How To Handle The Occasional Oop-See!

Q: My company is really in hot water with one of our best customers. I can’t reveal exactly what happened, but suffice it to say that we really dropped the ball and the customer is furious. I’m not even sure we can save the account. What’s the best way to get back in a customer’s good graces after making such a mistake?
— Charles W.

A: Without knowing the full story, Charles, I can’t give you a specific course of action, but let’s start at the sharp end of the uh-oh stick and work our way back to see if we can come with up some advice that might help.

First off, it’s important that you understand that the magnitude of your mistake will determine the course of action you take to make amends. If your company’s error was such that it caused your customer a significant amount of lost time or revenue, embarrassed them publicly, caused damage to their reputation, or otherwise negatively affected their bottom line, you may face legal repercussions that saying «I’m sorry» will not deter. If that’s the case you should consult an attorney immediately and prepare for the worst. Whether or not the worst comes is irrelevant. You must be prepared for it.

Now on to dealing with more minor offenses. As anyone who has read this column for any length of time knows, I’m cursed with daughters. I used to say I was blessed with daughters, then they learned to walk and talk. Blessed quickly became cursed. Now my oldest daughter is an inch taller than me and getting all lumpy in places I’d rather not think about. She’s a sad case, really. The poor kid needs an operation. She has a cellphone growing out of her ear. But I digress?€¦

When she was a toddler she coined the phrase, «Oop-see!» Whenever she did something innocently destructive, like knock over a glass of orange juice on my new computer keyboard or shove a Pop Tart in the VCR tape slot, she would look at me with her huge brown eyes and say, «Oop-see!» My wife says there is a reason God made kids cute. Oop-see moments are evidence that she is right.

Oop-see meant, «Uh oh, I didn’t mean to do that. I was wrong. I’ll never do that again. Forgive me? Love me? Buy me toys?€¦ Oop-see worked like a charm every time. Now, I certainly don’t expect you to bat your eyes at your customer and say, «Oop-see!» but consider the effect her words had on me. Instead of screaming at the top of my lungs like I wanted to do (hey, have you ever tried to dig a Pop Tart out of a VCR) I immediately softened and found myself actually taking her side. «Aw, it’s OK, really, we all make mistakes?€¦»

What my daughter had figured out is that it’s hard to stay mad at someone who admits a mistake, sincerely apologizes for it, and vows never to let it happen again. Little did I know this was only one of many tactics she would employ over the years in her never-ending quest to wrap her daddy several times around her little finger, but that’s a whole different column.

Dale Carnegie said it best: «Any fool can try to defend his or her mistakes — and most fools do — but it raises one above the herd and gives one a feeling of nobility and exultation to admit one’s mistakes.»

Carnegie and my daughter were basically saying the same thing: When you (or your company) make a mistake, no matter how large or small, the best thing you can do is quickly admit the error of your ways and face the consequences, come what may.

Here are a few things you can do to help set things right with your customer.

Assemble the facts. The very first thing you should do is find out what went wrong and why. Meet with your key people and gather the facts. Ask specific questions like: What was the mistake? What caused it? Who was involved? What could have been done to prevent the mistake from happening and what can be done to prevent it from happening again in the future.

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes. I’ve been on both ends of the uh-oh stick and neither is very comfortable. My company has dropped the ball on occasion and we have also been negatively impacted when one of our vendors did the same. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and consider what could be said or done to remedy the situation from their point of view.

Take responsibility for the actions of your company. In my role as a company president there have been times when I’ve had to call up a customer and confess that a mistake was made, and as president it was also my responsibility to take the heat for it. Remember, you’re the head cheese, Charles, you get to sit behind the big desk and take home the nice paycheck. You’re also the one that gets to mop up when your employees makes a mess. It just goes with the job.

Do not place the blame on specific employees. No matter how tempting it is to put the blame on specific people in your organization (even if that’s where the blame lies), do not do it. It is unprofessional, counterproductive and can backfire on you, especially if the person you’re blaming reports directly to you. Saying something like «My sales manager is always making mistakes like this!» is not going to make your customer feel any better. To the contrary, such statements will make the customer question your leadership ability and the quality of all your employees, not just the one that made the mistake. If you don’t have faith in your company and employees, why should your customer?

Don’t deny that a mistake was made, especially when there is clear evidence to the contrary. You’re not Richard Nixon, for petesake, so don’t try to pretend that the mistake didn’t happen or stage some elaborate cover-up to try and dodge the blame.

Admit your mistake. This may sounds trite, but you must admit your mistake before you can move ahead and start to make amends. Don’t be so afraid to take this step. I doubt your company is the first one to screw up with this customer and I can guarantee you certainly won’t be the last.

Apologize for the mistake. The one thing that could make the situation better is often the thing that companies find hardest to do. I don’t mean to sound like Dr. Phil, but simply saying you’re sorry is often the best way to get a business relationship back on track. Ensure the customer that it will never happen again. After you have taken responsibility for the mistake and apologized in a sincere and professional manner, you must then start the process of rebuilding the trust that was lost. Promising that such a mistake will not happen again is a good way to start.

Compensate the customer for his loss. Even if your mistake didn’t cost the customer a dime, he will appreciate an offer of compensation. This can be something as simple as a lunch on you or a discount on his next order. The size of the compensation offered should be in direct proportion to the size of your mistake. A word of warning: don’t let the customer bully you into overcompensating him for your mistake. That can be more detrimental to the relationship than the mistake itself.

As my daughter understood all those years ago, Charles, a sincere Oop-see can help make things all better.

Here’s to your success!

Tim Knox tim@dropshipwholesale.net

Know Your Business Inside and Out

Really understanding your business and your industry is a key step towards becoming successful. It’s not about just opening a book and thinking you can learn what to do to make your business thrive. There are a lot of different aspects in business. Things like management, marketing, human resources, and taxes that have to be understood. In addition you need to understand exactly how they apply to your business.

When we think about the management issues of your business what comes to mind? Maybe what kind of skills might your managers need. What kind of compensation will be required to attract good help? What kind of positions within your organization may need to be staffed in the coming years? And where are you going to find qualified managers or will you need to train them from the ground up. It’s these kinds of questions that you need to ask yourself so that you can learn more about your business.

In small business you have to be concerned with the marketing of your services or products. Do you know what kinds of advertising methods are best for your business? Do you know the costs of those kinds of services? Have you checked on the competition lately to see what methods they use to sell their products or services and do you know what kinds of prices they charge? Have you taken the time to develop an effective marketing plan? Marketing your small business is not an easy task and the things that have worked so far may not be effective in the future. Do you know what other methods you might be able to turn to if something you use today fails?

When we consider the human resources portion of a small business it is possible to find many questions that will need to be asked. Things such as how much should your employees be compensated? Do you plan to offer helth insurance or if you already do is your plan the best you can get? How will you handle employee reviews and the issue of raises? What do you plan to do if you end up needing help quickly? Will you use a temporary labor agency or do you have an alternative method. There are many questions in the human resources field that should be answered.

One of the most horrible subjects out there is always taxes. Can you do your taxes or do you rely on someone else? Are they doing the job right and are they saving you as much money as they can? Do you know how to handle payroll taxes and sales tax? Are there specific taxes that apply to your state? Something like a headcount tax maybe? How about if you sell items across the state line or operate locations in other states do you know the tax laws for those states?

There will always be questions in business that need answers. It’s up to you to take the initiative to search out those answers and ask yourself whatever other questions you might be able to think of. The old clich?hat knowledge is power is especially true in business. And as a small business owner you need every edge you can get.

How Texas Assesses Property Taxes

If you own property in Texas, the state will charge you a tax on the land and everything on that land. They assess taxes on January 1st for the year. But the methods with which they calculate the amount due are in question. Many people rightly demand to know how the state government calculates the tax on each piece of property correctly. There is a handy tool that will help you to accurately estimate the correct tax amount of your property. You need to know the value assessed on your home, land and any other buildings or improvements. This amount is not what you paid for your land and home, it’s based on what value the assessor says they have currently.

Add together the values of your house and land. This will give you a total figure that will make your calculations more easy to determine. Have in mind the exemptions that you are already qualified to deduct from the assessed value of your property. Every tax unit will allow different exemptions. Then determine the levy rates or the estimated levy rates for the current year.

Next, you need to multiply the amount you were assessed minus your exemptions for the unit of the city, and then multiply that by the city’s official tax rate percentage. Also, you need to continue calculating each unit as being separate from the rest. Then add up all of your unit’s amounts that are taxable. This will give you the amount due or the estimated amount due for the current tax year.

Always keep in mind that the estimation of property tax sent out at the beginning of every year is only an estimate. Your property values will remain the name, however, unless you dispute them. Tax rates are not normally finalized until closer to the end of the current year.

If you wish to appeal your tax bill, you should know that most appeals of property taxes are successful. The property value can’t be increased at your informal meeting, so you don’t have anything to lose. Most disputed accounts are settled at the informal meeting. The appraisal district almost never retaliates against homeowners who appeal their property taxes.

How to Raise Your Income Level

How often do you sit around and wonder how to make more money and get more people to buy more from your company? It’s one of the most basic problems every company faces.

The answer is astonishingly simple. Too simple maybe. But I’ve seen it work over and over again with our customers in every line of business you can imagine.

You have to promote. Your income is determined by how much marketing you do.  There are many effective marketing methods and you shouldn’t do just one.  Even those whose products are strictly sold on-line, you still need to utilize those other methods of promotion.  Your income is definitely 100% affected by how much promotion you do.

So raising your income is simply a matter of keeping in touch with your existing customer base, reminding them you are there, offering them goods or services they might be interested in, in such a way that they
want to buy more and more often from you. And increasing the size of your customer base by finding and contacting potential customers and persuading them to buy your products or services and then adding them to your customer base and keeping in touch with them in the same way.

If you have a good service or product and you make sure you service your customers well, you cannot fail to raise your income.

How rapidly you raise your income depends on how rapidly you do these actions, how much you promote.  Handling the quantity or volume of promotion is definitely the most obvious thing you can do on an immediate basis.  Believe it or not, if you send out crappy, crappy promotion, your income will go up.  You may not be happy with the Return on your Investment (ROI) for that marketing effort, but definitely it will raise your income.  Once quantity is handled and you are sending out loads of promotion, you want to tweak it and raise the quality of your promotion.  And here are some things you can do.

Use Offers to Improve Your Response.

One of the barriers to buying which you work hard to overcome is «no hurry.» Why buy it now when I can think about it for a few weeks, shop around a little and get back to you, maybe?  Familiar with that «I’m
interested. I’ll get back to you.» Or the card you have designed and mailed out gets put in a drawer somewhere for possible follow up, maybe next year some time.

One way to deal with this is to reward those who buy now and penalize those who don’t. How? With some special offer and one that is attractive and one which has a time element attached to it. «Order your new
lawnmower now and we’ll give you a free edger. Offer good until the end of May.» (Or whatever, you get the idea). Obviously the offer must be financially feasible for you so you’ll have to do some number crunching before you make the offer.

You can tie these special offers in to some particular event or season (like jewelry for Valentine’s Day or flowers or chocolates or just about anything for Christmas) but you don’t have to.

Special Offers help you maximize on your direct mail marketing and keep your customers ordering from you when you want them to.  It’s just one more way to be in control of your promotion.

You can control how much and how fast your company grows.

Learn Lucrative Consultant

Hey do you want to earn 1000$ in starting phase of online business? if yes then you just have to follow below 6 block formula right away.

Block 1 — Select Your Niche.

If you wish to be live in this killer competition then you have to find your target & interest based market. Do in-depth study on that targeted market.

Analyze market demand of your desire product & also use google to see the demand of your targeted product in market.

Once you do that then go for niche that has high demands & low competition.

Block 2 — Choose Your Passion.

You have to select target market on the basis of your passion & interest.

You can easily grab that market because you put your best efforts and try to achieve your goal.

Keep in mind that you spend most of your time for your business website. Spend time in developing strong content for site, product development & also satisfy your customer with strong service support.

If your business or selection of target market is not as per your passion then it’s very difficult for you to run & earn profitable income from it.

Block 3 — Design a Simple but Killer Website.

Make your site simple, fast & decent. Don’t spoil with unwanted graphics, flash & heavy design. Once your site is simple & decent then your customer automatically attract towards your site.

Block 4 — Stunning Website Copy.

You have to create copy of site that gives you more business. What you can do, don’t make copy that only tells about you & your company. You should provide valuable informative content on your site to attract your visitors.

Earn trust of your visitors and make ensure them to join with you. Put your best effort to convince them to buy your products.

Offer attractive bonus & discount to sell your products.

Let them clear their doubts about your products and service then only ask for credit card or payments. Don’t ask immediately.

Block 5 — Traffic, Traffic and More Traffic.

Once your site is ready for market then you just have to pull traffic towards your site. Use some tricks like article writing technique, login in forum discussion, go for pay per click business, do offline promotional, etc. Apply few techniques to get heavy traffic on your site.

Block 6 — Make Money at the Backend.

Main aim of based business home Internet is to earn killer money.

Apply various tactics of different gurus to sell quality product at low price. First offer law range product to your customer and once he will get satisfied then offer higher range product.

You can attain this trick on existing customers with the help of auto responder.

Apply above 6 formula honestly & you can see 1000$ in your pocket very soon.