takes a lot of skilled work and time to see results, and they need to be willing to commit a budget and time to see those results.  The reality for you is that if they are not willing to sign an agreement with you knowing that is what it will take, you probably should let that potential client go elsewhere as they will probably end up unhappy, just like you will be with the business relationship.

Step Two: Stay in Touch

Ok, this is a big one and it’s real simple to accomplish most of the time…I know I’m not perfect at it, but I try to be; answer your phone when your client calls and reply to their emails!  I really believe that in most cases, if your client can reach you when they have a question or need and you can reply to them quickly you’ll be able to hang on to your clients for a much longer time than the other guys.  In a meeting with a potential client last Friday morning he said speaking of his current SEO company (I’m paraphrasing of course), “The owner always called me back before I became a paying client, now he never replies to my emails or answers my phone calls…I can only reach my 20 year-old doesn’t-know-anything account rep, and he takes forever to get back to me as well.”  This, among other factors, is one of the big reasons he is looking for new help.  Make a commitment to your clients that you’ll get back to them ASAP.  This could mean calling them back as soon as you get their message, or simply getting back to their email saying, “Hey, got your email.  I’ll get back to you in the next 2 days.”  Sometimes you simply can’t have the conversation at that time because you are in the middle of something else, but if you just get back to them quickly to schedule something later, it goes a long way.

Step Three: Be Respectful and Listen to your Client

I know it’s frustrating to explain to your client what a backlink is for the 10th time, or why you need them to post to their blog on a regular basis for the 15th time, but be respectful and realize that the requests you are making of them are probably things they are doing and learning for the first time.  Go the extra mile to make sure they understand what it is you are trying to do for them and don’t ever be rude to them no matter what.  There are very few reasons why you ever want to burn a bridge.  Also listen to their questions and requests and do your best to answer those questions and do what is asked of you as long as it is reasonably within the terms of your agreement with them.  Going the extra mile can do wonders for a business.

Step Four: Get Down to Business

You can’t expect to keep a client happy if you are not fulfilling your commitments to them.  If you do step one properly, and you work hard, you should be able to reach the goals you agreed to reach for them and with them.  Show your clients rankings reports and help them understand their analytics so they can see that the work you are doing for them is paying off.  This is of course the biggest step in the process…the step where you come through for them as a client of yours and they see an ROI on their investement with you.

Step Five: Deal with Concerns and Mistakes Head On

The reality is that everyone makes mistakes and clients have concerns at times about their investement in SEO.  If a client of yours is late on something you need, or is setting your project back, address it in the proper manner.  Don’t wait until they are pointing the finger at you, or you at them.  Ignoring the problem won’t make it go away.  Follow up and push on through.  Now if you simply made a mistake and didn’t complete something, forgot something, or simply messed up, deal with it head on.  My suggestion, apologize for it and suggest a solution to the problem.  Hopefully your client will understand the mistakes happen and that at least you are working hard to resolve the matter quickly and effectively.

Step Six: Build a Real-Life Relationship

This could be called a bonus step, but I’ll just list it as step six.  Building a real-life relationship means that you see your client in person on a regular basis if possible.  Don’t be afraid to look them in the eye and shake their hand.  I really think that taking a client to lunch, or going to a marketing meeting of theirs when invited is important.  Your ability to work through problems and build value for your organization will increase significantly when you get to know your client face-to-face.  Now this isn’t possible in all situations, and sometimes it simply doesn’t make sense, but I suggest that you make this a standard practice for your clients if it fits the bill.

Well there you have it, my suggestions on how to keep your clients happy, all while catching the next big one as well.  I hope this post has provided some helpful insights for you as the reader and honestly, I hope that the next time I go ice fishing I’ll have better luck reeling in something a bit bigger than a 6″ Perch!

The post SEO Customer Service: Don't Forget About the Little Fish While Trying to Catch the Big One appeared first on Avalaunch Media.

Thumbs Down to bad business!

You know, I am no longer amazed at the number of off line businesses going under these days, IMO, I think some probably deserve to be going under and here’s my rant why. They would like to blame it on the bad economy, but in some cases I think they need to take a look internally at their bad business practices involving customer service!

My neighbor went to a Batteries Plus store to get a replacement battery for his PALM iQue 3600 and was told by one clerk (on a Monday) they had it and he could come back on Friday to get it. Me neighbor went in that Friday to pick it up (as told) and ended up chatting with another person that had no clue of what was going on, and only kept asking him if he called in to make sure it had arrived. He told them no because no one told him to etc. He ends up talking to a few more people and then gets told it would be ordered and to call on Monday. He does, and again talks to someone who does not have a clue – but supposedly gets it ordered … again (for the 3rd time). There was so much more to the story then this (annoying stuff) but I think you get the point.

My neighbor is now telling me this story (on Wednesday last week) and he still had not got a battery. I told him, “let me use the “power” of the Internet and some places I know of that sell batteries online. ” My neighbor is not one to do things online (one of those who is still nervous about doing stuff online). The Batteries Plus store was going to charge him over 30 bucks for a replacement battery. I ended up finding him one on Amazon for 1/2 that – $15 total including ship, and get this – he got it on SATURDAY (3 days later – after two weeks of putting up with that store), put it in and it works great.

The funny thing is he called the Batteries Plus store to cancel the other order, and they were like – “What order?” WTF?!??! What an amazing group of idiots running that store! Maybe I will share the store location later, as they could use a lesson in not putting the “cus” in customer service!

Far too often, I see bad business like this happening – businesses not giving a crap about customer service. This battery store lost their business to an online business, and one of the perks for buying off line is supposed to be the chance to interact with people face to face supposedly to receive real customer service.  If the offline businesses are going to stay in business, they must do a better job at customer service or people will just go and find what they are looking for online when they have finally had enough!

Responses on Twitter or Facebook:

Kat – 1000% agree with the premise on this one, Mat – EXACTLY what I was talking about the other day with MS….

The post No Wonder Offline Businesses Are Struggling appeared first on Avalaunch Media.

IMO – The first rule of customer service is to be a good listener. If you are not able to sit and listen to your customer without getting defensive thinking you know everything then you will never do well at the customer service game. Anytime issues arrive we make sure and do everything we can to build a relationship of trust, even if they are start raving mad at something that has happened.

The last thing you want to do (even if you can’t help them) is to insult the customer so badly by not listening to them, that all they can think about doing is going and letting everyone they know how awful they think you are. Where do they go and do this you ask? They go and let people know on blogs, review sites and forums, and believe me – all those will start ranking for your business name, and you will find yourself with a bad online reputation management problem! If you are sincere, and take the time to listen, and let them know that it is in your best interest to find a solution to the problem – that is all they are really looking for. Once you find that common ground, and have the trust built with them, it makes dealing with the situation much easier. They might not like the solution you provide, but they are not going to let everyone know how horrible you were (because you were not).

If you have to remind people about a return policy they obviously did not read, its much better to be on their good side, then rub it in their face. I have had people who have been so mad, I used this method to calm them down, they ended up keeping the product, and then sent me an email a month later telling me how sorry they were for calling in mad, and how much they love the product now. It all comes to pass by building that relationship with every customer you get. This is not going to happen every time, but it is going to help your return rate be much lower, and your customer service rating go through the roof!

Where is my money?

Think about when you order something online, and you don’t get an email after you hit the “purchase” button confirming it. You then look on the website and either don’t find a phone number, or call one thats listed – only to get no one. You are sitting there thinking your money is lost, and you may have just become another statistic of someone being scammed online. You send in emails, and when no one gets back to you and you panic. Your next step is to contact your credit card company and do a charge back. This is the process that happens when bad customer service is offered.

The 6 Steps of Online Customer Service

If you don’t want this kind of a customer service nightmare to happen to your business, then you need to take a look at these 6 simple customer service steps:

1. Auto-Responders - using auto-responders to notify customers as soon as they purchase will help them not worry about the order they just placed. Also make sure you have other emails set up and ready to send out as soon as anything changes on their order (status, shipping, back orders etc) . In other words – you need to be holding their hands through the entire process of buying from you.
2. Tracking Numbers – Provide tracking numbers to the customer as soon as you have them yourself so they know exactly when to expect their packages and not keep emailing you – bugging you. Let them keep pinging the UPS or FedEx website checking the status if they are THAT impatient. Better then bugging you, and losing confidence when you don’t respond right?
3. Toll Free Number – Have a 24 Hour Toll Free Number listed on your site on all pages. Make people confident that they can get a hold of you no matter what time it is. If they are considering making the purchase at 3 am in their underwear, they might see the phone number that says you can call 24/7 – it will make it a much easier choice for them to purchase. They know that they can at any time if a problem arises.
4. 3 Forms of Contact – you should have several forms of contact on your site to promote those warm fuzzy feelings of potential customers. I would suggest – phone numbers, email addresses and physical addresses at the very least. Now-a-days you have social networks where people can stay connected like Twitter, Facebook and what not. You could always use those mediums as forms of contact.
5. Follow Up – After everything has been shipped, and the customer receives order, you want to follow up with an email, or phone call making sure that everything was satisfactory throughout the whole process. Just doing this is impressive enough, and people are going to be more then willing to give you a testimonial based on this alone. I can’t tell you how many times we get emails from customers sharing testimonials because we followed up with them and made sure everything was ok.
6. Listen – Again, I feel this is the most important step in the whole process – If there are issues then you need to hear the customer out, and see their side of it, and what they want. If you build a relationship of trust with them, it will be much easier to tell them bad news (if you have to). Good customer service, and someone willing to listen will make all the difference in the world and save many sales for you.

If you follow these 6 steps I promise you that you will have less problems, and have many more testimonials sent into you. Anytime you can get customers saying good things about you, the better it is for you. If people ever ask you where they can submit a testimonial, you can let them know to either email you, or submit it to review sites like the following: Thanks to my friend Newspapergrl for sharing these online review sites with us all – These are the places that Google Local pulls their reviews from.

• TripAdvisor.com
• Judysbook.com
• InsiderPages.com
• Citysearch.com
• Virtual Tourist.com
• http://wcities.com
• Outside.in
• Fodors.com
• Zagat.com
• Goyot.com
• Fommers.com

You should also encourage your clients (if they are pleased enough with you, they will be willing) to leave reviews on sites like Google Local, Yahoo Local and all of the other major search engines local results that allow reviews. It really is an easy thing to do – show them your listing, and then click on the link where the reviews are at, and it will ask you to write a review. It really is that simple, and it will do more for you then you probably realize at this point.

In Conclusion

So besides sharing the testimonials on your site, you should encourage users to leave reviews about your business on review sites. This is a great method of link building too. Review sites rank well with the search engines, and provide trusted links that will help your site rank much easier. All this from good customer service? Seems worth it to me! Thoughts?

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