Customer Service:
It's Not Just a Department, It's An Experience - September 2009
Welcome to the September issue of "Customer Service: It's Not Just a Department; It's an Experience."
September means back to school for the kids and back to business for us. It's a time to refocus our energy and attention on our business and take a good hard look at the experience we are providing (or not providing) to our customers.
In this month's newsletter, we'll talk about your customer service strategy (do you have one??), Arthur Messina from Create-A-Card, Inc. will tell us how to ramp up our on-line marketing to attract more customers and we'll also address employee training and development and why it's so important.
Welcome to our new subscribers and new clients. Our goal is to help you improve the service you are providing to your existing customers as well as prospective customers, increase customer retention and generate additional revenue through cross-selling, up-selling and referrals.
Make it a great September!
In This Issue:
What's Your Customer Service Strategy? | Online Marketing in Five Easy Steps
Employee Training & Development
What's Your Customer Service Strategy?
You do have one, right? Well, if you're like many businesses, perhaps you don't. And if that's the case, don't despair. It's not too late to implement one in your company. However, you don't have a moment to spare to get started!
A customer service strategy starts at the top, as in the top of the organization beginning with the CEO, or the top, as in your head, your mind and really, your attitude.
How and what you think about your customers and prospective customers comes through in every interaction you have with them. And it's not just YOUR interactions, but also the interactions that every employee in your company has with them.
Knowing how you want your customers to be treated, and more importantly, how your customer wants to be treated, should be the foundation of your customer service strategy.
Every organization's success depends on it keeping customers satisfied with the products or services that it offers, yet many business owners tend to view the customer service function of their business as little more than a necessary nuisance.
However, if we focus on the potential revenue and word-of-mouth implications of having a strategic approach for all customer touches, we might take it more seriously.
As customers ourselves, many of us have experienced poor customer service which made us declare, "I'll never do business with them again." Yet, as business people, we sometimes don't realize that "our" customers might feel the same way about us!
When customers are delighted with an experience they have with a company, they:
- willingly pay premium prices or go out of their way to patronize a company
- form intense emotional bonds with those companies
- do the selling for them through word-of-mouth testimonials
The payoff from a strategic approach to customer service is simple: more revenue, higher margins, lower costs and positive word-of-mouth producing more customers at a lower marketing cost. Now let's get started on that strategy!
Online Marketing in Five Easy Steps
By Arthur Messina
Create-A-Card, Inc.
Increasingly, we are hearing bad news about tough times for individuals and businesses alike. More and more, "the economy" has become the catchphrase reason given for dwindling commerce and an overall gloom over the retail industry.
But slowed-down sales are no reason for businesses to cut back on advertising or marketing expenditures. Quite the opposite, actually. As consumers are looking for ways to stretch their dollars and are exploring less traditional retail outlets, such as the Internet, opportunities for successful marketing strategies abound. And many of these strategies come at little or no cost to your company.
In fact, beefing up your company's online marketing is an excellent way to weather the economic storm of a recession - and to emerge from it stronger and more up-to-date than before.
Here are five key ways to harness the power of online marketing tools:
Blogging
Having a company blog that is updated frequently and that includes personal input from company employees is an excellent way to put a human face on your company. This "insider peek" into the company engenders the beginning of a consumer's relationship with a company - the first step in making them your customer.
Blogging also serves to boost your company's page rank. By blogging about topics relevant to your industry, the company's site is in effect compiling content that is naturally keyword and key phrase rich.
Newsletters
Regular electronic newsletters, sent to customers who opt in to receive them, are another way to keep customers in regular contact with your company. Not only does this consistent contact keep your company fresh in the minds of consumers, but it also affords an easy way for them to find themselves back on your site. In addition, newsletter archives on your site are yet another inherent way to build your site's search engine optimized content.
Social Networking
There are a few ways to use the popularity of social networking sites to market your company. One way is to make a profile for your company. Alternately, or in conjunction, include links to your company's site on your own personal social networking pages. For instance, you could post updates on your FaceBook, Twitter, Plaxo or LinkedIn page with a link to the most current blog. Also if your company is offering a special coupon or is holding another type of promotion, you can mention this and also link to the site.
E-mail Blasts
E-mail blasts, sent at regular but not too-frequent intervals, are another way to stay connected with your customer base. One good strategy is to offer a weekly or bi-monthly coupon or promotion to customers who sign up to receive them. Special savings can spur consumers to buying action, and easy-access links in the emails will drive more traffic to your site.
Review Your SEO
Search engine optimized content is invaluable in helping your company's site have a high page rank, which in turn boosts traffic, which in turn boosts sales. Go over your site's content, and make sure it is relevant, well written, and makes the best use of keywords and key phrases. Include built-in ways to add to your site's SEO content on a regular basis, such as newsletters, a learning center, white pages or blogs.
These five online marketing strategies are easy to deploy and are critical to obtaining an online presence. Using them is relatively simple and they are marketing tools that can help increase your company's revenue without at the same time depleting them.
Create-A-Card, Inc. has been developing professional marketing tools for businesses for almost 25 years. Contact them at:
www.createacardinc.com
Arthur@createacardinc.com
800.753.6867
Employee Training and Development:
Short-Term Fix or Long-Term Strategy
Employee training and development needs to be a "must have" rather than a "nice to have" in these economically challenging times.
Employee development is a strategic investment and one that you can't afford not to make. When companies cut back on employee training and development, the result is often higher employee turnover, lower revenue, less motivated employees, decreased productivity and sinking morale.
Training and development can be viewed as an employee retention strategy, a customer retention strategy or as an overall strategy to position your organization for both short and long-term gain.
Organizations that invest in training to develop the skills and abilities necessary to meet organizational as well as customer needs both now and in the future will thrive. Cutting or eliminating that investment will impede an organization's ability to compete for tomorrow. Planning to "catch up" on training when the economy turns around and there's "extra money" in the bank is an idea based on short-sighted goals rather than long-term strategic planning. Truth is, it doesn't work.
Contact Workforce Development Group today to create a training plan that helps you get through this tough economic period and positions you for success in the future.
In Conclusion...
Thanks for taking the time to read this edition of "Customer Service: It's Not Just a Department; It's an Experience". It is our hope that you not only get the customer or client, but that you also hold onto them! If you have clients, colleagues or friends who wants to hold on to their customers too, do them a favor and forward them this newsletter.
Until next time, take good care of your customers, or someone else will! See you next month!
Sincerely,
Randi Busse
Call us today to set up a free consultation:631-598-5598
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