Get Customers to Help You Write Your Web Content

Creating fresh, interesting content for your website can seem like a never-ending task – which, actually it is, sort of like showing up for work every day is a never-ending task. Yet while in most businesses you can’t send other people to work in your place, in website content creation, you actually can allow someone else to help you create content that prospects will find of interest – namely customers, specifically in customer reviews.

Your reviews will not only provide third-party endorsements for your products and services, but they can also improve the organic search traffic that brings prospects to your site. It’s more content, after all – and it’s typically using keywords that prospects would enter into search fields. So, to bring in more reviews, here are some tactics to pursue:

1.      Teach customers how to review. It’s true – some people just don’t know how to review. They’re not comfortable putting words together and won’t know what to say or how to proceed without guidance. So guide them already. And again, when you do, you’ll be guiding them in how to use language that customers would use in search engines – which is a plus for SEO. In particular: 

• Provide detailed instructions. For example, include a link in your footer for “Write a Customer Review,” which can take visitors to a page with instructions and screenshots. You can also link to this page when encouraging your customers via email or Facebook to write reviews.
• Promote good examples. What constitutes a good review? Show it so they’ll see. Select a well-written review to feature in emails or social media outlets. Show customers how to elaborate on the service experience and product appreciation. That way, they can see how to write more than “good job” and will be more likely to script something like, “I appreciated how they were respectful of my time, neat in their appearance, friendly in their attitude and serious about their work.”

2.      Encourage customers to review. How can you motivate customers to write reviews? Try something like this:

• Create a Sweepstakes – Enter the name of any customer who writes a review for a drawing for $100 in free service. Promote the sweepstakes via website, email, Facebook profile and Twitter feed.
• Email Encouragement – Periodically send emails showing examples of great reviews and encouraging your audience to write one of their own.
• Follow-Up Email – After a job, send a follow-up email to your customers encouraging a review. 

3.      Share reviews on social networks. Tweet links to a good review from the company’s Twitter feed. Example: “See what one customer says about why she was happy with our service and can’t wait to see lower utility bills (add link).” You can also allow customers to click a checkbox on their review to have it sent to their Facebook profiles. (They’ll have to log in to Facebook before sending.)

4.      Make reviews search-friendly. An important requirement for using user-generated reviews for SEO is to make sure that they are visible to search engines. If the reviews are not visible when the search engine’s spiders visit your site, then they will not help your rankings.

5.      Allow ratings and voting. Customers can write a review and provide an overall rating, while visitors to the page can click “yes” or “no” to indicate whether a review is helpful. Watch for rating mistakes, however. If you see a rating that is especially low (a one star on a five-star scale), reach out to the customer and ask if the rating is accurate. It could have been a misunderstanding of the instructions.

Clearly Unclear

Old cars are like young children. Highly dependent, often naggy, hard to predict. Okay in that light, they’re like older children, too. Yet, one of my strange old vehicles needed a windshield because it failed to avoid a 70 mph rock. Silly car. 

Since it was already having some other mechanical needs tended, I figured I’d get it all done at once. 

So, I did what any modern consumer does, I opened the Yellow Pages. HA! Good one. I went to Google, clicked the top couple of names, and actually found one that listed my glass and at a reasonable price. “Wow, I thought. This is so easy.” Any time you make a statement like that to yourself, you have doomed the outcome to sheer bedlam. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth… 

Proceeding ignorantly – my favorite way – I place the order online. It totals my order, and even politely mentions, “This price includes the windshield, gasket, and all labor. If we find you don’t need a new gasket, this amount will be deducted.” Soooo easy, said the Titanic’s most oblivious passenger. 

Afterward, it asks me to pick a “convenient” time. I scan for the option that says, “Never” but then notice THEY can go to the car while it’s in the mechanical repair shop. “Now that IS convenient!” I say to myself, like getting a ride to a 

Vampire’s blood drive, with much the same outcome. 

So, I have the part, the installation price, the date, the place… it’s all set! Whoohoo. The internet makes things SO EASY. 

Soon after the “confirmation” email (translation: “a wild guess with legal language attached”) things went weird. Their CSR (translation: Customer Service Repellant) called. From there, all online promises were off, chuckled at in their dismissal. Just goes to show two things: a) Your marketing and your service had better be consistent, and b) The internet’s ‘ease’ of commerce is commensurate relative to the ‘ease’ of any customer’s communication with the world. 

Case in point…

Promises Made, Promises Spat Upon

Slip into my shoes for a moment, disregarding the Odor Eaters, and feel your ‘expectations’ dwindle along with company credibility at each step. Remember, too, that this was not, “Crazy Eddie’s House of Glass and Bail Bonds” we’re dealing with, but the ‘largest windshield retailer in the U.S.’…

• They said the windshield was ‘in stock’ awaiting delivery. Confirmation email said, “Not in stock; on order”.
• They said, “We expect the vehicle to be at
  at on for installation. If not, there will be a $50 trip surcharge.” (This atop the $20 charge already paid for the service.) On the date of giddy and expectant install, they call to say the windshield was “broken in transit” and gave me an “approximate” delivery of 2 weeks. Funny, I didn’t have the option to charge them for me telling the mechanics to clear the workspace around the car and stopping their work.
• Two weeks later when the glass arrived, they called to say they “couldn’t do an install with this glass anywhere but their facility”. They smirked when I asked for a $20 refund of their on-site fee.
• After delivering the car, they called to tell me that the gasket “would not fit the vehicle” so they ordered a new one. The original was $20. The new one? $177. They made no apology, no excuse, only said, “…and we’ll just put the upcharge on your card.”

Uh, this comment did not go as planned. When the poor stammering technician told the Customer Disservice Rep that I had an email with the “complete price, parts and all labor” at a price significantly under that, he was clearly untrained in the art of the ‘hold’ button.

I hear a rude female voice say, “Well I dang sure ain’t payin fer it. It’s his dern car, let him pay fer it.” This didn’t go as planned either. Sherry and I had a ‘nice’ chat.

The internet is a tool of communication. Each person with typing fingers who can also find the ‘send’ button is able to vent frustration, in a large and particularly damaging way, instantly – OR they can praise accordingly. I chose Option “A”. 

Yet with a modicum of restraint, I merely copied my intended “comment” and sent it to the Regional Manager first.

1. He responded quickly and couldn’t have been nicer.
2. He listened and understood my frustration.
3. He apologized for the multiple problems.
4. He explained the upcharge instead of demanding it, and negotiated amicably toward a solution.

Every underlined word and phrase should be written on the arms of all those who deal with customers. Some WILL have problems, but we’re people. If you’ll just level with us, take responsibility and behave civilly, we’ll accept that you’re people, too.

The glass is in. The world’s most overpriced gasket looks great. The installer did well. The regional manager got called into a problem he didn’t create, yet vowed to correct both the “promise congruency” and unappreciated upcharge. I believe him, especially since when I called to say that the job turned out well, Sherry in Customer Service was no longer there.

You cannot ‘fix’ every problem in your business, but if you’ll START with customer service, you’ll END up with more customers.

Adams Hudson

Questions for You:

• When was a time that the ATTITUDE of the personnel fouled up an otherwise good product or service experience? Click to share.
• When did someone’s great ATTITUDE reverse an otherwise rotten experience? Click to share.
• Do you ever call YOUR company to see how pleasant your CSRs are?
• Do you ever check BEHIND a service call to see how customers were treated?

(We published “Contractor’s Guide to Competitive Intelligence” to help contractors check their own company versus others.  Click for a FREE Sampling Form here.)

Gaining Referrals Almost Effortlessly

In one sentence, one thought, and in less than one minute, I can show you how to double your customers right now, for free.

Got your attention? Here’s how – ask each customer you have for one customer referral. Just one. Not their neighborhood, not their family tree, just one preferably financially solvent customer.

Could this really be hard? Okay – you’re thinking – “I’d be lucky if one out of 5 actually did it!” Well, hardy, har-har ‘cause you just added 20% more customers on your “low” estimate. And if “just” one out of five of those did the same thing? You’ve just tacked on 24% more customers. Done with little or no cost, low effort and big returns. Just the way mega-successful businesses do it.

The simplicity of the above, and the undeniability therein, causes most contractors to completely, absolutely, and shamelessly ignore the huge numbers in gaining and encouraging referrals.

This oversight opens the door for you – the now enlightened contractor – to a path of customer acquisition unfettered by mountains of media money, “proving yourself” to skeptical first-timers, or being plagued with having to be the “low ball” bid.

Why? Because referrals are like “one of the family.” It’s “Joe says you’re okay and I know Joe, so come on over.” That’s a darn sight better than, “I saw your number in the Yellow Pages and I’m getting 53 bids and if you’ll fax me your business license and personality profile I MIGHT consider having you come over and give me your BEST PRICE if I decide you are worth anything at all.”

You see, referrals come with none of that baggage.

It’s not only important to keep customers for the return business they bring themselves, but also for the additional customers they can draw to your company. There is no better way to gain customers than through your customers’ referrals.

Satisfied customers make up your strongest sales force. Product or service claims from them have instant credibility in the eyes of a prospect.

When choosing a service provider, consumers are six times more likely to rely on the recommendation of friends and family than on advertising.

What’s In It for the Customer?

You know why you want customers to give you referrals, but, you may be asking, what’s in it for them? Sales Training expert David Holt says that there are four main reasons your customers want to give you referrals:

1.       The hero factor. Your referral source has an opportunity to be a real hero to one or more friends or colleagues. If working with you truly has been a pleasure, he or she can “look good” by helping a friend or colleague learn about you. Remember – people prefer to find service providers through recommendations.

2.       It brings them better service. Your customers know that if they give you referrals it will give you added incentive to provide them with even better service. Even though you attempt to give all your customers the best service possible, isn’t it natural that you will run a little faster and jump a little higher for the customers who give you referrals?

3.       They like you and trust you. If people like you and trust you, they probably want to help you. This is the most powerful reason! If you’ve been serving them well, most customers get great pleasure from helping you become more successful. If you share your vision for success, they will enjoy seeing your success by helping you with referrals.

4.       They know that keeping you in business helps them! Help your customers see the benefits of your staying in business – so you can help them as their needs change and be there to cover their warranties and continued maintenance.

Your customer may also respond to incentives you offer, such as a $25 discount on their new system for each name offered. In fact, the “Get More than You Pay For” form in your Sales Power Pack offers a “referral partner” checkbox that gives the salesperson the discretion to offer added incentive during a sales call.

Just remember, even if you do offer incentives, don’t overlook the fact that what you’re really offering are great products with great service from a great company. That’s the true incentive for referrals.

Readers can receive the no-cost report, “Endless Referrals” and a complimentary subscription to the Sales&Marketing Insider by sending a polite request to freestuff@hudsonink.com.