You’re a smart business person – so you already know the value of your existing customers. Although the precise multiple varies from sector to sector, typically an existing customer is up to 10 times more likely to purchase from you than a new prospect.

Despite this compelling statistic, most business owners completely ignore what could be one of the most valuable assets in their business – their list of customers.

Almost every business keeps records of customers together with their contact details for accounting purposes – but most do nothing to leverage this asset in their marketing efforts.

So, here’s what you can do today (and every day) to show a little love to your most valuable asset.

Take your list of customers and select half a dozen names at random. Now, pick up the telephone and give them a call. Here are examples of some of the things you might say:

• “Hi Mrs Smith, it’s Mr Jones from My Store Ltd. I hope I’m not inconveniencing you, but I like to try to call a couple of my customers each day and see if there is anything I can do for you.”
• “How can we do a better job for you?”
• “How can we make you like our service so much that you recommend us to all of your friends?”
• “Here’s my number. Give me a call any time if you have any questions.”

When you make the calls it is important to avoid any hard selling – particularly if you haven’t interacted with the customer for a while. Your goal is to warm your relationship with the customer and get your business back into their mind. It is more powerful to simply have a conversation and to listen to what the customer is saying than it is to pitch your wares directly.

And if you do this well – with genuine warmth – you will turn your customers into raving fans.

Show a little love to your most valuable asset is a post from: Sharp Dart

If you are set up like most businesses, the telephone will be one of the most common ways that prospects initiate contact with you. Typically a prospect will find your telephone number through an ad or by word of mouth and then call to inquire about your products or services, pricing, opening hours and so on.

Given that callers are essentially raising their hand to say they are interested in doing business, it is astounding how little thought most business owners give to how their business is presented on the telephone – and how little is done to capture these callers and convert them into paying customers.

Planning what to say when a prospect calls – and creating a basic script to ensure that your message is consistent – is such a powerful strategy that you could literally double your business for zero cost and very little effort.

Do the math. If you get 100 telephone enquires per week and you currently convert 2 of those callers into customers, your conversion rate is 2%. Implementing even a basic script could raise your conversion rate to 4% – doubling the amount of business that flows via the telephone.

Here’s what you can do today to knock your telephone conversions out of the park.

First you need to review how you currently handle telephone inquiries. If you are the person that usually answers the phone sit down and think about what you say. Better yet, use a tape recorder to record yourself during the next few telephone inquiries.

If you have staff members answer the telephone then go outside your premises and call your business telephone number from your mobile. Ask a typical question and listen to the way the staff member deals with you.

Once you’ve taken stock of how your business currently handles telephone inquiries it is time to sit down and ask yourself the following questions:

• Am I friendly, courteous and helpful to callers? And is the image I project congruent with the overall image of my business?
• How can I communicate the unique benefits of my products or services to callers – in a natural, conversational way?
• What discounts, bundles or event based offers can I make on the spot that will be irresistible to the caller?

Convert your answers to the above questions into a simple script that you can use on all new callers. Instruct your staff members on how to use the script and talk about the image you would like to convey.

Then, stand back and watch you telephone conversion rate skyrocket!

Catch them here or risk losing them forever is a post from: Sharp Dart

I have been a customer of TPG, an Australian ISP for upwards of 5 years. Not because they provide reliable, fast broadband – or because they offer quality customer service (they don’t do either) – but because I am lazy and the pain of staying with TPG has been insufficient to motivate me to switch.

That’s until recently when I moved house.

Initially I thought it might be better to stick with the devil you know – so I gave TPG customer support a call and told them of the plan. The gentleman I spoke to told me almost as a threat that such a move would cost me $100 in relocation costs. Fair enough I thought – there is probably some cost to TPG to organise someone to connect the service.

I was then told that I cannot carry over my current plan because it didn’t exist any more (I’d been with them 5 years after all – and had only changed plan once about 2 years previously). He then went on in his slightly disgruntled way that I’d have to go to the TPG website, choose a new plan and sign up for a minimum contract of 12 months.

Can you see what that means?

In the space of a short phone call my relationship with TPG was being “reset”. No longer was I a customer of 5 years standing – I was now some prospect free to roam the TPG website and choose a plan like everyone else (oh… and pay the $100 relocation fee on top).

So what did I do? I went and bought a more expensive but rather awesome Telstra wireless broadband USB modem.

But, of course, TPG had the last laugh. It took 3 phone calls to cancel my service, the online cancellation form resulted in a javascript error wasting a good 15 minutes of my time, and I was told I needed to give 30 days cancellation notice on my out-of-contract service.

But hey, now the pain was sufficient not only for me to push through and cancel – but also tell everyone I know never to use TPG, AND to write this blog post…

How to Lose a Long Term Customer in 3 Minutes is a post from: Sharp Dart

As an Internet marketer I deal with a lot of different tools and software – and unfortunately as a result have to raise more than my fair share of support cases.

I have always thought that it is standard practice that the customer has the opportunity to approve or confirm their support case being marked as resolved.

Lately I have been working with Infusionsoft on a couple of client projects and have noticed a very different process in their support team. It seems that largely any response the support team gives to a case comes with it an automatic “resolution” of that case.

Most recently I opened a case stating that the ecommerce portion of Infusionsoft could not be used in Australia because the built-in invoicing system is not capable of incorporating the basic Australian taxation requirements for an invoice. A minor technical issue – but a major problem for any business using Infusionsoft to sell products within Australia.

I received a fairly quick response to the case but the recommended solutions were less than satisfactory. I was told that I could 1) go and ask other Australia Infusionsoft forum users what workaround they are using for this problem,  and/or 2) raise an “improvement request” via the “Ideas” website (I checked and there was already a similar request from another customer currently ranked 47th in the “Ideas” priority list).

What was interesting is that my support case was then immediately marked as resolved – as if suggesting that going and seeking out my own solution should be plenty of advice for me to sort out the problem without having to pester the Infusionsoft support team any further.

Surely a truly customer service oriented business (of which Infusionsoft most definitely is not) should, within reason, allow the customer to decide for themselves if their case has been satisfactorily resolved.

Who Should Close a Customer Support Case? is a post from: Sharp Dart