My 2¢ Worth

t's time for Minnesota's biggest, most important holiday again. I am referring to the fishing opener which always occurs the weekend of Mother's day.

ow when I say the fishing opener is a major holiday, I mean this very literally. It is bigger than the 4^th of July, more important than Memorial Day and as religous as Christmas!

ll Government at the State and local level shuts down and commerce grinds to a halt. Even the Governor leaves the Capital to participate in this event! This year our Governor will be fishing in Detroit Lakes, right next door.

he only people who do not participate in this event are some women, mostly mother's, and they are known as fishing widows. You will find them at your local Walmart store.

 do not intend to fish. Even if I had the patience to fish anything other than crappies and sunfish, which I don't, it will be much to crowded on the lakes for my taste.

ust don't tell anyone from Minnesota that I don't fish. A male in Minnesota must be a fisherman! If anybody finds me out I could be imprisoned for blasphemy!

appy Mother's Day, mom! And the same to all you mothers out there.

Feature Article

Open Doors by Catering to Your Clients

by: Janice Byer, MVA DOCU-TYPE

Clients... they are the most important influence in the success of any business. It is vital to keep them satisfied and happy.

Clients should be catered to. Their every need should be met and more. We need to make them feel like they are our number one client, as they all are.

Catering to our clients should not be anything new to a professional business person. After all, we all know that exceptional customer service is the key to keeping clients happy which, in turn, keeps them coming back for more and influences them to refer you and your business to others.

Then, why is it that there are so many times that we have to deal with businesses who don’t put their clients first? We have all had one (or more) of those experiences, haven’t we? And each time I have ever had to deal with someone who doesn’t provide exceptional customer service, I am just mystified as to how they possibly manage to stay in business.

Now, catering to your customers does not mean that you should have to sacrifice your integrity or your reputation but it does mean that you have to make them feel like they are the most important customer you have. Whether they spend thousands of dollars on your product or service or they only buy in small amounts at irregular times, they are all important to your success. Every client is a door waiting to be opened and for more business to come walking through.

Catering should result in your clients always being happy and thinking positively about you.

There are some obvious, yet often forgotten, simple tasks that you can do that shows your clients that you care about them and want them to feel your are there for them when they really need you. So, let’s revisit some of them now.

First, make sure you always give your very best AND that you provide it to your client when they need it. These two go hand in hand. If you have a great product or service but you can’t deliver on time, then you are going to lose clients. The same holds true that if you can always deliver on time but it isn’t the best that you have to offer, you are bound to be fielding unhappy comments and questions from those who matter the most.

Next, be sure that you have your client’s needs and wants in mind when you are supplying to them. Listen to them when you are discussing the aspects of what they need and be sure to match that and even throw in something a little extra to show you were listening.

When listening to your clients, take note of how you can improve your product or service. After all, they are telling you what they need and it is probably what others need as well. By improving your product or service you are not only catering to your clients, you are also opening up new doors for others who may need what you have to offer but are unsure if you can customize to suit their requirements.

Always provide a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Everyone wants to be completely satisfied with everything they obtain or purchase. By guaranteeing your product or service, your customer will be more reassured that they will receive exactly what they ordered. And, if you publicly offer a guarantee, more people will feel at ease dealing with you.

Remember to never keep a client or potential client waiting. When you receive an inquiry from an individual, whether it is a phone message, email, or a letter, be sure to respond to it right away. By not providing a prompt response, you are taking a chance that the client will grow impatient and move onto another business to supply what they are requiring.

And finally, be sure to always say thank you to your clients. Send a thank you note to everyone who requests a quotation, signs up as a new client, or an existing client that has a habit of ordering quite a bit from you. This will not only show that you care about them but it will also keep your company fresh in their minds. If you find that your budget is limited, sending an online e-card will project your appreciation just as well.

Catering to your clients should not be a chore, it should be a gesture of appreciation. Most clients will respond to your exceptional customer service by providing you with more business or by referring you to others. It’s a win - win situation!

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

Janice Byer is a certified Master Virtual Assistant, owner of Docu-Type Administrative & Web Design Services (www.docutype.net), and winner of several prestigious awards. She writes "been there, done that" articles to help small business owners become successful. And, her award winning monthly newsletter, Virtual TidBits, allows her to share tips, links and articles to her subscribers in an effort to make their business and online presence more successful. As a contributing writer to several online publications and an occasional contributer to numerous print publications, she is now being sought to be the subject of various profiles. Her passion for her business and her desire to help all small business owners has lead her to be an expert, of sorts, in her field. She knows what it feels like to search endlessly for information and run up against brick walls. Her website, newsletter and articles are her way of trying to alleviate that frustration for those that are now looking for answers.

Nested Blockquotes

You can nest blockquotes inside one another to create larger indents. Nesting a pair of blockquotes creates indents of approximately 80 pixels on each side; nesting three blockquotes creates 120-pixel indents on each side; and so on. In theory that means that each Blockquote creates a 40-pixel indent.

This is a nested blockquote tag:

<blockquote<> blockquote> Text </blockquote< /blockquote>

* Get these syndicated tip feeds for your web site, free. *

---

ad box #4 Eliminate annoying pop-ups forever! Surfing the internet is a lot of fun. But sooner or later, you come across certain sites which open pop- up windows with advertisements. They overwhelm your viewing and take over your screen. Exit Killer is software designed to prevent the opening of these pop-ups. http://tinyurl.com/gxm

Imagine your ad above! For rates click HERE

Second Article

Tag, You're It!

by: Larry Johnson Biz Site Biz

Some call them "tag lines"; others refer to them as "catch lines" or "tie-in-slogans." Whatever the words used to refer to them, they are perhaps the most important part of your promotional writing.

Do you recognize any of these? : "Like a rock..." "Fly the friendly skies..." "It's the real thing!" "Quality is job number one" "The quicker-picker-upper"

Most of those tag lines are recognizable by us without even including the name of the company or product.

They summarize in a very few words the essence of the thing they are promoting. They communicate a good, positive feeling or relationship to the product. They do it with a simple, rememberable phrase that is easily repeated.

The shorter the description is, the more challenging it is to write. Anyone can write a 500-word description of a product or service. Now try doing it with 5 to 10 words ! Each word you choose is very important to the message.

HERE ARE SOME TIPS for writing good taglines for your business offer.

1. Start by noticing ads on billboards as you drive down the road. Billboard advertisers have but a couple of seconds to grab your attention and sell their product or service. Usually their copy is going to be a very good tagline with a picture of the product or service. These are great examples of how to write effective taglines.



2. Notice other media forms like magazine and newspaper display ads, business cards, brief radio and TV commercials. Observe the thing that caught your attention and makes the message easily remembered. It's usually a concise and well-written tagline.



3. Write down everything you can think of that relates to your business. You may even start with a narrative description in paragraph form.



4. Now, make a list of the top 25 or 30 things that are important and worth mentioning. Whittle that list down to 8 or 10 of the most important things you wish to say. Now eliminate repetition or things that are not really that necessary to your product or service. Get your list of words or phrases down to 3 or 4 central elements.



5. Based on your final core selection, make up some phrases that will serve as your taglines for consideration. Keep them short and use simple, everyday language.

Which of these taglines would you remember best?

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

Larry Johnson, Konawa, OK USA
www.bizsitebiz.com/
Larry is a webmaster and editor with six years experience. His background includes counseling, retail sales, radio and t-v copy writing and production. He is currently active in his imprinted promotional items business and weekly publication of the free business newsletter, Biz Site Biz E-zine. He has been nationally published in Home

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

---

Comments?

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

---

If you enjoyed The Web Sm@rts Newsletter, forward it to your friends, family and associates. They'll thank you for it!

---

Do you know someone who might be interested in receiving
Web Sm@rts?
Recommend us!

---

---

NOTE: You have received this message because you or one of your friends added your name to our list of those who may wish to receive this newsletter.

If you do not wish to receive this newsletter, please point your browser to http://paradigmwebdesign.net/unsubscribe.html

FYI: Web Sm@rts will never share your E-mail address or personal information with any other party for any reason what-so-ever.

---

This newsletter is never sent unsolicited.
To unsubscribe, point your browser to http://paradigmwebdesign.net/unsubscribe.html

Looking for free newsletters? Just visit the EzineXchange, Select the ones of interest and subscribe. It's free!
ezinexchange.com

Find other great e-mail newsletters and Ezines at the Cumuli Ezine Finder: www.cumuli.com/ezines/

Web Site and E-zine Promotion for Idiots
Get your copy from PWD and get lots of traffic to your Web Site or E- zine instantly.

Use Link Crafter to drive more traffic to your site. Free download from PWD.
lc.exe

Text Tally from
Harmony Hollow software
is a handy text counting utility. Download it free from PWD
Download now

E-Zine Advertising WORKS!
Place your ad in 100s of e-zines like this one. The E-Zine AdSource Directory is the place to find discount e-zine ad space. Come see!
ezineadsource.com

Tutorials

Elated Webdesign Tips
Javagoodies JavaScript Repository
Website Abstraction Westciv: CSS Resources