How To Lose Business And Your Reputation In One Easy Lesson
There are times when I am simply amazed at the way people do business. It’s not just online either. It seems that having a reputation for good customer service has gone out the window. Why am I amazed? We are supposed to be in a recession. Money is tight – people are either not spending or cannot afford to spend so when an opportunity arises to make a sale, why do businesses walk away.
Let’s go back a step. I recently contacted an online business here in Scotland asking for more information on a particular product. Maybe I have lost touch with the business world, but to my way of thinking, if someone asks for information relevant to making a purchase, you have a customer wanting to spend money.
A week later, and two follow up emails, and I have still not heard a word from them. Being curious, I looked up their details and decided to give them a telephone call – you know that old fashioned device that sits on your desk and rings occasionally. Guess what? The person who could provide the information I needed was at lunch but would call me on their return. Hello – anyone out there – I am still waiting.
I know I have a cynical view on this matter. Customer service is something we pride ourselves on here at ASM Development. Online marketing relies of a good reputation and your reputation is in the first instance, one of those factors that you have some control over. Poor service, in this case, no service, lost this business a sale. Not only the sale, but any future sales as well.
What about reputation? If anyone asks me about the products I wanted to buy, my first response will be, “don’t bother with them, they never respond to your inquiries”. If you gain a reputation for poor service then no amount of reputation management will ever reverse it.
Rule number one, particularly when it comes to the internet, is to respond to each and every inquiry, even if you cannot help that person directly. I have come across businesses who not only respond to the email inquiry quickly, they actually answer the questions asked. Yes, it takes time to respond but no longer than a telephone call and if it leads to a sale, it is certainly worth your time.
Do you respond to every email inquiry? Do you actually read their questions and respond accordingly, or do you run off a generic sales spiel. By responding and answering their questions, in other words, being helpful, you will have the potential customer receptive to joining your email or newsletter list – at the end of the email, include an opt-in link. If your email has been helpful there is a good chance they will accept the invitation.
Never waste an opportunity. Not only do you lose sales, your reputation management strategies will be shot down. Let’s reverse the negative approach. Respond to appropriately to every contact and your reputation management strategies will receive a huge boost.
Recent Entries
- Why A Search Engine Googopoly Is Bad For The Internet
- Blogging For The Sake Of Blogging Is Not Blogging
- How To Create An Effective Social Marketing Tweet
- Internal Linking – Don’t Be Afraid Of The Long Tail
- Adding Your Scotland Based Local Business To AOL
- Don’t Be Too Quick To Dismiss Google Buzz
- Are Guest Posts A Bad Link Building Strategy?
- Can You Overdo SEO?
- Review Sites And SEO For Scotland Local Businesses
- What Effect Will HTML5 Have On Web Design And SEO