small business help

Small Businesses can beat the big guys with good customer service skills

I’m positive that with good customer service skills, small businesses can beat out the big players. Generally speaking, which is always dangerous, as small business owners we are normally closer to what’s happening on the shop floor than the owners or CEO’s of large companies. Hence, we should know how our employees are interacting with customers and act quickly to fill in gaps by training in good customer service skills. We should also be providing clear polices and procedures of how to deal with complaints, refunds and other queries. It’s my personal opinion that leading by example is the best way to teach. And here’s why it is so important to get it right:

“Even in a recession people want to be treated properly. If they have a bad experience they won’t go back. If they are younger customers they will probably be on Twitter telling everyone else about it,” says Robert McKernan of McKernan Training. “The research into why customers are lost is very interesting. Only 9 per cent of defections are actually due to price. By far the biggest reason (over 60 per cent) is the attitude of staff. Consumers do not like being treated with indifference or rudeness.” [Read more…]

Content Marketing Strategy example for Retail

content marketing strategy a retail example

A Content Marketing Strategy for Retail

When I wrote on content marketing previously I knew it was something that I had to look into on a deeper level for my children’s footwear store. Andy Stack of You Tube offers this advice “it’s important for retailers to develop a content marketing strategy and not necessarily an advertising strategy, and sponsor content that matters to your community and spend money to promote content that’s tested and works”. There are more people looking on line now than ever before, some buying but most researching. So it makes sense to move away from ‘advertising’ and offer real content that the buyers can use to base their decisions on. And if you have provided that information, then it must be your business that they would look to first when actually purchasing.

Now, after reading another article I have a content marketing strategy example for retail, well for my retail business actually. It’s not perfect, but it is real and not hype, so I hope that comes through. [Read more…]