Category: Customer Service

Sales 101 – Two Of My Best Email Tips

As impersonal as they may be, emails remain a great way to keep in touch with your clients. I particularly like email for one specific reason and that is to let know clients that I am ALWAYS working for them! I’m going to provide you with two of my favorite strategies. Before I do that, I must stress that you must be responsive, and proactive, with your email communications to start with! For those of you who are too busy to return emails, don’t even think about asking me to buy from you … ever! Couldn’t help myself. Pet peeve 🙂

Away we go …

Clients like to be included in correspondence that relates to them – This is particularly effective when you are working to resolve an issue that will  involve soliciting the assistance other parties and especially when said parties are in your organization. Certainly, it can just as easily apply to things like project coordination, seeking bids from third parties, the list goes on and on. The premise is that, when I tell a customer that I am going to work on something for them, I want them to see how hard I am working it. It goes like this … Continue reading “Sales 101 – Two Of My Best Email Tips”

Adventures With Web Hosting – A Customer Service Tale

Over at least the past six months, the performance of my websites has ranged from abysmal to flat out not being able to even access them. On-line chats with the support staff of my web hosting company have always been a nightmare. They read to me from a script and they always lay the blame on my sites and particularly whatever plugins I am using. A couple of months ago I was forced to beg and threaten until they finally agreed to escalate my service request to a higher tier. As it turned out, the server that hosted my sites was under a denial of service attack which they were attempting to fend off. During the battle, my sites were moved temporarily before being brought back on line. Even then, it took 48 hours before they were accessible again from any computer. I was not a happy camper. Problems I get. Poor customer service … I don’t. Continue reading “Adventures With Web Hosting – A Customer Service Tale”

Upset Customer? Opportunity Knocks!

If you were to ask most companies what their goal might be in regard to customer relations, many would probably say that they want their customers to be “satisfied” with their product or service. They want them to be “happy”. Well, especially today, “happy” and “satisfied” just ain’t gonna’ cut it. If you want to create a memorable experience for your client, the goal of “meeting their expectations” has to be replaced by “far exceeding their expectations”. Think about the following ….. Continue reading “Upset Customer? Opportunity Knocks!”

UltraClean Smoke Out – 32 Business Tips

I attended the UltraClean Smoke Out yesterday as I do every month. This time it was sponsored by Sprague Solutions with help from a number of local vendors including Redline Recreational Toys (where the event is held), Event Rent who provides the tables and chairs, and Qdoba who was this month’s featured food vendor. Incidentally, UltraClean, Sprague Solutions, and Event Rent are all NetWorks! Boise Valley members.  If you have not attended this event in awhile, it’s a great time to start back up! The venue is excellent, the crowds are smaller and of a higher caliber, and the guest speakers are dynamite! Education, networking, and food? How can you go wrong?

The panel today was composed of:

Steven Nipper – nipper@stephennipper.com, Twitter – @nipper, http://www.linkedin.com/in/nipper Continue reading “UltraClean Smoke Out – 32 Business Tips”

25 Customer Retention Tips Via NetWorks! Boise Members

There is a very old adage that says “it is 10 times more expensive to find a new customer than it is to maintain an existing one.” Not only do I believe this to be very true, I believe it to be even more true today. With the condition of our economy, our good customers are exhibiting behavior today that I have rarely seen in the past.

When times are good, most of us will happily continue along with the vendors who we have traditionally done business with and who have generally met our expectations. But times have changed and many folks are now deciding that perhaps a little investigation of the alternatives available may be prudent. Do I really need “best” when “good” or “better” will do? Having worked in construction related industries, I can tell you that right now it seems that everything is on sale. It’s a great time to buy and most people know that. Continue reading “25 Customer Retention Tips Via NetWorks! Boise Members”