by Michael B. Perini, ABC
perini &  associates

So, you have a new Facebook company or business site.  Congrats!  Consumers purchase brands and products they like or follow on Facebook, a popular social networking site, 51% of the time these days.  Facebook users login every day at 41%.  Both of these percentages are increasing monthly.  In other words, if you don’t have a company presence on Facebook you are likely loosing opportunities to connect with current customers and potential new customers.

As exciting as having a company, business or orgazinational site is, now what?   By using Facebook, you can communicate with your customers, know what they want, and use them to help promote your business. This is done when people add themselves as a fan, write on your Wall, upload photos, and interact with other fans.

Here are useful tips that we use for our popular site.  We encourage you to try these out:

• Keep your fans engaged by giving them useful and relevant info. Share quality content with them to incite comments and send updates at least once a week. Content should be a mix of your own content and what is called in the industry, “OPC” – other people’s content.  It’s a good thing to share other industry blogs, links, resources, etc. That way you’ll be seen as a business that cares enough to share a good depth and breadth of your topic and not just your own opinion.  Always provide the source for the information.

• Link your facebook page to your newsletter and to your website – Remember, it’s about getting your customers and members to connect and interact with you through social media  The more users interact with your page, the more publicity you get that helps increase awareness about your products and services.

• Add your unique logo or a picture that represents your business as your profile picture.  Seems easy enough, but lots of facebook sites don’t take the time to upload a photo that is representative of their product or service.

• Tell your customers about your fan page and ask them to show their support by joining Facebook and becoming fans.  Want to be a fan of our site?  Click here!

• Regardless of business, share a video of one of your staff offering tips or something like that, it’s a great opportunity when that functionality is built into the page.  We upload our “pclips” to our Facebook page on a regular basis. Check them out here.

• Keep in mind it’s better to have a smaller, highly targeted, qualified and engaged audience than a large audience who doesn’t pay much attention to you. Encourage customers to “Like” you on Facebook; give them a coupon if they do. You can do this in your store or from your website or blog.

We would like to hear from you.  What useful tips have you tried that have worked.

Recommendations: Worth reading or viewing

Occasionally, I will recommend a  news article, book, blog post or a short video clip to view. This “eperini Readview” references the challenges business owners face with customers — mbp

Customers Driving Your Crazy — You’re not alone

By Rhonda ABRAMS, USA TODAY

Customers – can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em. If you’re in a business with lots of customers, many days you may wonder, “Why do I have to be nice to these people?” People who are otherwise nice, smart, patient, somehow can become demanding, dumb and pushy when they become customers.

Yet, in today’s world, it’s imperative for all businesses, but especially small businesses, to excel in customer service.It may be the only thing that keeps customers coming back, as they can often buy products cheaper online or at superstores. And online review services like “Yelp” are only a click away. Make a customer mad, the whole world soon knows.

That makes customer service in a small company critical for survival. But it doesn’t mean it’s always easy.

For instance, in my company, we sell a software program that previously did not work on Apple computers. All over our website – in big letters — we had reminders: “Won’t work on Macs.” Yet, every week a customer called us when they discovered it wouldn’t work on their Mac. Duh!

Getting frustrated at the seeming illiteracy of customers would have done us no good. All it would have done is created an atmosphere of “us vs. them.” Instead, we needed to change our attitude and view our customers as partners. We looked to see what we could learn. (One thing – we needed to have a Mac version of our software, which we now do.)

And that’s the first step in providing great customer service – an attitude adjustment. Approach interactions with your customers as a relationship, not just a transaction.

Some experts advise thinking of the “lifetime value of a customer.” After all, refunding $50 may not matter much, if it keeps a customer coming back month-after-month. But even if you’re only going to deal with a customer one time, if you approach it as a relationship, you’re much more likely to develop a fan who will spread the word about your company.

In particular, great customer service depends on:

1. Integrity: The basis of all great customer service is delivering a great product or service with honesty and fairness. You MUST deliver the product or service as offered or better. And your prices must be fair – even if not the least expensive.

2. Knowledge: You – or your employees – must understand what you’re selling. It’s frustrating when you go to a company and the salespeople can’t answer even basic questions about their products or services. Training your employees to understand your product and your business is a key to great customer service.

3. Set the tone: A company’s culture gets transmitted from the top down. Employees only treat customers as well as they are treated by their employer and managers. If you deal with your employees with respect and decency, they are far more likely to treat your customers that way.

4. Training: Most entrepreneurs and small business owners are so busy, that they tend to take a “sink or swim” approach to their employees’ training. You can’t expect employees to know what to do – as well as to understand products and policies – unless they’re trained.

5. Empower your employees: The Nordstrom department store chain is known for exceptional customer service. It starts from empowering their employees to make decisions and their one-line policy: “Use good judgment in all situations.” Employees who are empowered to make decisions not only provide far better service, they’re more satisfied in their work.

6. Genuine good manners: Smile. Be polite. Say thank you – a lot. Remember, at all times, your customers are people, not just dollar signs.

7. Go the extra mile: Whenever you can, try to make the customer happy. Is the customer always right? Anyone in business can tell you that they’re not. But whatever you can do to exceed their expectations and solve their problems increases their loyalty to you.

8. Communication: Sooner or later, something’s going to go wrong. Even in the worst situations, it’s possible to provide great customer service. The key is to keep the customer informed. Nothing infuriates a customer more than to be surprised by bad news.

9. Say you’re sorry. Finally, when things do go wrong or you can’t accommodate a customer, apologize, sincerely. You should be sorry when you can’t please your customers.

In today’s business climate, the difference between a loyal customer – and bigger profits – is great customer service. When you’re committed to your customers, they’re more likely to be committed to you.

Top Email Marketing Services

By Michael B. Perini, ABC
perini & associates

One of the best ways to keep your audience coming back is through email marketing.  I believe strongly that it’s better and more effective than regular email.

Using attractive, professional-looking email communications to stay in regular touch with customers and prospects is a great method for building strong customer relationships.

Here are three reasons why you should consider email marketing:

1. Affordable. Email marketing is affordable regardless of budget.  Besides, you can save on paper and postage.  There’s nothing to print, no stamps to buy, no envelopes to stuff, and no more paper cuts. Being “green” is an environmental friendly good result.

2. Boost customer communication. Email newsletters are fast and inexpensive to create. So you can send them more regularly than paper ones. And email marketing puts you in customers’ inboxes more accurately than regular email. So you’ll avoid spam filters and be seen by more people. And you’ll stay top of mind with people who want to hear from you.

3.  Target your audience. By segmenting your database and creating smaller customer lists based on their interests you can send more relevant and targeted messages. The result: more response and action on your emails.  After all, isn’t that what you want?

There are a number of good email marketing services to use to get the word out.

Here are the 5 top services we recommend.  All allow you to import mailing lists, remove unsubscribed contacts, group your email contacts, automatically detect duplicate emails, forward to social media outlets and require an Opt-in feature.

Constant Contact

iContact

Benchmark Email

MailChimp

Pinpointe

Finally,  from these recommended services it’s quick to see results with real-time reports.

Constant Contact, for example, allows you to schedule email delivery for when your audience is most likely to check email, so you’ll increase the likelihood they’ll read it and take action.

You can see who opened your emails, who forwarded them to friends, and even who you need to resend them to. You can also tell who clicked on which links in your emails, allowing you to understand what people are interested in reading about, and tailor your content to get the best response and most business.

Email marketing an easy, effective, and affordable way to keep your audience coming back!  Let us know if we can help you get started.  If you already use email marketing let us know any lessons learned.

by Michael B. Perini, ABC
perini & associates

You go to the doctor, right?

You change the oil in your car.  Yes?

You have someone review your taxes.  Hopefully so!

Well then, why not have a PR — public relations checkup?

Look, we know it is a tough time but now more than ever there is a need to manage conversations and we have a lot to offer to help you reach new levels.

The recession coupled with falling readership of traditional media, the rise of online resources and the emergence of digital networks have lead to dramatic changes in the PR industry.  More than ever it is time to have a professional practitioner conduct an “exam” or better worded an ASSESSMENT.

The Communication Assessment Tool (CAT)© developed by Perini & Associates is a useful process to analyze the communications environment within an organization.  The tool can assist with a special event activity or even issue advocacy.  The tool works for start-ups, non-profits and businesses of all sizes.

The purpose of the tool is to accurately provide a business owner, CEO or organizational leader with a roadmap to integrate public relations strategies, tactics and procedure to  build brand awareness and credibility.  Connecting with target audiences through various tools/outlets is an organic method of communication. Doing so enhances brand loyalty and influence to create a demand for your product/service/support or event attendance.  However, you need help in establishing a solid baseline.  In other words, finding out the health of the “patient” before a road to recovery is chartered.  I often tell folks I am trying to find out if we need “two aspirins or open-heart surgery! ”

It is important when going through the assessment to be honest in responding to the five areas listed:

• Environment
• Reputation Management
• Business Development
• Public Affairs
• Access Services