So I have been switching over to a new credit card and shopping cart system. Sigh. The process is horrendous and I keep finding new things I have to fix. We have to transfer people from our old database, we have to get all our people to re-optin (Tammy Mac this means you…:) We have to set up forms and autoresponders and other terrible things. I have been on hold with customer service for what seems like days!

The bright spot in all of this is the great guys over at 1shoppingcart.com. Today I talked to Andy who did everything he could to help fix a form for me (I am still working on getting it to look right BUT he really tried!!). I also tend to get Mark a lot when I call – I am SERIOUS, it has been over 20 times in the last two weeks. He is VERY patient and knows A LOT about the product.

Having chosen a vendor, I have definitely had my decision reinforced that it was a good one. Great customer service is NOT the norm these days so you find it, treasure it!

That having been said, I have also had terrible customer service lately.

Adobe. A HUGE company that just got $643 from me for a software update has terrible customer service. The customer service rep I spoke with had no knowledge of the english language. He put me on hold for over 10 minutes to try and find a form that I needed to have emailed to me and never sent the form. He was rude. I am sorry I have to use Adobe. NOT a good experience.

Discover Card sold me out. I have a merchant account with Bank of America now (it is going away soon!). BOA has a terrible back end system that is impossible to reconcile, making my accountant sad BUT that is not why I am so glad to be leaving them! I opted to have Discover offered as one of the credit cards I accepted. No fewer than 8 different “Discover Partners” have called me offering services for “free”. They are not free, they just want me to sign up for a service for free for a little bit and then start charging me when I forget to cancel. Double sigh. I have told them I do not need a website or promotions or anything else but they still call. I hate Discover now.

This is not rocket science. Having a company culture that rewards customer service is vital. Letting your customers know that you will not sell their name should be standard. Having someone answer your phone with a cheerful hello costs exactly the same amount as having a surly receptionist.

It all starts at the top. If you are a small business owner with no employees, take a look at how you are operating. If you are a small business owner with a staff, talk to them tomorrow about what they can do to make your customers happy.

Happy is good. Hate is bad.

Related posts:

1. Small Business Marketing – GREAT Customer Service
2. How DISC Personality Types Affect Customer Service Models
3. Niche Marketing and Customer Service Go Hand In Hand

So now that you know what a database is (your database a how-to), let’s talk about how to talk to your database! I was going to do all of the contact ways in one post BUT then email part started getting pretty long so I will split it up into a multi-part post!

General Thoughts

Having a database and just using it as a mailing list is just not right! If you are only using it to print out mailing labels, you can make a change that will really have an impact on your business. A great database, excel spreadsheet or solid Outlook program can mean more money in your pocket!!!

If you have categories for your contacts, make sure to send the right emails to the right people. I send general small business information to my whole database, but when I have something real estate related I send it to ONLY the realtors NOT everyone!

Emails

You should have a list of email addresses for your clients. I am NOT a spammer and only believe in sending information that is helpful to my clients. Some recent emails I have sent:

• Information about an upcoming webinar on Listingbook, inviting them to sign up for the class (sent to people who have attended my Listingbook classes)
• Thank you for attending my class email, WITH a followup email campaign that attendees can use to contact their clients
• Thank you’s to people who attended my booth at a recent networking event
• Emails through my blog when I post a new message (I use feedburner.com for this since it is automatic)
• Email sent to all prospects when we changed the model of our 33 Touch Program for realtors 

All of these things benefited the recipient of my email. None of them was a blatant advertisement for my product or service. In this day and age, no one has time to study an advertisement that tells them what my product offers, makes them figure out how it will benefit them and then ask them to do something that they weren’t already inclined to do!

I think that the “rules” of email have changed! Sending a long and informative email WILL WORK – IF you are sending something worthwhile to the reader. Sending an email on Saturday will work (I sent out the Listingbook followup email on Saturday night and got 7 responses almost immediately) – you don’t have to time your emails as much as you used to have to IF you provide an item of value when you send it!

To make even more of your emails, make sure to add a little something to your signature line! I have a link to this blog on every email that I send out. I get A LOT of click throughs from mail programs from this. I also will sometimes add a links to a recent blog post if it is something really exciting! It should look like this:

– 
Tara Jacobsen
727.415.9165
Marketing Consultant, Speaker & Trainer
Marketing Artfully / Listingbook / Keller Williams Realty

Visit my blog www.MarketingArtfully.com for great marketing tips!
__

Doing just these few things can make a huge difference in how well your emails are received! To review: send interesting or valuable information, don’t be a spammer, send out targeted emails to the correct people and lastly, SEND MORE EMAILS! They are free and can be fun!!!

Related posts:

1. Your Database – A How-To!
2. What is database marketing? Solving small business marketing problems!
3. 33 Touch – Fab 5 Contest