The Do’s and Don’ts of Customer Service

There is one fundamental aspect of business that simply cannot be ignored: you need to attract customers.  Attracting customers can be done many different ways depending on your budget. 

You can invest in social media marketing techniques, Google Adwords campaigns, thorough SEO work on your homepage, and several outreach efforts on influential blogs or news sites. 

Here’s the catch: these are effective techniques to drive traffic to your website, but not necessarily to create leads and cultivate conversions. 

Much of the time, social media marketers get caught up looking at volume of traffic rather than conversion rates.  While the two numbers are intimately related (higher volume usually equates to higher conversion rate), focusing on driving traffic can obscure an important part of your everyday business operations. 

So, what is that intangible aspect of your business operations that gets overlooked in all the data analysis? Customer service.  No matter what your business operation looks like, some fundamental principles of customer service will ring true.  Here is a quick list of dos’ and don’ts when it comes to dealing with the most important intangible in your operational frame: the customer.

DO

Integrate Chatbots – Chatbots have been on the rise in the past few years.  Many of the bigger companies like Facebook and Netflix make use of them to great effect, and you should, too.  A chatbot can be prompted on a landing page within seconds.  A simple introductory message is all it takes to familiarize the visitor with the bot.  If they have a specific question they can ask the bot directly, which saves them time scrolling through the site.

A NOTE OF CAUTION: Always have a real person working customer service and monitoring the chatbot conversation with new visitors.  If the chatbot is unable to answer a question, a member of your team can step in and take it from there. 

Keep It Simple – Your customer service team needs to know that keeping it simple is the best strategy, always.  A visitor who is curious about options is on the verge of buying.  All it takes is a subtle bit of guidance from a customer service rep and they find what they are looking for.  On the flipside, if a customer service rep is overwhelming in their approach, it’s quite possible the visitor will lose interest. 

Be Honest – Customers can tell when a sales rep is exaggerating the truth to make a sale.  The only way to stop this from occurring is to be as honest as possible, at all times, even if it means advising a customer not to buy a product. 

DON’T

Think of Customers As Transactions – Your team cannot forget that every customer is deserving of the same treatment.  It is vital that each new visitor feels as though they are being listened to, respected, and given solid advice.  Thinking of every customer as a transaction makes it far too easy to forget the intangible aspects of customer service – like giving time for reflection and thought, discussing the pros and cons of each product, etc.

Ignore Feedback and Criticism – No company is going to have a perfect customer service rating, and every customer service agent will face critique at some point.  The question is: how can you learn from the criticisms?  How well do you respond to customer feedback?  Make sure your team is full of confident and self-aware people that can adapt to the demands of your customers. It’s never a failure if there’s a lesson attached.

It’s All About Consistency

Following these principles of customer service will help your team become better at serving your customer’s needs.  However, without consistency, your whole approach is bound for failure.  What’s the ticket for consistency? Hire a team that believes in your business.

Want to learn how to implement online strategies like chatbots and the possibility of having a team to help you get more leads and close more sales? Get free resources at https://ezmetrics.com/free-resources/.

Goal Setting 101: How to Scale the Mountain On Your First Attempt

We all have goals – in personal life and for our business. And many times, our goals can seem so large that we aren’t sure where to begin.  I want to share with you a simple “mind-hack” that my team and I use to accomplish some pretty epic goals!

Set an end goal, and imagine it as the peak of a mountain.  You have to scale the mountain, and you need to take incremental steps to get there.   

Maybe you could draw a mountain on your office board, give the project a name like ‘Mount BigDeal, or just imagine each micro-goal you achieve as taking you one step higher in the chain of goals. 

Thought experiments like this help to break down complex, often long-term goals.  As you probably know, achieving long-term goals requires a number of short-term micro goals.  It’s not hard to grasp in theory – but in practice it takes a lot of diligence and focus.


Zig Ziglar said, “A goal properly set is halfway reached.”

Maybe you are looking to get an X% increase in sales, or an X% growth in Facebook conversions over a 12-month period. 

Whatever the goal, what matters most is the procedure you follow to get there.

Here are a few tips from experience that will help you scale the mountain on your first attempt, each and every time:

Tip #1 – Start Slow

Many people in business try and get things done too quickly.  Want an example? 

Say you are looking to increase Facebook conversion rates by 10%.  To achieve this, you decide Facebook ads will be the key. 

It’s in your best interest to learn everything about Facebook ads before starting a campaign, but often in the haste of business you just go with what you know. 

Do you know how Facebook defines ‘engagement’?  If you do not, then take the time to read up on it.  It will help.

DON’T FORGET: Facebook has many different types of advertisement platforms.  Do the research into each of them to get an idea which one works best for you.

Developing Facebook ad campaigns can be broken into 6-10 incremental micro-tasks that build on each other.  Write them all down so that you remain accountable to them!

That’s how you get to the peak of the mountain – but you have to build on what you know. 

Tip #2 –  Make A Daily Routine

One of the best ways to scale a mountain is to hike at a consistent pace the entire way up.  That way your body gets used to the exertion and can ensure you have enough energy to reach the end goal.

It’s exactly the same in business.

If you put 60 hours a week into achieving a long-term goal for ONLY 2 WEEKS, how can you expect to achieve it? 

More importantly: how can you expect to have the motivation to continue working on it after 120 hours in 14 days. 

SOLUTION: Make it a daily routine to accomplish one micro-goal a day.  It could be as simple as scrolling over competitors Facebook ads to see what you like. 

It might not bring results overnight, but it will harness all your capability to write engaging copy and give you industry insight that you would have overlooked otherwise.    

Tip #3 –  Use Software Like BaseCamp

Basecamp.com is a great resource to keep every project organized and on schedule.  It’s especially effective when working on a large-scale project with a number of participants, as the user-friendly interface keeps track of all tasks, deadlines, and goals. Basecamp is a fantastic alternative because it tracks everything on one central page. It doesn’t matter which program you decide to use, as long as it works for you & is something you can stick with.

Structure Is Key, Not Energy

The final thing to say about goal setting is that it’s all about building AND maintaining a structure around your goals. 

You have to make sure to maintain a pace which will leave you with endurance near the end, to actualize your goal and enjoy the fruits of your labor. After all, you want the energy to celebrate a job well-done with your team!

5 Effective Time Management Strategies

It’s crucial to manage your time – even more so than your finances. Both are important, but think about it – you can make more money. You can never make up for lost time.

In regards to business, time is one of the most essential components. It’s a large part of the business life cycle and should be a consideration as you plan each project. 

The incremental stages of a business plan are always built on a 6-month or 12-month timeline, for example.  Without this structure in place, it would be hard to analyze data and mark improvements year-over-year. But using time as a measuring tool is the easy part.  The challenge with time is on a personal, day-to-day level. 

We’re talking about how to make the best use of time every day, for both you and your business.  We’re imagining creative approaches for increasing the quality and efficiency of your work.  We’re thinking about the strategies you can use to feel accomplished after a work day, rather than swamped in deadlines and full of stress. 

Don’t Overthink It

High functioning business folks often get stuck on the little details.  This is good on one hand, because it’s the small things that make it possible to maintain a strong business platform in the long run.  But when it comes to efficiency, sweating the small stuff can get in the way of focused and productive work.

Here are 5 of the best tips for time management that will come in handy the next time you catch yourself staring out the window all morning.

Plan, Plan, Plan

Organization is the key to focus.  You have a goal for the day? Put it down, and make sure you achieve it.  You have a plan for the week? Make a schedule of tasks to ensure you don’t forget anything. These are relatively simple tasks that should be taken care of at the beginning and end of a work day.  Much like a professor prepares a lecture for the following morning, you should spend the last 15 minutes of your day planning the next one.

Don’t Multi-Task

Maybe the most common productivity issue for entrepreneurs is multi-tasking.  It’s a bad habit to get into because though it might seem like so much is happening, fewer meaningful things actually get done. 

It’s best to follow your daily schedule and allocate yourself hourly blocks of time for specific tasks.  If it takes longer than the allocated time, don’t fret: just come back to it the next day. 

Delegate Wisely

This applies whether you are a freelancer or the head of marketing at a company.  There is a lot to say about delegation, but for now let’s just leave it at this: proper delegation is the structure that allows efficiency to flourish.  Why? Because it accounts for all the pieces of the puzzle, and ensures they are completed in a timely fashion.

Eliminate Bad Distractions

Bad distractions are all around us.  Procrastinators will literally find anything to do other than get their work done – and let’s be honest, we all procrastinate in one way or another.

The best strategy is to isolate yourself until the work gets done.  What does that mean?  It could mean blocking yourself from social media platforms, putting a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door, or turning your phone off until you complete the task at hand. 

Introduce Creative Distractions

Going back to the issue of focus and productivity, many people need to do something to get into a routine.  That’s why Google has a workout gym and a bunch of other free perks – they know it helps employees stay focused.  Creative distractions like making a coffee or doing drawing in a sketchbook gives the brain a little break during a long work week. 

Efficiency Breeds Success

Effective time management is one of those intangibles that make a huge difference to the bottom line.  It’s the secret ingredient to running a successful business, no matter what the budget is. Indeed, if these 5 strategies are followed up on, that yearly status report will look far more impressive than it did before. 

BONUS TIP: One of the most effective time management strategies is to ONLY spend your time on the things that need your attention. If it can be outsourced or delegated, consider doing so. Speaking of which, check out our programs including Done for You team who can handle your digital and social media marketing for you, so that you can leverage your time even more efficiently.

5 Ways Google Adwords Can Help With SEO Planning

While some people say Adwords is not worth the time and money, from an SEO perspective it is an extremely valuable resource.  It informs the most important component of an SEO approach – the keyword list. 

There are many intangibles to keyword searches that can only be teased out from high quality data.  High quality data means the information gathered from running a short PPC campaign with a variety of relevant keywords and phrases. 

Paying a little bit for this high quality data makes sense in the short-term because it helps isolate the keywords that actually convert for your client.  Simply using the most popular keywords in your niche does not guarantee high conversion rate (or even high traffic) for your site. 

Don’t forget that the painstaking work of SEO means always analyzing and changing your keyword set to match search term queries. 

Here are 3 ways that Google Adwords can inform your SEO approach:

  1. Use Filters On Data

Filters is a great tool because they allow you to get particular insight about one large set of data.  You can literally get thirty different perspectives on the same data set by using filters. 

Maybe you want to see which keywords are not converting.  This is a great way to challenge the common assumption that popular keywords are the most valuable to keep.  Use a filter to see which keywords actually convert best in the keyword set for your client, and use this information to target only the most relevant keywords going forward. 

  1. Add Segments To Learn More About Keyword Searches

Segments are a great way to figure out what kinds of phrases work best for each keyword. 

Often times a keyword with a high conversion rate will not be as effective in a long tail form. 

For example, let’s say “shoe store” is your base keyword that does pretty well.  But let’s presume you have added “best shoe store Chicago” and “Chicago shoe store best prices” to your keyword list.  Adding segments to test Search Term Match Type will tell you if short tail or long tail keywords convert better. 

  1. The URL Conversion Rate Is Key

Another option with Google Adwords is to asses which URL has the best conversion rate.  Referred to as ‘Destination URLs’, Adwords is able to inform the user which pages on the site have had the most conversion success. 

That should lead you to analyze the keywords used on the page and apply a similar style to your other pages.

If, for example, the URL with a high conversation rate has less text on it, that is certainly something to apply across the site. 

SEO Is All About the Intangibles

These are only a few of the ways to make use of Google Adwords in your approach to SEO. 

The specificity of each method highlights the fact that SEO is all about the intangibles.  Every component of a website is connected, and it must always remain relevant according to the most important variable at play: the keyword list. 

Google Adwords can help with that, mainly by providing some insightful data about the nuances of search terms. 

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Schedule a free consultation with our team to learn how to implement these tips in your business specifically or other ideas to grow your brand online. Reach out to us at www.ezmetrics.com.