Use these easy and unique ways to increase your reach.

Answer the Phone: Each day you have the opportunity to collect hundreds of email addresses at no cost. Train your staff to ask for the customer’s email address when answering the phone. Inform your customers that providing their email will allow them to receive updates and upcoming specials.

Raffle: Raffle off coupons or other great prizes, events are a great time to get a lot of participation.

Survey: Not only an easy way to capture email addresses but to gain valuable feedback as well. Have surveys located by your register to get opinions on issues and ideas you are working on. Give customers the incentive of winning a prize by entering all submitted surveys into a raffle. Have the customer provide their name and email since that is how winners will be notified.

Trivia Contest: Major sport championships or award weeks seem to be great times for a contest. Use the same practices you would for a survey (see above) but create some relevant history questions. Do a quick internet search and you will find plenty. Have the customer provide their name and email since that is how winners will be notified.

First, you need to think about a possible domain name. What do you want your web address to be?

Things to consider:

Will your customers remember it?

Is it difficult to spell? OR Is it spelled properly?

Try and use keywords. Wordtracker

How does it sound?

Does it express your business or product?

When your ready – Click the link to go to NameCheap

Enter your preferred domain name. If you are registering something other than a .com, choose the top level domain type from the drop down list (.net, .org, .biz, etc), and then simply click the search button.

When you find an available domain name select the one you wish to purchase and click “Add to Cart.”

This will bring you to your Shopping Cart. Check to make sure that the spelling of your domain name is correct and click “Checkout” when ready.

Log in or create an account. If this is your first purchase you will need to create an account. The terms of service require that you provide your real name and accurate contact information and keep it up to date. All fields are required.

Next is the options screen. For our purpose, use the default settings and click “Save & Continue.”

The last step is the payment options. Select how you wish to pay and checkout. Its that easy, now you will need to setup your web hosting service.

The only thing that matters to your customers is their experience with your business. Retain existing customers and enable them to spread the good word by making their experience remarkable. Literally remarkable.

Make relationships. If you are a small business you must strive to become friendly with all of your customers. Get involved with your customers, know their names, their likes and dislikes. Joke with them, talk with them on topics other than business, become their friend, become a part of the community.

Front line staff. Besides you, who interacts with your customers? You must set aside time to hear their thoughts and feedback and make sure you reward their effort and success. Your staff must make your customers feel welcome when they visit. People love to feel that they belong, and if customers feel comfortable, they will come back.

Go the extra mile. Maybe you have to spend 30 minutes on the phone with a customer when it usually only takes 5. Maybe a hand written thank you note for a customer’s business. Whatever it may be, let your customer know that they matter.

Here are some impressive customer service statistics.
Source: White House Office of Consumer Affairs, Washington, DC

• A dissatisfied consumer will tell between 9 and 15 people about their experience. About 13% of dissatisfied customers tell more than 20 people.
• Happy customers who get their issue resolved tell about 4 to 6 people about their experience.
• It costs five to six times as much to get a new (first time) customer as it does to keep a current one.

During a recession, we all need to be knowledgeable and well versed in as many areas as possible. We need to stress the importance of resourcefulness, problem solving skills, and the ability to “figure it out” to our staff.

In today’s tech-savvy world, where the Internet is literally at an employee’s fingertips, the amount of information available is unbelievable. It’s easier to pick up the phone or run over to a co-worker and ask, “What should I do?“ or “How do I…” It’s not that an employee should never ask for help, but far too often capable people take the easy way out and pass the burden of the actual work onto others.

Tenacity and persistence go hand-in-hand with resourcefulness. Instead of looking outside for answers, Golf Operators would be wise to look to their own creativity and past experience as a means of solving problems and customer complaints. Let’s face it – customers are creative in their complaints, why not get creative in our response?

When it seems like someone else has the easy answer, take a moment before you ask. If he figured it out, why can’t you? Maybe a quick Google search is required (Search Engine Tips), or a skim through a handbook. Either way, not only are you showing your value; but you set an example for your staff, too.

Well, when it comes down to me against a situation, I don’t like the situation to win.

-Angus MacGyver

Sociable

Easily let users share you posts with services like Twitter, Digg, Technorati, Stumble Upon , and many many more!  New versions allow visitors to E-mail and Print, this eliminates the need for multiple plugins. Get It

WWSGD

What Would Seth Godin Do: A great easy way to get visitors to subscribe to your feed, it will display a message at the top of your homepage when visitors first visit your site, asking them to subscribe to your feed. Easily adjust settings so the message will appear the first few times a new visitor comes. Get It

Akismet

Blocks spam and ham from getting to your blog. WordPress  places this very important and useful plugin in your admin area by default. So go activate it! You will need an API Key and for that you will need a WordPress.com account.

Google XML Sitemap

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WP Database Backup

What would you do if you lost everything? All of that time and effort, all of those long nights, your visitors and customers. Backup your site!! This plugin even allows your database to be emailed to you. Get It

SEO Title Tag

Get more traffic with this great SEO tool. Use search engine friendly titles on your pages and posts to get better recognized. The additional 5 seconds while writing your post is one of the simplest ways to get more traffic. Get It