There’s a common saying in Internet Marketing.. you’ll have heard it regularly. It says that “the money is in the list”. Unfortunately that isn’t strictly true. In truth, the money is in our customers pockets until they decide to part with it. So technically, customers are the most important part of our online business. Buying, money-ready customers are the only cog in our business which CANNOT be removed!

So, it’s really important that we take care of them as best as we possibly can. We need to keep them satisfied, whatever this takes! One disgruntled customer will be able to ruin your internet reputation faster than you can imagine, and you’ll need 1,000 raving fans to begin reversing the damage. The nature of the internet (and media outlets in general) is such that bad news travels FAST and praise takes time.

How do we keep customers happy? Well here’s a few ways to get you started:

1. Underpromise and Overdeliver

Make sure that your products/services, whether they are free or paid, provide much more value that you promised. It’s a great way to get people on your side and raving about you. There’s a couple of aspects to this:

- Firstly make sure that your products are actually of a high quality. I know it sounds ridiculous but I’ve heard many marketers say “Oh, it’s OK.. they’ll like it. And nobody asks for their money back anyway!”. PLEASE don’t take this attitude. You should never release ANYTHING that you wouldn’t be delighted to buy yourself!

- There’s a great way to increase your “over-delivery”. I like to write a sales letter for my products and then take a few things out of the copy. This way the product is sure to contain more than they expect, giving them a really nice surprise upon purchasing the product! It’s simple, takes a few minutes to implement.

2. Refund With A SMILE

If you’ve been selling online for any length of time, then chances are you’ll have sold something and had someone ask for a refund. It’s inevitable and impossible to avoid. None of us are perfect enough to give everyone exactly what they want. Our products won’t be for everyone and there will always be those who simply wanted to nosey at what you are offering.

Unfortunately there’s no way that we can know who is just out for a free ride and who is genuinely disgruntled with our products. But, assuming that the refund rate is LOW, we can guess that its the person, not the product. So, refunds are the nature of the internet marketing beast. Please don’t argue it out, just refund. It isn’t worth your time, hassle or reputation to cause problems. You never know who the person on the other side of the battle is, or how powerful they could be. Information products don’t cost you anything so refunding is definately the most painless option. Simple as that.

3. Keeping On Top Of It…

As your customer base grows, so does your potential for problems. The more people that you have buying from you, the more problems, refund requests and queries you’re going to get. So it’s important that you keep on top of it. Nothing annoys customers more than having their “cries for help” ignored. And this is hard.

I’ve found this recently as my business has grown to the next level. I always vowed that I would always run my “support” by myself. There wouldn’t be a support team, it seemed impersonal. I wanted to handle all support queries myself, by personal e-mail. I’ve quickly realised that this simply isn’t possible. No inbox solution in the world is powerful enough to keep you on top of your support queries, however many you get!

So.. I’ve had to go back on my word and employ the services of a help desk solution. And guess what? I should have done it in the first place! Because now its harder than ever. I’ve given myself a lot of extra work because I have to move over to the support desk and make sure that everyone knows that e-mailing me personally for support issues won’t get a reply. Instead, they have to go direct to my help desk. It isn’t fully set up yet, but is mostly functional at: www.MarcMilburn.com/Support.

I STRONGLY suggest that you get your support desks up and running FAST. If you expect/desire your business to grow, then it will be necessary. So you might as well get off on the right foot, start as you mean to go on and set it up now. Even if you can’t afford support staff yet, at least handle help queries through a formal system.

But which helpdesk? Well I’ve played with a few as I was getting myself up and running. Most marketers, including my mentor Alex Jeffreys, use Kayako. It’s a smart solution which allows user registration for submitting tickets plus a knowledgebase of FAQ answers.

But then I discovered the FREE solution Hesk (that’s NOT an affiliate link by the way.. I’m NOT on commission – just giving you my personal recommendation!). Hesk is a simple piece of software. Just upload it to your server, configure it to a simple database and you’re ready to go. It’s fully customisable with a bit of playing around. Your customers can submit a support ticket which can be accessed and answered by multiple staff members. You can create unlimited staff member accounts with different levels of access and different permissions. You can even programme canned responses to answer questions that you are asked frequently. Oh and it has a knowledgebase function too. Users can’t register to become a member of the support desk, they have to enter their name and e-mail everytime they submit a new support ticket, but I prefer it that way.

Oh and the best bit about Hesk? It’s FREE! As long as you don’t mind having the (very small) credit displayed at the bottom with a link to the Hesk website. Or you can pay the very reasonable $39.95 if you wish to remove the credit. I think it’s a bargain though! I’m going to do so as soon as I’ve finished setting it up. I like to support good work like this.

That’s all for today.. a simple recommendation. Keep your customers happy and they’ll keep your bank account happy for a very long time. I’ve discussed the top 3 ways to do it in this blog post. I suggest you get started today!

Don’t forget to comment with your thoughts/ideas……