How To Make Your Internet Marketing Business Stand Out?

Written By Tan Hai Liang

I had just went shopping for new clothes in MetroJaya with my girlfriend. This was not a planned event as we only saw the big sale while we were walking past the entrance of the store.

Since I was looking for a pair of cotton trousers, we decided to walk in and try our luck.

We browsed and tried several pair of trousers and the shopping experience led from buying pants to shirts.

At the end of the tiring but fruitful day, I only managed to get a couple of shirts which my girlfriend was convinced that its a good buy.

We paid at the cashier and left. On our way out, my girlfriend was telling me that the sales staff we met everywhere and the cashier were very polite and accommodating. She said that all the while, the staff there were rude and unhelpful. She said probably the company had finally gave the staff some customer relation training to improve their service.

This got me thinking, hmm yeah the staff were helpful and were friendly and that actually made my shopping experience a pleasant one. I would have left early if I can’t find any trousers while meeting unhelpful or rude sales people. After all, why stay in a place where you don’t feel welcomed.

In all business whether its small, medium or large, customer interaction is the first and only point of contact which will result in a satisfied or unhappy customer. There is truth in people saying that one unhappy customer is worse than having 10 satisfied customers.

In our day and age, people are looking for a “good” experience whenever they buy something. Many of us can afford the daily necessities and now demand service. Competition among businesses have benefited and raised the expectations of customers. Unless your business monopolises certain products of high demand, its business suicide to have rude or unhelpful frontline sales person handling your precious customers. Reputation is everything in business.

In different businesses there are different levels of customers’ expectation of services.

Take restaurant as an example. I was having lunch with my friends in Kim Gary, a Hong Kong based franchise serving typical Hong Kong food. I order barbeque pork spareribs and it came out slightly raw. I showed them the spareribs and they apologised and took it back.

Later, they served me a new dish with the same order. I was impressed that they would replace your order if it is unsatisfactory. However, instead of serving a proper cut, they serve the end cuts where there is little meat and the ribs were slightly over burnt. This whole thing dampens my initial impression of them and my friends and I decided not to eat in this place anymore. Though Kim Gary tried to provide a good replacement service, they fail miserably to do it. My guess was they want to save cost but still provide a replacement. This is worse than not doing it at all.

Providing customer relation training and replacing a dish will incur some cost but making an unhappy customer will make you lose more than the small cost of a dish or training program per employee. Let’s assume the retail price of the spare ribs is RM25.00 and assume that the cost of the dish is RM25.00 as well. By having an unhappy customer, I will not go back for meals, thus losing potential sales from me forever. If I go back for a meal they can recover the earlier cost. Now lets say when my friends and I decide to have a meal in the vicinity, someone suggest Kim Gary, I would object and give my reasons to discourage people to go. This will reduce potential customers to the business. All because they wanted to save RM25.00.

What can all this mean in our internet marketing business? We don’t meet or see our customers. Even though we have advance our business into the digital world, the basic human approach to marketing and making a sales is still the same. People buy on recommendations. How many times have we asked our friends, relatives, colleagues or even acquaintances where is a good place to have a steak?

Don’t underestimate the power of word of mouth. People do really believe recommendations based on personal experience. Word of mouth can work for you or against you.

In internet marketing, you are competing with marketers ranging from incompetent to professional. This means that you can be better than many, and there are many that you can learn from.

How can you stand out among all the competition? You need to observe the level of service your competitor provides and outdo them. Some companies have set the standard of service very high and have a large customer base, how they respond to customer needs and build rapport with them is what you need to learn.

There are certain basic service that people expect from you, if they buy from you. If you promise them free bonuses after certain action, provide them with the bonuses as you have promised after they had completed the action. Don’t set additional actions to do after they have completed the first. Fulfil your promised as what you have described in your opt-in page, salescopy, newsletter or emails.

How do you treat refunds? Do you fulfil your money back guarantee? Do you really return the money or it’s just a hollow promise, hoping that none of your customers request a refund because they are unhappy with your product or service.

What is your response time in email support? Do you reply very quickly or it takes some time? Quick response is expected when people provide email support. Beef up your email response time. The faster you respond to your customer, the more impressive your service. If possible, outsource your support and get a live help.

Many good service providers give live help via online chat either during office hours or 24 hours. This is one of the best support system for any global business. It builds your reputation that you are willing to go all out to help your customers. Remember, the objective of providing excellent customer service is to build your business reputation.

What distinguish you from other internet marketers is your level of service. In turn, your level of service builds your reputation. If people enjoy buying from you, you can be assured that they’ll be addicted to the feel good factor you provide and buy from you often.