Bob's Home Business Blog

People purchase products and services online for a variety of reasons. For some it may be the convenience of shopping from home, for others it may be the satisfaction related with having immediate access to your purchase and for some people it may be the variety of choices right at their finger tips.

Whatever the reason as a home based business owner online you must try to satisfy these needs for your potential customers in order to be able to compete on the web. One way to compete is to try to provide all the information your visitors could possibly need in order to make an informed decision about your business and your merchandise. Bearing this in mind, here are 5 things your potential customers should know which may help sway their buying decision in your favor:

1. When it comes to competing on price, tell your website guests that your business will meet or beat the competition’s lowest offer. During these times of economic restraint and high unemployment people are more conscious of their spending limits and are more inclined to take the best or lowest offer that comes their way. By under cutting your competition on price you will make up for your lower profit margin through higher sales volumes.

2. Tell your prospective clients about you and your business. Tell them about your past experience, where you’re from originally, what your background is and why you created your home based business online. Relationship building is vital to the ongoing success of any enterprise whether it’s online or a more traditional offline venture.

Therefore, the more people know about you the more likely they’ll feel as though they know you on a personal level and the more they will trust you as a business person. People are more likely to do business with someone they feel they know and trust than from a perfect stranger.

3. Outline for people what your business and or your product or service can do for them that the competition can’t do. Having a competitive edge is very important in any market and by telling your prospects about the benefits and advantages provided by purchasing from your enterprise and by buying your products may give you the edge you need over your competitors to make the sale.

Extol the virtues of your excellent customer service, tell people about your no questions asked money back guarantee, expound on your low prices and your free and prompt delivery. You never know what may trigger a positive response, so by touching all the bases you’ll almost guarantee a sale.

4. Mention how easy your product is to use and point out how it delivers on its performance as promised. Try to provide statistics, if possible, on consumer satisfaction rates and you could also include testimonials on your website from satisfied customers. People need to know that their money is being well spent on something that’s going to satisfy their needs as advertised.

5. Provide a money back guarantee that goes above and beyond anything offered by your competitors. For example, tell your prospective clients that if they are dissatisfied for any reason with their purchase throughout the life of their product you will give them a full refund with no questions asked. Most businesses offer a 30 or 60 day guarantee but a life time promise is very rare and may help you close more sales.

The more information your online home based business prospects have about you, your business and your products, which satisfies their needs, the more inclined they will be choose your merchandise over that of your competition.

Bob Withers

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After you’ve attracted traffic to your home business website and converted at least 2% of your visitors to paying customers, your next challenge is to maintain their loyalty so you can sell to them again. Retaining your clients for the long term is usually only a matter of keeping them happy and satisfied which isn’t rocket science; however many entrepreneurs usually fail to pay attention to customer satisfaction and they pay the price, both literally and figuratively, in the end. Here are the 5 quickest ways to lose your customers to the competition:

1. Many business owners make the mistake of ignoring their new clients after they’ve made the sale. Failing to follow up with their new patrons to find out how the buying process went for them and to see if there’s anything you can do to help them can make any future purchasing decisions for your customers very easy and not the result you want to hear. The first step in the customer retention process is immediate follow up after the sale and providing excellent customer service thereafter.

2. Making false claims about what your product can do or failure of your merchandise to deliver as promised may be the biggest blunder a business person can make. This is not only irresponsible but is closely related to fraudulent activity and is no way to run any type of enterprise either offline or on the Internet.

Your reputation as an honest and reputable entrepreneur on the web should be your prime consideration and if your character is questioned for any reason it becomes very difficult to recover and this is an easy way to lose not only your customers but your livelihood as well.

3. If you’re delivering a physical good to your new client provide realistic delivery times. Don’t tell someone they will receive their product in three days if it could take three weeks. This creates a terrible impression from the outset and makes your customer wonder what other false claims you may have made which you can’t deliver. This makes any future promises you may make ring hollow for your client and may make them think twice about doing business with you in the future.

4. If you have a phone number on your website for your patrons to reach customer service you should make sure there’s someone manning the phone when they call. People want immediate assistance when they’re having a problem with their merchandise and voice mail or worse yet no answer will have an immediate impact on any future buying decision by your client.

Customer service should be a priority for any home business owner who’s interested in customer retention. You should have a knowledgeable and friendly person, whether it’s you or an employee, ready and able to help your clients with any problems they may be having and they should be available during the hours specified for service on your website.

5. Failing to demonstrate your appreciation to your customers for their business can be detrimental to maintaining their loyalty. Not only should you follow up immediately after the first sale but on a regular basis thereafter. Send an email with an offer for your clients only, with a discount included, as a way of thanking them for their loyalty.

Better yet send them a gift of a free product on their anniversary date to show them your appreciation. It’s the little things that go a long way toward making a lasting impression on your patrons.

Of course there are many other ways to lose your customer’s confidence and allegiance but if you focus on a daily basis on providing the best customer service possible at all stages of the sales process, as well as afterwards, you will go a long way toward ensuring the longevity of your home based business online.

Bob Withers

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One of the most difficult challenges facing any home based business owner online is persuading people to become paying customers. However, once this feat is accomplished, perhaps the next most difficult task is retaining your new clients as loyal and devoted patrons, hopefully, for years to come.

Your current client base is the foundation of your online enterprise and your future success may depend on maintaining these people as devoted consumers of your products or services. Bearing this in mind, here are 5 methods you can use to hold on to your future repeat sales and profits:

1. Customer service should be the focal point of your efforts to preserve your customer base. Following up immediately after the initial purchase should be a priority to find out if there’s anything you can do and to ask if their product is performing as advertised. Nothing is more deflating to someone who has just paid their hard earned money for a piece of merchandise they’ve agonized over buying because of their financial situation than to discover it doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do.

And if this isn’t bad enough, when they try to call customer service to get some kind of resolution to their problem there’s no answer and when there is a response it falls short of their expectations. As an entrepreneur on the web, if you make a promise of performance and end results be sure to back it up by doing all you can to make your clients experience a positive and rewarding one.

2. Always address your clients by their name in any correspondence you initiate and when they visit your website greet them as a group by identifying their moniker. Have you ever received an email from an Internet marketer who you’ve requested information from or who you’ve done business with and your email greeting says: “Hello first name”?

My immediate reaction is to unsubscribe from any future email from this business and then to wonder why this person after making the effort to gain my trust didn’t take the time to make sure their autoresponder was setup correctly. By addressing people by their name you’re taking one of the steps necessary toward establishing a relationship with them. And relationship building is a necessary and a vital component for maintaining your current customer list.

3. Provide a “customers only” area on your website where your clients can take advantage of free offers and discounts as a show of appreciation for their business. You can email their user name and password to them immediately after their first purchase and make them feel special and welcome by directing them to this members only area where they will be privy to any special offers and announcements before anyone else online hears the news.

4. Make it very easy for your clients to contact you and your customer service team directly from your home page. When people are considering becoming paying customers they very often investigate a business’s track record with regard to customer service response time and ease of access to a representative.

Prominently display on each page of your website how your clients can reach the help they need at any time day or night. Display your 1-800 number for customer assistance along with an email address and fax number if needed. This information helps make your clients feel more secure in the decision they’ve made to invest in your business.

5. Establish an annual or semi-annual customer appreciation day on your home business website. Be sure to advertise this special event well in advance of the date and outline any special events and giveaways you have scheduled as a way of thanking your clients for their continued support.

Always remember, “a customer in the hand is worth two in the bush”, or is that a bird in the hand? Anyway, this adage can easily be related to Internet marketing and home business ownership on the web because if you treat your current clients the way they should be treated they’ll be worth more than double their weight in gold in the future.                         

Bob Withers

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Have you ever been at a restaurant and found a customer feedback form included with your bill at the end of your meal? Many different types of customer service oriented businesses, whether their offline or on the Internet, ask for your opinion and want your feedback and for good reason. This information benefits these enterprises in many different ways and collecting your home business customer’s and potential client’s views via a customer feedback form on your website can also help you and your operation.

1. Your customers can sometimes provide information on how you can improve your sales and customer service because they’ve just been through the process. Maybe they had difficulty accessing their product after purchase or downloading was an issue for them or maybe the customer service representative they dealt with could have been a little more courteous; whatever the situation they can offer advice which may help you retain disgruntled clients who would otherwise request a refund.

2. Website design and functionality are very important when it comes to keeping people on your website long enough to check out your products and or services and become paying customers. Who better to tell you how to improve your home page than your visitors? Maybe it took them longer than they would have liked to find what they were looking for, or perhaps it took too long for your site to load in their browser, or possibly they just don’t like the appearance of your home page.

Whatever the reason for their dissatisfaction any feedback your guests can offer in this area may help increase the return traffic to your home business because of modifications or changes you made as a result of their help.

3. Perhaps some of your guests recognize areas where you could cut costs and reduce expenses. Your delivery process may be too cumbersome and time consuming or you may be able to eliminate a step in the after purchase process or possibly your top heavy with administrative staff.

These are situations we’re sometimes too close to and we can’t reognize the problem even when it’s staring us in the face. Any information your customers can provide could possibly save you money which you could dedicate to other areas of your home business such as advertising and promotion.

4. Your customers may be happy with the overall performance of your product however they may notice something you could improve upon such as the time it takes to download from your website or perhaps you could make it easier to use or you may be able to improve upon the instructions for using your merchandise. This type of information may improve your customer retention rate by helping you further develop your current product.

5. Your customers and visitors may be able to tell you what you’re competition is doing to increase their sales. Perhaps they’ve visited your competition before deciding to purchase your products and can suggest ways to persuade others to buy your merchandise before they buy from similar businesses as yours. Maybe you could offer a discount on their next purchase or give them a free subscription to your ezine or perhaps include an add-on product with your original good to persuade them to become paying customers.

Constructive criticism, customer feedback or simply suggestions; whatever you choose to call them can be a very important aspect of your home business success online if you choose to accept them for what they are and make them an integral part of your Internet marketing strategy.

Bob Withers

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Your current customers and repeat sales are the life blood of your online home based business. However, potential clients garnered through customer referrals ensure the ongoing success and future profits for your Internet enterprise. Your current client list is gold, in terms of future profits and repeat sales and should be treated as such.

How you treat your current customers will go a long way toward determining the number of future patrons you attract to your business. With this in mind, how do you get referrals from your current clients to your home business home page?

Here are five techniques for getting recommendations from your customers:

1. Customer service is the key to retaining your current customers and for gaining referrals to your home business. Always provide top notch service for your clients by following up and showing your appreciation for their business. This should begin immediately after purchase to make sure their product is performing as advertised and that they were happy with their buying experience.

You could email them a coupon for a discount on any future purchase as a thank you for becoming a patron of your enterprise. Treating your clients the way you would want to be serviced can result in referral traffic to your website through word-of-mouth advertising which can increase your sales and profits. 

2. Provide a bonus or a cash incentive to your customers for anyone they refer who becomes a paying patron of your home business. You could reward them with their choice of a free product from your website or give them a commission on your new client’s first purchase.

3. Create a contest where the customer who refers the most new clients to your business over a certain time period wins a cash prize. As an added incentive for your current clients you could award first, second and third place prizes for the most referrals during the specified month. This can be a great tactic for increasing traffic, sales and profits for your home venture.

4. Create an affiliate program with a twist. In addition to rewarding your affiliates with a commission for each sale you can also award the associate who refers the highest number of new customers to your business each month with a cash bonus. This will provide an added incentive for your affiliates to find new customers for your home business.

5. Develop a customer referral program whereby each current client receives a commission for each person they refer who becomes a paying customer. This could result in a tremendous amount of new business for your enterprise along with the ensuing increased sales and profits.

Rewarding your current client base for their new customer referrals can help ensure the ongoing success of your home based online business for many years to come.        

Bob Withers

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After all the hard work you’ve put into creating your home business website, advertising your products online and offline, driving traffic to your home page and finally attracting paying customers, the one thing you don’t want is your new clients to forget about you and your business. When you’ve created a customer email list you need to treat it as though your career online depends on it because, in reality, it does.

The future success of your home based enterprise depends on repeat sales to your current patrons and with this always in mind you must nurture your current customer list as though it’s your potential customer list. You must treat it as though they’ve never purchased your products by not letting them forget you or your home business.

Having said this you don’t want to go overboard and annoy them by emailing too often or by sending them too many advertisements. There is a happy medium and my rule of thumb is an email reminder every second day or at least three times per week so you’re not forgotten is sufficient.

So how do you keep your customer’s attention and remind them that you’re still there and ready to meet their online needs without becoming a nuisance? Here are four strategies I use to stay in front of my current clients without becoming annoying:

1. Have a regular give away for your customers on your home business website to show your appreciation. Every three months or so email your client list to remind them to go to your home page and pick out their complimentary gift. Of course your freebie must be related to your website theme and be something which will provide value to your patrons. On your gift page place an advertisement for a new product you’re promoting which may be of interest to your client. This is a great technique to use to get repeat sales.

2. When you complete a sale ask your new customer to sign up to receive reminder email messages every time you update or make changes to your home page. This way each time you add new content or change your background or theme you can send a mass email to your patrons asking them to check it out. The link in your email should send them to newly created content which offers value for them but also contains ads with links to your new product offerings.

3. Every six months, or on a yearly basis, have a customer appreciation week. Create a separate page on your website for your customers only and email them a thank you message in appreciation of their patronage with a username and password included for them to access this special area.

This back room could consist of a free download area for your clients only. You could also conduct a contest with the winner being announced at the end of customer appreciation week. Of course this special page would also contain banner ads and promotions for your merchandise which may peak your patrons interest when they visit.

4. Have regular sales and discount promotions for your current customers only. Email your client list with a special 15%-20% discount off each item on your current product list with a deadline for taking advantage of this special promotion included. Be sure to emphasize the limited time offer aspect of your promotion to instill a sense of urgency in your patrons which will encourage them to take immediate action.

Remember not to go overboard with your email reminders with three per week being sufficient. Your current home business customers are gold, in terms of repeat sales and the ongoing success of your online enterprise, and they should be treated as such.  

Bob Withers

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Your current home business customers are gold both in terms of their future buying power and because of their ability to refer potential clients to your enterprise. Because of their significance, monetarily speaking, they should be treated as though the future of your business depends on them because, in reality, it does. How you treat your current clientele will be reflected in your future sales and profits as well as the length of your customer list; so in this case size really does matter.

Follow-up is a key component to any successful customer retention campaign. Just because someone has purchased your product or service this doesn’t mean that the customer service aspect of the sales process is complete; on the contrary your client relations strategy should now be kicking into over drive. Once you’ve attracted someone and sold them on your home business you now need to turn them into loyal and life long patrons.

This process should begin with a simple follow-up, after the initial purchase, thank you letter. By sending each new client a sincere thank you for becoming a part of your business and by emphasizing how vital they are to your overall success they will feel appreciated which will go a long way toward creating a long term patron for your enterprise.

In this letter you could add a customer feedback form asking questions related to their overall buying experience. You could ask for suggestions for improving the process and ask about their experience with their new purchase relating to performance and whether it’s doing everything you claimed it would. This advice could be used to improve the situation for future patrons.

In this follow-up you could include another offer with an emphasis on it being for a limited time only. This creates a sense of urgency for your clients which may entice them to purchase again. This is a great technique for promoting add-ons to their original product which can improve upon their new merchandise.

In your letter offer some assurance that they made the correct decision by doing business with your home based enterprise. Emphasize the quality you offer and provide some statistics as to the performance of the product they purchased as well as written testimonials from current satisfied customers. This helps instill a feeling of satisfaction in your new client that they made the right buying decision and helps to dispel any buyer’s remorse which may be present.

Include in your correspondence a discount of 15% or 20% toward their next purchase as a show of appreciation for their business. This helps create loyalty and encourages them to buy again from your business.

You could also encourage your new clients to refer their friends and family members to your online home based business and as an enticement you could offer a free gift for each referral who actually becomes a paying customer.

So as you can see the follow-up serves a three fold purpose. It establishes customer loyalty through customer service and satisfaction as well as encourages your new clients to purchase again while bringing new potential customers to your home based business.      

Bob Withers

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Customer service, or knowing what your customers need and want and providing it in a timely fashion, is the life blood of any online home business. Following up with your current clients and keeping in touch with former customers is a necessary strategy for continued and ongoing success on the web.

A great way to tap into the knowledge base of your clientele is to gather feedback from them on a regular basis. This way you’ll know what they’re thinking, how their needs and wants are changing and what it will take to keep them happy and satisfied paying customers.

There are several techniques for collecting this information including these 5 tactics you can use at regular intervals throughout the year.

1. Place a customer feedback form directly on your home business website. Devise a list of 5 – 10 short answer questions related to your products and service. You can include a rating system of 1 – 10 with 1 being least satisfied and 10 being happiest with your customer service. At the end of the questionnaire you could leave a space for comments and suggestions of how to improve your website, your products and your service.

2. Invite 10 or 12 of your best customers to participate in a regularly scheduled focus group at different times during the year. During these meetings initiate conversations on different topics related to your home business such as customer service, product delivery and availability, what they would like to see changed or improved upon and any other ideas they may have to present to the group.

You could reward them for their participation by offering a 50% discount on their next purchase or by offering them a buy one get one free coupon or you can pay them out right for their contribution.

3. Creating an online community on your website is also a great way to garner customer opinion. You could login and initiate a discussion about different aspects of your home business among your members or post a questionnaire in the forum and request they fill it out in order to receive a free gift for participating.

4. Email a customer service survey to your list of current customers and former clients to get their opinions and ideas for new products or services. You could construct separate questionnaires for each group to help you ascertain why you’re former patrons are no longer paying customers and to find out what it would take to bring them back. You could ask your current clients what it will take to keep them with your home business for the long term

5. Have an annual dinner or customer appreciation party for your patrons. Have contests, prizes and giveaways and mingle with your clients to casually collect feedback about your enterprise and your service. Strategically locate a suggestion box near the main entrance and offer a prize for the best submission to be awarded at the end of the event.

Follow-up, feedback and appreciation are the three commandments for achieving and delivering optimal service for your clients and for ensuring a stable customer base and long term success for your online home based business.        

Bob Withers

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For any business, whether it’s a small home based operation online or a private corporation offline, customer service should be a top priority. There are several advantages to the enterprise for providing excellent service with customer retention being high on the list. Retention is the lifeline for any business and by paying attention to your clients needs you should be able to keep your current customers while you try to attract new clients.

By retaining your current clientele you’ll have the opportunity to make other offers and perhaps up sell them to more expensive products. Happy customers tend to tell family and friends about their experiences and this word of mouth advertising goes a long way toward attracting new clients to your home business.

Seven techniques you can employ to help improve customer satisfaction and therefore advance client retention are:

1. Always follow up with your clients on a regular basis. From the very beginning after their first purchase right up to the current date maintain contact and inquire as to whether or not there’s anything you can do for them and ask how your product is working for them. Send your customers greeting cards on special occasions and from time to time deliver a free gift or a token of your appreciation for having them as a client.

2. Establish a customer service 1-800 hotline number for immediate attention to any questions or concerns they may have. Always be polite and courteous and treat your clients with the respect they deserve.

3. Create a customer survey for your home business website and encourage your clients to provide feedback and suggestions on how your enterprise can better serve them. Also ask for input relating to new products or services you may be able to provide them.

4. Resolve your customer’s problems and concerns as quickly as possible and always follow up with them after their issue has been resolved to ask if they were satisfied with the attention you provided. If the situation warrants offer a discount or a gift certificate for their inconvenience and always apologize for their trouble.

5. Institute an annual customer appreciation day. You can show your gratitude by providing product discounts on your website, or by emailing gift certificates for a free meal at a local restaurant, or you could send them free tickets to a local sporting event or show. Satisfied clients tend to remain loyal customers and they usually provide more business for your enterprise.

6. Launch a monthly contest on your home business website for your clients and have a drawing for first, second and third place prizes which can be free products from your website or an affiliate’s merchandise. You can also post the winners pictures on your home page as show of your appreciation for them having participated in your competition.

7. Establish an open forum on your site for your clients to socialize and to help them form relationships. Contribute to the chat yourself, as the owner, which will help you build trusting affiliations with your customers.

A strong commitment to customer satisfaction will help guarantee a strong client base for your online home based business for many years to come.    

Bob Withers

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