Concierge Communications Newsletter

By Elyssa Dull

We all know our sales people here at Concierge Communications can talk. A lot. But this month, you have the pleasure of hearing from our Marketing Department.

No matter your company’s size, business owners are always on the lookout for low risk, high results marketing ideas. Maybe you have a blog, a LinkedIn account, a Facebook page, a Twitter, and even a Myspace page. You socialite you. Yes, social media is important. But what else is in your marketing mix? Are there any basics you might be missing to make your marketing and branding more effective?

Here are four Communications and Technology solutions to help you do just that.

1. Get Real

A business email address is a necessity, not a luxury. If a sales person gave you his home address in order to contact
him, would you  continue to do business with him? Same rule applies when you hand out business cards with a Yahoo email or Gmail address.

I am constantly shocked by the amount of professionals, including doctors and city officials, still using free email service providers such as Yahoo, Google, and Hotmail for their business accounts. Don’t get me wrong; these free email service providers offer great options for personal accounts. However, not only are they unprofessional for business purposes, they are not secure. Unsecure, web-based mail servers are constantly hacked with no regard for a company’s size. Don’t put your confidential information at risk to save $10 each month.

Here is the good news. The company that you use to host your web site probably offers free or low-cost email addresses based on your domain name.  If you don’t have a web site… well, that’s a problem. Even if you only go as far as to set up a Facebook Business page, make yourself searchable. If someone types your business name into a search engine and cannot even find an address or phone number, they will move on to the next option which is likely your competitor.

2. Make Yourself Available

One thing that social media’s success has taught us is the value of communication with buyers. Being able to connect with a company on a personal level increases a person’s brand loyalty. People want to do business with people, not an entity. Go the extra mile with clients,
whether they are across town or across the globe, and set up video conferencing. There are new social-media inspired conferencing programs which allow you to set up a “room” which anyone can enter at any time. Set up a room for someone in the customer service department in the room so your clients can see AND hear the person to whom they are speaking. Or there’s always the more professional option of conference rooms with a focus on client presentations which feature screen shares, document shares, video cameras and chat space.

3. Be Reliable

Having a reliable service or product is a given in the sales world, but is your office equipment reliable? What happens if your internet service provider has an outage? What if your phones are down for an hour? What if one of your employees accidently deletes all of the company’s client files?

At the Concierge office, the answer to all of these questions is simply – we’ll continue doing business like nothing happened. If our internet goes down, we failover to another internet service provider. If our phone system stops working, we can forward calls to our cell phones. If our files get deleted, they’re backed up in the cloud. As a marketing person, do I know how that works TECHNICALLY? No. Why do you think I
work with smart people? They take care of these things for me.

4. No Elevator Music

No one likes being put on hold, but when your customer service representatives are busy, you don’t always have a choice. Want to make it more irritating for your clients? Interrupt that elevator hold music every 60 seconds with a hopeful pause only to play a recording saying, “Your call is important to us. Please continue to hold.” OR, try to make it a little easier on the customer. My favorite option allows a client to leave their name and phone number, keep their spot in “line” and receive a call back from a representative within 10 to 20 minutes. If your company isn’t big enough for a call queuing option, but still find yourself putting customers on hold frequently, at least use a service that allows you to create a unique script. Many hold-recording providers allow you to choose professional voice talent and background music,
assist you with ideas, and can even help you with your script. Use hold time to sell to people who are already interested in your product. Or use it to make your clients laugh. Just stop irritating them.