aricschi

I had an experience the other day that has made me think about how too many customer service experiences unfold in the business world today, and about the difference that really good service can make.

I have two dogs. Earlier this week, it was time for them to get their summer haircuts so that they will be able to comfortably cope with the Houston heat.

The newest addition to the house is Jason, a miniature schnauzer who had been the prized pet of an old lady who had to give him up for adoption when she moved to a nursing home. She had chosen to keep him fully furred, not trimmed in the traditional schnauzer cut, so that he had a really nice wire haired coat to go with his bushy eyebrows and stubby tail. The other dog is Lucky, a schnauzer-poodle mix-poodle ears and body, schnauzer muzzle and curly tail-he gets the traditional cut.

So, I took the two little guys to the groomers the other morning. I was the first client of the day, and the salon was nice and quiet. I explained what I wanted to the person who would be doing the job-traditional schnauzer cut on Lucky, but not on Jason. Just a trim for him. This is important, I told her, because I dont want his coat shaved off-once that wire hair is gone it never grows back. Did she understand, I asked?

Yes, she answered. But did I want Jasons skirt trimmed?

Skirt? I stared blankly and finally figured out that she was talking about the feathery bits on his chest and belly. Yes, fine, I said. Trim that area but just dont shave him. She nodded.

I went back a few hours later to pick up the boys. At that point the salon was buzzing with dogs, clients, and groomers. The fur was literally flying. First came Lucky, looking very dapper and neat. A few seconds later, out came Jason, and my mouth dropped open.

He had been completely shaved!!! The groomer had given him a standard schnauzer cut-and that lovely wire coat was gone forever.

I couldnt believe it. I was angry and sad at the same time. What had happened? How could the conversation we had had in the morning have been so completely lost?

After discussing the situation with the salon owner, she reluctantly refunded my money, which was very small consolation for the snafu. It should be no surprise that I will not be going back to that salon when the boys fur has grown out.

This whole thing left me thinking about how this kind of customer service happens in other businesses. There were several points about the experience that translate:

1. Are we really listening to our customers? Do we ask the questions we need to ask to make sure that we understand what they want from us? Do we make accurate notes so that we retain instructions and deliver what was asked for? I got plenty of nods from the groomer during our talk, but my instructions obviously got lost somewhere between her ears and her shears.

2. Are we communicating clearly back to them, or do we use industry jargon that they may or may not understand? When the groomer asked me about trimming Jasons skirt, I had to stop and think. It was MY responsibility to figure out what she was talking about. Not a great way to do business.

3. Finally, and very very important, when mistakes do get made on our side of the transaction, how do we make amends? Even the worst error doesnt have to mean the loss of the customer. Respond to the mistake with restitution that matches its seriousness. In my case, given the extent of the mistake with Jason, and the permanence of the result, the salon owner fell far short in restitution and in terms of keeping my business. I had to struggle to simply get a refund, which was insufficient compared to the permanent impact this error has. I wont be back to that salon.

These three points--listening to the customer, communicating back in ways that they will easily understand, and making appropriate amends when mistakes get made on our end-are the core of excellent service and the key to keeping loyal and happy customers.

(As a post script, I should note that Jason still looks darn cute, even without his fur. And Im sure he doesnt care one way or the other about all that wire hair!)

Trish Lambert (http://www.trishlambert.com), principal of 4-R Marketing LLC, is an experienced marketing consultant and creator of the 4-R Marketing Model for service businesses. Very much a "non-conformist" in the marketing world, Trish produces measurable results with marketing that drives revenues for her customers.

Throughout the web, you will find hundreds of business opportunities. From selling coffee to selling cars, you'll find hundreds of things that you have the opportunity to get into to make money. Yet, it is sad to report to you that on average, 70% of all new home based businesses will fail within the first three years that they are out there. Now, before you get discouraged, realize that they do this because of several reasons.

1. They are poorly executed, by individuals that are looking for a get rich quick scheme and realize that, well; it takes work to make money.

2. They are scams that were un-researched, poorly designed or just plain old dumb to start with.

3. The individuals that got into them didn't have the income to put into the business to make the business work.

With that said, there are some excellent things that you can do to actually make an income from home. You will likely need to invest something in it (you don't get something for nothing!) and you'll have to invest time in making it work well.

Here are some things that you can do in brief.

Affiliate Marketing

This is an easy to understand concept. You'll design a website that is geared at selling someone else's product. You get a cut for the sales that are made because someone that came to your website makes a purchase. Often, you get a kickback even if they just visit the site. This is one of many programs that you can usually do together to make even more money. In other words, pair it up with other business opportunities and you are sure to see some profit.

Selling Readymade Products

For those that are looking to sell a product that someone else has made, check out these. Often, these are sold by the development of a website that promotes the product. Things like digitalized products or software are very hot sellers. People come to your website to learn about the product and you sell it to them or provide a link to where they can purchase it. In most cases, you get a commission like payment for doing this.

Think you can't just sell products online anymore? You can. In fact, you'll even be able to find products that are below cost and sell them with a good mark up as well.

Writing And Selling Ebooks

People come to the internet to get information. Why not sell it to them? If you have knowledge (or can get it) about a topic that others want to learn about, you can easily tap into this business market. All you need to do is to write an ebook (or have it written by a professional) and market it. This can be done through eBay or through hundreds of other methods.

Joint Venture

You can often team up your sales with others that are selling the same or similar products. By working together, you can hit a larger amount of people and pull in more sales. A joint venture usually splits the commission made as well as the cost of doing business.

Ecourse

Are you able to teach an individual something? If so, then you should write up an ecourse. This is simply a series of emails, of website information or any other medium that is used to teach or coach an individual. You simply provide information they want and they pay you to do it.

Teleseminars

If you are a good speaker and have information to sell (or that you can obtain) then teleseminars are the way to go. You simply provide a conference call where individuals can call in and listen to what you are teaching them. Of course, they paid you first.

Public Domain Products

Little did you know that you could use material that is labeled as public domain to help enhance your business. Team this up with other types of marketing and you are sure to sell your product.

Directory or Review Websites

By creating websites where individuals go to receive a product or service, you are opening the door to making profits. Team this up with things like affiliate marketing and Google Adsense and you'll see an income.

Membership Sites

Develop a membership of individuals that are looking for your products or information. They will pay you monthly to use your service.

Ezines

One of the fastest growing ways of marketing on the web, you simply put together an online form of a magazine or newspaper and sell it. You can also give it away free and fill it with ads to your products or website campaign.

EBay

Learn how to make money on eBay one of the world's largest auction websites. You can make an income, not just a few dollars if you develop a campaign to do so.

Blogs

Blogs work well on websites. By providing information there about your products or attracting individuals back to your blog, you can promote the products on your website easier.

Google Adsense

Normally individuals pair up Google Adsense with other marketing campaigns to sell their products. This is a way of getting a few extra profits when individuals visit ads that are on your website.

Podcasting

In the digital age, people are looking to stay connected all the time. With podcasting, you can sell your product or service or you can actually build a casting such as a radio show that goes out around the world.

Amazon Book Reseller

If you have books lying around your house that you would like to get rid of, you can become listed on Amazon as a reseller. Unlike eBay this is not an auction site. It's a great way to sell books that you don't need. (You can also find free or really cheap ones to sell if you don't have any!)

Opinion Panels

Why not take a few surveys and make money? There are many survey websites on the web that do actually pay you a good deal of money to take them. Once you find them, its easy sailing here.

Conclusion

Making money online can happen. You have to make the right decision about doing so though. You'll need to find the business that fits into your life and your needs. Then, you'll need to learn how to do the business, what it takes and the tricks of the trade. If you can learn this, you can buy it to learn throughout the web. From a little stream to a full time income, the internet is full of ways you can make money.

Keith Lee is a motivational speaker, a life coach and a fitness instructor for the past 10 yeras. He study and did research on the Internet Marketing Industry for years. Go to his webiste http://www.MyInternetMarketingSuccess.com for some superb tips.

A lot of people teach those new to the Internet marketing arena that the best way to launch your career is to promote something that you are interested, be it your job of work, hobby or even a special talent.

This will get you off to a good start, they insist.

Actually, they are quite wrong and this is why so many, would be, Internet marketers fail within just a few months or even weeks.

You see, the thing is, although YOU may be interested in your chosen subject, it's simply no good building a super web site and promoting it for all you're worth if people don't buy what you're selling.

You can't earn a living running a web site that doesn't sell.

If you'd like to build a web site about your hobby, that's fair enough but if you'd like to earn money from sales with it, you'll need to use a different strategy.

The trick is to find out what people are buying and then start selling that. You may not like the product or service but, after it makes you large stacks of cash each day, you'll soon learn to live with it, I'm sure.

In order to find out what is popular at the moment, you'll need to do a little research. Firstly, visit ClickBank (www.clickbank.com) and see what's going on there.

ClickBank is an Internet service where people selling information and software over the Internet allow others to promote their business for a piece of the action. So, for example, if I am selling a home business course on 'How to produce your own eBook' I can let other people sell it from their web sites or wherever and they get to have say 50% of the takings.

If the price is 100 they get 50 and I get the other 50. It's just a way of shifting your product. Eventually, scores of people are selling your stuff all over the Internet.

ClickBank have tens of thousands of these so called 'Affiliate' schemes and anyone can join for free and start selling other people's wares while keeping some of the profit.

ClickBank allow you to view what is selling the best at the current time. It's THIS list that will guide you to know just what you should be making available from your own web site. After all, if the whole world are buying this type of product then why shouldn't they buy from you to?

More research is needed, however. You'll need to know more about what's going on before committing yourself to a web site that is going to work for you 24/7.

Firstly, how do you find out the top 10 selling information products? This is when you visit ClickBank and see. Choose one of the top 10, affiliate to it and build a web site to promote it. Some affiliate schemes make the web site for you whereby you just enter your details and affiliate number then upload it to your web space.

At the time of writing I was able to look at the popular listings: Business to business, Education, Publishing, New products, Promotion, Web design, Industrial, Reports, Home and family, Marketing, Money and employment, Computing and Internet, Fun and entertainment, Sports and recreation, society and culture and so on.

By clicking on any category ClickBank will list separate sub categories where they are listed in order of popularity and sales. Simply pick the one that suits you and start promoting. It is free to join and you can earn plenty.

Once you are up and running you'll need to promote your site to those that search for your subject. This is where 'keywords' come in to play.

You'll need to find which words people are typing into the search engines when they are looking for something. If you are selling publications on 'Ice cream' for example, you'll find that simply setting up Ice and Cream as keywords won't enable people to find your site over anybody else's who are also promoting the same thing as you.

To get people to your site you'll need to use Google's AdWords. By opening an account with Google AdWords you'll be able to insert your listing automatically on the customers search results page. There is a charge for this but it is based on how much you want to Pay Per Click. See www.google.com and click on 'Advertising Programmes' to visit the 'how to' pages.

To find out what people are typing into the search engines to find your product visit: www.overture.com and it will give the top keywords to use in Google AdWords.

Once in your account in Google, you simply bid on the words you want in your promotion. Careful selection will bring up your web site advertising high on the results page so that the customer will visit your site and buy your product.

You also need to join Google's AdSense programme whereby you have other people's advertising on your site. This way, all ads will be on the same subject as yours and you will be paid each time somebody clicks through on your page. So you earn money per click and also money for selling your affiliated product. Watch your account grow.

By researching the keywords used on a regular basis you can stay at the top of the results page list on the Google search engine site.

There are marketers earning thousands of pounds each week using this method. Once all is up and running you can start on your next web site with another top 10 affiliate programme.

Full details are on the ClickBank web site, the Google web site and, of course, Overture.com

This is yet another way to actually earn money by using the Internet.

(c)2006 Martyn Brown: 20+ years involved in the home business industry.