The Three-Legged Step Stool of Maintaining a Lasting Relationship with Your Customers

There are three different but equally important aspects of any good relationship and must be the foundation for the rest of the relationship to be built on. Whether it’s a business relationship or a personal one.

Long-term customers can be a great source of repeat business and quality referrals to more potential clients.

If even one of these aspects is missing or weak, it’s unlikely that the other two will be able to support the relationship on their own. They are RESPECT, COMMUNICATION, and TRUST

RESPECT

You may have a flood of customers coming through your door, but if you don’t respect them, they won’t become the long-term clients that lead to long-term success. The best ways to let your customers know you respect them are through your actions.  Show them that you appreciate their business, care about their issues and try to make them feel special.

COMMUNICATION

As with personal relationships, communication is another key component to a good business relationship.  It is amazing how often I am talking to someone, or overhearing someone talk, about problems with their relationship and it turns out that all the issues they have with the other party are discussed with everyone BUT the party concerned.

Contrary to apparent popular belief, a serious relationship does not cause a sudden onset of telepathy.  In a business relationship, the easiest way to find out how you’re doing, or if you may need to adjust some of your practices, is to ask your customers.

Just as a significant other can’t fix something if they don’t know its broken, you won’t be able to either unless they tell you.

Once you’ve established a line of communication, make sure you actually listen to what they are telling you.  Be willing to compromise and adapt your practices to the customer’s needs.  While you may not be able to please everyone, you will be able to improve on your current business model and learn what works best.

TRUST

People screw up, sometimes in a small way, sometimes spectacularly. Some mistakes cannot be forgiven. Most can be IF the work is put in on both sides.

When maintaining a level of trust in business, it isn’t just important to do' what you say you are going to, but, if something goes wrong, make sure you handle it in a way that will keep your customers' loyalty.

Be honest, this is the fastest way to build a trusting relationship with your customers and to rebuild one if something goes wrong.

If you make a mistake be prepared to explain how and why it happened and the steps you are going to take to fix it. Don’t delay in taking action, the more quickly you address the issue, the sooner it can be resolved. Be sure to be respectful and apologize, your customer will probably be frustrated or angry.  However, a truly loyal customer will understand in the long run that you’re human and these things happen.

A good way to show you are trustworthy is to be yourself. Being genuine makes you more approachable. Whether you are a little eccentric or straight-laced, you can show your customers who you really are as long as you maintain a professional distance and respect their personality as well.

The Step Stool That Keeps Your Relationships Up

So, like a three-legged step stool, each of these primary aspects of a relationship with your customers is equally important. If just one of them fails, the whole relationship can topple over.

A Halt in Traffic: Lack of Reviews is Effecting Your Business and Here’s Why

Reviews are a great way for your customers to get an idea of what your customer service is like. Through reviews they know what services your offer, how well you offer them, and the quality of your products without even leaving their home.

Reviews are also a valuable tool for a business to know what their customers think about them. It’s a convenient way to get honest feedback of your services and find out what you need to fix to keep your customers satisfied.

What your customers say about you is just as much advertising for your business as any marketing strategy you could employ. It’s unfiltered, honest, and sometimes a bit dramatic.

While reviews can be loud and sometimes deceiving, no reviews at all can garner the same effect. Are no reviews better than bad reviews? Read ahead to find out.

Is your business good or bad? No one knows…

90% of consumers read online reviews before visiting a business. If there are no reviews, there’s no way for a potential consumer to know whether your business is worth visiting or not.

Google has made it convenient to avoid businesses that have a bad reputation without setting foot near their actual establishment. Ensuring good customer service, professionalism, and reliability are now easier than ever.

While this has made the shopping process easier on the consumer, the same can’t be said for businesses. Why would a customer visit a business with no online reviews when they can find a place that people can confirm they will have a good experience?

Place yourself in the mindset of a consumer. When you’re looking for a product or service, chances are you are not in the mood to experiment with quality and service. A business with a lack of reviews leaves much to the imagination.

Unfortunately, reviews are one of those things that without them, people will stay away. How do you get more reviews to establish the authenticity and reliability that you know your business has?

• Encourage customers who buy a product to review your business at the check-out counter or shopping cart
  
• Follow-up with a customer to see how they like their product or service and ask permission to publish their responses or quotes

Customers can’t trust your business

As with anything, rather than jump into something they know nothing about, customers like to do a little research about a business before they visit. They want to know all about who you are, what you do, and how you do it.

It’s fair to say you wouldn’t hand your money over to a stranger. Neither would a potential customer trust a business they know nothing about.

For instance, if you’re looking to get your wedding cake made, an online review of a local bakery could go a long way. What does this bakery offer? What do their cakes taste like? Are the bakers experienced in making what I want? Will they deliver on time?

You’re not going to go to a bakery that has no reviews. What if you get stuck with a cake that looks terrible or tastes… not like cake?

Your customer is the same. 72% of customers say that positive reviews make them trust a local business more an 88% of customers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.

Don’t make the review process a chore

It’s common for people to think “I had a good experience with this company. I don’t feel compelled to write a positive review because if my experience wasn’t positive, then I would let people know about it”.

This mentality follows the idea that people are more likely to post negative reviews rather than positive ones. You need to encourage your customers to move away from this mentality and share their good experiences, just as they share the bad.

Just because there are no positive reviews doesn’t mean there are no positive experiences—but your customers don’t know that. Increase the amount of positive reviews for your company by making the review process as easy and attractive as possible:

• Send a direct link to your profile on review sites
• Encourage your customer to rate your company on Facebook
• Provide incentive for posting a review
• Create a memorable customer service experience worth sharing

A few reviews are better than no reviews. Make it a point to share your positive reviews across social media platforms for maximum visibility.

The importance of online reviews

Business that are “comfortable” with their following and can’t complain about their profits tend to ignore online reviews. They are satisfied with what they can see in front of them, but they have no idea how the internet could ruin their reputation or stunt them from growth.

Online reviews influence:

• Buying decisions
• Online rankings
• Conversion rates

Customers are likely to spend 31% more on a business with “excellent” reviews. Businesses that neglect the importance of online reviews are missing out on profits. They’re not necessarily losing money but they could be making a lot more.

There will always be competitors. Online reviews affect how you fare against local competition and can keep you aware of your shortcomings.

The more honest reviews you have, the more your product will sell because customers must find out for themselves if what is being said is true. These reviews are sincere and show that your company has nothing to hide.

Repeat Business: How to Get Them to Buy Over and Over Again

Who are the best customers to have?  Ones that come back repeatedly, of course.  Todd Falcone explains here how to get your customers to buy time and time again.

How Online Reviews Impact Your Business

Word of mouth regarding people’s interactions and experiences with a business, has been the age old method of spreading the word about the reputation of a business. Unfortunately, bad news tends to travel so much faster than good news and in this information age, the speed of travel is multiplied significantly. The fact is, that many people rely on these reviews and weight them as heavily as they would a personal recommendation, and for this reason, popular opinion can either drive traffic to your business or drive traffic away from it.

Regardless of the outcome of the review, this feature is a good, no, vital addition for your website’s interface because potential clients rely on the opinion of others more heavily than you may realize. From choosing vacation spots, to going out to eat, to simply purchasing clothing, people want to know and need to know, as well as have the added security of feeling free to go ahead and engage a business for products and or services, even if the reviews are from people they don’t personally know.

With this comes the responsibility for the business owners and operators to ensure that all involved will function in a manner that is representative of the company’s image and that a high level of professionalism is maintained.

What Positive Reviews Can Do For You

The more positive reviews that site visitors see, the greater the chances are that they will engage your business in a positive way. Even if your products or services may not be among the cheapest of their options, having numerous positive reviews increases your credibility with them, and, as a result, their trust as well. This will in turn lead to greater profit margins and even recommendations to others based on the experiences of satisfied clients.

What Negative Reviews Can Do

If a business has no reviews or too many negative reviews, these two situations may translate into a similar result–loss of business. Potential clients are hesitant to conduct business with companies for whom they cannot establish credibility or which have a perceived lack of credibility based on unfavourable reviews. This is why a high level of professionalism is important, because as many as three bad reviews can be highly damaging to a company’s reputation, the effects of which can be lasting.

What You Can Do To Ensure Favourable Reviews

Deal honestly with business prospects by representing your products and services as they are.

Provide excellent customer service interactions, by training staff (if any) and ensuring that your business standards are being maintained.

Encourage authentic user reviews rather than purchasing fabricated reviews from non-users. These have proven to be detrimental to sales as potential customers also read reviews in a bid to determine authenticity. 

To really convert positive customer reviews into revenue for your business, you must actively be interested in excellence in this area, as a business owner/operator. Negative reviews may even be an opportunity for you to demonstrate good customer service by the way you address your clients’ grouses. You therefore need not be disheartened if this ever happens—it does not necessarily mean the death of your business.

There is so much more you can do to ensure the success of you business. For access to a wealth of information on how make use of the plethora of tools and methods to market your business via the internet, my done-for-you system will open the door to strategies and advice that you can channel into your business to watch it blossom into the successful venture you would like it to be.

Using a Rewards Program with Your Marketing Strategy

Using a rewards program or loyalty program is a great way to attract customers as a part of your internet marketing strategy. They’ve been found to help build customer loyalty and increase sales. These programs show your customers that you care about them and that you value their business.

Unfortunately, if you don’t use your rewards program correctly, they can quickly become a marketing nightmare. The following tips will help you to use your rewards program to attract customers, gain brand recognition, and increase conversions.

Create an Opt-in Program

There’re many different ways to start a rewards program. You can use loyalty punch cards, membership cards, and other physical methods of tracking customer behavior. Though, these solutions won’t work with an online business. For this, you’ll need to create an opt-in program.

This works the same as any other opt-in program or mailing list. Create a sign-up form, a landing page, and then advertise the page through your social media platforms or with PPC advertising. This helps to ensure that the people that sign up really are interested in benefiting from the rewards program.

Integrate the Rewards Program with Your Payment Platform

Depending on the payment platform that you use, you should find it relatively easy to integrate your rewards program. This will simplify the process of offering discounts or sales to your members. Not only will this be easier for the deployment of your rewards program, your customers will find it easier to use.

Choose Your Rewards Carefully

You should take the time to choose the right rewards or incentives for your customers. You don’t want to offer them too much of a discount or special offer. Though, it needs to have enough of a value to entice them into signing up for the rewards program.

One idea is to offer a small discount for all purchases. For example, offer members 5% off any purchase. On top of this, you could throw in some free goodies. This could include eBooks, PDFs, video content, and other exclusive content that is created solely for your members.

Create an Email Marketing Campaign

You should include an email marketing campaign with your rewards program. Members that join the program should receive periodic emails with special offers or discounts. Even if these are the same deals being presented to non-members, you should create a separate email for rewards members.

This will increase engagement. As you begin to build trust and loyalty, you should find that you have higher conversion rates with emails sent to members than you do with emails sent to non-members.

A Few Words of Warning

If you choose to create a loyalty program, never sell the information that you gain to a third party. The goal of creating a loyalty program is gain the trust of your customers. By selling their information, you violate this pact — defeating the purpose of the rewards program.

Customer service should be a major part of any important business decision. Creating a rewards program isn’t something that you should rush into. Take your time to plan out your marketing campaign and how you intend to implement your rewards program.

A rewards program can be a powerful marketing tool, when it is used correctly. For decades, they’ve been a major part of many businesses’ key marketing strategies. When you provide your customers with something of real value, it shows them that you value their business and want to give back a little.

These programs can go a long way towards helping you establish a solid customer base. Consider setting up your own rewards program using the information provided. For additional tips and suggestions, check out my lead generation system — done-for-you system.

Customer Retention A Key Component In Any Successful Online Biz And How ...

This video gives 5 effective ways to increase customer retention vs. mere customer acquisition. 

These 5 steps are easy to follow and can allow anyone to start making customer retention a key part of their business model.

4 Ways to Offer Proof in Your Online Marketing Claims

No matter how honest you are with your marketing efforts, consumers aren’t so quick to accept your claims without proof. When you say that your product or service offers a specific benefit, consumers want some sort of evidence that backs your claims.

Including proof isn’t hard. It’s an extra step, but it can go a long way towards increasing conversion rates. From customer testimonials to verifiable statistics, learn how to offer proof in your marketing.

Customer Testimonials

The most used and well-known form of proof is customer testimonials. The concept is simple. You’re including actual comments from people that have actually used your products or services.

There are multiple ways to obtain these testimonials and to use them in your marketing. For obtaining comments and testimonials, consider the following options:

• Social media comments
• Ask for customer feedback
• Offer free evaluations

The easiest solution is to pull social media comments. Look for positive comments and reviews about your products or services on Facebook, Twitter, and other sites.

Another option is to ask for customer feedback. Send a survey out to your customers via email and ask for their input.

Just make sure that you let them know that their comments will be used in your marketing material. You can even include a section to allow them to choose whether they want their name to be used.

Some businesses send out free products or services and ask for customer feedback. When using these evaluations, you need to mention the fact that the customers received the product for free.

Along with obtaining testimonials, there are different ways of displaying them. The methods listed above are among the easiest. But, you could also film customer testimonials.

Think of the last infomercial that you’ve seen. They always include customers on film discussing what they liked about the product or services.

You can film customer testimonials and include them on your landing pages. Though, that’ll require a little more work than the other options.

Online Reviews and Ratings

The next form of proof is similar to customer testimonials. Using online reviews and ratings from review sites, you can offer potential customers proof that people have used and enjoyed your products or services.

Adding these reviews to your landing pages or marketing material is different from customer testimonials. You would normally include a summary of these reviews and then link to the actual page containing the reviews.

Showcase Badges or Certifications

Certifications, badges, and seals can also be used to offer proof of your abilities. You’ll see these certificates at the bottom of various landing pages.

This could include BBB accreditation, awards, and other proof that builds credibility. These should always link to a page where visitors can learn more about the certificate or badge.

Link to Stats and Figures

The majority of the previous steps are aimed at showing proof of your abilities or the effectiveness of your products or services. This last step is designed to show that you know what you’re talking about.

For example, if you claim that more people now use mobile devices for browsing the web, you should link to a study or a web page that backs up this claim.

Offering proof is becoming increasingly important. It helps prospects weed out the scams. Without this simple step, you could be missing out on a portion of the marketplace.

Use these suggestions to offer proof of any claims that you make. If you’d like to have access to more powerful marketing solutions, along with a method for generating conversion-ready internet marketing credprospects each month, then click here to learn about my done-for-you system.

Simple Steps to Help Increase Your Customer Retention Rates

Customer retention is one of the most important metrics used to calculate the effectiveness of your marketing strategy. The reason is simple. It costs more to acquire a new customer than keep an existing customer.

You can’t rely solely on new business. Otherwise, you’ll never grow your business. Use these simple steps to help increase your customer retention rates.

Give Your Customers More Than They Expect

The first way to increase customer retention rates is by giving your customers more than they expect. Deliver more than you initially promised. For example, you could include a free bonus or deliver your product or service ahead of schedule.

Consider the expectations that your customers have. This includes the quality of the product or service, the delivery, and additional features. If you can improve one of these areas without increasing your costs, then you’ll be able to give your customers more than they expect.

Establish Trust with Your Customers

You need to cultivate the relationship that you’ve got with your customers. This comes through the establishment of trust. If customers trust you to always deliver what you promise, then they’ll likely come back for more.

Content can also help establish trust. Giving existing customers access to bonus content, free offers, or PDF guides can go a long way towards building trust. This also helps with the first tip. You’ll exceed their expectations.

Make Your Interactions More Personable

When you engage with customers, you need to be personable. This includes the use of personalised emails and personal responses to their comments.

Depending on the email marketing platform that you choose, you may be able to automatically personalise your emails. Using a template, the software will automatically insert the first name of the people on your mailing list.

You should also encourage your customers to leave feedback. Ask them questions. You can do this through social media or your email marketing. This lets them know that you’re listening and that you care about their thoughts.

When a customer leaves feedback, either positive or negative, you should contact them as soon as possible and address them by their name. Thank them for their feedback.

Deal with Complaints Promptly and Directly

You should never make the mistake of ignoring an unsatisfied customer. When someone’s unhappy with your products or services, your first step should be to learn more about their complaint.

Contact your customer, remember to personable and ask for more details. Use this information to try and find a way to solve their issue. Even if you need to issue a refund or a replacement, you may be able to save yourself from losing a customer. This could also save you from taking a hit to your online reputation.

Make Sure You Deliver an Exceptional Product or Service

The final step to increasing your customer retention rates is to ensure that you deliver a quality product or service. This ties into the first tip. You want to go above and beyond and deliver a great value.

The bottom line is that if you have something of value at a reasonable price people will buy it and they’ll come back for future purchases.

Think about your favourite cereal, shoes, or vehicles. You continue to purchase from the same company because they deliver a quality product. If you can do the same, then you’ll be able to increase your customer retention rates.

Customer retention is an important metric to pay attention to. Use these steps to begin increasing this key factor. If you’d like to have access to even more powerful marketing tips, as well as a way to generate conversion-ready Internet marketing prospects each month, click here to learn about my done-for-you system.