Why should you bother?

Good customer service is the life blood of any business. New customers are important but good customer service will help generate customer loyalty and repeat business. With each satisfied customer your business will secure many more customers through word of mouth and you should always keep in mind that if you are not taking proper care of your customers there is always a competitor that will.

A customer satisfaction survey will help by not only identifying problem areas but will also demonstrate to your customers that you care and are proactive in looking for ways to improve the service that you provide.

Where do you start?

Objective - Before you start compiling your survey consider what the objectives of the survey are, in that way you will remain focused and find it easier to decide what questions to ask.

Analysis - Consider how you will analyse the answers having completed the survey.

Keep in mind that ‘closed’ questions (where a respondent is asked to choose from a limited number of responses) are much easier to analyze than ‘open’ questions (where the respondent can reply in anyway they want).

A great deal will depend on the likely volume of respondents, the higher the volume the more important it is to have an easy method of analysing the results.

Opportunity – As well as obtaining valuable market research data keep in mind that customer surveys are also a good way to advertise areas of your service that your customers may not be aware of.

Before publishing the survey read through the survey from a market research view point to confirm that you are asking the right questions in the right way and that your chosen answer format will provide you with feedback that will allow you to make informed decisions.

Next, read through the survey from a marketing view point, check that you have phrased each question so that every opportunity has been taken to promote your business?

The ideal question will perform the following three functions:-

• Market research - provide valuable feedback to help you improve your customer satisfaction levels and in turn your business
• Marketing - promote aspects of your business
• Information/Education - advertise a service that you provide that your customers may not have been unaware of

For example:- Do you find the in-store baby changing facilities useful?

In asking this question the store will hopefully not only receive useful feedback on the baby changing facility but they will also promote the store as being a child-friendly and caring store even to those the customers who do not actually require the facility.

Warts and all – to benefit most from a customer survey you need to be prepared to dig deep and accept the worst.

A customer satisfaction survey should be designed to identify any problem areas so that they can be fixed; conducting regular customer satisfaction will help prevent complacency and will also give early warning on where you may be losing business to your competitors initiatives.

What questions should you ask?

Although it is a given that each business is likely to have specific and unique factors that are important in providing good customer services there are common areas that are relevant to all businesses be they a physical store, online internet store or a service industry. The following are some key areas to providing good customer service.

Communication - Do you do anything to help your customers communicate with you?

When customers telephone are their calls answered quickly; are their enquiries about products or services handled properly? A good business will make every effort to ensure that whatever the customers query it is resolved by the right person, quickly, politely and fairly.

If a problem is not resolvable immediately do you promise to respond in a given time period and do you deliver on your promise?

Use a customer satisfaction survey to ensure that all your staff are considered by your customers to be courteous, helpful and knowledgeable.

Location – Are you doing everything you can to ensure that your customers find it easy to visit you, if a physical store, does it have good access and is it conveniently located?

Making it pleasant, making it easy - For an online business it is important to ensure that your website is easy to use and aesthetically pleasing.

Regardless of the store being a bricks and mortar or purely online web based store, is the store properly laid out and can your customers find what they need and is there sufficient detailed information and help on hand to explain how a particular product works?

The right quality products – In addition to measuring the quality of the service that you provide you should ensure that the products and services that you provide match your customers’ requirements.

Value for money – Cheap or expensive is not always a good measure, value for money is.

Do your customers associate your business with value for money, if not, why not?

Speed and attention – Customers want their enquiries or queries to be dealt with quickly but attentively.

Are you doing everything to prevent any delays?

Customers like to be treated as individuals, how do you treat your customers? Attention is one thing but only if it leads to a quick and satisfactory resolution to the query.

Demographics and Specific issues – Take the opportunity to profile your customers, for example their gender, age group and where they live?

By understanding your customers more, the better your chances of correctly targeting your business.

Within the survey encourage customers to highlight their problems and provide contact details.

What next?

Having completed the survey analyze the results.

Trends – Look for specific and common areas where the service needs improving.

Ask yourself if any criticism is valid and is there anything that can be done to resolve or minimise the problem?

Training – Are the staff properly trained and do they have sufficient knowledge?

Where staff training programmes have been implemented have they had a positive impact on the business?

Follow-up – If a customer who has completed a survey has raised a specific issue do all you can to ensure that their complaint is addressed.

Don’t waste an opportunity to resolve a problem and keep a customer.

Continuously Monitor - Based on the survey results make changes and then re-measure by issuing further surveys.

If you are concerned about customer satisfaction and what to view a sample survey for a store that will demonstrate some of the above advice please visit:- Sample Customer Survey

One of the most difficult things you have to deal as you think about starting your membership site is which niche you should start it in. Many Internet marketers automatically think they should start one in the Internet marketing niche. However, there are many untapped opportunities out there in an incredible number of niche areas!

The most important thing is that you choose a niche that is passionate. The niche needs to be something that is on their mind all the time. This might be a hobby, or some kind of problem they want solved. Ideally, the people in the niche should be used to spending money, and do so regularly. This will help ensure you’ll have plenty of members signing up for your membership site who will not balk at having to pay a fee! If you’ve been building niche websites for a while, you might already have some ideas of what you want to go with.

Also, while you don’t want to necessarily follow your own passions, you should choose something you’re interested in. Otherwise, you will likely start the website and lose interest in it — which will be frustrating to you and your members!

It can be a good idea to choose a subniche of a certain niche. For example, instead of creating a “weight-loss” website, you might create a membership site focused on “weight loss for new moms.”  This calls out to a certain group of people, and you can more easily break into a competitive niche this way.

There are as well downsides to choosing smaller subniches. One of the biggest downsides is that the customer base may not be large enough to make it worth your while. You can make your focus more general, but just keep in mind that it will be difficult to grow and make a name for yourself in the beginning. Still, that doesn’t mean you can’t make it work!

before beginning creating your content and investing a lot of time and money it is very important to research your niche thoroughly. Take a look and see if there are already competitors with membership sites in the niche, or at least people already making money in it. This is a good indicator that you will be able to make money in that niche is well.

Of course, it might be that you want to create a membership site in the Internet marketing niche. This can definitely work for you, and can be highly profitable. This is especially true in these times where money is tight for a lot of people. People are willing to spend a little bit of money in the hopes that they can make a lot more money in the long run.

While Facebook has been around for a while, the popularity of the service appears to be on the rise.

Not only are the demographics expanding to older Facebook users, but businesses are also getting in on the act. For example, I have recently been enjoying the NCAA basketball tournament. As usual, there are a variety of new commercials being played … some more interesting than others.

However, the commercial that caught my attention recently was for Vitamin Water. The commercial prominently displays the company’s facebook address (www.facebook.com/vitaminwater). So what did I do … I went to check out their Facebook page.

The first thing that jumped out at me on their facebook page was that they have over 50,000 fans registered. Not bad for a completely voluntary sign-up process.

Then, I noticed that their fans are posting comments about how great their product is and how much they love it. In the internet business … we call that Social Proof and it is a powerful thing. The fan posts are occassionally interrupted by a post from Vitamin Water … often to introduce a new flavor or a new celebrity endorsement.

So what’s the point? Well … the first point is that Facebook and other social sites aren’t just for kids anymore. The second point is that a well designed social media effort can gain your company (and your products) a list of dedicated … even raving fans that can be incredibly valuable.

So put on your thinking cap … get creative … log into Facebook and create your company profile. Get started … before your competition does. And … if you decide that you need a little guidance … you can always contact a professional internet marketing company. Or … you can roll up your sleeves, set up a facebook account and ask you existing customers to join your facebook fan page.

With the constant increase of the Internet usage, manufacturers and service providers are doing their best to make what they offer known to all the Internet users as best they can.

And what other way better than online advertising is there?

PPC marketing is just one of many other possible forms of advertising products or services online. It refers to ads that are uploaded by search engines, blogs, advertising networks and regular web sites to make publicity.

The expression pay per click advertising points out that advert agents pay the host web site or blog only when the ad is clicked on or accessed. These ads may not be clicked at all, in which case no money will be transferred between the host and advertising provider.

With content web sites, each click has a fix charge regardless of how many times it is made.

In the case of search engines, things with pay per click advertising get a little more complicated than with web sites because the system is different and advertisers propose a certain payment on keywords and phrases that would match their target markets; they actually bid for these keywords, and he who bids highest will own the keyword.

On the other hand, web sites rely on the list of phrases and keywords given by the advertiser in order to show an ad and the fixed charge makes it all easier.

If you visit website with specific keywords, the site will automatically know which add to display to increase click worth money.

This is known as sponsored links and they can appear anywhere to suit the advertiser.

You can choose much more PPC providers with various levels of competitions amongst them. Three of the most important providers of such ads are Microsoft adCenter, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Google AdWords.

There are of course many other avenues in marketing online, some of them will offer much greater return on your investment. If you would like to find out which one can pay at much higher levels, go to www.BeMaverickMoneyMaker.com and follow some step by step videos.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SPANISH MARKET

Currently there are several reasons for a Company to have their website translated into several languages.

One of them is Internet, as due to the global communications network, there are customers in regions far from your office who may be needing your services, and because of the different payment methods, such transactions are possible and even essential for the growth of your business.

One of the most important language to be considered today is the Spanish language as the Spanish speaking countries are a lot, and within their economies there are many potential customers with whom negociate.

Expanding you business to spanish speaking countries can ensure a great amount of work, and obviously this mean more revenue for your Company.

Due to the great importance of translating your website from English to Spanish nothing better for your Company than to rely on talented professionals working within the same network.

For the translation of your  English websites into Spanish we recommend using an agency leading the sector, Exptranslators.com who performs such work with a group of professionals whose native language is Spanish, ensuring high quality translations from English to Spanish.

This agency also has very competitive prices in the actual market, due to the serious global crisis, allowing you to have your website translated and with an excellent quality without breaking your budget.

Once your page is translated from English to Spanish you will quickly notice the benefits that this holds, receiving requests and queries from places where you never dreamed to get with your business.

Exptranslators.com also has a group of editors and proofreaders, who checks the work done by translators, to give you the absolute certainty that the product or service that is being offered in the Spanish market has the same efficiency and transparency that your products and services offered in the English language.

In order to avoid a gap in your economy, Exptranslators.com has decided not to charge you the proofreading of the translations from English to Spanish to customers who operate for the first time, so you obtain an efficient and high quality translation, with the best price on the market.

What is a Backend Product?

In this series I will be discussing an very powerful concept that if you implement in your business, you will see dramatic results! As a Denver Marketing Consultant , no matter what type of business you are in, or whether you market your products online or offline, the backend offers are the ones which determine whether you are going to make marginal or staggering profits.

Many business owners seldom realize how important reselling their existing customers is. They solely focus on acquiring as many new customers as possible. They fail to understand how revolutionary the backend marketing concept is.

We must keep in mind that a ‘backend’ is different from an ‘upsell’, and not confuse the two. The products or services you provide your customers with after the initial sale are referred to as ‘backend’. These products and services can be your own as well as of others, which you will be reselling. Usually initial sales are followed by backend offers after a certain time lapse.

On the other hand, the additional products and services that are offered to customers while selling something and before the sale has been completed is known as ‘upsell’…..just like at McDonalds…”would you like fries with your order”?.

Think about how you can start using this in your business today! 

Why Is The Money In The Backend?

Think of it like this: you already did what you did and spent what you spent to get your last customer….now with proper follow up tools and systems, you can “monetize” that list with backend sales to boost profit. 

The reasons why applying the backend concept in your business can ensure unlimited profit are as follows:

There will be no customer acquisition cost, as you will be selling to customers you have already acquired.

You can cash in on your goodwill… If you have properly established a firm relationship of trust between you and your customer, as general statistics show, about 35% of your customers will purchase from you again.

For example:

Suppose you sell information products.

Assume that the selling price of your initial product (frontend) is $97, while its original cost price is $30. You run an advertisement for $600, which got you ten customers.

Your gross profit will be $670 ($97 X 10 customers) - ($30 X 10 customers), while your net profit will be $70 ($670 gross profit - $600 ad costs) for 10 customers.

Without having applied the ‘backend’ concept, your net profit would only have been $70 for 10 customers. However, if you offer these 10 customers with the backend product or service, which gets sold for $250 a few days later, and 30% of these customers take it on average, you will make another $750($250 X 3 customers). Overall, you will make a profit of $820.

This is an example of how powerful the ‘backend’ concept can prove to be. Even if you do not make profit from your initial sale, you can make it up from your ‘backend’ sale.

The backend concept can really help you to raise your profit margin by several notches. Keep supplying your existing customers with additional product offers, as money really lies in backend sale.
The Importance of a Backend Strategy

When you start thinking about your sales and profits, you’re likely to think that you need to create many and varied items for the backend. But you’ll find that you need to take an approach that is going to leverage your lists of products when anyone buys any of those products.

First, consider putting some polish on your current products and also the “experience” your customer has while going through your sales and buying process Next, you need to develop a backend product which is related to your front-end product, be it an accompaniment or complementary.

Then, when this second product is ready, announce it to your list of existing customers, who have already brought your first product. If they liked it, they’re very likely to purchase the new product, which is likely to suit their needs as well.

In fact, the saying, “there’s gold in the list” is often used to refer to the many marketers who have built vast fortunes and created multi-million dollar empires by selling, not similar things to different customers, but different things to the same clientele.

You need to do several things:

First, you need to keep every customer for life. Even if an investment of $50 can get you a paying customer, it’s more desirable, evidently, to make a $10,000 profit off him/her over the years rather than a one-time $47 profit.

You should also create an efficient backend strategy for your information products which is tailored to your customers’ needs. Pick their brains without letting them know that it is simply for product-creating. As Seth Godin say’s in “Meatball Sundae” you need to focus on what your customers NEED and then go out and sell it to them!

This should actually be rather easy. People like being asked for their opinion—creating a poll or questionnaire and mailing it to your list should garner you a lot of information about what your customers want.

And while your follow-up products are being created, continue supplying questions and/or useful information to your clientele, so they don’t feel used.

Remember, don’t constantly send them sales-pitches. Once their names are added to your list, start sending them some bits of helpful information that they can access for free. Once they’ve begun to somewhat trust you, and you’ve proven that you’re working in their best interest, they’ll not mind buying from you again and again.

If you’ve gained the trust of your clientele, they’ll help you profit over the years. You merely need to discover what they want and over-deliver with the products you create for them.

If you have your own resources to participate in an international business event you should have in mind which are the things you need to succeed in this place. Have a great and competitive pop up for trade show is the main key that will produce positive benefits to your organization or business. You should not only make a good marketing plan and set all the elements that can impact your results but you should consider the challenges you are going to face in this country where you are going to make your trade show. An international business event is not a simple thing because should move from your homeland to a place where probably your products and services have a different presence compared with the place and market where you are currently located. In many ways, you could present some vulnerability that you should consider so that it doesn’t affect your revenue or impact your expenses.

On the other hand, there are new opportunities you have to explore no when you are there but before you take a fly to this place. Also you should consider if you are going to rent a pop up trade shows or are going to travel with your own equipment. There are some advantages and disadvantages that you should evaluate well. When you calculate the pros and cons of this fact, you will be prepared to move to a new city and have a wonderful trade show. An international event could also have as a seat your homeland but with international visitors.

So overall an international trade show can really boost your marketing and your brand, go for it and for sure you will be able to increase your results. Using trade shows as tool to increase your sales, not only is a great way to increase your sales, but also to build a good list of leads and your customers.

Taking the Advantage of Backend Selling

It’s odd that many companies don’t focus on building a database and taking advantage of backend sales.

There are, of course, countless examples of the value of building databases: Google, for instance, bought Youtube for $1.6 billion. It is extremely important to maintain and update your database to let your clients be aware of what special promotions you are offering and to keep them forever aware of the existence of your business. Having a good relationship with a large clientele is one of the biggest assets of any business in these consumer-oriented times.

Besides, though most companies focus on front-end sales, the backend is where the most money is to be made…..let me say that again….the backend is where the most money is made!

Your database means you can constantly market new products to your clients, allowing them to effortlessly upgrade, and expand your business further.

Backend sales are all about adding value to your clients’ purchases and persuading them that their main, front-end purchase would be much improved if supplemented by a number of backend purchases. If you market your backend good well enough, you can make a large profit even while seemingly offering the front-end product at a much cheaper price than other businesses.

For instance, let’s suppose company A purchases Toyota Camrys at $18,399 and sells them at $17,999. Company A thus loses $400 on the front-end sale. Meanwhile, other companies, which also obtain the cars at the price company A does, sell them at, say, $18,999. These companies thus technically make a profit of $600.

As people are more likely to purchase cars from company A, the others may justifiably complain that they are losing customers, and wonder whether the owners of company A were procuring cars at a lesser price.

Of course, company A, not being a charitable concern, is in fact making a profit. What company A is doing is concentrating on backend sales. Numerous extras, which would normally cost, say, $3,000 dollars are being offered with the car, for an extra price of, say, $1,400.

 In this way, company makes a profit of $1,000, instead of suffering an apparent loss of $400. In addition, they can offer special discounts on finance, say 4% instead of 6%. This enables company A to build up a loyal clientele and ensure that the customers poached from other car dealerships would not be poached back by them.

 You, too, can utilize backend sales and databases to make large profits.

Getting Started with Your Backend Strategy

As a Denver Marketing Consultant, I can help you with a back end product is what you sell your after you’ve sold your main product.

Building a business requires acquiring new customers. However, that is expensive since marketing costs have to be raised to attract new buyers. According to a research by Fortune magazine it’s easier to sell a product to an old customer than to a new one since buyers are always apprehensive in their first purchase.

An old customer trusts you and this enables him to buy other products from you. A foundation is created on whose basis you can introduce new products to the customer. This enhances their Customer Life Value and brings greater returns on your marketing investments….you DO know what the “lifetime value of your customers” is don’t you?! If not this is a very important concept, please get with someone who can help you with this, it will really open your eyes!

While determining your back end product, remember to keep it compatible with your main product. If you select an inconsistent product the customers will feel that you lack expertise and this can damage the customer’s confidence in your main product also.

If you are undecided then you can always ask your customers’ opinion regarding different products. Your customers will appreciate the gesture and your survey will bring you valuable information.

Conducting Surveys

If you possess a customer list then it is practical to conduct the survey by mail, email or phone. Prepare a simple survey questionnaire and mail it to your customers in self addressed envelopes. If you don’t have the required customer list then get your sales clerk to conduct the survey in person with each sale. However, a one-to-one survey might not be preferable to every customer. Another great idea is to grab your webcam and make a quick video email to sent to your list (you DO create and build your email database don’t you?!). In this way you can ask in a fresh personal way!

Another way of determining your backend product is to check what your competitor is selling. If you have the same target customers then their product will work for you too.

Conclusion…

To sell your backend product successfully you must believe in it yourself. If you are ambivalent about your product it will become evident to your customer soon enough as well. Therefore, a genuine love for your product is necessary to make your business successful.

Mike Saunders, The Automated Marketing Expert, is a Certified Marketing Expert and began www.MarketingHuddle.com during his MBA in Marketing.

Marketing Huddle is a marketing coaching and consulting firm specializing in helping small business owners set up automated marketing tools and systems in their business to reduce expenses and increase revenues.

Do you want a 50 pg. Video E-book on using online marketing in your business? Visit www.MarketingHuddle.com and join our ezine!

Have you ever thought of entering the marketing world and be able to achieve marketing small business effectively? If you have a business that’s on the Internet or an ordinary business offline you should know how significant it is for you to have people notice what the purpose of your business is.

In marketing small business, you need to know certain strategies which would assist you in building interest for your target market. Aside from knowing that your business exists you must develop trust from the online users that are soon to be your target market. You may try creating a website that would draw the attention of your target prospects for this will be your starting point in generating profit.

This time around you will now have an idea on how to generate revenues through this website you created. So you better create a marketing plan that would draw people into your business where in they’ll continuously patronize what you offer, either if it’s a service that you provide or if it’s merchandise.

Keep in mind that if you are marketing small business online, you’ll find large-scale businesses online that may even be one of your competitors, now what are you plans in keeping the business of your clients? That is the role that your marketing plan partakes. You have to make sure that your plan for marketing small business would be able to create goals for you together with keeping your business intact and capable of keeping your business with your clients stable.

Now, if you are not that well-versed into marketing small business yourself then you may have to seek assistance from certain marketing professionals that can do the marketing work for you. They would be able to provide you options in marketing your business, suggestions in building an excellent marketing plan for marketing small business. As well as checking if your marketing plan will keep you staying in the business for a long period of time.

To be successful in marketing small business you need to be determined enough in developing trust from your target market. Remember that, that is your purpose in achieving what you want for your business. If you are capable of utilizing a very good marketing strategy for your business then you’ll definitely enjoy gaining profit for it from time to time.

Go ahead and do some research in marketing small business and see what changes it can do for your business. Your determination will lead you to success!

Tips On Buying A New Trade Show Booth
In the market for a new trade show booth? Purchasing a new custom  display used to be easy. You would find a local custom trade show display builder, study a few designs and place the ordder. These displays were made of plywood, covered in laminate, and packed in crates.

Now there are many more options. It may even make more sense to work with an out-of-state company that operates closer to your shows. A big advantage of this approach is that if you live in a state with sales tax you won’t have to pay it. Even better is the fact that pricing on custom displays is still much lower than start from scratch plywood customs. The challenge, however, is for you to figure out how to get the most exhibit for your budget (hopefully you have one) that will be functional, aesthetically pleasing and well branded. This page is designed to provide some clues as to what is available and as to how you might start.

One of the most important starting places is to figure out a budget. What is it going to take  to get noticed next to your competition? For this reason, some sample prices are included in this article. To be clear, all of the links lead to my company’s web site for two reasons; 1) Ours includes sample pricing and 2) Promotion. I admit that it is a little self serving. Please take this into consideration. I encourage you to also look at other web sites.

Trade Show Truss Displays Are Now More Portable: $6-7,000.00
An exhibit category that didn't exist only a few years ago are Trade Show Truss systems. They are available in a variety of kits that include lights, graphic production, and shipping cases. Custom designs can be done.

Think you may be interested in a truss? Truss provides an upgraded look from the less expensive Pop up displays, which has now been around for nearly 30 years. Truss is very functional, sturdy enough to hold large plasma screens and other products and at the same time display graphics very well. The pack out is not as convenient as a Pop up or simple panel system, but the more sophisticated your booth, the more likely it is that you are going to compromise the ease of shipping. A truss booth is modular so the components you buy now can later go into a larger island exhibit.

Upside of truss: Sturdy looking, a step up from what most starter companies purchase. Functional. Good with graphics. Good choice if you need plasmas. Downside: Set up is doable by one person but might be challenging. Shipping is more expensive than a pop because most  truss displays are heavy and comparable in weight to the higher end customs.

The good news regarding truss is that a brand new, light-weight truss display was introduced at the recent Exhibitor Show in Las Vegas. It actually qualifies as a portable display in that the kits pack into standard clamshell cases as opposed to tubs too large to ship via UPS.

Pop Up Displays: Prices Have Dropped To Under $2000.00, But It Still Delivers $1200.00 to $2000.00.

Pop up displays remain very popular. They should be listed in wikipedia.com as a definition of the word “portable”. ship ship via UPS, they set up in under 30 minutes  and, especially with mural graphic panels, they still excel at communicating a message. The popularity of the portable pop up display is also a down side. There will be a lot of them at a large show, making it more challenging to stand out in a crowd. Amazon uses them for smaller regional shows like those in hotels and smaller convention venues. Nonetheless, given that you can spend $1000.00 renting one from a show, they remain an excellent value if you are testing the trade show waters or building your business.

Portable displays: $5-10,000

Portable display design stagnated for many years starting in the late 1990’s. Some displays that were being referred to as portable wasn’t really because they couldn’t ship via FedEx. That has changed. Over the last two years several new portable kits have been introduced that have moved this genre forward.

This should provide you with an overview as to the different types of Exhibits that are available. Keep in mind that the prices given are for a 10 x 10′ space.