This means everyone in your organization is on the same page when it comes to how to communicate and assist your potential and current customers. Excellent customer service naturally should transfer to your supplier and vendor relationships as well. Solid customer service practices must permeate everything to do with running your business if you are serious about long term success.

I can tell you emphatically that the key to my success has had at its core my personalized service and support. Not just when I am wearing my WordPress Consultant hat but with my other sites as well. I respond promptly, professionally, personally and in detail to all requests I receive. I manage my ability to do this by making it a priority to organize my responsibilities to allow for the necessary time I need to provide the level of service I am known for and that clients rely on.

The infographic below gives you a view into the benefits that all the data available to you offer and how you can translate that into the heart and soul of your business — Your Customer Service.

Monetate Marketing Infographics

Look at your available data, develop policies, have a meeting with your staff and find ways to “Listen, Surprise and Delight” your customers!

At your service,

Your WordPress Consultant

Listen, Surprise and Delight Your Customers is a post from: WordPress Consultant: Judith Kallos, At Your Service...

Inbound Marketing is the term used to now define what I’ve talked about for over a decade. Providing useful and unique content to bring potential prospects to your WordPress site. You then use Social Media, SEO, Blogs and e-mail marketing to get the word out.

“Inbound marketing is a marketing strategy that focuses on attracting prospective customers by offering useful information.”
~Brian Halligan, cofounder and CEO of HubSpot | – Inbound Marketing Wikipedia

What I found interesting in the infographic below was that the cost per lead for Inbound Marketing was 1/3 less to acquire more leads than traditional Outbound marketing. Being small businesses are the early adopters of Inbound Marketing it is easy to see Inbound Marketing as an equalizer.

Of course, different combos and mixes will work for different markets — that’s where you always want to be testing and tuning to find out what works for you, your WordPress site, your business model and your target customer. But the great thing about having a WordPress site is that allot of these tasks are much easier.

What combo of Inbound Marketing have you found works best for your business and what is your biggest challenge?

For me it is a little bit of everything but in the end it is all about time and finding more that I ever seem to have laying around. You?

At your service,

Your WordPress Consultant

Your WordPress Site and Inbound Marketing is a post from: WordPress Consultant: Judith Kallos, At Your Service...

When the “doesn’t” is more prevalent it is easy to fall in to the lackey trap.

What is the lackey trap? That is when you do anything for anyone without any boundaries regardless of how they treat you. While every person involved in their own little start-up will find themselves in this position, the sooner your realize what is happening and set some boundaries the better.

I’ve been doing business online from the start. Been there; done that with pretty much everything. I found myself falling into lackey mode way back when and made the decision to not play that game. With that said, since exemplary customer service is what I always strive for — there are times, even now, that I find myself getting closer to Lackeyville — then I stop and turn that car around. I’m better than that. And so are you!

My School of Hard Knocks

As a newbie “Web Designer” in 1994-1995 — I did everything Web — I mean everything. Besides Web Design I expanded and opened an Internet training center right next to my design studio. It was crazy. I couldn’t do all that — and my fun factor began to diminish. I shut down the training center and got back to helping folks succeed online — that’s what I enjoyed! But I still had not learned my lesson. I was trying to accommodate every project (and personality) that came my way — and took my lumps and learned the hard way that part of running a successful business is also learning to say “no”.

Learn to listen to your gut; it’s never wrong!

You know that feeling. You get a phone call or an e-mail and this little twinge in your gut let’s you know that this could be when you should say no. But you don’t say no. You proceed to either find out later you should have said no sooner, or you end up stuck in the relationship from hell. Your gut tried to warn you but you ignored it.

When you are treated as a lackey, that is never a profitable situation. Customers who prefer this type of relationship are not those you want to invest your time on. And those lackey commanders do not allow you to have fun — as a matter of fact they suck every bit of fun out of you! If you are not having fun running your business you will not succeed.

You Don’t Want to Be Everything to Everyone!

You can’t be good at everything for everyone — impossible. So don’t try! That is why you want to find your niche, know exactly what it is then fine tune your skills or product line. By striving to be the best at the things you know (be honest) and that you are good at — you become even better.

Focus and cater to those who appreciate what you have to offer by showing you the respect and courtesy you deserve — from the very start. (You’ll find it is uncannily ironic how those you say “no” to respond to your decision in a way that confirms you did the right thing by not saying yes.)

The reality is that those who try to put you in lackey-mode may provide cash flow but they are not those who you will enjoy working with, and more importantly, respect. I was reminded of this with several experiences in the last couple of weeks with lackey commanders who came my way. They reminded me how much more in tune I am in listening to my gut — my red flags — and comfortably saying no compared to when I was a green horn 17 years ago.

It takes time and experience to hone your screening skills which is as critical a skill as any other that business owners need to have. The sooner you can learn to recognize your red flags and determine who your target customer is, the less time you spend with those who are not capable of long term mutually respectful relationships. And that translates into increased profitability.

When your gut raises that red flag — just say no!

Move forward with confidence. The fact you’ve read this far tells me there is nothing lackey about you.

At your service,

Your WordPress Consultant

Why You Don’t Want to be a Lackey… Really. is a post from: WordPress Consultant: Judith Kallos, At Your Service...