Vovex Technology
New member
Making Business come to You
Avoiding the downfalls of a failing business, is typically a managers first thought each day. We spend each morning planning out how our valuable time is to be spent working on projects and followup calls to help expand our business. Many years are spent working 10-15 hour days to bring home about 5 hrs of works pay, just for the hope that one day you will have built up a strong enough empire to live and provide for your family.
But there are times when we find ourselves sitting in the office desk late in the evenning checking our billing & support software to see if any potential customers have been interested in our company. We've all done it. Simply throwing valuable time down the drain to stare at our screen hoping someone will show some sort of interest.
It's time people stop and realize that every time they hault to check their empty mailbox or ticket system they are throwing 7+ hours a week down the drain. That's a lot of wasted time eating your potential profit. Think of what you could do with that 7 hours had it been given back to you to redo. What would you do different? There are several things that I have though of and pursued that would help push your business forward. Don't wase your time, use it to build your business.
Suggested Time Spending Activities
1) Work on creating rich FAQ / Support content for your web site. Doing so will show your potential buyers that you have thought of about everything possible that a client might think of, and provided quality answers for it. This may help persaude some new buyers, while providing some valuable information about your company that may seperate you from the competition.
2) Spend some time cleaning up your site. I see tons of sites that you can obviously tell used a professional template, but just didnt put any time or thought into the delivery or display of content. Many people lack using the advantages of CSS for the site. Make sure your colors / alignment / font are consistent throughout the site. Spending time on making your site presentable is better than openning your business 2 days earlier with an eye-sore of a site.
3) Go to the store and buy a 100pack of blank thank you notes ($4.99-$9.99). Write all your clients and personally thank them for chosing your business and that you wish to build a personal relationship with them.
Example
" Dear Clients Name,
Thank you for choosing Your Business Name as your web hosting provider. Without you, we would not be where we stand today. Please take this time to fill out our hosting survey to let us know how we can improve our business for you. By completeing the survey you will receive a complimentary 15% discount off your next months bill and be enrolled in our Fall sweepstakes for a chance to win a new 12X DVD-RW with 10 DVD-R cds.
Kind regards,
Blah"
Doing so, will make your clients believers in your company. They won't feel like a dollar $ign but an actual friend of the company. You never know when they might refer a hefty account to you.
4) Create indepth surveys and reward your customers for spending their time filling out the form. You can use incentives such as discounts on services & products or sweepstake giveaways. Look at the example used above. I used a combination of rewards. Im only loosing about $200 by offering something like that, but $200 is nothing when I receive 500 survey responses which I can use in my next marketing campaign or working on improving my services to keep and gain more customers.
5) Run some backups of your server. It can never hurt to hit a few buttons in your control panel or type a few command lines to make sure that your client data is safely backed up. Even if you state you are not responsible for lost/damaged data in your TOS it can be a good idea. In the event your server does crash and you can provide your clients with backups within a matter of 1 hour downtime, your clients will think they are getting a lot better service than they are paying for. They may even recommend some of their friends to try your service because they were so impressed.
6) Move your http://support.yourcomany.com to a different server. A simple 100mb/5gb account on another server is great for when you might experience downtime. That way your customers can still communicate with you and find out what the predicted uptime will be. We all hate trying to visit a companies site when they are down and having no idea what is going on. Don't put your customers in that situation.
7) Create some business cards or stationary that you can hand out to local prospects. Most large accounts will come from local business. Many businesses feel more secure purchasing from a local provider because they know they can get ahold of you and talk in person if needed. Having these business cards and some professional documents on your stationary will give you that extra look which might help land that account.
8) Spend $30-40 and go get a few t-shirts printed. There is a local shirt shop by my house which will print your logo onto a regular t-shirt for $10 and on polo shirts for $15. Wear that new shirt out and about to promote your business. The more people see your logo and become familiar with your web site address, the more people will remember to turn to it when they are in need of the products you supply. Branding your product is key.
These 8 suggestions all take approximately 5-7 hours to complete properly. So next time you find yourself sitting at a blank screen waiting for business to come to you, remember... you need to give them a reason to come. Customer relationships are key to being sucessful. And remember that image is everything in the world of business. You either look good, or you look bad. By competing these extra 8 steps you can give your company a superior look and provide your customers with the attention and personal level relationship that they deserve.
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Article by : Jonathan Cobbett
Date : 7-20-04
Avoiding the downfalls of a failing business, is typically a managers first thought each day. We spend each morning planning out how our valuable time is to be spent working on projects and followup calls to help expand our business. Many years are spent working 10-15 hour days to bring home about 5 hrs of works pay, just for the hope that one day you will have built up a strong enough empire to live and provide for your family.
But there are times when we find ourselves sitting in the office desk late in the evenning checking our billing & support software to see if any potential customers have been interested in our company. We've all done it. Simply throwing valuable time down the drain to stare at our screen hoping someone will show some sort of interest.
It's time people stop and realize that every time they hault to check their empty mailbox or ticket system they are throwing 7+ hours a week down the drain. That's a lot of wasted time eating your potential profit. Think of what you could do with that 7 hours had it been given back to you to redo. What would you do different? There are several things that I have though of and pursued that would help push your business forward. Don't wase your time, use it to build your business.
Suggested Time Spending Activities
1) Work on creating rich FAQ / Support content for your web site. Doing so will show your potential buyers that you have thought of about everything possible that a client might think of, and provided quality answers for it. This may help persaude some new buyers, while providing some valuable information about your company that may seperate you from the competition.
2) Spend some time cleaning up your site. I see tons of sites that you can obviously tell used a professional template, but just didnt put any time or thought into the delivery or display of content. Many people lack using the advantages of CSS for the site. Make sure your colors / alignment / font are consistent throughout the site. Spending time on making your site presentable is better than openning your business 2 days earlier with an eye-sore of a site.
3) Go to the store and buy a 100pack of blank thank you notes ($4.99-$9.99). Write all your clients and personally thank them for chosing your business and that you wish to build a personal relationship with them.
Example
" Dear Clients Name,
Thank you for choosing Your Business Name as your web hosting provider. Without you, we would not be where we stand today. Please take this time to fill out our hosting survey to let us know how we can improve our business for you. By completeing the survey you will receive a complimentary 15% discount off your next months bill and be enrolled in our Fall sweepstakes for a chance to win a new 12X DVD-RW with 10 DVD-R cds.
Kind regards,
Blah"
Doing so, will make your clients believers in your company. They won't feel like a dollar $ign but an actual friend of the company. You never know when they might refer a hefty account to you.
4) Create indepth surveys and reward your customers for spending their time filling out the form. You can use incentives such as discounts on services & products or sweepstake giveaways. Look at the example used above. I used a combination of rewards. Im only loosing about $200 by offering something like that, but $200 is nothing when I receive 500 survey responses which I can use in my next marketing campaign or working on improving my services to keep and gain more customers.
5) Run some backups of your server. It can never hurt to hit a few buttons in your control panel or type a few command lines to make sure that your client data is safely backed up. Even if you state you are not responsible for lost/damaged data in your TOS it can be a good idea. In the event your server does crash and you can provide your clients with backups within a matter of 1 hour downtime, your clients will think they are getting a lot better service than they are paying for. They may even recommend some of their friends to try your service because they were so impressed.
6) Move your http://support.yourcomany.com to a different server. A simple 100mb/5gb account on another server is great for when you might experience downtime. That way your customers can still communicate with you and find out what the predicted uptime will be. We all hate trying to visit a companies site when they are down and having no idea what is going on. Don't put your customers in that situation.
7) Create some business cards or stationary that you can hand out to local prospects. Most large accounts will come from local business. Many businesses feel more secure purchasing from a local provider because they know they can get ahold of you and talk in person if needed. Having these business cards and some professional documents on your stationary will give you that extra look which might help land that account.
8) Spend $30-40 and go get a few t-shirts printed. There is a local shirt shop by my house which will print your logo onto a regular t-shirt for $10 and on polo shirts for $15. Wear that new shirt out and about to promote your business. The more people see your logo and become familiar with your web site address, the more people will remember to turn to it when they are in need of the products you supply. Branding your product is key.
These 8 suggestions all take approximately 5-7 hours to complete properly. So next time you find yourself sitting at a blank screen waiting for business to come to you, remember... you need to give them a reason to come. Customer relationships are key to being sucessful. And remember that image is everything in the world of business. You either look good, or you look bad. By competing these extra 8 steps you can give your company a superior look and provide your customers with the attention and personal level relationship that they deserve.
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Article by : Jonathan Cobbett
Date : 7-20-04
