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Advertising Tips ....................................... 24 December 1999 My very best wishes to everyone for a Merry Christmas - whatever your beliefs, it's a special time when we can all enjoy the company of family and friends. This week Responding to Complaints by Jennifer Stewart Processing Information by Jennifer Stewart Seven Habits of Highly Effective Webmasters by William Nabaza Quick Tip ~ * ~ BOX PLANET What's it all about? Click here to find out! ~ * ~ It's that time of year again, when stress levels go up and normally even-tempered people do and say things they normally wouldn't. If your customers happen to fall into this category and start complaining about your products or services, what do you do? Argue? Defend yourself stoutly (and loudly)? Tell them to go elsewhere? None of the above! For some ideas on how to respond to complaints from customers, read my article below - you'll see that there are a number of ways to react, without losing either your customers or your cool ... Responding to Complaints by Jennifer Stewart It's possible that, in the course of your business dealings, you may (just may) have to deal with a complaint from a customer or client .... There are two ways you can go about this:
Replies to Complaints Most businesses these days have (or should have) as their policy that the customer is always right. It's far better business sense to replace a couple of items which don't need replacing - and reap the reward of customer satisfaction and possible referrals- than to insist on your rights and lose unknown numbers of customers and referrals. So, the aim of your response to an irate customer is to find out what he / she wants and to give it to him / her. Even if the request appears to be entirely unreasonable, what you earn in Brownie Points, often makes up for what you lose in replacing the item (unless of course it's a Maserati or the like!). 1. Express regret - sincerely (don't say ...we can't understand how this happened... because this implies that the customer is careless or stupid - since no-one else has had this trouble). 2. Explain how the trouble occurred (the customer is entitled to know what went wrong- this also reflects well on your business, since it shows that you've taken the complaint seriously enough to investigate it thoroughly - and we all like to be taken seriously!). 3. Tell the customer what you are going to do to rectify the situation - the best thing to do is exactly what the customer said he / she wanted. If this is totally impossible, suggest a viable alternative. Sometimes the customer will be at fault - by forgetting to include a correct address, or leaving out the cheque. Again, don't write anything, which might make the customer feel silly. NOT "... you failed to enclose your cheque ..." BUT "Your goods are packed and ready for despatch. Immediately on receipt of your cheque, which apparently was overlooked in your original letter, we shall send them as requested." Sometimes, it is just not possible to give the customer what he / she wants; and in this case you must exercise extreme tact in the wording of your letter. The best way of refusing is as follows: 1. Begin with the refusal - I know it's painful, but it's far better to let your customer know how things stand from the very beginning. 2. Explain, in detail, why the request had to be refused. This way, you have the rest of your letter to try to set things right with your customer, and hopefully to end on a positive note (rather than hitting him / her with the refusal at the end). Note * the expression of regret should sound sincere. "I am sorry... "sounds better than the colder, "I regret to inform you ... " * point out all the reasons for refusing the request * soften the blow by offering some small consideration. It might be a discount on the next purchase; a voucher for a smaller item (a scarf, tie etc); a complimentary gizmo from another business (with whom you have a reciprocal arrangement); flowers; tickets to a film or whatever. * Such 'sweeteners' are worth much more than their cost. Instead of a disgruntled customer, blackening your name, you'll have a happy person, willing to tell everyone her story's happy ending. Listeners will see your side and will say things like, " ...well, they didn't have to do anything really, but wasn't it nice of them?" _________________________________ Jennifer Stewart offers professional writing services - copy writing, editing and proof reading your: web pages, press releases, technical booklets, newsletters, business proposals, reports or any other writing projects. After leaving full-time teaching, she wrote (and now markets) writing courses for students and adults who want to improve their writing skills. For more information, visit her website:http://www.write101.com Processing Information by Jennifer Stewart You hear a great deal these days about information processing - it usually has "technology" tacked onto the end of it and it refers to the revolution that has occurred using computers to communicate. But did you know that there's a much older (and more powerful) form of information processing? It's called the human brain! Humans have been processing information for tens of thousands of years - using the same highly effective means. There are three basic steps in this process:
Selection You're bombarded with stimuli from countless sources every minute of every day, so how does your brain survive this information overload? Simple. It selects what is useful from what is irrelevant. So consumers, presented with hundreds of advertising images in a typical day, will select those which interest them and those which are relevant to their needs. A customer looking for a new car will be 'tuned in' to information about cars, while a customer thinking about what to have for a dinner party will be open to ads about food, cooking, decorating etc but will ignore all the ads about cars. A customer who's thinking about a particular product is also more likely to understand and store the information away for later use. Organisation The customer who is about to buy a new car will get information from a variety of sources:
It's very easy to get confused, so there have to be strategies for organising all this information. Here are a couple of different strategies that are used to sort through the mass of information: This involves sorting all the information into categories according to types of brands - the cheapest brand; the most popular brand; the brand driven by a celebrity / friend / relative; the brand used in a TV show. This avoids the more difficult task of evaluating the brands according to criteria such as price, performance, workmanship, engine specification or whatever. If you're marketing products to customers who make these sorts of choices, you need to provide plenty of visual hooks - colourful ads that attract attention, bright packaging; symbols that associate your product with some pleasurable experience - and also music, jingles and slogans. The customers who make decisions based on brands are usually more informed - these are the people who are knowledgeable about the product and who can evaluate different characteristics between brands. So the informed buyer looking for a car might evaluate the cars on the basis of three characteristics regarding engine capacity, six regarding braking systems, four regarding fuel economy and so on. A less informed buyer might just compare general considerations of engine capacity, brakes and economy. Generally the more expensive the purchase, the more likely it is that the consumers will use the more complex brand strategies to evaluate the products. Gear your advertising to these guidelines - if you market high cost items:
If you market lower cost items:
Retention Even though you might think your product is the best thing since sliced bread and be happy to discuss it and think about it all day, sadly your customers won't share this fascination. So you have to find a way to make sure that it's your product that springs to mind when they're ready to buy. How? Studies have shown that the information that is most likely to be retained is the information that is used frequently - your advertising should serve to remind the customer about your product. Frequency of advertising has been shown to assist retention of information - it's a simple case of "tell 'em and tell 'em often." It's better to spread your advertising over a longer period, instead of waging a blitz campaign because retention decreases over time. A little often is better than a lot all at once! Keep It Simple Make sure that your advertising can be understood by your target group - there's no point in presenting highly technical, detailed information about corn chips - all the customer wants to know is that they taste good. Information that is too complex or ambiguous will be ignored - or worse, misunderstood - so keep it simple. _______________________________ Jennifer Stewart is a professional writer who offers copy writing, proof reading and editing services for businesses and individuals from her site at http://www.write101.com You can subscribe to free Writing Tips to improve your writing http://www.onelist.com/subscribe/WritingTips She has undertaken a variety of assignments - writing articles for ezines and the print media; preparing award submissions for business clients; copy writing and proof reading works of non-fiction; editing web pages and ebooks; writing press releases and much more. If the spelling of words like "organisation" in this article worried you, please read this: http://www.write101.com/aus.htm ~ * ~ Seven Habits of Highly Effective Webmasters by William Nabaza A highly effective website will always reflect
its highly effective webmaster. Throughout the years of doing a number of
websites, I've seen quite a few effective webmasters all over the web and I
would like to share to you their successes by exploring on this topic:
"Seven Habits of Highly Effective Webmasters." ~ * ~ If you received this newsletter from a friend, subscribe now and get your FREE, weekly newsletter which gives expert tips on how to write effective advertisements for your business ~ * ~ Quick Tip For all those collectors and hobbyists - now there is a unique site that caters for all your needs. http://www.write101.com/sands.htm will put you in touch with fellow enthusiasts so that you can find that missing piece for your collection, sell or swap excess pieces or just talk about your passions! Sign up for the free newsletter when you visit. ********************************** If you have trouble with putting your thoughts down in writing, you may just need a refresher course! Write Well home study tutorials will help you to improve your writing, so you can write well whatever the occasion. http://www.write101.com ********************************** Jennifer Stewart offers professional writing services - copy writing, editing and proof reading your: web pages, press releases, technical booklets, newsletters, business proposals, reports or any other writing projects: http://www.write101.com ********************************** To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to Specials3-unsubscribe@onelist.com or go to the ONElist web site, at www.onelist.com, and select the User Centre link from the menu bar on the left. This menu will also let you change your subscription between digest and normal mode. |
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