Try Actually Listening to Your Customer!

When I decide to get some work done from a contractor, I usually take a few minutes and search the net, just like most people do, to get an idea of how others' experiences went. If I see a company had comments like; "they were rude", "unprofessional", "wouldn't call me back" or "showed up hours late", I consider it a deal breaker and won't do business with them. Of course I see price complaints too, but usually just ignore those because I believe you get what you pay for and someone had to approve the work so how can they still complain? Personally, I believe a price complaint is usually the result of something else not going well and not actually the price being the problem. For some reason after everything was done, the customer didn't think it was worth it. I've spoken to business owners in the past who have had negative comments about their employees attitude or lack of professionalism from their office and I'm shocked to find out the situation could have been handled easily by just refunding some of the money or offering something else free. I find the owner or manager of the business reluctant to budge and is just sticking to his guns because he is unwilling to "give in" to this complainer. Okay, so in response it is better to lose a few hundred potential customer due to the bad review online than to give up a few hundred dollars. Really??? Duh!!! Recently I've added a new segment to my Business Strategies workshop titled; "Managing Your Customers' Journey". The course is designed to set up systems and processes within your business to reduce and eliminate errors and problems. I believe that if you control every aspect of the customer's journey and manage their responses, you will make more money, have happier customers and get more referrals. Disney World does an excellent job of managing your journey and the way you respond. Think about it, you spend over $100 per person to go stand in line in the heat, pay way too much for food and drinks, stand in another line, take a bunch of pictures, get exhausted, stand in line again and eventually pass out in your room, then brag to everyone about what a great time it was. A few years later, you go back. Walt Disney was a genious and knew how to manipulate his customers and make their experiences worth it. My recommendation is to make sure that someone in your organization regularly searches the net looking for negative reviews. They will tell you a lot about what you are doing wrong too. Also, set up a system to keep your customers from going on line and venting to the population of earth about you. I recommend you send them to your own review site and let them vent there. Yes, here comes my commercial. . . I run a business called Customer Care Plus. We measure customer experiences for you using the most powerful and cost effective system anywhere. You get instant feedback and have the ability to resolve issues before they get out of hand. All of this with limited effort on your part. How much? Only $99 per month! Want more information? Go to Customercareplus.net or just call me at 888-538-5383, and we can have you up and running within a few days. Don't lose control of your customer experiences. Keep them from going online and complaining and turn them into referral machines who keep bring you more business.

Stop Whining and Get to Work!

Why does there seem to be this stigma about someone or a company making a profit? Don't these morons realize that the higher the profit, the higher the tax revenue? Isn't The Untited States the place where you can go and realize the dream of becoming successful and rich? That is why my family came here. I'm sick and tired of hearing people whine about how someone else is doing well and how they need to spread the wealth and it is not fair! Here is a concept you may not understand . . .How about creating your own wealth and coming up with something that people see as usefull and valuable? If you can do this, you can be wealthy too. Whining, complaining, blaming others for your failure and sitting on your ass is not anything that creates wealth nor is it anything that anyone else is willing to pay for. So, shut the hell up and get to work and stop taking money away from people who worked hard for it!