One aspect of the servant mentality I am going to talk about is Customer Service.  People purchasing products online have come to expect the same customer service they experience at retail stores.  By providing excellent customer service experience you will strengthen customer relationships and make them advocates for your business.

Some of the strongest online businesses became giants by focusing on customer service.  Zappos.com for instance was just another Internet shoe store.  There were many brick and mortar shoe stores that also had an online presence. How could an Internet startup with no physical store to allow customers to hold products even think they could compete with the many established shoe stores that have been around for decades?  The answer is superior customer service!  I have outlined how you can provide superior customer service for your customers.

Here’s how:

1.    Win the customer’s hearts and minds to obtain word of mouth benefits to help you build your business.

For example a lady called Zappos.com to return her husband’s boots because he had passed away. Zappos.com processed the return and sent flowers the next day. I’m confident in saying that the lady became an advocate for their company after that.  The mere fact that I’m repeating this story is testimony to Zappos.com’s superior customer service.

Remember to be a person first and treat all your customers with respect and kindness just like you would friends and family.

2.    Systems and Procedures for consistent customer experience.

Did you ever go to a restaurant a number of times and each time the experience was different?  If so you probably stopped going there because your customer experience was hit or miss.  On the other hand McDonalds Corporation is the master of Systems and Procedures.  Regardless of the location of McDonalds you know what the experience will be like every time you go there.  That is one of the reasons McDonalds is so successful.

When you are building your online business you should develop Systems and Procedures for every aspect of your business.  There are volumes that can be written on this topic.  To learn more about Systems and Procedures I recommend a book called The E Myth by Michael Gerber.

3.    Follow-up with a thank you and ask how you can serve your customers better.

All business comes down to how well you build your relationship with your customers.  Whether your customers are inquiring or purchasing products from you thank them and ask how you can serve them better.  Collect customer feedback and overtime implement commonly requested changes to better serve your customers.

4.    Give corrective feedback.

Let customers know that you have made changes to better accommodate there needs.  I know when I hear back from companies that they have implemented changes to better serve the customer I feel more confident in purchasing products from them in the future.

For example I purchased an e-product that became outdated from an online retailer.  When online retailer updated the product they sent me a free copy of the update.  I am now an advocate for that online retailer.

5.    Be proactive and not reactive.

If you begin to notice an insufficient component occurring in your business address the issue immediately.  Do not let it linger!

Resolve the issue before the customer brings it to your attention. Your reputation is on the line. You must always deliver the best possible customer experience.

6.    Let customers know you care.

When you have an online business with hundreds or thousands of people it can be extremely difficult to maintain many relationships even with all the social media tools.  Make announcements on your site or send emails thanking all your customers for their support and business.

A couple of times per year hand select a customer or two and give them personal attention and access to your products for free.  You could even hold a drawing for this to create some buzz about your business.  Expect nothing in return.  Your reputation and business will expand by word of mouth by doing this.

7.    Anticipate questions by building a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page.

The FAQ page will continuously be a work in progress. As time goes you will be able to direct customers to your FAQ page.

8.    Respond quickly to customers.

When customers submit a question you should have an automatic reply telling them their question is very important to you, give them a time frame they can expect to hear back from you and finally have a link to your FAQ page.  Depending on the volume of questions developing a process to handle them in a hierarchical manner is key to being productive with your customer service efforts.  All questions are important but you need to weed out time wasters too.  I typically answer existing customer questions first then sales questions and answer information gatherer questions last.

9.    Hold your customer’s hand during their experience with your business.

Never assume anything.

Each customer’s needs are different.  You will have some customers that are more advanced than others.  Not all customers are the same.  Some may need instructions on how to get started using your site or product.  Some may not need any assistance with your site or product.  You may need to consider dividing your customers into beginner, intermediate and advanced groups to better serve them.  Then put procedures in place for serving each segment.

10.    Don’t sound harsh in your email responses.

It is easy to sound cold in emails.  When you respond to your customers take time to make it personal like you are talking to a friend.

For example I asked for help from an online store inquiring about a product.  When they replied to me four days later the answer was short and abrasive. At that point I went elsewhere.

That company does not even realize they lost a sale because they were not personable in their response. Imagine how much business they have lost because they are not personable? With that said be friendly and humble with your customer correspondence.

In conclusion these steps will put you on the right path to delivering superior customer service to help expand your business. You must believe that the customer is king because without them you do not have a business. The key to customer service is attitude. Some customers can be extremely difficult and challenging. You must not take anything personally. Take professional corrective action with the utmost respect for your customer. The customers that are a pleasure to deal with will make your business worthwhile and they help keep your enthusiasm for building the business further.

I hope you enjoyed this article. Thank you for taking the time to read it.

————

Tom Sasnauskas is an entrepreneur with over 15 years of experience focusing on Information Technology and Small Business. Tom helps people learn both topics with his expert advice at Understand IT Now and Job Talk Today.

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

Here are the three things that make us the
most money on the Internet.

FIRST is our membership site, the Academy.

SECOND is our group coaching courses.

THIRD we earn commissions from recommending
and selling products and services as an
affiliate.

But just knowing the revenue streams is
not enough to mimic this profit model.

We apply this simple formula to actually
bring in the cash.

C + C + C = $$$

Lots a lot of C’s!

Here’s how it breaks down.

1. COMMUNITY

The first C is a COMMUNITY of loyal customers
that look to you as a trusted advisor.

Our business magnetically and continually
attracts people to our community by offering
stellar free content through our show,
Internet Business Mastery.

Through the content they come to see us as
trusted advisors because we offer great value.

2. CHANNEL

The SECOND C is CHANNEL.

Channel is the way you communicate with
your audience to build trust and get them to
take action (buy).

The most effective channel for making money
online is an e-mail list.

The show attracts people to our community,
but it’s the e-mail list that gets people
to click and buy.

So the primary goal of your content should
be to get people on your e-mail list.

3. CALL TO ACTION

The third C is CALL TO ACTION.

Once you build influence, your community
will be ready to take action (buy).

The most effective way to get people to take
action and buy is using a launch sequence.

We learned this from Jeff Walker. He just
released a video answering the biggest
questions about launch sequences.

Watch it here now

Launch sequences are a powerful way to make
as much money in one week as you might
have made in one year otherwise.

So here’s the formula that you can put into
action today.

Community + Channel + Call to Action = $$$

Definitely check out the video from Jeff.
It’s worth submitting your e-mail to get
access.

He’s very candid and gives some shocking
insights into product launches.

Watch it here now

At the end of the video, Jeff talks a bit
about his upcoming Product Launch Formula course…
and some of the REALLY new stuff in it.

We’ve taken the course several times and the ROI
has been huge.

Here’s the link again.

Watch it here now

.

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

The first thing we want to point out is that, although you can post links and direct market a little through Twitter, the best use for it is to connect with your best customers and get them to interact with you. If you develop a strong connection and relationship with them, your marketing gets a lot easier…and more fun! If you are to self-promotional, you scare all of your Twitter followers away.

The audience that you reach with your email newsletter and the audience you reach with Twitter are different. Your email subscribers are *interested* in what you do and the value that you provide. Your Twitter followers are *enthralled * with YOU.

This enthrallment is several degrees above interest. It’s very powerful. One of your goals as a marketer should be to identify the people who are enthralled with you and turn them in repeat buyers and evangelizers for your brand. Your Twitter followers have, in essence, identified themselves as enthralled.  They are hungry for any information about you.  Think of it as letting them behind to curtain a bit.  We decided what we will let them know and what is private before we started.

Use your tweets (yes, that is what a twitter post is called) to give them a glimpse into your life. Tell them the story of your life. Stories are very powerful, even far above any “resume” credibility that you have. When people connect with your story, they are very open to accept what you say and the products you offer. Let’s look at a couple examples.

On Internet Business Mastery, we talk a lot about designing your lifestyle-choose what you want your life to look like and then make your business and pursuits match that.

We both focus on different type of lifestyle.  Jay is more the world traveler and Sterling is more about where he lives with his kids and family, so we play to those things.

Jay moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina a while back. He alluded to this in his Twitter stream and immediately got a response of fascination. Not only that, it really raised the credibility we had since this was a powerful example of having a business that allowed for choosing a lifestyle of location independence. People now rabidly follow the saga of his travels.

Our niche and community dream about the day they have freedom over their time.  So, Sterling tells about being able to watch his daughters play in the middle of the day or take off to the beach in the middle of the week.

We also will give business tips or even just tell about what we are working on, but mostly it is about us as people.

Use your tweets to give your followers a glimpse into who you are and how you do what you do. Use it to build your “mystique.”

Follow us on Twitter:

Sterling
Jay

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Think of Twitter as a mini-blog. The fundamental use is to post what you’re doing at any given time, although the kinds of things posted to Twitter vary widely. We often post thoughts or things that grab our attention.

Each post is 144 characters or less. You can post from your computer, instant messaging or mobile phone text messages (hence the 144 character limit).

If this still seems a bit muddy, feel free to check out twitter.com/jasonvo and twitter.com/jeremyfrandsen to see our posts.

People can follow your Twitter posts. Your “followers” automatically get your updates on the web, to their cell phone or by RSS depending on their settings.

In this two-part series we’ll show how you can start using Twitter immediately in your marketing mix.

1. Go to Twitter.com and click on Get Started-Join.

2. Select your username and fill in the other requested info.

3. You can have Twitter search your email contact list for friends/colleagues that are already using Twitter. This is a great way to get started following people.

4. Click on the settings link. It’s important to fill in your URL, short bio and location. This helps people find you and decide whether to follow you. Make your bio gripping like a tagline. Also, the URL is hot-linked giving you an additional inbound link to your site.

5. Click on the Picture tab and add a photo. This helps people recognize your posts.

6. Consider adding a custom background image to your Twitter page that tells more about who you are. You can do this by going to Settings > Design. Jay uses his business card designs. An image 300 pixels wide is the max you should use.

7. Tell your email list, blog readers, podcast listeners, site visitors, etc about your Twitter page/feed. Your Twitter page is twitter.com/your-username.

NOTE: Your Twitter feed will be attractive to your hyper-followers/fans. These are the ones that want an inside glimpse at what you do. Use your posts to build relationships with these people and turn them into evangelizers for your brand.

8. Search for people that you want to connect with. Click the Follow button to get their updates. Look at who they are following for my ideas of who you can follow. Every time you follow someone, they get an email notifying them. They may follow you in turn.

TIP: Don’t follow too many people at first. This makes it look like you are blatantly trying to get followers. It can backfire.

In the next installment, we’ll talk about what to post to get maximum promotion and relationship-building benefit. We’ll also share some of the other creative uses that we’ve found for Twitter.

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.

In this episode of Internet Business Mastery we talk about how you can make your sales and marketing process 100 times easier. We reveal how to get your target market to buy and the #1 reason why businesses fall flat with their sales and calls to action. We provide a new way to look at lead-generation, marketing and sales. We also talk about why Relationship Marketing is even more important than the attention age of marketing.

In addition we give a specific definition of Web 2.0. There are numerous definitions, some of which make Web 2.0 look overrated. We talk about our view of Web 2.0 and what meaning it really hold for online marketers.

Also, Sterling and Jay talk about what they discovered after their three-day strategy meeting for 2008.

Items mentioned in this episode:

• The data backup solution we use

• Think Big and Kick Ass by Donald Trump

• Sex Money Kiss by Gene Simmons

Thank you for subscribing to Internet Business Mastery feed. For instant access to your free audio gift and a risk-free trial of our proven step-by-step program for starting your own profitable internet business, please visit http://www.freeaudiogift.com.