I would like to express my gratitude to my friend and colleague, Steve Hodgkiss, for his relentless efforts towards bringing MarketHive to fruition.
Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member
Daily Archives: November 7, 2015
Five Ways to Wow Your Clients Every Time
When it comes to dealing with customers, keep these things in mind for repeat business: stay in touch, ask questions, choose "can do" terminology, deliver the goods, and follow up. We share the details of the how and why below.
Freelancers, whether they're working as virtual assistants, writers, or transcribers for local law offices, are under constant pressure to please clients each and every time.
You know all too well how hungry the competition is. It’s one of the reasons you always try to go above and beyond with each client. The good news is that there are five ways you can wow your clients every time so they’ll never need to consider anyone but you.
Stay in Touch
You’d be surprised by just how much this means to clients. Not to mention how few competitors take this advice to heart. It’s easy to lose touch over the duration of long projects. A simple email note about the status of the project goes a long way towards helping your clients feel appreciated and preventing them from worrying about whether you’ll be able to deliver on time.
Ask Questions
More importantly, listen to the answers and use them in your work. Clients love it when you give them exactly what they want. Sometimes, that requires asking questions, refining, and narrowing.
Choose “Can Do” Terminology
When working with clients, there are many times when it’s not what you say that makes the difference, but how you say it. Learning to communicate effectively is a must when dealing with clients. However, learning to effectively communicate positively adds that extra little wow factor that keeps clients coming back for more. For instance, instead of telling your client that you can’t have a project finished until after 3 p.m. on Friday, try telling your clients that "I can have that project finished by 3 p.m. on Friday. Does that work for you?” That subtle change has a significant impact on the way clients view you. When you use words like can’t, they view you as someone who can’t get things done. When you change them to can, they see you as someone with a can-do attitude who will make things happen.
Deliver the Goods
In many cases, this is all it takes. However, you don’t want to merely deliver what the client asked for. You want to exceed your client’s expectations and you want to make sure that the client leaves the transaction believing he got more than his money’s worth.
Follow Up
The fortune is in the follow-up. You’ll hear this in almost any business you enter into. It’s not the one-time sell that becomes your bread and butter. It’s the people who keep coming back, month after month, to make use of the services you provide or the goods you sell. Follow up.
Make sure they’re happy with the product, service, etc. and double-check to ensure nothing is wrong, missing, or lost in translation. Then, ask if they need other products or services you offer and invite them to call on you again. This gives them the perfect opportunity to hire you again.
You don’t have to move mountains, make hard sells, or walk on burning coals to make customers happy. These five steps are relatively simple and yet they deliver happy customers time and time again. Try them out and see what a difference they make for your business.
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Stephen Hodgkiss
Chief Engineer at MarketHive
markethive.com
Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member
Check On Your Direction Before Going Into Business!
Before Going Into Business!
Listed below are some reasons why your business is important.
Anyway about the business you are in – the very first question that you must ask yourself before anything else. You got to demand yourself to an answer to this.
Why the heck on earth would anybody pay for what you're selling?
1. Why should there be anyone would do business with you? This could be the very first question that you must ask yourself before anything else. You got to demand yourself to an answer to this. Why the heck on earth would anybody pay for this "Junk" you're selling? Yup, "Junk", as I phrased it.
It doesn't matter how good your product is to be, to the eye of others, it's just another piece of product in a sea pool of other similar products. So, still be very proud of your product or service? Truly you're 100% proud of it? You truthfully and deeply believe people would be dumb by NOT buying from you?
Well…you passed the first barrier! You're ready to start go to next stage.
2. The basic business needs 3 things: Lawyer, a Professional CPA, and Creative or crazy fellow, which could very well be you.
Almost every business gets themselves for the first two. It's understandably so. Good creative people are really hard to find, hard to manage, and you'll never sure of what you're paying for. Every established and sizeable business knows the creative side plays a heavier weight than the lawyer and CPA. CPA's and lawyers can help you when you are up there.
But at the early stage when your business is still an infant, your business live or die depending on the business branding activities in areas like business identities, logos, marketing campaign, advertising copy and business slogans. Now, are you NUTS enough? Have people been calling you NUTS?
If so, you are ready for the next stage! Do give yourself a "Cheers"!
3. Singing for Your Own Business? You Got To Promote Yourself In Every Possible Way. Do all of them.
Yes, do whatever possible to get your business name to be up there! Get your Business Brand being noticed by others. There more the merrier! Businesses can just come and go so fast before anybody could hear of them. People are busy, what do they care? They don't care about you and your business.
Why should they care? Get serious. Do everything you can possibly and reasonably afford to do. But beware; you must not mislead others because it'll backfire quickly enough to wipe your business off. Do you "Sing for your own self"?
Then you've passed! Move on to next stage…
4. Big Decision: Could You Win The Competition. It's very likely that you're entering a crowded business market when you first started. Take a hard and closer look at what other fellows are doing; what your competitors are doing right now could affect your business greatly. At this stage, you got to decide: Are you going for "Head to Head" fight?
Competing on better quality? Crazier pricing strategy? Extra Mile Service Level? Better Marketing Campaign? or what else? Or you would avoid all that, and create your own niche, where you are the leader?
If you decided to be offering the same or very much similar product at the same price, but your marketing materials doesn't look half as good as your competitors hey, you're in deep trouble! If you're charging half compare to others, then it's still alright to "Look" cheap, simply because you are the "Cheaper" alternative where people are looking for. Do Love Your Business, just like you love yourself.
Article by:
Brian Walters SEO
SKYPE: tuneup_bj
Markethive Education Specialist
http://brian-walters-online.com/
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Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member