Archive for the ‘Wednesday Words from You’ Category

Recently, I received a question from a customer of my own who asked:
“How do you deal with customers who don’t read instructions but submit countless tickets asking you how to do something – urgent tickets that aren’t urgent at all.”

It’s a common problem. Sometimes it’s just easier to ask someone what to do than to try to figure it out oneself – so many people will do just what is described above.

Well, I don’t personally deal with the customers at all. I have a very efficient, friendly and knowledgeable VA to do that. It saves a lot of headaches and it’s so easy to become frustrated when it’s your own product and something you’ve worked very hard on. Bring in a qualified third party to take care of it, so you can focus your attention elsewhere and you want try to virtually strangle your clients.

As to suggestions on how to communicate to your problem customer, here are some ideas:

For marking the tickets as urgent, I wouldn’t necessarily address it to the client personally, but you might customize your ticket center to explain how something is urgent and include a link to your product documentation/faq. Maybe a link beside the drop down box that says “How do I know if my ticket is urgent?” and then have a javacscript window that pops up with instructions.

I think the bigger issue  is using up time and resources in asking questions for which the answers are already published.  For your ticket replies, I’d start out with something like…

“I’m happy to help you and you’ll find the precise answer to your question in our FAQ/instructions/etc.” – then link to the precise location or give a page number. Don’t put the instructions in the ticket, but make sure it’s easy to find. That way, your clients will get into the habit of visiting your documentation and will see that you’ve already got it fully laid out for them.

Then end the ticket with something like, “I know it must be frustrating when you’re trying to set something up and then have to wait for the answer. To make it easier to get instant answers, full instructions are always provided at….”

…and then add a link to the main page of the documentation.

If the client continues to be a problem, address it more directly. You can still spin it so he or she realizes that it’s in their best interest to read it themselves. But do be direct and say that is what the documentation is for and you want to ensure your support staff is readily available for issues that our outside the provided documentation.

This type of problem doesn’t just go away on it’s own, so you need to take steps to ensure it’s being addressed…and above all, get someone else to handle this, so you can put your positive energies elsehwere.

EDITED TO ADD: Also, I forgot that some ticket systems (including Kayako) will present your FAQ to your customer, based on the information in the ticket they want to submit. You can set the ticket system not to submit the ticket until they’ve checked if their question is answered in the FAQ. The only thing with this (at least in the Kayako system) is you probably want to customize the page and enlarge the text that says the ticket is not yet submitted and that they should review the FAQ first. I think it’s really easy to miss and your customers may think they’ve submitted their ticket which can cause even bigger problems.

It’s been a while since we’ve done a Wednesday Words from You – what’s wrong with me?! Let’s get started with this topical question I received recently.

Hi Alice,

I have so many questions !  First and foremost I need to know how I can capitalize on my success with my website sales from the Obama Jewelry I’ve been selling online for about a year.  Sales are down, of course, the election is over.  I never expected the jewelry sales to continue as long as they have, it’s a wonderful feeling actually.

I have other jewelry I sell on ETSY and have added it to the Obama site as well.  I would like to capitalize on the traffic to the Obama site and sell my other designs.  So far, I’ve not had much success.

Thanks for your help Alice,
River Wolfe
www.polymer-clay-art.com
www.BarackObamaJewelry.com

Thanks for your email River…let’s see what I can come up with for you.

(NOTE: River actually wrote this a couple of weeks ago, but I’m guessing sales may have picked up with the inauguration. Also, the course Obama takes while he’s in office will continue to affect her sales in the coming months and years.)

My personal take on this is that you may be trying to force something that probably shouldn’t be forced. If people are still finding your site because they are looking for Barack Obama jewelry, they WANT Barack Obama jewelry. They are passionate about OBAMA likely before they are passionate about jewelry. Your sales may go down as fewer people may be interested, but trying to force them into being interested in your other jewelry may sabatoge your sales completely.

Why fight with your potential customer who is already telling you what they want? They want Obama jewelry…so I’d put my focus on turning more of your targeted visitors into customers of your Obama jewelry. Of course, if your customers like these pieces, they may be interested in other designs – but I’d market those to them AFTER the purchase (or possibly some type of relevant upsell during the order process). Perhaps by sending a brochure, a special or coupon offer for your other designs, etc.

Things I’d Test Out on Your Site:

• Remove or move the first item in the menu at the top of your page. It is “River’s Art Jewelry”, but that is not what your visitor is looking for. I’d remove that part of the menu or move it to the far right…so it’s available for anyone who might be interested.
• Remove the link to your Etsy store. Whether or not you take my advice to keep the focus on Obama, there really is no need to send them to another store altogether. You already have them at YOUR store – whey send them to Etsy. I could be wrong, but I also don’t think the average person looking for Barack Obama jewelry probably doesn’t even know what Etsy is, so it won’t necessarily provide and name recognition, confidence in buying, etc.
• Keep your site links opening in the same window. I notice that the links within your site open in a new window and I’m not sure of the reason for that. It’s easy to get lost and overwhelmed when you have a bunch of windows open and you aren’t sure where anything is. Let them view one page at a time and stay focused on what they are looking at.
• The main page is a little confusing. You have pictures and links to more info, but the pictures and the links are far apart in some cases. I’d try to make it a little more uniform and include an enticing description to get them to click to learn more. Your category pages are pretty good, but the main page design and layout creates a bit of confusion for me.
• The inauguration sales details are a bit puzzling as well. This line:

“(one pair per order – will not show up on your paypal invoice – free shipping upgrade if order is over $50 with the addition of free earrings)”

It’s right at the top of the page and might create more confusion than interest. Don’t lose your visitor before they have a chance to check out your offer.

Personally, I’d leave that part out or make a link to the sale details. Saying “will not show up your paypal invoice” may cause a loss of confidence.

First, what that means isn’t quite clear and second, why would someone purchase something that isn’t going to appear on their receipt? What if they had problems? I know YOU’RE an honest business woman and there is likely no need to worry, but your visitors don’t know you. I’d simply set up your PayPal order links to include a product that says buy 1 get 1 free.

Overall Thoughts

I understand your desire to bring more attention to your other designs and the beautiful work you’ve put so much time into. Well, you’ve just discovered one way to bring new customers to you. You capitalized on an important person/event and that was a perfect way to get leads for your jewelry business – but be careful of trying to force them into something else. Do upsells, backend sales of your other jewelry, but make it easy for them to get what they came for.

If you decide to upsells and back-end sales, try to keep it to something relevant an Obama jewelry buyer might buy. For example, I think you did choose some good relevant “Peace” and “Hope” – but again, I wouldn’t do that right off the bat.

I know selling jewelry and other hand-crafted items isn’t always easy. But you can take a look at your Obama experience and do something similar in other areas. Whether it’s causes people are passionate about like pro-life/pro-choice (you pick – and with something like this, the battle never ends) or fighting breast cancer (an opportunity for fundraising as well) or [insert cause / event here]…you have plenty of ways to reach a new audience that will want to buy your on-target designs and then may turn into a fan of all your creations.

I hope that helps. It may not be exactly what you want to hear, but realize if interest in the Obama jewelry is dwindling, it likely ONLY means that fewer people are visiting for Obama jewelry. However, the people who are still visiting your site are quite likely very good prospects for the products – you don’t want to goof that up.

One last thing to consider is you have a pretty sweet domain name. I don’t claim to have any knowledge about domain values/appraisals, but that in itself may or may not be worth something…even today.

Here’s a question I received recently from one of my blog readers.

“I know everyone says the money is in the list, but I’ve been building my list and I feel like my subscribers just aren’t paying attention. There is a lot of competition in my market and I can’t seem to figure out how to stand out.

Melanie”

This is certainly not an uncommon problem. People are so inundated with email in general, it’s tough to get attention in an overflowing email inbox. Now, there are plenty of things you can do to get more attention (ex. testing your subject lines, teasing readers about your next email, etc.), but I’ve grabbed an excerpt from the Email Marketing Reform School that goes right back to the beginning and might help.

Before you even start a list, it’s important not only to define your target market, but come up with what makes your list unique – often called USP (Unique Selling Position) in terms of your overall business.

AND NOTE: You should define this your target & uniqueness for each and every list because each list serves a different purpose, even if the target markets are similar. This is what helps you relate to your audience more specifically and what makes them feel like you understand them, offer them value and that they can’t get enough of you!

Here’s the excerpt from the Reform School:

“UEP (Unique Emailing Position): UEP is an acronym I made up for our purposes (you won’t find it in any copywriting or marketing guide that I know of) and it stands for Unique Emailing Position. I have chosen this name so that you can really try to imagine your USP in the terms of your email marketing.

In short, your UEP is what sets you apart from others in your market using email to reach their prospects and customers. Put another way, a UEP is some unique thing you offer to your readers that competition is not. It’s the reason your subscribers sign up to your list, stay subscribers, open and act upon your email.

Here are just a few examples of a UEP. Your UEP will likely be very different as these examples won’t necessarily be appropriate to all types of lists. These ideas is just to help you start thinking about your own UEP.

o Do you offer more in-depth information on specific topics?
o Do you provide the honest reviews other people are afraid to do?
o Is your list attractive because you provide easy-to-understand condensed information?
o Does your mailing list motivate people into taking action?
o Is your list a humorous look at your topic?
o Do you send more frequent up-to-the-minute information?
o Are you dedicated to answering your readers’ questions and engaging in dialogue with them (Mind your time on something like this and look at the tips in the “Asking” section a little later in this lesson)?
o Do you offer exclusive interviews to people of influence in your target market?

UEP (or USP) is a concept that is often difficult for people because every business and mailing list is different. You need to really sit down, brainstorm and figure out your UEP because if you don’t, it’s hard to stand out from the crowd and compete in your market.

Here is one of the most important questions you’ll ask yourself when formulating your UEP:

“Why would my subscriber sign up for my list, instead of someone else’s? Why would they continue to stay subscribed?”

Take a look at other mailing lists / newsletters in your target market. What are they doing that you can do even better? If you’re on any customer lists (if not, try to get on some), see how your competitors treat their customers via email.”

It’s a small starting point that can make a big difference in your email marketing. Once you have your UEP down, you can more effectively market for new subscribers and get your existing ones a whole lot more responsive.

By the way, Reform School starts Monday, so be sure to book your spot now.

Here’s an email I recently received from a long-time blog reader of mine. I think his problem is something MANY online business owners face, so I thought it’d be helpful to answer it here.

(And by the way, if you do have this issue…solve it once and for all by joining us as a Platinum Member at Outsourcing Sweetie and get your biz stuff taken care of without the headaches)

Here’s the email:

Hi Alice, please excuse the language in the following request

You have given some superb advice and tips regarding different aspects of Virtual Assistants. It seems you were truly blessed in that area with the one(s) you have.

I must ask though, was that just pure luck?! Please advise me (or post about), how in the heck does one fricken freckin frackin find a VA that actually wants to WORK!

Jiminy Crickets I tell ya what. I stopped even searching after a small handful that seemed the equivalent to the secretary that files her nails and sneers every time she’s asked to write a letter.

How do they stay in business…or more to the point, why start the business in the first place? To top it off, 3/4 of them weren’t what I would call economically priced…

I’m sure you get my point. I don’t mean to sound sexist, but I can’t work with other men on a lot of other levels. LOL

Rant over – any guidance? PLEASE.

Thanks much,
Dennis

Well, first of all, thanks for the kudos. I feel your pain and have had my share of contractors / VAs who seemed to fall in this category. BUT amongst the truly professional VAs out there, I’ll tell you that this is not the norm. Problem is, how do you find them? And more importantly, how do you keep them?

(Disclaimer: I am using “she” to describe VAs generally. I, of course, now there are male VAs who do a great job too. )

Let me start by answering your question about whether or not I was lucky. I don’t know that I’d call it luck. Certainly, I have been blessed with a handful of great people who are dedicated to their work and I work well with, but there are other factors involved. Here are a few things to look for:

• References. It doesn’t matter if she’s a housewife looking for extra pocket money or if it’s a full-fledged VA service, find someone who has references that indicate reliability, efficiency and a good work ethic. But of course, how do you know if you can trust a reference? That’s why it’s always best to get a referral from someone you know…someone who will tell you the truth.
• A VA Who Services Clients…Period. I might get myself into hot water with some VAs who don’t fit this profile, but generally-speaking, a VA with other aspirations may not be as reliable. For example, a hopeful affiliate marketer who decides to offer services to tide her over until the commissions start rolling in. When a VA spreads herself too thin like this, she is often distracted by her own projects and may not dedicate herself to providing good client service.

• A VA Who Charges What She’s Worth. We’re all looking for a good deal (and I have an upcoming blog post about this in the next couple weeks), but a VA who under prices herself ends up having to take on too much work and service to each client suffers. Sometimes it’s worth paying a little extra for the quality and dedicated service of a true professional.

• Be a Good Communicator. Often it’s not the VA that’s the problem…it’s US! If we don’t communicate well, give clear instructions and constructive feedback, VAs just won’t want to work with us. If you have a high VA turnover, this might be something to look at and communication is something we cover in our Gold Membership.

• Nurture and Develop Your Relationship. There’s a learning curve for everyone, so dedicate yourself to improving the way you work with your VA (i.e. being organized, assigning tasks in a timely manner, etc.). This is part of communication, but I want to stress the importance of getting even better over time to keep your VAs working with you on a long-term basis. The longer you can keep a VA, the more she’ll understand your needs and your company – meaning you get better and better service all the time.

• Give Regular Raises. The longer a good VA works for you, the more valuable she becomes, so reward her monetarily for it. Keeping a VA happy means you don’t have to train a new VA, she can work more independently and can even advise you on where you can improve things in your processes.

I hope that helps a little. Start by taking recommendations from a trusted colleague (my recommendation is here) and go from there. Reliable and qualified help IS out there and when you find it, never let it go!

A couple of weeks ago, we gave away a custom mini site from Silicon Post. Our lucky winner April Jones from Nebraska. Her and Robert worked together and the mini-site is now complete.

Here’s what April had to say:

“Hey Alice,

I just wanted to thank you again for hosting the giveaway of a mini-website from Silicon Post. I was so excited when I found out I won!

After months of debating whether or not I wanted to start my own Virtual Assistant business, I finally decided to go for it on June 1st of this year. The first thing I did was try to set up my website. I did an okay job using some free templates I found online, but it just wasn’t enough. And I knew it would be a while before I could teach myself how to design a website or pay someone else to do it. So your giveaway came just in time.

My “grand opening” is July 1st and my brand new website is up and running thanks to you and Robert Mesa of Silicon Post

Robert has been such a pleasure to work with. He made sure I got the professional look I wanted for my website. As a VA, my website will be the first impression that a majority of my potential clients get of me and my business. So the design and content is very important to me.

Not only did Robert make sure everything I needed was on there, he even made some suggestions and added features that had never occurred to me that will really help my website (and my business) stand out. He was completely patient, even when I messed some things up when trying to edit, and he was both professional and friendly.

I hope you’ll do another Silicon Post mini-website giveaway so that someone else out there will have the same opportunity that I did to work with Robert and Silicon Post.

Thanks again!
April
Advantage Virtual Assistant

And on April’s last comment – if Robert’s up to it, we’ll certainly host another one soon.

Here’s Twitter comment from Dewald Pretorius that got me thinking about just how lucky we at home entrepreneurs really are. Dewald was having a fun evening, goofing off on the ‘puter (and sampling some wine…lucky guy) and he wrote:

But hey you know what? Who cares if it’s Friday night? Who cares if it’s the 3 AM on Wednesday or the middle of a Sunday afternoon? This is the BEAUTY of being your own boss and setting your own schedule.

Now, I don’t recommend working every single day all day…so I absolutely get Dewald’s point. But if someone skips work Tuesday – Thursday and decides to catch up on a Friday evening, I think that’s AWESOME.

I think it all comes down to responsible scheduling and balance. Use this amazing freedom to your advantage and work proudly whenever you decide to do so.

Yep, a second edition of Wednesday Words from You today. This is a great quote from Product Launch Expert, Jeff Walker.

The power of the list cannot be underestimated…and of course, I’d love to give you a hand to realize the same.

One of my Twitter friends, Chele Neisler recently used 140 alloted characters to post a very poignant observation. For the record, I don’t know precisely what made her post this.

But in working with online entrepreneurs and really trying to give them the PUSH to actually do stuff – her comment illustrated perfectly what holds a lot of people back:

It seems like a lot of people want everything laid out for them when it comes to this online marketing stuff. If they receive general step-by-step instructions, they get tied up on one detail and can’t just come up with a solution for themselves.

Here’s just a couple of the things I see people get bogged down with, but I see similar brain farts like this all the time.

“I have written an ebook and want to sell it, but not sure if I should use ClickBank, PayPal or something else.” – Ummm…your ebook is written, pick a processor and get on with it. Sure, you can get opinions from people, but people use questions like this as a crutch to do nothing.

“I am not sure if I should post other people’s articles on my site because I hear conflicting things about duplicate content.” – If you like the article, post it. It’s that simple…and seriously, since when is a search engine allowed to dictate how you run your website? Besides, who cares what other people argue endlessly about?

Sure, it’s good to get advice from other online entrepreneurs, pick up some how-to information, but taking action and getting results is YOUR responsibility. If you run into something you don’t understand search Google. It’s really easy and you can find information to help YOU answer your questions there IMMEDIATELY, instead of waiting for someone to come to your rescue.

Making decisions and deciding what will work for you and your business is up to YOU only. Sure, some decisions will result in some errors, but correct them and move on.