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"As Seen Online" -- Local Businesses Finally Figure Out the Internet (and Newspapers, Yellow Pages May Feel the Pinch)
A catering company in a suburban Connecticut town eliminates its Yellow Pages advertising, which once ran to $12,000 a year, in favor of promoting its website. For a growing number of small businesses, local Internet marketing is proving cheaper,...
Finding Structural Problems During Escrow - Small Rural Home Example
In rural home purchases, the transaction is often subject to a satisfactory home inspection being done. Any imperfections are usually corrected during escrow. Now and then, however, a home inspection uncovers severe structural problems. What happens...
Marketing Is a System, Not an Event
Small business marketers love the chase. Love the new fangled way to make the phone ring. They love to think of a marketing promotion as a single event. But it’s precisely this view of marketing that holds most small businesses back. They fall...
SURVIVAL TIPS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES
You may be in Mail Order, Direct Mail, or you may be a local merchant with 150 employees; whichever, however or whatever - you've got to know how to keep your business alive during economic recessions. Anytime the cash flow in a business, large or...
The One Big Trick to Small Business Success
If you're looking for love. Get a dog. If it's tricks you want. Get a pony. Or is it the other way around? Sorry. I'm back. I was distracted by something I thought. Where was I? Oh yeah. This isn't about your animals. You're expecting something...
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How To Make Sure Your Customers Still Trust You
The stock market is still on a wild roller coaster ride. Trust in business is at an all time low. Do your customers still trust you? Here are seven ways to help you make sure.
1. Go the extra mile. Under promise and over deliver - a time worn concept that still works every time. Be there for your customers and show them how reliable you are. It's your actions that count, not your words.
2. Provide spectacular customer service - every time. Have a friend or colleague visit your business and provide feedback from a customer's perspective.
3. Make sure your front and back office work like a well-oiled machine. Do your front line employees and back office staff tell your customers the same thing?
4. Manage your customer relationships - return customers take the least amount of effort - use that to your advantage. Keep in touch often.
5.
Communicate, communicate, communicate - with your employees and your customers. Nurture those relationships. Ask for feedback often.
6. Take responsibility. Don't pass the buck. If you can't personally handle a customer issue, make sure that you hand the customer off gracefully.
7. Meet commitments. Commitments guarantee that something will get done. They're also a way to manage the customer's expectations. Make commitments you can keep. A kept commitment builds trust. A missed commitment destroys trust. And once trust is broken, it takes much longer to rebuild.
Denise O'Berry is a small business expert and author of 65 Winning Strategies for Small Business Owners. Visit http://www.whatspossible.com to get your free copy of our Success Strategies Guide: 10 Keys to Success for Small Business Owners.
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| United States Small Business Administration |
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