Customer Service/
Public Relations
If you have a great product, offered at a
great price, can you fudge on the customer
service just a bit? No way! A big part, no,
a huge part of the value you offer to both
potential customers and loyal customers is
excellent customer service. If a customer
wants to purchase your great product at
your great price, but he discovers that your
service is unreliable, impersonal, or inefficient, it’s likely that your disappointed
and/or frustrated customer will take his
business elsewhere—even if the product is
less desirable and the price is higher.
Invest sincerely in your customers.
Serve them. Honor them. Sound familiar?
“As ye would that men should do to you, do
ye also to them likewise.” (Luke 6: 31)
The rule of thumb for excellent customer
service that will delight your customers and
benefit your business is “under-promise and
over-deliver.” For example, honestly inform
your customer that his purchase will be
shipped within the next five days, and then
do your best to get it sent out the door in
three days or less: under-promise and over-deliver. Be honest, be diligent, be responsible; if you do that, everybody wins.
Cross Promotion
Cross promotion takes place when two or
more companies agree to promote each
other’s businesses or products to their
customer/email list. Typically, the participating companies do not charge each other
for this exchange.
There are several ways to cross
promote, including:
• Placing text or banner ads on each
other’s website or in each other’s print
or E-Newsletter.
• Sending dedicated advertising blasts
to each other’s email list.
• Offering samples of product to each
other’s list. For example, you may
have an E-Book to offer as a freebie to
customers who purchase from the
company with whom you are cross
promoting.
• Interviewing each other and sharing
the interview with each other’s
customer base.
• Exchanging large ads on each other’s
web sites.
Cross promotion is a way to effectively
reach hundreds, if not thousands, of new
customers, with little or no direct cost to
your business. Plus, you’ll develop invaluable business relationships and networking
contacts. In today’s marketplace, you
should seek out potential marketing partners just as much as you watch your
competitors, if not more!
What Works
Best for You?
There are lots of great ways to market your
product. Mari offers these insights about
the following options as you ponder what
choices will work best for you:
Print Ads
Print is designed to reach the readers in
your market: to communicate your logo
and brand alongside that of other leaders in
the market, to create status, to provide a
little information to spur the readers’
interest in your product, and most importantly, to communicate to your readers that
your product is a real choice when lined up
with the leaders in the market.
Print has legs; readers can look at it
again and again and keep it for years! They
also can hand it off to their friends. In the
case of The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine,
many of our readers tell us they keep it on
