In business, the customer is always right - sometimes confused,

In business, the customer is always right - sometimes confused, misinformed, rude,

In business, the customer is always right - sometimes confused, misinformed, rude, stubborn and changeable, but never wrong. Ever date anyone like that?

Customers are the reason you have a business. Without them, no matter what you do, there isn’t any business.

Therefore, you should approach customer service the same way you approach a date. Nurture it with good habits and relentless care. Each date builds on the previous one. Each sale does the same in building customer retention.

So, here are the simple suggestions for “dating” your customer and enhancing your business relationships.

* Dazzle customers with your service. The key to good customer service is treating all your customers well but not necessarily the same. Respond to their needs as individuals. While one customer might need a ton of help and attention, another might prefer an opportunity to browse with privacy.

* Anticipate the needs of your customers by emphasizing service over sales. Good service sells. But pushy service people who are always trying to sell more can be a major turnoff to all customers.

* Treat your customers well by being a problem solver. If you can’t help the customer, help him or her find someone who can. Customers appreciate your help - even when you aren’t directly profiting from a sale. Just consider it an investment. They’ll appreciate the advice and remember your business the next time they need your goods or services.

* Innovate by understanding that most rules should be flexible. Don’t ever say, “No, that’s against the rules,” to a customer who’s making a reasonable request. Your main rule - one that should never be compromised - is to keep your customers happy and satisfied.

* Nurture your employees by giving them the care and respect that you want them to give your customers. If you treat them well, your employees will be great ambassadors of service. If you treat them poorly, they’ll treat your customers badly in turn.

* Guarantee that your customers keep coming back. Have a great customer service plan and post it in a central location for all to see. Once employees understand the importance of great customer service, you will have customers returning over and over.

Your Expertise is Boring!

I see your lips moving, but all I hear is Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I know its not what you want to hear, but quite simply, if you are a speaker, author, consultant or other “expert” I see being interviewed by the news media, your expertise just isnt very interesting. Information is a dime-a-dozen and yours is no different.

So in this age of round-the-clock, on-demand, blue tooth, on line, high def., Wi-Fi, via satellite, news junky, at your fingertips world of information, what separates those messages that break through the clutter and the vast majority of expertise that goes un-tapped? The answer is very simple: Its the delivery!

Information, delivered by experts in a straightforward fashion, is too often reminiscent of a classroom lecture Boring! However that same content, deliver with passion, purpose, urgency, spirit and conviction can move people to action and move you to the top of the news medias first call list.

The information stored in your brain is merely the entry fee. Your credentials to deliver that content is only the prerequisite. But your crusade is what truly makes you interesting. Your passion for the message is what makes you believable and its timely connection to some current or personal challenge is what makes it relevant.

Watch any national morning show, or cable news talk show and note who has the lions share of camera time. In television news, the one who most deftly steers the conversation, wins. But all too often, experts who are invited to sit on the television set to comment on a story of national interest, merely answer the questions posed to them and provide informed analysis. They are graciously thanked for their time, but rarely asked back. Why? Because most media opportunities are a test in disguise. And most experts unknowingly fail the test.

But think for a moment about the experts that have been featured time and time again in the national news some even being rewarded with their own show. What is the common denominator? Above all else, it is that they are fiercely opinionated. They know what they want to say and arent afraid to say it. Im not suggesting that you have to be a jerk to be newsworthy, only that you have to have the conviction that personifies a true thought leader.

Good radio talk show hosts, for example, dont bring up a topic and ask for your opinions. Instead they tell you what they think and invite you to agree or disagree. Who among us is inspired to follow, or be moved to action by a credible, yet straightforward, or dry expert offering his or her expertise on a story of national or industry-specific interest?

To build your business, to attract clients or customer, to inspire others to hire you or buy your books or products, to engender loyalty and inspire true change, you must move beyond the realm of simply being smart and good at what you do. You must truly inspire.

And while we are all made up of the same composite materials, we are all wired a little differently. Being overly expressive and delivering content on the edge of your seat can be challenging for some, but it must be done. In working with the news media, we are playing in their sandbox and we must play by their rules, or we wont be asked to play again.

For any kind of high-profile sustainability, youve got to provide what television journalists call Good TV. New, innovative, or provocative solutions to long-standing problems can be good TV. Either healthy exchanges or outright conflict among guests can both be good TV. Good TV means nothing more than being interesting and not blending in. Unfortunately, experts tend to be so immersed in their content that they believe it is the information that is interesting. In reality, it is the passion that brings about Good TV.

The biggest misperception in working with the press is the false notion that when a reporter asks a question, its because they want to know the answer. Unless its some sort of news investigation, the purpose of their questions is in most cases, simply to give you a launch pad for your ideas, your input and perspective. Im not suggesting that you dont answer the question, just use the answer as the springboard for your crusade.

Most reporters dont know the subject nearly as well as the guest and you can easily move past the often irrelevant, or less important question by simply employing transitional phrases such as: While I certainly agree, its also important to remember that…, That may be true, but the issue that really concerns me is…, While that issue is making headlines, we cant forget that…, people sometimes fail to recognize that…, I find it fascinating that… Then say what you came there to say, and do it with passion regardless of the questions asked. Despite conventional wisdom, the reporter or interviewer will be very appreciative of your media savvy.

As most on-air interviews last no more than 90 seconds, I advised my clients to be crystal clear in their mind what they want to say, what they HAVE to say, what is crucial for them to impart to their audience for them to be successful in their business. Then they must make a solemn pledge to themselves (and to me) that they will not get out of that chair until they say it!

Its the quid pro quo of working with the press: We help them fill up their newspapers and newscasts with content, and in return, we get a platform to relay our ideas. Use it. Dont waste it. Dont be boring. Be opinionated. Be passionate, relevant, provocative, believable, timely, different, memorable and news-worthy.

This article is more than just my opinion and my expertise it is my crusade. If I had begun this article with a simple admonition to be more animated in your interviews, do you think youd still be reading? Or would you have turned the page long ago? Remember, there are hundreds of millions of TV remote controls and page-turning fingers out there. Dont be boring and theyll likely stick with you, turn to you and hopefully come back to you.

Your 6-Step Plan For Press Release Placement

There’s a clear way around press release failure and it’s called the pitch. A lot like it sounds a pitch is a fast throw at busy editors about a possible story. If they want to find out more, then you send the press release.

That leads me to a huge pet peeve: Sending out press releases via e-mail to a list of editors. From my experience it’s never - ever - worked. I no longer try it and suggest you don’t either. It’s a waste of your time and all of the editors. Instead:

1. Focus on a handful of your “dream publications.” For me, I’d like to get into Fortune Small Business, Entrepreneur magazine and the Wall Street Journal. When picking your publications, think of your target audience. What do they read and why do they read it?

2. Pick the section you’d like to appear in. You never know, but chances are you won’t appear on the cover of the publication in your first attempt at placement, instead, focus on sidebars, resource listings and short news sections. Almost all print pubs have them. Look at it as the waiting room for bigger and better stories on the unique products and/or services you offer.

3. Find out who the editor is. Once you have your section, find out who’s in charge of it. You’ll need the person’s name, e-mail address and the most important element of successfully getting placed in the publication . . .

4. Learn what the editor needs. The number one thing you’ll need to know about the editors you’re targeting is the kind of information they want to publish in their sections. There are two ways to do that: You could ask, but then that could open up a can of worms if the editor doesn’t want to get calls - and most don’t. Or, you could compare a few back issues of the publication to find out what they’ve published in the past.

5. Create the pitch. You’ll want to start your pitch by stating your understanding of the editor’s needs. Then list - in clear bullet points - how your news fits his or her requirements. Note: Always leave your phone number in the text of the pitch e-mail to give the editor easy access to you - and your story.

6. Repeat steps 1 through 5 until you get a response. Sound tedious? Maybe. But at least the time you spend on this will reap much better results than sending one release out to thousands of editors - right along with other business people hungry for coverage.

Bottom line: It’s about building relationships with editors. And the only way to build a relationship is to find the need and fill it - consistently and considerately.

Writing Killer Press Release for Massive Publicity

Online marketers are always on the lookout for promotional channels that are novel and are yet to be saturated with the unfortunate stigma of marketing abuse. Different people are constantly trying to find new ways by which they could promote their online enterprises.

One of the newer, and most effective, marketing strategies are press releases. Press releases are informative and objective pieces which are supposed to be newsworthy, and are circulated in PR wires for pickup by various news groups and editors. Once a press release is picked up, it can be published in various channels all over the Internet, or even through print publications.

Immediately, the sharp marketing mind would be able to see the grand potentials of press releases as amazing tools that would help them spread the word about their business. Imagine the promising things that await if ever a press release is picked up or print or online publication. Such would be tantamount to instantaneous exposure for your business to entirely new audiences!

However, you cannot simply write a press release the same way you would an article, or a content piece, or a sales letter. To employ the same style with press releases would be to court disaster. Your press release wont be accepted by newswires, hence, it wont have the chance to get picked up.

So how exactly should you write a press release? Lets take a look at the guidelines below.

* Pay attention to the 5 Ws. These are Who, What, When, Where and Why. These are the questions which your press release should focus on. If youre going to write a press release for your dog grooming business, for example, you should be able to state who you are, what your business is about, when it will, or was, launched, where it can be found and why it was established. If you are going to launch, or just launched, a new product, you would have to state who the creator is, what the product is all about, when it was or will be launched, where it can be bought, and why it was introduced to the market.

* Be objective. Remember, a press release should be a newsworthy item. News is never subjective. Stay away from flowery words that merely tend to hype up what you want to discuss. Stick with the facts, and ONLY the facts. You are writing news, not a promotional piece.

* The ultimate aim is to promote your product, but be subtle about it. To do this, reorient your focus. Try to make your press release informative instead of persuasive. Remember, youre not writing a sales copy. Youre writing something that would announce your business or your product.

* There are three parts to a press release: the headline, the summary, and the body. The headline is the title of your piece. The summary is a paragraph that would serve as an introduction to your press release, or a summary of its most salient contents. The body is where you objectively discuss the 5 Ws.

* Length is not a factor. Dont ever think that if you write a longer press release, it would have a better chance of getting picked up. Often, the rule is, the more concise your press release, the better its chances are of success. A 1,000 word piece is considered a little too lengthy for a press release. 300 to 700 words are succinct enough for this purpose.

Press releases can win for your business the exposure it needs. It is capable of instantaneous results for as long your press release gets picked up and published. A lot of Internet marketers have testified to the power of press releases as marketing tools. So put on your thinking cap and commence to write an objective and informative piece about your business or product, observe the guidelines we have delineated above, and ready yourself for the new audience youre most certain to garner.

Of course this short article only gives you a brief guideline about writing effective press release. If you wish to learn more then I suggest you to download Press Release Magic, a 70-pages PDF manual that will give you more insight about how to promote your business using the power of press release. Heres the download link:
http://www.privatelabelpublishing.com/press-release-magic.pdf