This article suggests some good practices when interacting with customers on social media. This is an important topic that I have posted on several times. I especially want to emphasize that you need to keep your cool. The full article can be found at http://www.business2community.com/social-media/customer-care-7-ways-provide-stellar-customer-service-social-media-01880821#x6laoMkSFku6lh5U.99...
Here is a useful article describing how to offer e-commerce capability and fulfillment with service that matches or exceeds the big boys while maintaining your company’s uniqueness. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/295945 Offer flawless service, and your customers will keep coming back. Lately, e-commerce order and fulfillment seems dominated by Goliaths. In...
Following up on a post from last week on ways to control the use of employees’ own devices when used for work, here is a useful article on protecting customer data. This is very important topic and most small businesses don’t know what to do,...
In last week’s post, I talked about needing to provide a different experience for different types of customers. Then I provided the first of five approaches to getting the right kind of customer facing staff to be able to do it. I now continue with...
As we have discussed before, different types of customers want a different experience. Younger customers may prefer speed and efficiency and to be able to do everything at the touch of a button. Older customers often want a more personal interaction. Customers from different cultures...
We have been talking a lot about using social media to engage customers and prospective customers. We have also talked about how social media is best for building relationships over direct selling. In this vein, using social media requires you to be part of a...
Before social media, a disgruntled customer might tell a few people about their bad experience. Now, they can tell millions. So it is important to respond immediately and appropriately. We have been talking a lot about improving the customer experience and how different customers want...
Last time I described how the “Community Manager” is the key company representative to solve customer’s issues in the online community. In this post, I describe how the “Community Manager” is the Chief Market Listener. That is, they listen online to get the real, un-filtered...
Most small businesses understand that social media is the great equalizer. It allows you to engage with and cultivate customers online as effectively as any large company. Social media is all about relationship building over direct selling. It demonstrates to customers that they are understood...
Here is a useful article on strategies to retain customers. As you know, it is far easier to retain a customer than to win a new one. This all builds on the series of posts I have been doing on improving the customer experience. http://www.smallbiztechnology.com/archive/2017/04/how-to-become-a-customer-retention-guru.html/#.WQh1ERPyt1s...
