here isn't a day that goes by that I don't hear another small business owners complaining about some of the customers they have to do business with. And some of them REALLY are legitimate complaints. But after listening to 100's of different complaints, I have found the root of most of them is a lack of understanding. Therefore, I hope this report gets you on the road of addressing complaints and customer problems in your small home business.
The first step is to get past the irritation. It's only human nature to get a little upset when a customer writes to complain about something totally stupid. Complaints like: It's been two whole weeks and I haven't seen my ad in your paper yet. Or, how about those really stupid ones, like: Send me more info. (no name and address provided.) Then, the guy writes you the next week and calls you a crook because you didn't answer his request right away. It's obvious that there is a breakdown of communication.
But let's look at the last complaint explained above and analyze it for better understanding. For some reason, the guy was so excited about your company that he forgot to enclose his name and address. He knew his name and address and never thought about the fact that you probably didn't know it. Instead he was excited and wanted to get his request in the mail right away so he could find out more. So his complaint to you would actually be a compliment.
Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do about this problem since you have no name, address or telephone number to respond to. However, if the guy writes back and is upset with you (and includes his name and address), simply write a quick note that says: Thank you for requesting more information about our company. We apologize that your first request was not filled, however, you neglected to provide us with your name and address. We suggest that you always place your name and address on the outside of every envelope you mail. It's provides many rewards for you as well as getting your orders processed faster. (To go a step further, if you sell printing, suggest that he order 1,000 pre-printed envelopes from you. And because of the delay in processing his request, you'll give him $5 off. This will win him over.)
Now let's try and understand the education you provided to this customer. I know, it's human nature to want to strike back because this idiot hurt your feelings. But the only way you are going to advance in business and present the professional image you should be hoping to achieve, is to educate and help this person. They, in turn will probably never make this mistake again and will probably relate the information to others they come into contact with. However, if you are hateful or never fill the request you will have gained nothing except the self-satisfaction of revenge.
Training and educating people is not really very hard at all. Jesus gave us an example of how to teach in order to obtain POSITIVE results by using parables. Parables are examples of everyday situations so the person can relate and understand what you are trying to tell him or her. Just saying the words may not help. Some words go over a person's head or they don't comprehend what you're saying because their mind is on something else.
Good customer service and marketing go hand in hand. They both depend on each other and work together for your business survival. There should never be a moment when you shout back at a customer. Hanging up the phone is a much better approach and achieves the revenge you may seek in a more POSITIVE manner.
A Marketing Angle I Use to Sell My Own Products
Businesses to make money with fall under one of these two categories: (1) Service, or (2) Product.
A service business is more specialized to a specific, target-marketed group of people who need the service performed. A product can normally be sold to a wider market and you can span the mail order as well as the consumer market (John Q Public.)
The item I sold was Colloidal Silver, so it fell under the category of product. But the MLM company that manufactured this product kept instructing me to build a downline and sign up as many distributors as possible. Since everyone was given this same advice, I decided to do something different and more exciting.
I learned from a colleague that the consumer market is the most overlooked market for smaller homebased businesses. Big companies market to the consumer, but the little guy is never told to do it. They are led to believe that it's too expensive, which is a lie. In fact, running classified ads all over the country is less expensive per 1,000 than mail order publications.
Now I knew from experience that if I even mentioned the word distributorship to a consumer they will immediately envision door-to-door selling. This, of course, would turn them off. Because of this I knew that marketing with this method would not get me anywhere.
So I used another angle. Why not just sell the product itself with no strings attached? Don't most consumers buy products at the store because they want to use them? When you purchased your living room sofa for instance, did you purchase it so you could re-sell them and make money? Of course not. You bought it, brought it home and used it!
So I wrote 5 different classified ads selling Colloidal Silver for $30 a bottle. I told about the benefits of Colloidal Silver and asked the reader to call my toll-free number to learn more about its health benefits. My toll-free number was a recording that sold the product (not the opportunity.)
I invested $850 to get my 5 different classified ads in newspapers across the country. My cost per 1,000 circulation was 23¢ much lower than mail order and my ad appeared within 2 weeks.
From the $850 investment, I made only $300 of my money back but the idea worked! I analyzed which of the 5 different ads pulled the most response (they were coded), eliminated 3 that didn't and invested another $500 ($200 of my own money and $300 from the first sales) the next week in classified advertising again. This time I made $750 in sales.
The next month I narrowed down the papers that pulled the most orders, added on some more and repeated the procedure. I made another $500 the first week in sales and $1,200 the second week. After processing the paperwork to get these orders filled, I ended up with 100 customers who had purchased the Colloidal Silver and 2 who wanted to join the distributorship in my downline.
Now granted 2 out of 100 is not a lot. But 2 people who REALLY want to work the program is much better than 2,000 that don't want to work or don't even want to learn how to. Besides, I had the potential of 100 REPEAT customers and the opportunity to sell them more products. I made a great deal of money using this method and you can too!!
STUDENT STUDY LANGUAG FRENCH IN PARTICULAR THANK FOR APRICIATING MY JOB
