I recently went through a situation where I had several questions of a service provider. The service provider would answer one question, then act like everything else was fixed. I’d ask the unanswered questions…finally I just got the brush off. Now, I paid a few hundred dollars for this service this year; I expect better customer service. Are you treating your customers like this?

There are customers who will cost you more in support cost than they buy from you. That’s the way it goes. And sometimes these customers are simply testing you. One of the best ways to “test drive” a new-to-you company is to contact their customer service with an obvious question. If they give you a “well duh” kind of answer, then you know they don’t treat their paying customers any better. Or ask something that’s relatively complex. Again, how they treat you is indicative of how they treat paying customers. (Or not, because the company that bends over backwards to get your money and then ignores you is no better.)

Such an experience, where it’s like pulling teeth to get customer service questions answers, will not leave the customer, or potential customer feeling good about your brand. Sure, they might still use your services if they feel they have no other choice, but they’ll be looking around for new service providers very quickly.

So think about this the next time you get one of those “eye rolling” questions. The kind that make you go “can’t you read?” or the customer comes back with yet another question. Because your customer service has a bigger impact than you know.

I’m going to go a bit out on a metaphysical limb here in this edition of the Positive Proprietor. Are you connected to your source?

Okay, let’s try that again. In the Charge of the Goddess, there is the line, “if you cannot find what you seek within, you will never find it without.” What does that mean?

Simply put, we have everything we need to grow our business within ourselves. We don’t need to look outside of ourselves for our abundance, happiness, prosperity, or anything else. This can be a difficult concept for us business owners to understand. After all, we know that customers buy our products and services, so we think that they are the drivers of our income stream. And yes, to some extent they are. But our inner abundance and what we draw to us comes from us, inside ourselves.

Now, if we are struggling, and especially during this time many businesses are struggling, we might think that there is something wrong with us if we can’t create prosperity. There isn’t, and we need to stop thinking that. Obviously those negative thoughts will affect our world view and what we attract. We need to make sure that we are tapped in and tuned into what the universe has to offer. We want to connect with this higher self, the universe, the higher God mind, and find that source within us. That’s what we need to find.

It can be difficult. It’s a journey. And no one is going to be 100% tapped in, tuned in, and ready every single day. But the closer we can move toward that ideal, the more connected we’ll be. And that’s good for our business.

I want to relate two stories this week and hope that they inspire you to think about how you handle inquiries into your business. These stores are presented without identifying names or products.

Story #1 -

I’d had a question I’d been meaning to ask about the compatibility of this product with certain things. I emailed my question since I prefer to do business in email/online chat than call. I received an emailed reply within 24 hours. Their response: “We don’t know. We only test this product with what we send in the kit. If you substitute items we can’t be responsible.” End of email.

Story #2 -

All of a sudden a piece of equipment broke. I’m pretty technically savvy, so I spent a couple of hours working on it to no avail. I used online chat, and though it took about 40 more minutes, they offered to send out the replacement part free of charge. I’ll have it in two days.

One of these companies is a large, multinational company, and I’m pretty sure the customer service person I spoke with was not in the US. The other is a moderately sized company that caters to the WAHM and crafter market. Honestly, from this company I’d expected far better customer service than what I received. Now, I will purchase from both companies again. One willingly; one grudgingly. One company I’ll recommend to everyone. The other I’ll recommend with reservations.

Think about these experiences. Which one would you want to have come from your company?

As small business owners, we all think we’re indispensable. We can’t leave. What if the website breaks down? What if big orders come in? What if people try to get a hold of us? The questions are many and the answer is, “it will have to wait”, if we’re going on vacation. So many business owners don’t go on vacation just for those reasons. Except, that road leads to burnout and emotional turmoil.

So how do you take a vacation? First, you plan.

If someone can watch the phones, the website, and even the email for you, all the better. Otherwise, you plan. Will you have wifi? How much time will you invest in your business? What will you let go? How will you notify customers?

I recommend notifying customers about a week in advance, as well as posting notices on order emails or on your website about any potential delays during the duration of your vacation.

Find ways to check your email if you just can’t get away from it. Or leave your phone number with the “store minder” who will call you at the first sign of trouble.

If you plan and schedule for your vacation, you will be able to take some time away from your business without any worry.

We’re almost through tax time, and many small business owners took out the box of receipts and finally did last year’s paperwork. This year’s receipts go into the box and won’t be looked at until this time next year.

But you might be shortchanging your business if you don’t keep up on the paperwork. After all, by making a concerted effort to put the receipts into your accounting software/ledger on a monthly basis you will be giving your business the best gift of all–information. You will know how much you’re making on a monthly basis. You can track expenses. You will be more attuned to your business’s ups and downs.

Make time on a monthly basis to do your paperwork. The time you spend, whether it’s an hour or four hours, will yield you so much more for your business.

Sometimes when we do events, things are slower than we anticipated. We can think that it was a waste of time or a complete bust. But really, there’s a good chance it still was an excellent opportunity to get your name out there. After all, each person you talk to, each business card you hand out, each sale is a contact. That’s a chance for someone to visit your online site/store and purchase from you in the future. It takes seven times for people to hear your name before they act; if this is your first show, then there’s a good chance they haven’t “heard” you enough.

So how do you know if a show was slow, but still a good opportunity, or a complete bust?

First, you can’t judge a show based on one attendance. Things move in cycles, and sometimes we have no idea of guessing the cycles of customer demand. Perhaps at one show you didn’t have the hot item, but at another you will. You may want to study what people purchase. I know, for example, when I do some local reptile shows, that I don’t have the “hot” items. I don’t have any snakes or cool color morphs. But, I do make contacts, I do hand out business cards, and I do make sales. Sometimes I cover my table, sometimes not. But I know I am connecting with my target market and demographic.

Second, did you make enough to cover expenses? If it’s a local event, you might just need to cover the table or booth rental fees. If it’s a farther show, then you may need to reoup hotel or gas costs. Will you be able to successfully do that? If you cannot, and it’s not something that can be written off (such as visiting a town where you can do other things plus the show like a mini vacation), then it might take more thought or the possibility of more sales before you go again.

Third, how many times have you gone and what is the outcome? If you go once and sell out, then the next time you barely cover your table, and the third time you don’t do so well, then that fourth time might need to be a table split with someone or the costs mitigated in some other fashion.

And lastly, we don’t really know what show will be “hot” or not for us sometimes. It’s a gamble, one we risk, but also one in which we stand to gain far more customers than we might see that day.

Our websites are already full of information. Really, between product pictures, descriptions, and all the buttons and graphics our shopping cart requires, the screen can become cluttered and our customers lost. So it can be easy to overlook the Terms of Service. After all, they’re in a small link at the bottom of the page, customers hardly read them, and they seem so not important to the operation of our business.

But, as a recent purchase and a recent discussion on our Pagan Packs loop showed (you are a member, right?), shipping policies are crucial to keeping happy customers.

So do you have your shipping policies in a clear, easy to find location on your website? And, do you reiterate them through emails sent to your customers?

Let’s break down those questions. First, are your shipping policies clear and easy to find? Let’s look at Amazon for a moment. Members who are in their Prime program see a “prime” logo on all items which will ship within two days. And, there are lines saying “purchase in the next xx hours and get this by DATE” in bold, contrasting font colors so you know when your item will arrive. If you are not a member of that program, then there are messages saying “upgrade to prime and get this item by DATE”. We don’t have to go to those lengths, but if I wanted to find out how quickly you ship, how easily could I find that information?

If you make handmade or custom goods, then your shipping times will understandably be longer. Make sure those are communicated. “This is a handcrafted item. Please allow XX days for us to create your perfect purchase.” A bold “shipping policies” link will help explain shipping costs, time frames, and policies all in one easy to find place.

Next, do you communicate these policies in emails? Reminders are good. Thanking someone for their purchase and saying that the item will ship within a certain time frame and why will go a long way toward setting customer expectations. (For example: do you live forty miles from the nearest post office and only go into town on Mondays and Wednesdays?) A shipping email is also very welcome by customers, and in fact, the lack of this email may even turn off some of your customers.

It doesn’t take long to provide communications to your customers. The few minutes you spend talking to them, telling them about your shipping policies and plans, will pay off in return visits, purchases, and positive word of mouth.

There’s a great secret at the post office; have you heard of it? Do you use online postage software like stamps.com? If so, you might have seen a listing for Regional Rate Boxes. These boxes are only available to be ordered online; your local post office doesn’t carry them. But, if you sell heavier items (like books), they will save you quite a bit of money in just a few uses.

The USPS page for them is here. These are standard size boxes, but unlike the flat rate boxes where the rate is one rate no matter where in the country it ships, with regional rate boxes, the rate varies based on zone. For states right next to you, depending on how heavy the box is, you might actually still be better off with regular priority shipping. That’s where your trusty software and your scale come in handy. But, if you’re shipping more than one zone away (for example when I, in the midwest, ship to California or New York), the savings starts adding up quickly. Each box has a maximum weight, which I have had yet to hit, and I ship boxes full of books. And the price depends on the boxes, with A boxes being the smallest, and C boxes, (Which are new, and I don’t even have any yet) being the largest.

Some carts have already started factoring these in, so an order might be prepaid to ship in a regional rate box, which is good for your customer because she or he will immediately see the cost savings.

An example would be for me, a regional rate box A to San Diego, California. It costs $7.95 up to fifteen pounds. But, a regular box weighing just 1lb 1 oz going regular priority mail would be $7.95. So, if I’m shipping three books, which isn’t an usually large order, I’m already saving a couple of pounds on the regular shipping rates, which is probably going to be close to $5.

Now whether you keep that money or refund it to the customer is up to you and your business. But refunding extra postage can be a nice, personal touch when we’re used to big box stores charging us $8.95 to ship, and we all know that they get extensive discounts on shipping due to volume.

As small business owners, we need to be savvy about our shipping and our cost savings. Regional Rate boxes are one way to do so. Happy shipping!

Last week we talked about why your cart matters from a customer standpoint. This time, I want to take a bit to talk about features you might want to think about in your cart. For the purposes of this article, I’m going to work from the hopeful guess that you have a cart that easily allows you to upload products and manage those products and has some way to show sales. But, have you thought about adding the following?

1) The ability to print a packing slip from the cart. This would be a copy of the customer’s order you can print off and slip into the package with it. Not only are packing slips a good idea; they tell your customer where the box came from. But they can be useful marketing tools with the addition of customer codes, thoughtful messages, and more.

2) An abandoned cart module. You want to know when someone went partially through the checkout process, but didn’t complete it. An abandoned cart module will allow you to send a message, perhaps with a discount code, to entice them back to the shop. These modules can also help you find out if there are any issues or confusions during the checkout process as they invite a dialogue with your customers.

3) A way to print sales reports. I’m not talking about a list of sales, but knowing you sold 11 of one item and 323 of another in a comprehensive report. This makes knowing which items are your hot sellers easy, and if you pay commissions or have other vendors, you can calculate these items much easier.

4) A way to sell downloadable egoods. This will allow you to create and sell products, perhaps if you are a coach or a reader or an energy worker, based on what you do. These egoods will be offered to those who maybe can’t make “in person” sessions, or who want a taste of your work without paying a lot of money at first.

5) A way to export orders to your bookkeeping software. This one is pretty self-explanatory, but it would make your bookkeeping a lot easier.

6) A way to import orders you might make in an offline venue. This is a way to help keep track of inventory, keep customer information, and just keep everything in one place.

What features do you think are a must have for your shopping cart?

My customers don’t care which cart I use.

When we choose which shopping cart we want for our website, it’s generally a very retailer-focused decision. We choose our cart based on price and features. We want something that’s easy to work with for uploading products and managing orders. And we want something that we can implement with our website and theme. We often don’t think about the customer end of the transaction. After all, customers come and buy and never say anything unless the cart breaks. So other than something that’s easy for them to use, and let’s face it, most of the online shopping is so automatic these days, we all could probably check out from an online merchant in our sleep. So the customers don’t care what platform the cart is on, as long as it works.

Right?

How do you know? Have you ever asked your customers? Have you split tested a couple of different carts and seen which had the greater conversion rates? Right, me neither. We ask the customer service questions. “How easy do you think it is to check out?” or “Do you prefer a more streamlined process?”

I think, though, that customers care. They just don’t know they should care and that’s where we come in. Shopping carts are pretty unambiguous. We pull the next one off in line, go about our business, check out and return (or hopefully we return) the cart to its corral or to the store when we’re done. They’re interchangeable. Maybe for the customer, but not for us. Except, when they are.

What do you mean, when they are interchangeable. Either they are, or they aren’t.

Many people I know use an open source (free) cart solution. Whether it goes by the name Zen Cart, OsCommerce, CRELoaded (which isn’t free, but is based on the OsCommerce model), or others, these carts look pretty darn interchangeable. They are two, or three column. The side bars are all boxes, so even if you put pretty scrolls or flourishes, they’re a series of boxes. And hey, they’re free. And you might think your customers won’t notice. Except they do.

The web savvy customers, the ones who work with carts themselves, will immediately recognize the free cart, especially if you leave the “powered by zen cart” or “powered by OS Commerce” or ip address or other identifying marks on them. This customer, one who works in technology, may get the impression from your business that you don’t want to or can’t afford a more expensive cart solution, and thus, that gives your business the appearance of being less professional. It might not be, but that free and uncustomized cart sure gives it that look.

These same customers may also know that free and open source carts are more vulnerable  to being hacked and often are. They will wonder if you’ve kept the software up to date, applied all practical security patches, and when it comes time to  check out will not be giving you any information. That’s not to say that a paid cart can’t be hacked; it can. But, it’s going to take a bit more to get the code out there unless it’s based on something free and readily available.

Similar, out of the box carts will also make your store, even with different pretty graphics, look like every other store out there. That makes you forgettable. Close your eyes. Can you think of Amazon’s website, how it looks and how it operates. I bet you can. I know I can. Now, think about that last shop you visited that was from a small business. I can think of the color schemes, the boxes, the general layout, but I’m having a hard time pulling up the logo in my memory banks. I bet you are too.

There’s also cart solutions that the customer may have personal knowledge of, and this may make them disinclined to shop at your store if they have a negative view (security, useability, buggy, etc.) of the software.

Will this affect all your customers? Probably not even a large percentage. But it will affect SOME and why lose the race to the sale before you even get out of the starting blocks all because you choose to go the easy route with your cart.

Next time, I’ll talk about what to look for in a cart.