| LED Digest 2489: Answering Customer Emails |
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================================================== The LED Digest Moderated Discussion List "Effective Online Advertising, Since 1997" Data > Information > Knowledge > Wisdom www.GetWebContent.com/LED : the LED's Key Sponsor The Web's Most Experienced SEO Content Providers. www.SEOToolSet.com/training/ : the LED's Premier Sponsor Bruce Clay's Search Engine Optimization Training & Certification ================================================== List Moderator: Published by: Adam Audette LED Digest adam, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com .............................................. September 11, 2007 Issue no. 2489 .............................................. .....IN THIS DIGEST..... ====== NEW ===================== --== Customer Service Pet Peeves ==-- ~ Ron Coble "But, seriously, can anyone justify not answering a potential customer's request or waiting 3 days...?" ==== CONTINUING ================= --== Adding Content: Free Money ==-- ~ Nathan Holley "Marketing online costs money." ========== NEW =================================== From: Ron Coble Subject: Pet Peeves About Commercial Web Sites Hi Adam, I debated about sending this but after thinking that it might help the overall concept of commercial ecommerce web sites, I thought it might be worthwhile. My father, who is 87 and had a stroke 2 years ago, depends upon me to not only drive him to where he needs to go but also do the shopping for him. Now being 87 and already having had a life threatening stroke leaves you in a state of mind that if I see something I like, I am going to buy it (which I encourage him to do). Since he never had a credit card, he depends upon me to make the purchases so I get an inordinate amount of shopping online and off. In recent weeks, due to my father's zest for buying, I have experienced (again) something that both angers and amazes me. The first experience was with a fairly large furniture store that took the time and expense of mailing full color flyers to everyone in probably a 25 mile radius of their store location. My father saw a lounge chair and ottoman he really liked for $698.00. I then visited their web site (since it is a long distance call) and first had to "register" in order to use their customer service request form. I registered and promptly used their contact form to send them a request asking how much it would be to deliver the chair in their brochure (and on their very nicely designed web site) to my fathers location. As I write this, it has now been 3 weeks and never so much as a reply. Now wouldn't you think that if someone is asking about delivery charges that they are pretty far into the purchase decision and you would want to follow up with that person immediately? It was their loss and my father's benefit as we located the same chair / ottoman in another store and ultimately saved $150.00 but the moral of the story is - if you are going to spend thousands or probably tens of thousands of dollars in designing a really nice web site, you should assign responsibility to people to check your messages and/or email, wouldn't you agree? Don't want to make this too long but hopefully some of the folks in the group who are paid to design and consult on building web sites will place a little bug in their client's ears about utilizing what you build for them. The 2nd incident just occurred this week. Again trying to order something for my father on Labor Day from a catalog he just received 2 days before, I kept encountering an error message on one of the items. After 5 or 6 attempts I filled out the customer service form and informed them of which item it was and about the type of error message received. This is a fairly large catalog sales company and I expected that a response would be forthcoming on Tuesday - wrong! Not until around noon on Thursday did I get a reply informing me that this item was discontinued (even though it was in their catalog just received and was still showing on their web site??). Credit them for at least responding - they ultimately did get the sale on the other two items my father wanted. Last of my rant for the day - researching swing sets for my grand daughter. My wife heard their advertisement on the radio (they did not include their web site) but I was able to cross reference their telephone number to find it. Great looking, locally built equipment, very nice web site with pictures. My peeve with this web site is - NO PRICES. That's like walking into a store with no price tags on the goods and now they see you are interested and you have to ask what the price is, well I think you know where I am going with the scenario. Sorry, but my business is not at the point where "PRICE" does not matter. They offer a $300 discount on their radio advertisement but it is $300 off of what price?? Now that I've gotten that off my chest I will be more rested for the weekend. But, seriously, can anyone justify not answering a potential customer's request or waiting 3 days to do so and not post your prices on your web site - if so, I would be interested in hearing your justifications. Ron Coble Coble International B2B Marketing Services http://www.importexporthelp.com ======== CONTINUING =============================== From: Nathan Holley Subject: Content > ... convincing a client to fork over the extra budget > is like pulling teeth, I agree. Can anyone share > some cogent and compelling arguments that have > their clients to do so? - Peter D'Aprix, LED Digest 2488 - http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/1900/190/ I've always liked Bruce Clay's quote about websites, it goes something like this: you can't make a pig fly. Well, on the Internet you probably can, but it's much more profitable to make a golden eagle fly than a pig. When I had clients I used to run into this problem all the time. The scenario went, I have a website and I provide a service (I'm not talking about online retailers because the rules are different there). I want traffic and to grow my business online. I want to make money from that traffic / growth. How much do I have to pay you for that to happen? Much of the challenge with Internet marketing boils down to a core issue: you either need to deploy large amounts of resources into a marketing campaign, or you need to take the lead and be proactive producing content, networking, getting talked about and being part of the discussion online. Large companies pay us to do the former: here's the capital, now launch a search marketing campaign. It works well. Small businesses hardly ever do the latter, but it's really essential if they want to break loose, at least in the service industry. Sure you can get by and even get results with less investment, but you can't get near the potential of *more* investment. I speak from an objective perspective. I no longer offer consulting services, so I'm not trolling for clients nor am I clouded by self-interest. The way competition has exploded in every niche market on the Web, the costs to enter those markets have dramatically risen. Small unknown niches are out there (heck, that's how I make a living), but they're getting harder to find by the day. And when you find one it's often very hard to keep it secret, because by nature of the competitive marketplace others can see what you're doing and copy your efforts. Marketing online costs money. Content is great, but unless you can invest in that you'll have to produce it yourself. And hardly anyone is willing to do that. Want proof? Look at Aaron Wall's seobook.com. Aaron is a shining example of using blogging and networking to build credibility and following. And he sells a mess of ebooks. But he works his rear off. Nathan Holley ------------------------------------------------------- The LED Digest is sponsored by: GetWebContent.com The Web's Most Experienced SEO Content Providers. Free no-obligation proposal: http://GetWebContent.com/LED SEOToolSet.com Bruce Clay's Search Engine Optimization Training & Certification Join the certified SEO directory: www.SEOToolSet.com/training/ The Archives: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/126/189/ Subscribe: http://www.led-digest.com/content/view/52/187/ Unsubscribe, Change Email, or Hold / Resume Delivery: http://www.led-digest.com/content/category/4/17/201/ (c) Copyright 1995-2007 Orange Wheel, LLC. All Rights Reserved. ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Learning is finding out what we already know. Doing is demonstrating that you know it. Teaching is reminding others that they know just as well as you. You are all learners, doers and teachers." - Richard Bach |
