10 Simple Tips On Improving Your Customer Service

Below are just a few simple ways you can keep your customers;

1. Stay in contact with customers on a regular basis. Offer them a free e-zine subscription. Ask customers if they want to be updated by e-mail when you make changes to your Web site.
After every sale, follow-up with the customer to see if they are satisfied with their purchase.

2. Create a customer focus group. Invite ten to twenty of your most loyal customers to meet regularly. They will give you ideas and input on how to improve your customer service. You could pay them, take them out to dinner or give them free products.

3. Make it easy for your customers to navigate on your web site. Have a "FAQ" page on your Web site to explain anything that might confuse your customers. Ask them to fill out an electronic survey to find out how make your website more customer friendly.

4. Resolve your customers complaints quickly and successfully. Answer all e-mail and phone calls within an hour. If possible, you the owner of the business, personally take care of the problem. This will show your customers you really care about them.

5. Make it easy for your customers to contact you. Offer as many contact methods as possible. Allowcustomers to contact you by e-mail. Hyperlink your e-mail address so customers won't have to type it. Offer toll free numbers for phone and fax contacts.

6. Make sure employees know and use your customer service policy. Give your employees bonuses or incentives to practice excellent customer service. Tell employees to be flexible with each individual customer, each one has different concerns, needs and wants.

7. Give your customers more than they expect. Send thank you gifts to lifetime customers. E-mail them online greeting cards on holidays or birthdays. Award bonuses to your customers who make a big purchase.

8. Always be polite to your customers. Use the words your welcome, please, and thank you. Be polite to your customers even if they are being irate with you. Always apologize to your customers should you make a mistake. Admit your mistakes quickly and make it up to them in abig way.

9. Reward customers a point for every one dollar they spend. Let's say customers can get a free computer for 300 points. That means customers will spend $300 dollars on your products and services to get enough points to get the free computer.

10. Build strong relationships with your customers. Invite them to company meetings, luncheons, workshops or seminars. Create special events for your customers like parties, barbecue's, dances etc. This will make them feel important when you include them in regular businessoperations and special events.

No matter what you do, always keep in mind that the customer is king.

8 Ways You Can Increase The Perceived Value Of Your Freebies

Almost everyone is giving away a freebie so they can attract people to their web site. They are giving away free e-zines, ebooks, services, etc. What's happening to all this free stuff? It's loosing it's perceived value.Every time you surf the internet or check your e-mail you see at least 20 to 50 freebies offers.

Don't get me wrong freebies do increase traffic, but not like they did when the internet was new. The key is to increase the perceived value of your freebies so they will be more attractive to your audience. How do you do this?

Well, here are eight ways:

1. You could tell them what the freebie is worth with a dollar amount. For example, "Subscribe to my free e-zine! A $199 value!"

2. You could add other freebies to your freebie that will increase the value. For example, "Subscribe to my free e-zine and get free access to our "subscribers only" private web site!"

3. You could tell them the freebie is only available for a limited time. For example, " Download our freeebook, this free offer will only be available until May 30, 2000."

4. You could tell them the freebie is only available to a limited number of people. For example, " Our free software will only be available for the next 100 people that download it.

5. You could give more details about the freebie. List the benefits, features, what problems the freebie will solve, etc.

6. You could describe your freebie to sound more attractive. For example, instead of "free report" youcould say "free never released top secret document".

7. You could list testimonials for your freebie. Most businesses don't give testimonials for their freebies. This would defiantly increase your freebies value.

8. You could tell people how many people have already receive your freebie. For example, "15,000people have already subscribed to my free e-zine! Can they all be wrong?

These are only a few ways you can add value to your freebies. You could be creative and think up some other ways to increase the perceived value of your freebies. Also test each idea to see which one draws the most traffic to your web site.

Adopted from David Saeger

Ad Copy Sins To Avoid

I have read thousands of ad copies online and offline over my lifetime. I have read excellent ad copies that made me buy right away and some that may have had a decent product, but had a poor ad copy that turned me away.
Now that I am in business, I have written some of my own ad copies. Some of them have worked, some of them have bombed.

The key is to keep changing and testing your ad copy, don't just write one and then stop.
I don't have a college degree in copywriting, but I know to learn from the mistakes and never give up.

Below I've made a list of 42 deadly ad copy sins that I've made over the years and that you can learn from:
- no compelling headline
- no believable testimonials
- no sub headlines
- no attractive benefits
- no features
- no strong guarantees
- no asking or answering questions
- no proof of benefits offered
- no contact information for questions
- no endorsements
- no conversational writing
- too long sentences
- no deadline to order
- no free trials
- spelling mistakes
- grammar mistakes
- too light of text
- too dark background
- ad copy doesn't blend together
- no breaks in ad copy
- no bullets
- ad copy in all CAPS
- few ordering options
- no visual aids
- no comparison to competition
- no reminding of benefits or deadlines
- no information about your business
- no appealing adjectives
- no appealing phrases
- too large of text
- too small of text
- no emotional appeal
- too large paragraphs
- no story telling
- no underlining or bolding of keywords
- too short of ad copy
- too long of ad copy
- no facts or case studies
- hard to understand jargon
- no free bonuses
- too low of price
- too high of price

Don't get me wrong, not all 42 of my ad copy sins will apply to each and every ad you write. It is just a list you can use in the future. If you currently have an adcopy, compare it to the list right now. Your ad copy could make or break your sales.