With Guest Speaker Joel D Canfield

Wednesday, September 24, 2008
5:00 pm–6:00 pm Pacific

Join us for one hour to learn how focusing on the customer in every aspect of your business, not just those we traditionally associate with customer service, will help your business thrive.

Who Should Attend? –Solo professionals and New Small Business Operators

Customer–centric thinking is vital to service related small businesses. Too many service related businesses have gotten so wrapped up in process, cost–cutting, and gimmicky advertising that they've forgotten that without customers, there is no business. Even those who remember the customer don't always know what customers want and how to provide it.

Customer–centric thinking means focusing on the customer in every aspect of your business, not just those we traditionally associate with customer service.

Know the four basic consumer needs. Get inside the minds of your suspects, prospects and clients to see how they make decisions, how they learn, and how meeting their greatest unfilled emotional need can help you succeed.

You will learn:

* The single most important thing to know about a client or prospect
* The four basic consumer needs
* How to avoid 'zero sum' thinking in persuasion
* How to achieve synergy instead of compromise
* The core of effective ethical persuasion
* How to avoid three consumer decision–making roadblocks
* How to use emotional bank accounts in permission marketing
* Why communication mirroring is important
* How most people's self-perception affects how you do business

Format: Barbara Davis, life and business coach, will have a one–on–one discussion with Joel about The Commonsense Entrepreneur.

About Joel D Canfield: Joel D Canfield, The Commonsense Entrepreneur, speaks, writes, and consults on customer–centric thinking as a primary tool for service related small businesses to reach their business goals. His topics include Commonsense Customer–Centric Thinking, Effective Entrepreneurial Etiquette, Commonsense Small Business Marketing, and Cultivating Quality Employees.

Joel has written two business books this year, 49 Commonsense Business Observations and The Commonsense Entrepreneur.

Registration: This is a Complimentary Teleseminar - Just go to Uncover Your Brilliance and click on the button below (Register!) click on Check Out and fill out the form; that's all you have to do! We'll email you the teleseminar telephone and pin number. We'll send a reminder a few days before the call.

Last month in a local business journal the two small business articles were about blogging and marketing your business during this economic downturn. So I thought I'd share some points from each of them.

Marketing
Many larger businesses hold back from spending money on marketing during difficult economic times. This creates an opportunity for smaller businesses. Since the larger companies have cut back on marketing dollars, most media outlets offer special pricing to smaller businesses in order to get the business they lost from the larger companies. So now's actually a good time to invest in marketing. While your competitors are holding back from marketing, you can take advantage of the special pricing and get your business noticed.

Since consumers are looking to save money, your marketing needs to appeal to their need for both value and quality. This is your chance to help them see why doing business with you can help them during their financial difficulties.

Blogging
Can a blog really help you grow your business? There are small business owners that know it does. A blog can be beneficial to a business. It can humanize your business, improve customer service, give your target audience valuable information they need and want, drive traffic to your website, build your credibility and establish you as an expert in your industry, promote your services and generate income.

Consumers are always surfing the internet looking for information. A blog can provide the information they are looking for. It can be used to ask and answer questions from your readers. Search engines like blogs. They give blogs exposure because they contain fresh, newsworthy content.

Be consistent by posting regularly, three times a week if possible. It will take about three to six months to get exposure and establish yourself as an expert. So persistence is key. If you don't have the time to do it all yourself, hire a virtual assistant to help you create and maintain your blog. You can also prepare a week's worth of entries at once and schedule them to be posted on specific days at specific times.

I'd love to hear your opinions. Let me know what's worked for you.

Your customer service needs to be remarkable. That means that your customers will 'remark' on it to others-their friends and business colleagues. Remarkable customer service equals great word of mouth marketing-at no cost to you.

Yet too often we find small businesses not providing remarkable customer service. I recently read Dan Kennedy's Column in the Sacramento Business Journal. He relates a story of being in a fish market a friend of his no longer goes to because of the poor customer service he received a couple of years previously. Mr. Kennedy thought he'd bring this up to the manager now to see how he would respond. The manager blew him off with "that was two years ago...you know about dealing with customers...I don't see what I can do at this point." Nothing more.

Mr. Kennedy states that the business owner should have encouraged him to ask his friend to come in to the store to see him. He should have shown that he cared.

This happens all too often. A customer lost, maybe more if that customer then leaves and bad-mouths the business. What could be done to turn this around, keep the customer and create remarkable service? It doesn't take much. A small personal gesture can make all the difference. In fact, a customer that has a problem solved to their delight is much more likely to tell others about your remarkable customer service.

Faced with this decision, many small business owners will pursue the potential prospect. They may figure they already have the current client and go after a new one. But let's consider doing just the opposite.

Today I had to make this decision. I had arranged a meeting with a potential prospect tomorrow just to talk about our businesses to each other and see if there was a possibility we could refer one another and maybe, just maybe this potential prospect could use my services. Then a current client had an emergency job that needs to be done by end of day tomorrow. There was no way I could commit to getting this job done if I kept the meeting with the prospect. So I called, sincerely apologized, and rescheduled.

My current client is going to get her emergency project taken care of within 24 hours and just imagine all the great word of mouth that can generate. Can you imagine it - 'she took care of me, put everything else on hold, and got the job done'? A for sure thing instead of a possible new client. It makes me feel good to be able to take care of my clients like that. I call that 'remarkable' customer service.

What do customer service and accounting have to do with each other? As a business owner, your customer's needs should come first in every aspect of your business - including your accounting procedures. So give your accounting procedures an audit and find out what your customers would like to see improved. Is there something in the way you prepare invoices for your customers or apply payments from your customers that can be improved? Is everyone in your accounting department also trained in how to handle customers and complaints they may have in the billing process?

As a side note, since my business is focusing less on accounting and more on helping service businesses with their self-promotion, Thursday's blog will now be more about customer service. Watch for tidbits on accounting here and there though.