Business Alone

To my way of thinking, there are two business functions that every single company needs to execute well, every day of the year, in order to be categorized as a successful business.

The first function is marketing. Regardless of the product you sell, the size of your company, or the underlying bankroll you operate from, if you don't market what you sell, and market it well, you will never be successful.

The second daily business function that is critical to every business that I know is customer service. That is the topic for this post.

How many people do you know personally that don't really care how they're treated? How many folks enjoy being put off, ignored, lied to, ripped off, pushed around, run around in circles, or treated like they were criminals?

We're discussing the little operating changes that can easily be set up in an online business that will add greatly to your customer support process.

4. Set up a responsive help system or customer support mechanism. It doesn't have to be an expensive and complex hosted solution.

The main thing customers want to know is how to easily, quickly, and reliably get in touch with you should a problem or concern arise.

Customers online understand that small companies may not have full time "operators standing by" waiting to answer every question thrown at them. But by all means, return phone calls and emails just as soon as you can, preferably within a few hours of receiving them.

I believe it's a wise move to investigate all the options you have in executing your online business.

You may quickly dismiss many of these options for any number of reasons, but you might also find just that one perfect little advantage that sets your business apart from your competitors and propels you to success.

Drop-shipping could become your business "ace in the hole" so to speak, but there are many dangers in this industry so you need to be cautious and thorough in your research about the drop-shippers that you employ, their reputation for quality products and service, their fee structure, their policies, and your rights as the selling agent.

Some business owners have chosen to ship purchased products to their customers at no additional cost with the idea that such generosity could mean the difference between landing a sale or not, all other considerations being equal.

I would caution that you be very careful in implementing this strategy. If you choose to offer free shipping, that's certainly your prerogative as the business owner; but if your business can't really afford this luxury, it could become an awful drain on your capital.

Now, don't get me wrong - I'm not saying you should never employ this strategy. In fact, some businesses have used the "free shipping" tactic to differentiate and set their company apart from all the other competitors in their niche.

Have you ever noticed a shopping cart full of groceries sitting next to the checkout stand at the supermarket?

I've seen it happen a few times and usually figured that someone simply left their wallet or purse at home and would be back soon to claim their abandoned goods.

It's not a big problem since most stores are accommodating about the oversight.

But online, shopping cart abandonment is a huge problem! No one really knows the extent of this loss to e-tailers, but I have seen some estimates that suggest fifty percent or more of all online sales processes are never completed.

In the previous installment we discussed some of the costs associated with delivering physical products to your customers.

Be careful to study the numbers and understand exactly what it is costing your business on a weekly, monthly, and annual basis to send out your goods.

In most instances, it is best to charge your customers about what it costs you to handle and ship their purchase. The amount can vary a little from your exact cost so that you can standardize and simplify the shipping cost structure you present to your buyers.

The ways an auto responder can be employed to automate your business tasks are many. Here are just a few of the typical business uses of an auto responder:

- if an email address is no longer valid, a message can be sent from the mail server that the email is now "undeliverable,"

- if the business changes its email address or URL, a new forwarding address can be sent to those that send mail to the old address,

- if you go on vacation or are otherwise unavailable for a time, your auto responder can alert customers to your absence and when you'll return,

Having to ship merchandise out to customers reminds me of the hassle of shaving every morning. It's a part of the daily routine, it's something to be tolerated but it's never enjoyed, and the longer you let it go, the more difficult the chore grows for the next day.

In my mind, having to ship merchandise, keep inventory on hand, box and package products, etc, is one of the reasons I feel strongly about solo operators focusing on information based business only. There is no shipping.

If you ship merchandise, you have to keep merchandise. All of a sudden you are in the warehousing and inventory business that presents all kinds of extra manpower costs, worries and hassles.

By now you understand that the solo information business strategy discourages dealing in physical products that require shipping and handling. These products require human intervention and a lot of financial costs that are the antithesis of the one-person solo Internet home business model.

Nevertheless, many of you will continue to do business in a physical delivery world because of the types of products you sell.

So I have a few suggestions about shipping products that will hopefully help you in your business to avoid the pitfalls and traps that some solo businesses have fallen into in the past.