It’s all about WEBSITES! Connect with your Customers NOW…

From Linda Wind: From time to time I will be featuring guest bloggers on my site, particularly if I feel that they have pertinent information that could make your life easier and less complicated. Or more positive and less nervous about the state of the economy. Or how about just more profitable? I think we all can live with that one! Enjoy this tidbit of information from our guest blogger of the week, Victoria Wind, Managing Partner, BlackBox Technologies and please let us know your comments on her most recent article at BlackBox found below:

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During this tumultuous time in our nation’s history politically, economically, and culturally, small business leaders are feeling the brunt of the storm from all sides. Revenues are eroding as consumers and businesses slow their spending; margins are squeezed as cost of inputs rise; the Feds are paying little or no attention to the heart and spirit of this economy – the little guys. A recovery in the business climate, folks, is going to take a while. No better time to get close to your customers and lock ‘em in tight. It’s a buyers’ market, and those buyers will be expecting top notch customer service for the precious dollars they are spending on your offerings. Customer service means many things to many people, and your approach to it is highly dependent on the type of business you’re running. But one common trait of all good customer service is “connection” – your customers must feel connected to your business at some level to make the choice to return to you for their next transaction. You could also define it as “relationship,” but I’d like to stay more shallow than that here. How do you deepen those connections that lead to valuable relationships?

Of course, the manner in which you conduct face-to-face or voice-to-voice interaction with your client is the foundation of any connection with your customer base. Undisputed. Traditional advertising media (newspaper, TV, mags, radio) are strategic connection points as well but do not actively serve your customers. Plus these media cost big bucks, and in this environment, we all don’t have a lot of coin to throw around on casting wide nets. So, what ARE some inexpensive, but high return, connection points that you can establish for your business right away?

The best place to start is your website. If you don’t have one, you’ve just missed a key opportunity (or a hundred). Customers these days expect you to be on the web in some shape or fashion, even if the content is no more than what’s on your business card. But they can be so much more effective in establishing deeper connection points with your customer. The end game here is building a loyal customer base cheaply and, heck, having fun doing it.

DESIGN FOR IMPACT: Using a web presence to convey a similar feeling to what your customers receive in dealing with you in person or in your store will enhance the experience factor of doing business with you. So use logos, colors, effects, and overall tone that jive with your company’s attitude and culture.

SPEAK OUT: Add a blog. Not just for your personal website anymore! Your customers care about your point of view and want to see the depth of your expertise. Show them what you know and what you think. Allow them to comment and respond back to your thoughts with their own perspectives. Not only are you connecting with your customer, but also you are gaining valuable feedback info from your base.

CIRCLE UP: Start a discussion board on your website. An alternative or supplement to a blog, this tool allows you to circle up your customers and spark dialog among them. A board is a great way to bond your customers together and, if the discussion is compelling enough, gain additional followers who could turn into customers. Another advantage to discussion boards is that you have an instant focus group with which to test new ideas and concepts.

MAKE THE SALE: Put your products and offerings on sale on your website. Customers are not afraid to buy online, and research shows that they would buy more and more often if their favorite stores and service providers enabled a shopping cart on their websites. Additionally, e-commerce allows you to reach out geographically to customers you never thought you had. Implementing this function on your site is so easy… don’t be intimidated.

Fundamentally, you should consider your website to be an additional sales channel and source of competitive advantage for your business, not simply a static information source (YAWN!). Obviously, this list is not exhaustive, but these are little things that you can do to differentiate your business and keep your customers connected to you and, more importantly, coming back for more. I didn’t address social media in this brief, but you’ll be seeing more about how to integrate those fantastic tools as customer connection points on this blog. Stay tuned for more!

Victoria Wind

Managing Partner, BlackBox Technologies, LLC

February 23, 2009

Friday the 13th, a Flat Tire, James & Making a Difference

It was just your everyday hurry-up-and-rush-so-I-can-make-it-to-the-airport-on-time morning for me. No matter that it was Friday the 13th…that thought hadn’t even entered my consciousness (yet) at that point. I hurried down the 30 stories of my girlfriend’s condo (in an elevator, of course!), suitcases in tow, a heavy box of my upcoming leadership conference flyers atop one of them, and believe it or not, I was actually ahead of schedule! Sure to be an on-time arrival at the airport for me today! I was elated!

I got in my rental car after throwing my luggage in the trunk, said goodbye to my girlfriend and started my car. I pulled out of the covered parking space and noticed something strange with the steering, but kept going because I had to make it to the airport on time…it was the last available flight (at noon before Valentine’s Day weekend, and I had already tried several times to get a later one but to no avail.) So I pulled out of the garage, took a right toward the stop sign, and I immediately sensed I was in trouble – the horrible “get sick in the pit of your stomach” routine, the KNOWING, that YES, YOU have a FLAT TIRE! It was unfortunately validated by this young 30-something year old man in blue jeans and a sweatshirt who just happened to be walking by, and who was waving me over and saying “Lady, you have a flat tire.”

Panic immediately took control over my smug state of calmness – I had been so positively anticipating my “on time arrival” to the airport, and now my hopes were dashed. What would I do? AAA would certainly take too long, and I most assuredly was not skilled in the art of tire changing (though perhaps a good topic for my next Possible Woman Leadership Conference for sure!) So I got out of the car, told this young man that I was on my way to the airport for my 12:30 flight, and he said, “don’t worry, I will change the tire for you. I have a car just like this and it will only take a minute.” So he took control (good thing because I wouldn’t have known what to do,) took the spare out of the trunk and proceeded to jack the car up and replace the old tire with the spare. While talking with him I learned that he was on the way to make his mortgage payment, had several mini-car wash stations in the area, and that his name was James. He had left his business cards in his car at the car wash.

By this time my girlfriend pulled up in her car and joined our conversation. She said she would bring her car to get washed at his car wash, which she did later in the day. James was great! He literally saved the day for me, or at least guaranteed my last chance at an airplane ride back home that same day…and I am eternally grateful to him for helping me out of the kindness of his heart. So James, if you are reading this, thank you for helping me actually make my “on-time arrival” with American Airlines today. You have truly made a difference in MY life. And when I find out his last name I will post it on a future blog so all of you reading this can take your cars to his car wash too! Thanks, James, from the bottom of my heart! And a Happy Valentines Weekend to all of you!