Imagine for a second you were transposed into the karmic driven world of Earl. How would it affect your business?

Have you oversold or under delivered? Been in a meeting when your customers called to complain about the widget you sold them? Or even rushed a client into signing by using the price goes up tomorrow sales line? To be frank l'm sure most of us have at some point, but are we aware how it affects our businesses?

We can't necessarily be like Earl and repay our bad karma, but we can do something about it going forward.



1. Under promise and over deliver
This is an age old - but still many companies, salesmen & business owners take the route of impressing customers by offering too much & not delivering. In today's competitive market place this is understandable, but more importantly doesn't build repeat business & loyalty

2. Have good support feedback in place
Small businesses low on resources & larger business should employ the following to automate or at the least ease the task of customer feedback and support.

* FAQs can save customers having to pick up the phone or draft an email. As enquiries which are not covered in your faq they can be add as time goes on

* Forms such as feedbacks are common place nowadays however a Callback feature can help narrow the gap between a form being filled in and abandonment.

3. Disclaimers
Prevention is better than cure. On the internet many people are looking for a quick buck and are sucked in by what can be potentially offered by a product and the work realistically required to realise that potential. Customer satisfaction builds referrals

4. Push, but not too hard
Firstly,in the western world people are pretty well informed even to the point of cynicism. This results in us being somewhat immune to the typical sales spew we're constantly bombarded with. With this in mind business should focus on genuine value in their offering a push enough for that message to get through and let the customer decide on their own merits

5. Build Reputation
Becoming an expert in your chosen field can take years. So whilst crafting your trade & experience you can build reputation through developing a reliable resource people can use and refer others to. There are many fly by night business. Those who take the time to build reputation will eventually stand out from the crowd

6. Be honest with yourself
Unfortunately most of us are not multi-talented. Well thankfully we don't have to be. However to get the business in we make promises outside of our skills set or reasonable time frames. Many of the most successful have developed their unique strengths before honing another skill or service. But ! with the miracle of outsourcing and jv's becoming ever more popular it is still possible to get these additional customer requests fulfilled.

7. Follow up
I remember a wealthy man in the MLM industry once told me that the fortune is in the follow up. Outside of MLM this is obviously still very powerful. The internet is a place where people surf until they get to somewhere they fancy spending some time. So its fair to say there is a lot of skimming & clicking before your site may get a visitor. Given that you may never see that visitor again before he hits the waves, develop a hook to collect an email address which you can use as a follow up medium. lf you start to get a good deal of traffic you may want to employ some kind of CRM tool to keep track of when to schedule your follow ups

8. Be useful
The internet has primarily been a source of information that we have come to rely on. So give people what they're looking for. Newsletters which offer genuinely useful information will have your subscribers forwarding and keenly awaiting the next installment rather than reaching for the unsubscribe link. If it all seems like too much hard work, you're in the wrong business.

9. Survey to possibly offer old clients new things
So the 6 million dollar question is what do people want? Simple ask them! Entice your visitors to fill in online polls. Ask those who have bought from you by way of a survey to improve the product offering them a free upgrade if they fill it in. You get the idea.

10. Client focus
What's it all worth if your running after the wrong market? Three simple steps - What do they want? / Lose the marketing fluff - be specific / Walk in their shoes.

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Author - Julian Hall, Search Director of Pure Online Genius