It’s Facebook Friday!  For those of you that follow such things, Facebook just started trading on the NASDAQ exchange today.  To mark the occasion, I am sharing Zuckerberg: The Musical.

As a side note: I’ve actually performed in most of the musicals featured in the video.

Zuckerberg: The Musical

Click here to view the embedded video.

Let me throw some #TRUTH your way: you cannot possibly do everything you need to do in your business by yourself.

Did you hear me?  Let me say it again: you cannot possibly do everything you need to do in your business by yourself!

Did you catch it that time?  I hope so!

Sorry, I know I’m on the verge of a rant here but these past few weeks, I’ve been speaking with a few online business owners who are frustrated because they can’t do it all.  The sheer amount of tasks that you have to stay on top of as an online business owner, and frankly even an offline business owner, is staggering.  Everything from web design and programming to list building and viral marketing to billing and bookkeeping to connecting via social media and… well the list goes on and on.  Add to that the thing that you actually offer as a product or service in your business and you’ll quickly realize that you can’t possible do everything that needs to be done to effectively run your business and still keep your sanity.

But online business owner after online business owner thinks they should.  And they try to… and things fall through the cracks.

A Proven Success Strategy

Let me let you in on a little secret: focus on your strongest skills and talents and outsource the rest to those whose skills and abilities are strongest in those areas.

For example, I am not a big fan of bookkeeping.  Don’t get me wrong, I really like math and I really like having an accurate view of my income and expenses but I just never seem to want to put in the time that’s needed in order to keep my books up to date.  There are so many things I would rather be doing like building a new WordPress site for a client or putting together an ezine or creating a video campaign or… well you get the picture.  A lot of things take priority over bookkeeping.

Understanding our strengths and knowing our weaknesses is the key to business success.  Once you’ve identified the areas in which you need help, outsourcing will really enable you to focus on your strengths and ensure that your customers and prospective clients experience the BEST you!

Again: you’re not supposed to do it all. Focus on your best and outsource the rest.

Got it? Good!

Outsourcing Resources

Most of my clients look to me for their outsourcing needs.  I either do the work myself or manage a team of my own to assist with the project.  In all cases, the point of contact for my client is me.  Then I manage the project for them.

Some of my clients also use Elance.com.  It’s super easy to use and has an extremely intuitive interface.  Getting started is easy: you can sign up for a free account and then click the button that says “Post Your Job.”  Service providers registered with Elance then see your project and submit a bid.  You can award the bid to the service provider of your choice and there’s a handy feedback system that allows other clients to rate the different vendors so you can make an informed choice about which vendor to choose.

Rent-A-Coder and Scriptlance are two other similar services or you can hire a Virtual Assistant, Online Business Manager or even a specialist like a Social Media Manager.

Hire iDeborah

Of course, I’d be tickled pink if you wanted to work with me.  I specialize in helping online business owners get online and integrate the various tools and technologies they need to compete in the new media marketplace.  I work with some of the biggest stars in their niches as well as the little twinkles… stars that are just about to shine and share their brilliance with the world.  I invite you to explore my services and I would be happy to give you a call to discuss how I can best suit your needs.

Remember, outsourcing frees up your time so that you can spend more time doing the things you are best at and enjoy doing.  While outsourcing may seem like an added expense, the ability to focus on your core strengths and doing the work you love to do will pay off in the long run.

Get in touch today!

It’s Tuesday… that means it must be product launch day somewhere (have you ever noticed how many products launch on a Tuesday???).  You’re probably already aware of the importance of a successful product launch but you may not have a smooth system for ensuring that you hit the ground running on launch day.

Since many readers found my Broadcast Checklist helpful, I thought I’d share my Product Launch Checklist.  Let me know if you have any questions.

Product Launch Checklist

In a crowded marketplace, an error free product launch is becoming increasingly important.  The launch of a new product can set the tone of how that product will be received as well as impact the perception your new and potential customers have of your business.  That’s why it’s important to hit the ground running on launch day so that you can capture the momentum generated by your pre-launch marketing efforts and keep the buzz going!  Not to mention… generate sales!

Ideally you should have a pre-launch marketing plan that is active and running at least two weeks before Launch Date.  We won’t go into pre-launch marketing in this post but will focus specifically on the things you need to do to ensure that everything works from a technical perspective.

So let’s get started.

Pre-Launch Checklist

Build Your Site / Salespage: The sooner the sales site is built, the better as far as I’m concerned as this is the most critical piece of an online launch.  In fact, you should have some form of your sales site running during your marketing campaign. You’ll need to build your website or salespage and include all the necessary graphics and content.  If you plan to build most of sales site two to three weeks in advance of the launch date, you will be able to focus your attention on other aspects of your launch campaign.

Orders / Payment Processing: Get your products set up and payment processing tested.  If you use a system like 1ShoppingCart or Infusionsoft for your payment processing and have used them before, you should still test the complete order process to ensure that the correct autoresponders are sent out and that there are no surprises come launch date (for example: you forgot to create the download page).  If you have a Customer Service rep, ask that they go through the order process as well so that they are familiar with the process and can answer any questions that may arise from customers on launch date.  (Be sure to set up a coupon code to allow them to place their order without having to charge their credit card or provide them with your own credit card information to process the order).

Install Analytics: Google Analytics works great! Infusionsoft also has some tracking built into their system. There’s even a great WordPress plugin that makes Google Analytics installation a breeze!  You probably won’t get to see the tracking stats until the next day but at least you’ll have some info to make tweaks and adjustments as necessary.  Plus, when you want to analyze how well your launch went, you’ll have detailed data handy.

Cross-Browser Compatibility: Make sure you view your sales site and any videos or digital products in different browsers and across different systems.  In fact, you should test the entire sales process across different browsers and systems.  That means Firefox, IE and Safari on a PC and a Mac.  Last thing you want is to be receiving emails on launch date that someone on a Mac can’t view your customized order form and can’t order your product.  Or that someone using IE can’t see your exit pop-up.  Test…. test… and test again!

Set Goals: Every successful launch I’ve ever been involved with, has had a clear set of goals for the launch campaign.  How many sales do you want (either in total units or full dollar amount).  If you’re offering a group coaching program, how many students do you want?  Set realistic goals.  And be sure to use the information for your post-launch review.

Launch Checklist

Customer Support: On Launch Day, be on hand (or have someone from your team on hand) to deal with any customer issues that arise as well as any technical issues that arise.  Large amounts of traffic can sometimes cause a server to go down.  If you have technical support on standby, you’ll likely be able to migrate your entire site to a better server in a relatively short period of time so that you don’t lose a large amount of sales.  And having Customer Service on hand to deal with any order issues also helps to ensure that you receive as many orders as possible during your Launch period.

Real-Time Analytics: There are some systems that offer up-to-the-minute reporting.  Having access to accurate sales reporting during the critical first day is crucial.  Say you launch at noon and have a steady stream of sales until 4 PM and then the orders suddenly stop coming in.  It could be an indication that there’s a technical problem that needs to be taken care of.  Other than that, I wouldn’t tweak too much on the first day.  If the sales are rolling in, there isn’t a need to make changes to your salescopy, etc.  Just keep doing what you’re doing because it’s obviously working!

Post-Launch Checklist

Review: I’ll keep this short and sweet: Analyze the launch to see if you met your goals.

By following these guidelines, you’ll be able to have a smoother product launch and be prepared for any technical or customer issues that may arise.

Happy launching!

Happy 40th birthday to me!  I’m 40 years young today.

I thought of creating a forty things I’ve learned in the past 40 years type post but I thought it would be much more fitting to talk about the music that has inspired me over the past 40 years.

For those of you who don’t know, I come from a very musical background.  I studied Music in school and University and even took music lessons outside of school.  But beyond that, the radio is always on or I’m shuffling through my extensive iTunes Collection.

Music has a powerful effect on me and has been an intrinsic part of the good and bad times in my life.

So over the next few weeks (okay let’s face it, maybe months!) we’re going to take a musical journey through my life and experience the songs that have had an impact or some meaning in my life.  Enjoy!

Los Pollitos Dicen Pio

Click here to view the embedded video.

My mom used to sing this to me as a baby.  I was born in Venezuela and spent the first two years of my life in Caracas before moving to Canada.  I spoke Spanish as a young child and didn’t speak much English until I started school.  This song was guaranteed to soothe me when I was little.  And I still sing it to myself when I’m not feeling well.

Sesame Street: Sing

Click here to view the embedded video.

I credit Sesame Street and the songs they sing with helping me learn enough English to get by on my first day of Kindergarten.  Here’s one of my favorites… and I suspect the reason why I become a singer.

Tony Bennett: I Left My Heart In San Francisco

Click here to view the embedded video.

In Grade 3 we had a supply teacher for most of the school year.  I don’t remember what happened to my regular Grade 3 teacher but I do remember that Mr. DiGregorio would pull out his guitar daily and sing songs with us.  He would always start with I Left My Heart In San Francisco.  It was the year my love for the guitar was born.  I asked my dad to start teaching me how to play in Grade 3.

Romance Anonimo

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is the second song my dad taught me to play on the guitar.  I played a modified version of it.  I wish I knew the name of the first song.  Maybe I’ll be inspired to record it before the end of my musical walk down memory lane.

The Sound of Music: Something Good

Click here to view the embedded video.

I’ve been watching The Sound of Music on tv for as long as I can remember.  It airs every year at Christmas and I used to watch it with my mom, dad and siblings. It used to air on Christmas Eve.  Now that I’ve grown up and moved out, I still look for it every Christmas and look forward to singing along.  I credit The Sound of Music for igniting my passion for Musical Theatre.

Stay tuned (pun intended) for part 2 of my musical journey.  I’m off to eat some cake and sing my heart out!

Social bookmarking is a popular field of social networking. And it’s easy to understand why. When done correctly, it’s a great way to increase visibility, create connections and drive traffic to your website or blog.

What is Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking is similar in concept to your browser’s bookmarks or favorites menu in that it’s a way to store, organize and manage links to web content. The difference between your own personal bookmarks and social bookmarks is where they’re stored. Personal bookmarks  are stored on your own Computer would and accessed only by you. Social bookmarks are stored on a social bookmarking website and visible by anyone who visits that site.

How does Social Bookmarking work?

Nothing too complicated here: if there’s a link you want to remember, you can add it to a social bookmarking site. Remember: it’s just like the bookmarks in your favorite browser. You want to save a link, you bookmark it. The bookmark can usually be set as public (visible by anyone) or private (visible only to you).

From an aggregate perspective, bookmarks shared on a social bookmark site can usually be viewed by visitors to the site chronologically or by category or by popularity. Some of the bookmarking sites allow users to leave comments on bookmarks, share bookmarks with other social networks or rate the bookmarks. Rating popularity or sharing them makes them more visible and increases their popularity. Since bookmarks can be sorted by the viewer by popularity, if your bookmark makes it to the front page of a social bookmarking site, you can capture a sizable amount of traffic.

That’s why you see social sharing icons on most blogs ( including this one): to make it easy for readers to share content because social bookmarking is largely user driven. Users do most of the work.

Adding Social Bookmarking Functionality To Your Blog

There are many WordPress plugins which will add buttons to submit your content to the most popular social bookmarking and social news sites easily (in most cases with one click). I covered one of the popular ones, Sexy Bookmarks, on my blog last year  but there are others including Sociable, ShareBar and WP Socializer.

With any of these plugins, adding buttons to submit your content to social bookmarking sites is easy to do and could result in a huge payoff. By having links on the same page as your content, you make it a lot easier for your reader to share your content with their favorite social bookmarking site.

Social Bookmarking Sites

This is by no means a comprehensive list of social bookmarking sites. I personally have accounts at over 30 sites and am always on the lookout for more.

Digg.com: Digg is a social news website for sharing content. Links are submitted for voting and commenting by users. Links with the most votes make it to the front page which usually directs a lot of traffic to the shared content.

Reddit.com: Reddit is a social news website for sharing content. Like Digg, users can vote content up or down  links with the most “up” votes make it to the front page. Reddit rewards users who frequently submit content that getspositive votes and punishes users who frequently submit links that get negative votes.

Delicious: Delicious is a social bookmarking site for sharing content. Delicious can tag their bookmarks with keywords or index terms. Visitors to the site can be searched by the index terms to find content.

Bookmarkers Beware

There aren’t too many things to watch out for when using social bookmarking sites but one of the things I see often is users who only submit their own content to the social bookmark sites. Most social bookmarking sites have systems in place to evaluate the quality of any given users submissions. Going back to the similarity between social bookmarks and your own personal bookmarks, if you were to save every blog post you write to your own personal bookmarks, you’d soon discover that your bookmarks would be petty useless to you. The same holds true with social bookmarks. Dozens of links to the same content wouldn’t prove very useful to visitors.

Not only that, but if you are constantly submitting content from your own site to the social bookmarking sites, it could make your account look like a spammer.

Consider Delegating Your Social Bookmarking Efforts

There are plenty of sites that offer social bookmarking services and there’s even a WordPress based platform that includes automatic submission to the various social bookmarking sites.  Just be sure to do your homework when subscribing.  Make sure that they’re not creating new accounts simply for your submission because that defeats the purpose.  And if the service is included as part of your blogging platform, make sure that someone actually monitors those accounts to ensure that they submissions are working.  And again, make sure that you’re not the only one submitting under any given profile.

Social bookmarking can increase traffic to your site organically without having to pay per click.  You probably have enough content but you’re not sure where or how to leverage it to bring people to your site.  Social bookmarking and article bank submissions are proven to help increase traffic.

Need help with this task? Check out my Social Bookmarking Service

Today I’m going to talk about basic HTML editing and introduce you to the world of HTML codes.  While a lot of my clients rely on me for their HTML formatting and editing, knowing how to do some minor HTML editing on your own will be a huge help if you want to post your own blog posts or start salespages to be cleaned up by your regular web designer (after all, chances are they won’t be awake at 3 AM when you’re hit with the inspiration for a new product).

What is HTML?

HTML is the language that tells your web browser how it should display content on your website or blog.  At the most basic level, HTML involves wrapping your content with specific tags… sort of like an Oreo cookie.  Your outer cookie is the HTML code and the gooey stuff in the middle is your content.  So let’s say we want to make a word bold, you wrap it in a bold tag.  The HTML code for bold is <strong>.  Just like an Oreo cookie, you always have to have two corresponding tags: an open and a close tag.  The open tag tells your browser start making text bold here.  The close tag tells it where to stop and looks like this: </strong>.  The stuff that goes in the middle is the text you want to display in bold text.

Let’s look at an example.  Let’s write to sentences below.  The first is how the text will display to a human reader of your blog.  The second sample is how the text displays in HTML code:

How is HTML coding like an Oreo Cookie?

How is HTML coding like an <strong>Oreo Cookie</strong>?

Remember the <strong> tag tells the browser “this is where my bold text starts” and the </strong> tag tells it “this is where my bold text stops.”  Before we move on, I want you to look closely at the start and ending tags for bold and notice the difference between the two.  Notice the addition of the trailing slash in the end tag.  I’ll make it a different color so you see what I’m referring to: </strong>.  The slash is how you tell a browser to stop a particular action.

Doesn’t WordPress Have A Built In Visual Editor?

Now you may be thinking I have these pretty little buttons inside my WordPress blog that allow me to do all the editing and formatting I need to so why would I bother learning HTML codes?

That’s a good question.  You can certainly use the editor inside WordPress and even install another plugin called TinyMCE to give you even more editing functionality but be aware that it can result in some messy looking code.  What do you care, right?  As long as your readers can see the text exactly how you want it displayed, why does it matter if the back end is messy?  Let me give you a recent example.

One of my clients has started building his own salespages and then sending them to me to clean them up and make them look pretty.  We also need to add the embed code from EZS3 for a video.  If you know anything about embed code, you know that you need to be in HTML mode in order to paste the code in.  My client had built his page in Visual Mode and as soon as I switched over to HTML mode, a lot of his formatting went wonky: things didn’t line up properly, the size of text was inconsistent, etc.  Looking at the code, it was a mess!  Here’s a snippet:

I know it may look like Greek to you, but to me, there’s a lot of funny things happening in that one line of code.  Here’s what the final output should be:

** If You Are NOT a Member, Please Sign UP HERE

So black text for the most part and red to highlight the action he wants the reader to take, bold, italics and a little bit bigger than the default text size on the page.

Looking at the code, I can see that the color is changing a few times (five to be exact) and that only one of the tags is actually needed.  I can see that the font size is changing seven times and that only one is needed.  And that a lot of those changes aren’t closed properly (remember from the sample above, all tags need to be wrapped by open and close tags).

Let me walk you through what happens when the browser loads this piece of code.  Each instruction is inside < > tags.

Your browser is humming along, and gets to this line and the first thing it’s told to do is make the text align left.  The default alignment for the page is left so that instruction isn’t really necessary as long as you remember to close the tag properly.

The next thing it’s told to do is make the text red.  Hang on a second, we don’t want the text to be red yet but the browser has been told to make it red.  Moving on.

Now the browser receives a bunch of rapid fire instructions about the font size.  Make it medium, make it small, make it medium, make it small, make it medium, make it small.  Whew, I’m getting tired… maybe I’ll just slow down a little bit on reading this page and loading it.

Two more rapid fire instructions: Make the text black and then make it blue. Blue?  We don’t want blue in here at all.

Make it italics and make it bold (both good – just remember to close the tags).
Make it medium, make it black (good though the default color for the page is black so that instruction isn’t really needed unless you have a bunch of messy code before hand that turns it into a different color).

Then it finally reaches the text that needs to display on the screen as well as an instruction to hyperlink some of the text and change the color to red.  But it had to jump through a bunch of hoops in order to get there.  Just to display one sentence on the page.  Now imagine an entire long form salesletter where every line of text has several instances of unnecessary HTML code to sort through before it gets to what you actually want it to do?

Here’s the cleaned up version of the HTML code:

So while it’s great to have an easy editor to use, it’s important to understand how HTML code works so you can fix things if need be.

Let’s take a closer look as some of the more common HTML tags.

HTML Codes Made Easy

Headings

Tags: h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6

When you want to put a heading above a paragraph of text (or an image or a video), you use the HTML heading tags.  The actual size of the heading and formatting of the heading is set out in your CSS style sheet but that’s an advanced topic that we won’t go into here.  All you need to know is that the different tags display your text using different font sizes depending on which one you use.  Like in Microsoft Word or any other word processing software, h1 will display the largest text.  Here’s an example of a few different heading sizes.

<h1>Heading 1</h1>

<h2>Heading 2</h2>

<h3>Heading 3</h3>

Note: My h1 tag underlines the text.  Your display may be different based on the settings in your theme for those different elements.

SEO Tip:  An important thing to know about HTML headings is that the carry different weights of importance from the SEO side of things.  The highest weight is given to h1 tags and it decreases from there.  So when your page is spidered, anything wrapped in an h1 tag is considered the most important.  That’s why you want to have at least one h1 tag on your page wrapped around your most important heading and (ideally) your primary keyword phrase.

Next in line is the h2 tag.  Though not as important as the h1 tag, it still has a bit of weight attributed to it from an SEO perspective.  That’s what it’s perfect for wrapping headlines that link to other documents or pages within your website.  They’re also great for targeting secondary keywords and phrases and giving them higher importance.

Images

Tag: img

Okay we’re about to throw the HTML playbook out the window.  Remember when I said every HTML tag had to have an opening and closing tag?  The image tag <img> is considered a self-closing tag.  Meaning it doesn’t need to have a </img>.  Instead, it just uses a single trailing slash mark at the end of its opening tag.  Like this: <img />  Again I made it red so you could see it.

Image tags are a little more complicated than the heading tags above or the text formatting tags we will be talking about next.  In order to display an image, you need to tell the browser where the image is stored.  In order for a web browser to display an image, it will need to know where to find them on the server.  To tell it where to go, we need to use another little piece of code (or attribute) “src” as part of our tag.

Here’s an example:

<img src=”http://yourdomainhere.com/images/yourimagefilehere.jpg” />

In this example, (working from right to left) the image is a .jpg image, stored in a folder called images on your domain.  There are additional attributes you can add to the basic img tag that enhance the display of the image (alignment, padding around the image, size, etc.) but the basic tag <img src=”PathToImage” />

Text Formatting

Tags: strong, em, u, strike

There are a lot of tags available for basic text formatting and we won’t go over all of them here.  I will go over the most common tags. Let’s get started.  For each formatting type, you will see the HTML tag followed by the HTML code sample and then the output (how the HTML code will display to your reader).

To Make Text Bold

HTML tags: <strong> </strong>

HTML code: <strong>To make text bold use the strong tag</strong>

Output: To make text bold use the strong tag

To Make Text Italicized

HTML tags: <em> </em>

HTML code: <em>To make text italic use the em tag</em>

Output: To make text italic use the em tag

To Underline Text

HTML tags: <u> </u>

HTML code: <u>To underline text use the u tag</u>

Output: To underline text use the u tag

To Strike Through Text

HTML tags: <strike> </strike>

HTML code: <strike>$97</strike> On sale for $47

Output: $97 On sale for $47

The tags and coding snippets listed above are by no means meant to be an exhaustive course in HTML but simply provided as a basic intro into the wonderful world of coding.  If editing your own HTML or becoming a coding monkey is something that you’d like to learn more about, I advise you to start looking at different code online.  When I first started learning HTML (back in the days before WordPress came along to make thing easier), I used to save the URL of pages where something interesting was done.  If there was a table on the page, I’d save it.  If there was a drop down menu, I’d save it.  Then when I needed to add an element to a site I was building, I would go look at one of my saved pages and view the source code to see the HTML that was responsible for producing the output I wanted.

If you’re interested in building your own salespages and blog posts and just want someone to take a look at them and make them look pretty (like I do with some of my clients), feel free to give me a shout.  I’m available for hire on an as-needed basis to clean up code or add trickier design elements to your salespages, landing pages and blog posts.

It’s Friday… but we’re going to do something a little different this week.

Instead of sharing a little joke or funny picture, I want to share a heart-warming video that has been making the rounds on the Interwebs this week.  I first saw it tweeted courtesy of my friend, Stephan Moccio, and it’s popped up in my stream a few times since then.

Take some time and watch what can happen when a boy has a dream.

Caine’s Arcade

Caine’s Arcade from Nirvan Mullick on Vimeo.

Part of the work I do with online business owners is to help manage their Customer Service.  I’m happy to say that most of my clients get the importance of customer satisfaction.  After all, the more your customers love you, the more likely they are to become raving fans and not only buy your products and services themselves, but also shout your praises from the rooftops and recommend you to their trusted network.  So ensuring that your customers are taken care of can help you grow your business.  Below are a few strategies that can help your team provide world class customer service.

Cultivate A Positive Mindset

My first experience with Customer Service was on a technical support help desk.  One of the things we were taught was to smile when we answered the phone because the smile could be heard in our voice.  In the online support world, I no longer am on the receiving end of live phone calls.  Most customer service is done via an online support desk or by email.  But I still hold true to the principle of smiling when managing support tasks.  Every time I sit down to respond to a customer, I approach the task with a positive attitude and a smile.  Even though they can’t see me or hear me, I know that if I’m replying from a happy place, it will carry through in the way I’m writing and the customer will sense it.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had an angry, disgruntled customer turn around simply because of the way I’ve replied to their email.

I’ve been involved in Customer Service in one way or another for about 15 years and while the support technologies have changed one thing remains constant: angry customers are often just confused customers.  That’s why giving extra positive attention to angry customers can, more often than not, diffuse the situation.  It’s not always easy to do, but once the customer understands that you’re listening and eager to help, a lot of the anger they felt is transformed and quickly forgotten.

If you’re like me and you have the luxury of time (meaning that you don’t have the customer on the other end of the phone), you can always step away from the computer and come back to the inquiry when you’re in a more positive head space.   I once had an email from a very irate customer who was understandably angry that a product he had ordered as a Christmas present had not yet arrived and it was days before Christmas.  The package was stuck somewhere in the Customs Office in England (his country of origin) and the tracking information that I had access to, did not provide much information other than it was in Customs.  After a two week delay with no update on the tracking info, the customer fired off an angry email with a few threats of calling the Better Business Bureau and filing a complaint with Visa.  I’ll be honest, the email was nasty.  But instead of replying right away with a few choice words of my own (let’s be honest, there were a few colorful words that popped into my mind as I read the email), I went for a walk.  I left my house and went for a walk around the park behind my house.  Fifteen minutes later, I was back at my computer and was no longer angry.  I was able to reply to his email from a positive and happy place and offered a few options.

At the end of the day, customers just want to know that you’re listening and that you care about their problem and willing to help in any way possible.

Be Proactive

You can save a lot of Customer Service inquiries and ensure that your customers avoid frustration by doing simple things to anticipate their needs.  Instead of seeing Customer Service as a reactive position that responds only after a problem has happened.  Why not make it a proactive role in your business that looks ahead and anticipates questions and works to ensure a smooth and seamless experience for your customers.  For example, before a product launch, you can think about possible questions your customers might have and create an FAQ page that answers these questions.  As the launch progresses and you respond to live questions, the FAQ can be updated to include common questions.

Sometimes it can be difficult to anticipate customer questions, especially if you’re closely tied to your project.  If you’re finding it challenging to anticipate potential questions, ask someone else on your team to help you develop questions.  For example, I used to work on a Technical Support Desk for a software product (it was a custom CRM database) and was responsible for developing training materials.  Every time I created a training video, I would ask the receptionist (who had no experience with the software and wasn’t very comfortable with technology) to go through the training and give me her feedback.  It helped me create better training materials because her feedback would show me what needed to be improved or what questions someone who wasn’t as comfortable with the program as I was would have.  As an added bonus, it helped the receptionist learn the program and she was able to go on to manage the Support Desk after I left the company.

Train Your Staff

I consider Customer Service one of the most important segments of any business.  After all, it is usually the first point of contact any potential customer or current client has with your company.  That’s why it’s important to thoroughly train anyone who will be managing Customer Service… not only in the products or services (and billing issues) they will be supporting but also in the exact way you would like them to interact with a customer.  If a customer calls and doubts the person helping them can actually help them (or worse, treats them poorly), it can make your business look incompetent and unprofessional.  Your staff needs to understand that they are the biggest brand representatives of your business.  A customer will base their opinion of your business based on how the were treated by support staff.  They will form opinions so choose and train your support staff carefully.

Your support staff may at times be asked questions they do not know how to answer.  So make sure you set up a system that allows your support staff to find the answer as quickly as possible.  That’s where a centralized support desk can come in handy because many of them include an internal knowledgebase that can be used exclusively by support staff for training and to get answers to questions they don’t know how to answer.

By thoroughly training support staff, being proactive and cultivating the right mindset, you can rest assured that your customers (and your business) will be taken care of.

As a business owner, we have all been faced with the question or decision of whether to fire a client at one point or another.  No matter the type of business you’re in, we have all come across situations where we know that a particular client isn’t the right “fit” for us.

If you are struggling with the question of whether to fire a client, listen in as I share my thoughts on the impact working with clients who aren’t a good fit.

Business Owner Q&A: Should You Fire A Client?

Click here to view the embedded video.

It’s Friday… time to lighten things up around here!  A friend of mine sent me this picture a few weeks ago.  I have a great little kitten and my house backs onto a park.  I’ve seen her at the back fence when some of my neighbors are walking their dogs and I bet she’s saying something similar to them.  Enjoy!