Business Information for Entrepreneurs by an Entrepreneur

This is a guest blog post by Jill Tooley.

Contrary to what advertisements may preach, there's no such thing as a company with a perfect reputation. Accidents and mistakes happen, and unfortunately your customers will be the ones who are inconvenienced by them. How do you handle a tricky situation and attempt to circumvent negative feedback before it's published all over the web? Here are a few tips to help you address customer concerns and calm the waters before they rage out of control.

Admit That You Were Wrong

Pride will get you nowhere in customer service! You represent your company on the front lines, so you have to take responsibility for your company's blunders whether you like it or not. Don't insist upon your innocence and waste time shifting the blame to someone else. If your shipping department made an error and delayed the delivery time, then calmly explain that but prepare to apologize on your company's behalf. An outraged customer won't care that it was actually Mary from shipping who was responsible for the mistake; an outraged customer will only care about how you plan to remedy the situation.

Apologize and Mean It

Are you terrified to say "I'm sorry"? Don't be. Those two tiny words could be the difference between saving a lifelong customer and creating a permanent rival! Say you're sorry in the most genuine manner possible--even if you feel that it was someone else's fault. Customers will likely feel better about the inconvenience and calm down once they receive a heartfelt response from you. Understand that a phony apology, like pride, is useless when you have a fuming customer on the line. If you can't utter "I'm sorry" and mean it, then perhaps you do not belong in customer service!

Make It Up to the Customer

After you take responsibility for the error and tactfully apologize, find opportunities to compensate the customer. Tell the affected client that you value his or her business and that you'd relish the chance to make things right. You can give something back even if it's impossible to patch up the original order! Offer a generous discount on a future order, present a free upgrade, send thoughtful personalized gifts like metal coffee tumblers or gift baskets, or provide a full refund if necessary. Do whatever it takes to make the customer happy again (or at least content).

Swallow your pride, dust off your apologies, and let your empathy shine. You may not be able to go back in time and prevent the problem from occurring, but you can smooth things over with a genuine attitude and a bit of benevolence.

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Jill Tooley writes about promotions and creative advertising topics. She blogs for Quality Logo Products, a promotional products distributor headquartered in the Chicago area. To keep up with Jill and participate in enthusiastic marketing discussions, read the Promo Products Blog. There are plenty of smiles, laughs, and musings to be had!

Pay per click still remains one of the cornerstones of internet marketing. Considering that more than 60% of all searches are conducted through Google, it is no surprise that Google Adwords generates more than $21 billion each year for the company. However, how much money can Google Adwords generate for your business?

Understanding Google Adwords

You most likely see Google Adwords almost everywhere you go on the internet. Whenever you perform a search through Google, the results page will show a "Sponsored Links" above and just beside your list of results. These links are paid links from advertisers who want to attract business through the keywords you use.

You may also see Google Adwords on many business or even personal websites. A small "Sponsored Links" section may appear somewhere in the navigation or in the middle of a blog post or article.

How to Advertise with Google Adwords

To put your business into the pay per click running, you must set up an account with Google Adwords. A small one-time setup fee of $5 is charged, but the best part of utilizing pay per click advertising is that in the big picture, you don't pay unless your advertisement is clicked by a potential lead.

How much do you pay per click? That depends on a number of factors. One major factor is the keywords you choose. Many popular keywords are in high demand, and businesses will pay top dollar to get their ads seen when certain keywords are searched. One extreme is the stock trading and financial planning industry, where it is not uncommon to see brokerages paying $50 or more per click. On the other end of the spectrum are keywords with minimum competition, which means you can secure clicks for just pennies.

Another factor that influences PPC cost is bidding. You can determine how much you want to pay for a certain keyword based on what other businesses are paying for it. Again, you must choose your bids carefully and make sure you meet your click-through sales goals for each pay per click expense.

Does Google Adwords Work?

One of the major benefits of pay per click with Google Adwords is that you can utilize metrics to gauge how well your pay per click campaign is working. You can view real-time results of how many ads are being posted, how many are clicked, and how many convert into actual sales.

In the end, the advice we give to you is this: Google Adwords can work. However, you must have a plan, set the plan into motion, gauge and monitor your campaign as it progresses, and make changes to improve your results. If you have the patience and discipline to enact this strategy and monitor your performance carefully, then yes, Google Adwords can be successful for your small business.

What's in a name? While Juliet may believe that a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet, in the internet world, your domain name dictates whether you smell success or failures. The name you choose can have a tremendous impact on your SEO, marketing strategy, and attracting potential leads and customers to your website.

Here are some tips to make sure that your domain name smells the sweetness of success:

1. Keep it Short

   In domaineering, there is but one mantra: the shorter, the better. The shorter the domain name, the more easily it will be remembered, and the less likely the URL will be mistyped. Ultimately, the business name you choose must be easy for customers to enter into their URL field or perform a search.

   Names that are too long are difficult to type into a browser, and the longer the name, the less likely your visitor will remember just what your URL is.

2. Make it Easy to Spell

   Many business names are difficult to spell, especially when a unique surname is used as part of the business. For instance, remembering a name like Lamasakama Pharmaceuticals is nearly impossible, much less remembering how to spell it. Be sure your potential clients have an easy time spelling your name.

   In addition, you don't want to utilize words that have more than one spelling in your domain name.

3. Research Availability Online

   After brainstorming a few potential business names, you may find the perfect one. Alas, once you research it online, you will most likely find it is taken in the most common domains (.com or .net).

   Be sure you brainstorm a few dozen names, and then get online to a site such as GoDaddy.com, where you can enter each name to find out if the domain is available. Even if a name is taken, try using hyphens (i.e. Davis-Associates.com rather than DavisAssociates.com)

4. Register it Quickly!

   Once you find which ones of your list are available domains, register it quickly. It may not be available tomorrow. Have your credit card available so you can quickly register it for a low fee and park it for when you can upload your website files.

Indeed, there is much in a name when it comes to domain names online!