Well, the rain has been coming down this weekend here in South Carolina, a perfect atmosphere for writing! My family spent yesterday celebrating my mom’s birthday (Happy Birthday, Mom!) It’s always nice to relax with my family after Sunday lunch. I hope you had a great weekend, too.

Customer service is such an important part of business, even online, that many business owners overlook. Sure, marketing is important, and having a great product or service is important. But how do you plan on keeping your customers coming back if you aren’t focusing on their needs? I can’t tell you how many times I have decided not to go back to a store because, even though they had the product I wanted, they were so rude to me! On the other hand, I may choose to continue doing business with a company, even if their services or products are a bit more expensive than the competition, just because they were so friendly.

On this same subject, have you created a website that is customer-friendly? Do your pages flow together well, or are they scattered with information? Many people who use the web will visit a website to gather information only to immediately leave if the website seems hard to follow. Get someone with a fresh perspective to look at your website for you and tell you whether or not it is customer-friendly. You may be surprised at the number of hits to your website!

Remember as you go about establishing your business that everything you send out with your name on it must be focused on the customer in order to have an impact. Look at everything as though you were the customer. You will be amazed at the difference a little customer service makes!

To your success,
Katie

Happy Father’s Day to all of you fathers out there! I hope you all had a wonderful Father’s Day and felt loved by you kids!

Can you believe we’re already half-way through June? Where has this year gone? It’s time to re-evaluate your business. How is that book coming along? Has it fallen to the wayside? What about your articles and newsletters? Are you submitting new work each week?

Don’t despair. Summer can be a hard time to feel motivated to work since the kids are out of school, and it stays light outside for much longer. If you don’t feel like spending time on the computer, go back to the old-fashioned way of doing things – use a notebook and a pencil! You can take these tools with you anywhere and work while not missing out on time at the park with your family. Jot down notes while sitting at the doctor’s office or while watching the kids go down the slide. You can set aside time later to type your notes into your computer.

Remember that your time with your family is valuable, so take the opportunity to spend time with them while you can! Happy summer!

To your success,
Katie

I’m going to veer off the usual subject a little today and focus on customer service instead. When running your own business, this is key to making your business run smoothly.

Take my own experience as the customer this past weekend. My friend, Aimie, and I had decided to go out on the town for her birthday, and we decided to stop for smoothies at a local drink spot. I had already received my drink, and we were waiting patiently for hers. As we stood in line, I began to get very hot (the air conditioner was not on), and I started to get rather dizzy. Almost in slow motion, I began to feel my cup dropping from my hands. I reached out to grab it, but I missed. Strawberry banana smoothie lay all over the floor, right in the middle of a large group of customers!

Of course, I knew it was my fault and guessed that I was out one smoothie. However, the people behind the counter immediately jumped into action, cleaning up my mess and assuring me that they would fix me another one, free of charge. The fact that they were willing to bend over backwards and were so apologetic really alleviated the embarrassment of the moment.

That is not the only thing I can say about these wonderful people. They had called out someone else’s order in the meantime, and the customer had not heard her order. She came up to the counter, rather upset with them for making her wait for so long. They immediately took the blame, apologizing that she had not been able to hear them call out her order. Most people would have been snippy right back.

The point of this long tirade is that the wonderful customer service at this place completely changed the atmosphere of two very “sticky” situations. They were always smiling and more than happy to help the customers.

How do you treat your customers? Do you bend over backwards to make them more comfortable with your business, or do you gripe and complain about “going the extra mile”? No matter how you feel about a particular customer, the sign of a good business person is knowing how to make the customer feel at ease with you. Remember, each customer will probably tell only one other person if business was good, but they are likely to tell up to seven people if the business was bad!

To your success,

Katie

Hello! How was your weekend? My wonderful husband gave me a day at the spa for my birthday, so I was finally able to take advantage of it on Saturday. After four hours, I was so relaxed, I hardly knew what to do with myself for the rest of the day! Yesterday we celebrated my sister Bonnie’s 22nd birthday with her new boyfriend who is celebrating his birthday today. As Bonnie is getting ready to move far away from home, we are trying to spend as much time with her as possible before she leaves us.

In the business arena, the hot topic this week in one of my forums is article writing. It seems that many people are interested, but few know how to write articles or where to place them. As I’ve said before, article writing is a key marketing tool for your business. And it’s usually free to submit articles (some websites may charge a minor fee).

Choose a topic in your expertise. Now write a few paragraphs pertaining to that topic. Be sure to use layman’s terms instead of terms known only to experts in your field (unless they’re your target market). Know the key points you want your reader to grasp and highlight on them. Before you submit your article for consideration, make sure you check grammar and spelling or have someone else check it for you (such as www.katiespen.com).

Now that you have your article written, to whom do you submit it? You can begin by searching for your topic on the Internet. You may be able to submit your article to someone else’s website or ezine. Just remember that you will probably be asked to save space for them on your website in return.

While you’re on the Internet, go ahead and submit your article to some article sites. There are millions of article sites available that will take your article. Just be sure to include a resource box with your contact information so you receive full credit for your article. This is a great way to advertise your business.

Finally, submit your article to magazines and newspapers. Local newspapers are the best venue for article submissions as they are short on reporters and always looking for free articles. Remember that the main reason for submitting articles is to promote your business, so don’t worried if you aren’t paid every time.

If you are still having a hard time with articles, contact me at katie@katiespen.com, and I will help you succeed in article writing.

To your success,

Katie