Handling Complaints Without Making Things Worse

Copyright © 2008 Mark Silver

The email comes, or the phone rings, and there's an absolute flood pouring right at you. "Hey, you didn't do what you said you would do. This didn't work as advertised. You goofed!"

Yup, a complaint. Ahhh! A complaint?! But you poured your heart and soul into it, how could they complain?

Then you take a breath, and you read what they're asking for, and you realize... they were right. You DID make a mistake. Things are goofed up, perhaps badly.

Time to hang up your hat and go work in a cafe?

Well, no, not really. But it can sure feel that way. Why is it that when you get a complaint it always stirs you up?

I could say it's a gift from Source (and it is) but let's not go there immediately. Before you try to figure it out, take a moment, or two, or an hour, or even half a day, for yourself.

That's right, you don't have to respond immediately.

Not every complaint is going to shake you, but when they do resist the urge to respond immediately. Instead, take time for yourself to feel upset, to connect with your heart, and to realize that perhaps it's not as bad as you might think.

Once you catch up to your heart, then it's time to respond. Let's take a look, shall we?

We apologize for any inconvenience...

This is exactly what you -don't- want to say. Unfortunately, there's been 'corporate' language creeping into every day speech. Plus, as a small business owner, you don't necessarily see what other small business owners do in the dark of their email inboxes, so you don't have other examples.

You and I are only used to seeing the kind of emails/letters/phone calls that the big boys send out to their millions of customers.

This is not what you want to emulate. Not.

The three most important things in an apology response.

When someone complains, they are actually giving you an incredible testimonial. You see, trust and hope have been broken so often in our culture, that many people just take average or below-average as 'normal.'

For instance, our trash can broke just a year or two after we bought it. A trash can? It should last for years, really, but I didn't expect any better. And I didn't complain to anyone (except my wife.)

So, if you get a complain, that means they trust you enough to show you how much they wanted your offer/product/service to work for them. That they trusted you enough to handle them with care, even when they are upset. That they trusted that you will take care of them.

That's a lot of trust.

So, how about those three things that are needed in the response? Let's take a closer look at them.

Keys to Caring for Complaints.

Hear ye, O hear ye!

First and foremost they want to be heard. They want you to hear the facts of the matter, but even more importantly, they want you to get that they are upset to some degree.

Read their email, or letter, or listen to the words they spoke carefully. Did they say they were "frustrated?" Or did they say they were "really upset!" Did their tone sound like it had a LOT of energy in it, or was it fairly mild.

You want to let them know that you get exactly how upset they are, and the tone of the emotion. If someone says "really upset!" don't say: "Sounds like you're a little frustrated."

They aren't a little frustrated- they are "really upset!" So let them know you see it: "Wow, I get that you are really upset! I'm glad you let me know how upset you are!"

It's 'me' not 'we.'

We've all been trained to say "we" in these kinds of situations. "We apologize for any inconvenience." But, seriously, who is "we?" Even if you have a company of 10,000, you are the person responding.

They showed you trust by complaining, show them trust by being a little vulnerable here, don't hide behind the 'we' even if other people were involved.

For instance: 'I'm sad about the goof, because I want you to get the best from me (or us if there is more than one of you), and I'm grateful you let me know so I can fix it.'

Accountability.

Tell them how you're going to fix the problem. Give details. Instead of 'We'll replace it for you.' try writing something like this:

'I'm putting the replacement in the mail today by priority mail- you should have it in about three days. Please let me know when you receive it and if it's in good shape.'

Most of all, respond to the people who complain as you would talk to a good friend, not to someone who you need to hide from or keep at an arm's length.

An example.

We received an email asking about an order- and, you know what, our system dropped the order, and we weren't tracking. We got paid, but we never shipped the item. Luckily, this happens rarely.

The instinct from corporate examples is to respond like this:

"We apologize for any inconvenience. We're sending you a replacement copy immediately, and you should have it very soon. We really appreciate your business, and we want to make this right with you.

Sincerely,"

It's perfectly fine, in some ways. And yet, here is how we like to respond:

"Wow- I'm so sorry that we goofed your order like that! Ugh! I can imagine you've been frustrated, wondering where in the heck your order is, and here it is more than a week later!

"I want you to know that I just put your book into a priority mail envelope and it's going out today. It should take about three days to get to you. If you don't have it by Tuesday, let me know.

"apologies! appreciation!

"Mark (or whomever is writing the email)"

And, we also usually put a little extra gift in the package, as a surprise, when we goof.

If you let yourself breathe through your initial reaction to a complaint, then you will see the deep trust that is being given, and you can return it in a way that will feel great to your heart.

Stick with saying "me" instead of "we," being authentic, and show them how you are going to fix it, and you'll see how goof-ups can actually be doorways to creating deeper trust, and your upset clients just might turn into raving fans.

The best to you and your business,

Mark Silver


About the Author:
Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your Business: How Money, Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to Your Bottom Line. He has helped hundreds of small business owners around the globe succeed in business without losing their hearts. Get three free chapters of the book online: http://www.heartofbusiness.com


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The Quickest Way To Get Cheap Sustained Website Traffic

Copyright © 2008 Willie Crawford

During a recent radio interview, one of the callers asked for several ways to get fast, cheap, sustained website traffic. She added on top of that "tall order" that she didn't want to use pay-per-clicks!

Digging deeply into my toolkit of traffic generation techniques that had actually work beautifully for me, I suggested joint ventures and article marketing. Then I had to admit that article marketing often doesn't produce an immediate flood of traffic but that it can be sustained and highly targeted.

Joint ventures get you fast and cheap traffic because you're arranging for those who already have the attention of your ideal customers to send them to you. You're convincing those who already have the trust and respect of your ideal customers to point out to them that you can help to solve their pressing problems.

My "answer" to the question of the quickest way to generate sustained, inexpensive website traffic still is joint ventures. As a joint venture broker, and Executive Director of The International Association of Joint Venture Brokers, I've seen first-hand how large, successful joint ventures with just the right partners can deliver 7-figure days.

However, the joint ventures that so typify product launches in the Internet marketing niche often miss delivering real "sustained" traffic. They are mostly "flash in the pan" launches where the traffic flow dies-off even faster than it builds up.

A better option for generating inexpensive, sustained, targeted website traffic is an affiliate program, or strategic partnerships. The strategic partnerships can even BE an affiliate program, where the partners have agreed to promote certain products within that affiliate program contributed by various members of the alliance.

In ultra-competitive niches, such as Internet marketing, where you often see dozens of new product launches per week, strategic alliances are almost a "requirement." It's sometimes so difficult just to get noticed that the secret to breaking through the clutter is TEAMWORK.

You often need to find a group of likeminded individuals, and then work to jointly develop, launch and promote group products and projects.

An example of a product launched using this model is the ebook "20 Ways To Make $100 Per Day Online." This ebook was written by members of The Internet Marketing Inner Circle (http://TIMIC.ORG), then group members created the buzz that got the product noticed and eventually started other affiliates promoting it.

The "20 Ways" ebook had a viral twist to it too though, and that's what created and will sustain it's growth. That viral aspect is the customer-only affiliate program. A customer is eligible to register as an affiliate, and then use their affiliate link to sell the ebook at 100% commission. The 20 Ways Ebook was indeed launched via a strategic alliance, an affiliate program, and viral marketing. It's a launch formula that you could easily model, and use to generate a steady stream of quick, inexpensive traffic.

Some would look at the "20 Ways" ebook though and ask "What's the point - if you then give away 100% commission?" The answer is that you need to build-in backend sales. Add links to your product that drive repeat customer back to you, or offer additional products to those customers on your download pages.

When I further contemplate the question of the fastest, easiest, cheapest ways to generate sustained website traffic, I would still have to say joint ventures... and an affiliate program. An affiliate program fits the "inexpensive" criteria because you only pay for performance. If the traffic doesn't convert to sales, it costs you absolutely nothing. Any costs involved in an affiliate program comes from revenue that you wouldn't otherwise have anyway.

The only twist missing from the "20 Ways" model that I would incorporate in hindsight... is to perhaps make some part of the ebook rebrandable. Perhaps use software such as Viral Document Toolkit to allow customer who buy resale rights (as an upsell) to change links within the ebook. No kind of resale rights are offered for the 20 Ways ebook, but it is a twist that you might want to consider for one of your products.

Anyway... joint ventures, an affiliate program, and releasing viral rebrandable products are all proven methods of quickly, easily, and cheaply setting in motion a sustainable flow of traffic!


About the Author:
Willie Crawford is an Internet marketer with over 11 years of experience at generating massive website traffic, and sales using viral marketing techniques. Viral Document Toolkit is his favorite tool for creating rebranded PDF ebooks in minutes. Checkout the demo video at: http://ViralDocumentToolkits.com


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Why Joint Venture Partners Don't Promote Your Product

Copyright © 2008 Willie Crawford

You spend months creating a product, designing a website, and having copy written and tested. You spend countless hours schmoozing joint venture partners. Then your launch day comes, you "push the button" and...

The silence from lack of orders is deafening.

What went wrong? Where are all those customers that you knew your 300 joint venture partners would send you?

Chances are, 95% of those joint ventures partners didn't promote, or didn't promote to the extent that you anticipated. Let's look briefly at why the sad sequence of events described above happens all too often. Here are four common reasons:

1) Your JV Partners Promised To Promote Too Many Products

If you are approaching all of the biggest players in your niche, and if there are a lot of product launches happening in your niche, your JV partners may have simply over-promised.

It's not uncommon for may super-affiliates to be approached with joint venture offers dozens of times per week. Some are so bombarded with repeated request from the same people that they often find it easier to give a "tentative yes." The problem is that if it's your launch, you may not know that it's a tentative yes.

The way to avoid this problem is to ask for a definite commitment. Just be frank and ask your joint venture partners "if you can depend upon them?" Another way to avoid this problem is to seek joint venture partners that aren't bombarded with constant joint venture requests. There are many times more less-visible potential joint venture partners who have very responsive lists, than there are overwhelmed "super affiliates."

A good place to have some of these potential joint venture partners actually FIND YOU is The International Association of Joint Venture Brokers. Just get your projects and launches into their database, and JV partners in your niche will find you!

2) Your Sign-up Process Is Too Convoluted

It's unbelievable how complex many people make the process of just registering as a joint venture partner and getting an affiliate link.

Don't make your potential joint venture partners register at three different places JUST so that they can help you with your launch. If you do... they'll say yes initially, but drop out when they see how many hurdles they have to jump.

3) You Don't Provide The Right Tools

Most successful affiliate marketers have favorite tools that they prefer using. For some it's videos, for others it's rebrandable ebooks, for others it's articles that they can change the urls in, and for others it's pay-per-clicks.

You absolutely must provide the tools that your affiliates prefer using. Don't expect them to change how they market to conform to your launch plans. They usually know from experience what works best with their customers.

You also need to provide some tools that allow a "soft sell" rather than high pressure tactics. Some affiliates will not use high pressure tactics on their subscribers. For affiliates like that, tools such as rebrandable ebooks (that actually teach something) which sell your product as a solution to problems mentioned in the ebook, work MUCH better. Use rebrander software such as Viral Document Toolkit to allow your affiliate to rebrand links, and even text in these ebooks.

4) Your Timing Is Incredibly Poor

If you are in a niche where there are hundreds of new product launches each month, such as Internet marketing, then your timing is critical! If your launch coincides with another MAJOR big ticket launch, your launch may simply be drowned out by all of the "noise" made by those promoting the other product. Your list members may be bombarded by some much email for the other product that they don't even SEE yours.

To avoid this, you need to consult launch calendars, such as the one available through The International Association of Joint Venture Brokers. Savvy product owners make sure that THEIR product launches, events, and even free giveaways are in this database.

Those planning product launches who don't want BIG disappointments consult this database to see what else is planned for the days, or weeks that they plan to do their launch.

Consulting a database such as one provided by IAJVB also uncovers another opportunity. When you see other launches in your niche, you are also looking at events where you can piggy-back or dove-tail your launches.

Instead of competing head-to-head with product launches in your niche, why not contact some of the other product owners and propose working together. Use their product as a backend to your product and ask them to do the same. Maybe ask them to offer your product to their exit traffic that doesn't convert.

There are dozens of ways that you can work WITH others in your niche when you know what they have planned, and you'll get much better results.

Another major thing that you'll accomplish is that you'll get more affiliate who actually promote your product. That's because you won't be forcing affiliates to choose between competing launches... instead you can coordinate for them to promote both launches... sometimes even with one email :-)

You put far too much blood, sweat, and tears into your product launch to allow it to hit a brick wall. Go back and read the common reason that joint venture partners DON'T promote launches... even after they've indicated that they will. Eliminate as many of those reasons from your product launch sequence as possible.

Doing a successful product launch with dozens, or even hundreds, of joint venture partners is not rocket science. However, like any "science" it does involve careful observation of what is actually happening, and responding appropriately. Now you know how to respond to the reasons joint venture partners often don't promote.


About the Author:
Willie Crawford is founder of The Internet Marketing Inner Circle, and Executive Directory of The International Association of Joint Venture Brokers. An accomplished joint venture broker, and affiliate marketer for over a decade, Willie shares his experience at: http://TheInternetMarketingInnerCircle.com


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5 Simple Steps to Selling Online - How to Convert Visitors Into Buyers

Copyright © 2008 Sophie Baxter

Step 1 - First impressions DO Count! First impressions are fundamental to building trust online - even more so if you have an e-commerce site. Your site needs to look professional and inspire trust: the slightest doubt and the customer will leave your site for a competitor's.

So make sure that your graphic and pictures are good quality and your text is clear and informative.

Remember that you are asking people to leave their credit card details and trust you with their money!

Step 2 - Write good content and products descriptions You need to provide visitors with enough information about your product to allow them to make an informed buying decision.

Try not only be descriptive but also appeal to the customer's feelings. Would you widget make him feel amazingly confident, look good dinner parties, allow them to do their work quicker and spend more time with their family?

The text needs to be conversational, punchy easy to read and interesting.

You will find yourself spending a considerable amount of time writing - but the benefits - higher conversion rates and better search engines results, should be worth it.

Step 3 - KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid!) Don't assume that everyone knows everything. Make it clear where they need to go to find what. Label the navigation titles clearly and make it clear how to buy.

Amazingly "add to basket" or "buy now" signs on some sites are almost impossible to find... and guess what? People shop elsewhere. Keep the layout clear and simple and make sure navigation is obvious to all users (not just to you) by testing your website on friends and family - watch how they use it, you could be amazed at what you learn!

Step 4 - Forget Flash (and large images, Splash pages or other gimmicks) Lots of graphics and moving images might look impressive but they can take too long to load and annoy you visitors. All customers are interested in is accessing relevant information as quickly and easily as possible so that they can see what you have to offer. What's more they look like at adverts and at best customer ignore them.

Too many companies are tempted to go for a 'wow' effect website with lots of graphics that take a lifetime - or at least longer than the average browser is prepared to wait - to load and don't bring any "value" to the site.

Remember, the web is an information-based medium and wouldn't you prefer your site to be remembered for its great products and services rather than its design?

We're not saying that design is irrelevant - just try to keep things simple. This leads us nicely to our next step.

Step 5 - Make your promises clear... and keep them. All return and guarantees policies should be stated clearly on the site. You need to maintain trust and continue to build relationships with your clients even after you've made the sale. Answer all queries and emails personally. Automated answers are likely to make customers feel like 'just another number'. A prompt and warm personal answer, however, will make them feel valued.

Keep them informed of the delivery status, especially if delivery is delayed. They might not be happy but they'll be even more upset if they feel you've let them down. Similarly, if you've made a mistake admit it, apologise and fix it - as quickly as possible!

REMEMBER - unhappy people tell two or three times more people than happy ones do! The old saying that new customers are much harder (and much more expensive) to sell to than new ones is true and customer retention will be key in the long term success of your business.


About the Author:
Sophie Baxter is the Managing Director of http://www.bigfatballoons.co.uk a company devoted to selling balloons, teddy bears, chocolates and cheerful gifts with the 'wow-factor'. On the birth of her baby, Sophie was given an helium filled balloon in a gift box, that made her go 'WOW' and kept both baby and Dad entertained. A few months later, she organised a helium balloon delivery for a friend's 50th birthday which went down so well that Sophie realised that she had stumbled across an idea that made giving and receiving gifts easy, enjoyable and great fun.


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How To Run A 50,000 Advertising Campaign On A 1,920 Budget

Copyright © 2008 Lei Wang

Has this ever happened to you? You have been chasing a prospect for the last few months, waiting and waiting to hear from them. Finally, you receive a long awaited email. Or, someone has finally returned your call after you left the twenty-seventh message on their phone?

You were over the moon! Jumping up and down...and ka-ching...ka-ching....

You can already hear the cash register ringing - you know it's time to get paid!

Then next thing you hear...

"I'll need sometime to think about it and will get back to you..."

"I'll need to discuss it with my wife..."

Have you ever asked yourself, "Why is it so damn hard to get people hand over their credit card details?"

And remember the first time you ever run an ad in the local newspaper, trade magazine, or purchased a spot on the local radio station?

You were so excited and nervous at the same time. You were holding your breath and praying for the phone to ring...

Then as the clock ticked and days slowly drifted by...finally the phone rings.

You rush to pick up and ahaaa...

Someone has answered your ad, expressed interest, and asked you a few questions...

Then, they disappear off the face of the earth and you never hear from them again...

Has it ever crossed your mind...?

Maybe it's easier to just give up...and find a job that offers some security. You can pay off your mortgage, work another thirty or forty years, and then retire comfortably.

Well...I don't blame you for thinking that way. We have all had days where nothing seems to work out.

If you are devoting a lot of time talking to skeptical or mildly interested prospects, and then wondering why they never call back...

You failed to address their biggest concern.

Most people are terrified of putting out money and getting no where. They have seen hundreds if not thousands of ads similar to yours and companies that come and go like a circuit. They have been burnt enough times by snake-oil salesmen selling get-rich-quick scheme, masterminded by some amateur running their business in a spare bedroom, hoping to make a few quick bucks.

It all comes down to one key element C credibility, and this is the first and foremost concern you need to address in your sales pitch.

For that exact reason, your competitors with deep pockets are willing to fork out millions upon millions of dollars on advertising and brand building.

They are happy to repeatedly run ads in magazines, newspapers, on TV, and on the radio. There may not be a single soul who picks up the phone to make an enquiry, but they keep the ad machine rolling. It doesn't hurt them one bit because they have plenty of money to show around, and it's a great a credibility booster.

Now...

If you are a hard-working small business owner struggling to make ends meet, or just starting out and barely affording an office and a desk....imagine trying to take business away from them. It's like competing with sharks in a small pond with no way out!

In your battle for survival, you might lower your prices or provide better service. Sometimes you might work sixteen hours a day., seven days a week. This might give you just enough to cover the overheads and pay the employees. You re-invest the little left over back into your business to keep it going...

Not a very bright picture, wouldn't you say?

But the good news is...

You are certainly not alone in this situation. Most businesses have a short life because of these two problems...

The primary reason for failure in the first year is a lack of funding. The primary reason for failure over the next five years is burn-out.

My client, Scott Bywater, transformed from being a struggling start-up to one of the highest paid copywriter in just a few years, because he knows how to make his money work harder instead of himself.

If you want to run a $50,000 advertising campaign on a $1,920 budget, you must be smart with your money...

Instead of paying a few thousands for a single media placement, why not use educational content in an editorial style?

For starters, you get equivalent ad placement for free. People read editorials with pen and paper in-hand to capture interesting tidbits of information. You won't see that with advertisement.

If you are a marketing executive and strapped for time, outsource the task by finding a writer for less than $0.20/word. You can have an 800 word article done for little over $160.

Just think how much you normally pay for an ad....

$3,000 - $5,000 for a single issue ad in any trade publications $60,000 and up in a major national publication

Doesn't that seem like a pretty darned good deal?

Take out your calculator and let's do the math...

At the rate of $4200/ad, within a single year you will be running $50,000 in debt. If you commission 12 editorial articles, all you will ever pay is $1920. That's less than 4% of the cost of the traditional ad.

if you are really strapped for cash, just recycle any existing files you have like brochures, sale letters, newsletters, ebooks, seminar handouts, or blog posts. You can have an article ready under 10 minutes.

I hope you walk away with something valuable from this - strategies you can immediately apply to boost your profit. And if you have any questions or a burning problem and you can't figure out, feel free to send me an email. I'm looking forward to helping you on your journey to success.

P.S. If you want to find out how Scott Bywater "banked in $1,500 within 48 hours with just a phone call", visit my website.


About the Author:
Lei Wang is a leading education marketer who focuses on reducing advertising expenses for business owners. Get instant access to her 17 page report "How to Advertise Without Spending $1 On Advertising and Reduce Your Ad Expenses By 80%" (Valued at $39.95 - Yours FREE). Visit http://www.paynoadvertising.com/report_pw.html


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Earning Ecommerce Cash: Starting an Online Business

Copyright © 2008 Elizabeth Adams

There are many reasons why, each day, thousands of people are drawn to the idea of starting an online business:

Existing business owners can increase their potential customers to include millions of internet users,

Home-based entrepreneurs can cost-effectively advertise their products and services and build huge prospect lists, and

All business owners can take advantage of online services that not only help to automate the sales process, but also develop lasting customer relations.

The complexity of starting an online business depends, to a large extent, on the degree to which off-the-shelf solutions are used to implement the sales process.

An initiate into online marketing can register a domain and upload a web page featuring products and services, and manually process orders and customer contacts.

At a minimum , a business owner or home-based entrepreneur must complete the following steps:

1. obtain a domain name from any one of many domain-name registrars,

2. purchase web-hosting from a hosting service,

3. build and upload the web page,

4. manually take orders and payments, and

5. manually deliver products or services.

The proposition of, "Build it and they will come," made famous by the movie "Field of Dreams," is not generally true with respect to marketing with a web page. In order to achieve sales, prospective customers must first find the web page and then spend enough time on the page to absorb the sales message.

A web designer's use of HTML techniques can help insure that a web page will be cataloged by internet search engines and be seen in search results.

Traffic exchanges, blogs, and article submissions can be used to "drive" traffic to a web page.

Carefully crafted and placed squeeze pages can be used to interest--at a glance--a web surfer enough to take a closer look at a product or service. Once web surfers are exposed to a well crafted squeeze page, they can be induced to submit a name and email address. After submitting their contact information, interested prospects can be sent additional information: autoresponders are typically used to automatically deliver the information and to help build prospect lists.

Once web users find their way to a web page, a payment gateway is often used to collect a customer's payment.


About the Author:
Elizabeth Adams has been writing direct sales copy since the early 1990's, when she employed several people to handle mailings and product fulfillment for her postcard marketing business. Elizabeth learned in direct mail how to tweak her sales copy on the run and improve her sales conversion by as much as 400% in only one mailing. She learned how to write a great headline and effective sales copy. Get "Great Headlines — Instantly" today to learn how to do for yourself what Elizabeth learned in the trenches: http://www.elizabethadamsdirect.com/greatheadlines


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