Tuesday November 10, 2009
If w'ere going to sell online successfully, we have to pay special attention to the customer's experience with our website.
Reading Jason Burby's piece How Are You Treating Your Online Customers? (Clickz Today) brought this issue of customer success into focus for me. It's not just a matter of making it easy for customers to find and order products on our websites but a matter of anticipating customers' needs. We have to figure out what our customers' concerns are and take action to allieviate them in advance.
For instance, he says, if sizing is a big concern, we need to take action to help people choose the right size, and ensure them that it's easy and fast to exchange sizes - and build that help into our website.
Zappos, the online shoe retailer, is one of the examples he presents of a company site that gets it right; because they anticipated that many people would be uncomfortable buying shoes online, almost very page of their website announces "Free Shipping Both Ways" to make it clear that if a customer makes a mistake, and wants to return their shoes, it won't cost them.
Other examples he presents include Amazon and Best Buy, both big retailers, but don't miss the point; anticipating customers' needs is something every web retailer needs to consider. If you have trouble doing this yourself, you might enlist the help of friends and family to "test-run" your site or design a brief customer survey for your website visitors.
More on Selling Online
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Share Your Story: What Was Your Worst Customer Service Experience?
Monday November 9, 2009
As small business owners, we get to experience customer service from both sides, as customer service providers and as customers of other businesses. What was your worst customer service experience and how do you ensure that your customers and/or clients don't experience that kind of customer service at your small business?
Your story will help other small businesses provide good customer service.
More Places to Share Your Stories
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Sunday November 8, 2009
There's two great things about business plan contests; you have to do a business plan anyhow, so you don't lose anything by entering, and a fair number of these contests offer big money to the winners. The added bonus is the potential publicity of being a winner - worth even more money in the bank to a new business.
The TEC VenturePrize Business Plan Competition is an especially good opportunity because of the money (the Grand Prize Winner receives over $80,000 in cash and in-kind services and there are two runner-up prizes of over $38,000 each in cash and in-kind services) and because there is a related Seminar Series delivered through video-conferencing designed to "give business plans an edge".
Another especially nice feature is that there is also a concurrent Student Business Plan Competition where the Grand Prize winner receives $6,000 in cash and in-kind services and the two Runners Up receive $2,000 each in cash and in-kind services.
The catch: The TEC VenturePrize Business Plan Competition is only open to entrants who have at least one person living, working or attending school in Alberta. (Entrants may be an individual, team, or company.) Follow the link above for more details.
Information on Writing Business Plans on This Site
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Saturday November 7, 2009
The quicker you invoice, the quicker your chances of getting paid. And shortening your cash flow conversion period is one of the quickest and easiest things a business can do to improve its cash flow.
Traditionally businesses bill at the end of each month, sending all their invoices out in one batch. But that means that if you do a job on the 2nd or 3rd of a month, you're adding almost a whole month to the time that you're waiting for your money!
So don't wait to invoice; change your billing practices so that you invoice immediately after the work is completed.
And to make your billing process even faster, don't send invoices out in the mail if you don't have to. Leave your invoice with the client when the job is completed or email your invoice if possible.
Related Articles:
- How to Invoice - What an invoice has to have on it and an invoice sample that you can use as a template if you like.
Photo (c) Robert Gaal
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