My 2¢ Worth

t's been another busy week around here, however, I promised to get a couple new tools up on my site for you. Well I got one of the two I had in mind done.

his week I give you a Mailto Link Wizard. This is actually pretty cool as it lets you include multiple To: addresses, multiple Cc: addressees, multiple Bcc: addressees, add subject text, include some body text and add text to be used as a link. That's pretty comprehensive, huh? Check it out at Paradigm Web Design. Look for it under the Webmasters Nook section of the navigation menu.

n a different note, I just finished up a design project last Saturday and the man I did the work for took the time to write up a nice testimonial for me. It says, in part:

It's been a real PLEASURE to work with Ed of Paradigm Web Design.

Even when I got a bit 'nit-picky', Ed came through like a TRUE professional.

Check out Ed's work on my site: ebizprofits4u.com.

Phillip
Publisher, Biz4Profits

ll I can say is Thanks Phillip! And please do check out his Web site. You'll find some great advertising values there. Also take a moment to subscribe to Phillip's newsletter, Biz4Profits.

ow, on with the show. In this weeks Feature Article, Bob Leduc shows you why complaining customers can be good for your business. Enjoy!

Feature Article

COMPLAINING CUSTOMERS ARE GOOD FOR BUSINESS

by: Bob leduc

Remember the Coca Cola marketing disaster a few years ago? They tried to switch Coke drinkers to New Coke. It didn't work. Fortunately, the company quickly recognized the problem and had the resources to recover fast. Their follow up research revealed that only 1 unhappy customer in 50 takes time to complain. The other 49 just quietly switch brands.

It's human nature to avoid unpleasant experiences like customer complaints. Nobody likes bad news. But uncovering customer complaints and satisfying them can give you a powerful competitive advantage.

WHY YOU WANT TO HEAR CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS

Dissatisfied customers or clients can do one of 4 things:

1. Remain silent
2. Complain to a legal or public agency
3. Complain to friends and anybody else who will listen
4. Complain to you

Which choice would you like them to make? The best choice may surprise you.

You certainly don't want them to complain to a legal or public agency. And you definitely don't want them to complain to their friends and associates. Imagine how much business that can cost you.

Remaining silent may seem like the best choice. But it's not, for 2 reasons. First, because it really won't happen. It's human nature for people to talk about their experiences -- especially experiences involving emotions like those generated by an unsatisfactory business transaction. The other reason you don't want a dissatisfied customer to remain silent is because it deprives you of the chance to correct the problem and save your relationship with your customer.

The best choice is to have your unhappy customer complain to you.

COMPLAINING CUSTOMERS ARE DOING YOU A FAVOR

Customers or clients who take the time and trouble to complain to you are doing you a favor. They're helping you grow your business. They're giving you the opportunity to resolve their problem and keep them as a customer. They're also alerting you to a problem that may be costing you business from other prospects and customers without your knowledge.

This applies to every business including independent distributors for MLM or network marketing companies. If the problem is in your area of responsibility you can correct it. If the problem is with your company's product or system you can advise them and ask them to correct it. You can also reduce the impact of a company problem on your operation by telling your distributors about it and letting them know the company is taking corrective action.

ENCOURAGE CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS

The Coca Cola Company discovered their New Coke marketing disaster quickly because they print a toll-free consumer information telephone number on all their product packages. The sudden deluge of complaint calls alerted them immediately to the extent of the problem and enabled them to respond fast to minimize the damage. I wonder how long it would have taken them to discover the problem if they didn't provide that telephone number and encourage complaints?

A toll-free consumer information line is one way to encourage customer complaints and feedback. Here are 3 others especially suited to small businesses on a limited budget.

• Develop a customer satisfaction and comments form. Include it with products you ship or with correspondence to customers and clients if you don't ship products.
• Send a follow up postcard to customers a week or 10 days after completing a transaction and ask if everything is OK. You can do this by email or telephone if it's appropriate.
• Create a separate page at your website for customer comments and complaints. Publicize the address on your home page and on all communications with your customers.

Your customers and clients know your strengths and weaknesses better than you. Get them to identify your weaknesses and tell you what they are so you can correct them. It may be uncomfortable or ego deflating to hear about your weaknesses. But you'll soon forget that when you take corrective action and see the positive impact it has on your bottom line.

**************

Bob Leduc is a Sales Consultant with 30 years experience in generating low-cost leads. He recently wrote a manual for small business owners, "How to Build Your Small Business Fast With Simple Postcards", and several other publications to help small businesses grow and prosper. For more info: BobLeduc@aol.com
Phone: 702-658-1707 After 10 AM Pacific Time/Las Vegas, NV

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Second Article

Make Your Own "Recently Used Documents" List

by: Beth Sunny SharperTraining.com

The "Recently used document" list provides access to documents that you recently opened. However, what about those documents that you use often but are not necessarily the last 9 documents you opened? Wouldn't you like quick access to a collection of documents that  you use often? A list that you can create?

Word has a special built-in menu item called "Work". You can add this item to any menu or toolbar. Once it is available you can add the documents you use the most to this menu item. It does not matter whether they are located on your network or your hard drive. Just use the Add to Work Menu command to add the files and there they are, ready to be used.

First you must add the Work menu to a menu or toolbar:

• Click on Tools in the menu bar.
• Click on Customize... from the drop-down menu.
• Click on the Commands tab.
• Under Categories, click on Built-in Menus.
• Under Commands, click on Work.
• Click and drag it to a menu or a toolbar depending on where you want it available.

Using the Work menu

Add a document to the Work menu:

• Open a document that you want to include in the Work menu list.
• Click on the Work menu.
• Click on Add to Work Menu in the submenu. The document is automatically added to the menu.

Open a document previously added to the Work menu:

• Click on the Work menu.
• Click on the desired document in the submenu. Notice that if the Work menu is on a drop-down menu list you may need to click on the chevron to expand the menu options before you see the list of documents.

Remove a document from the Work menu:

When you remove a document from the Work list, you are not deleting it. You are only removing the document from the Work menu. Removing a document requires the use of a special keyboard shortcut: Control + Alt + - (hyphen). The hyphen key that you need to use is the one just to the right of the zero key on the main keyboard, NOT the hyphen that is part of the number keys to the right.

• Press Control + Alt + - (hyphen) before clicking on the Work menu.
  Your mouse pointer turns into a dark black horizontal line.
• Click on the Work menu.
• Click on the document you want to remove from the list.
  The document is deleted from the Work menu.

**************

Beth Sunny is a writer, publisher, and computer trainer. She owns Software Training Resources (STR), a courseware company known for their "QuickSteps to Learning" training manuals. STR launched an exciting web site in January of 2001. The web site is specifically for the Computer Training Industry - http://www.sharpertraining.com.

The site offers a place for individuals in the Computer Training Industry a place to advertise their business, correspond with others in the industry, find training products, and discover software tips and read great articles relating to computer training. Visit the site today! http://www.sharpertraining.com

Comments?

If you'd like to comment on any aspect of this publication, send an E-mail to comments@ paradigmwebdesign.net

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