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Customer Feedback Forms – What They Are Saying Behind Your Back

The adage you won’t know if you don’t ask, still holds true in today’s high tech business world. Even with our global and high tech world, what people think about your business may still be veiled from your eyes. There’s no better way to find out what people really think about your services than to ask.

We ask our clients regularly about our services, their experience with us, and to rate our blog writers. We do this via online forms; allowing the client to tell us what they think about us without the discomfort of telling us face to face. Although not every client we ask will take the time to use our form to rate our services, the ones that do help us to adjust, fine tune, and improve our customer service and offerings.

I’ve had some clients tell me that they don’t want to set up review forms for their own business as they don’t want to deal with negative findings. My suggestion is that even a negative rating can make you stronger. Negative ratings should be considered as constructive criticism. Yes, negative reviews can be hard to take, but if you use them to improve your services and programs, the input is invaluable.

I’ve found that sometimes when it comes to your own business, you may be the very last to know what customers may be saying behind your back until you see sales dropping. If this happens to you, there is no better time than to create a review program, evaluate the results, make important changes, offer incentives for performance to employees, and move forward strongly as you monitor your team closely.

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An Update on Google Places This Month By Google

Google has been changing the information it shows on Google Places pages this last month. Here are a few updates that they have made and adjustments to our service offerings due to the changes.

First, it is important to know that we do not guarantee any specific placement on Google Places or improvement in your current placement. You should be very careful of using any firm that does guarantee this. Google has not revealed any specific information about how to optimize for Google Places to any resource and in fact we have debunked some of the techniques used by “Google Places guaranteed placement firms” and have written extensively on the topic of best practices for Google Places.

Since November 2011, typically your Google Places listing will link directly to your website. There may be a link in your listing that will forward readers to your Google Places review section, but no longer does Google force a reader to view a Google Places page in order to find out information about that business. Although we do cannot definitively identify that our updates to categories and additional details make a difference when Google “racks and stacks” the results for location specific searches, those elements that were hidden previously in Google’s Google Places recent updates are now again visible to readers who visit your Google Places page when they click an arrow to open up the additional information fields.

Google will only show four service categories and now only the first four or five additional detail items you list in your Google Places account. As a result our monthly service update pricing has changed from $40 a month to $25 a month. This service is only available to accounts who have used our set up service which costs $240. As an honest web services provider who wants to make sure that all we do benefits you on the Web, our decrease in service charges is based on the lower amount of time to update your account on a monthly basis.

You can read more about our Google Places Set Up services on our website.

 

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New Levels for Blog Writing and Specialty Blogging

With seven talented writers working for us, we’ve blogged for a wide variety of business sectors. Based on client needs, we’ve developed some new programs that cater to difficult to blog for client needs.

Here are just a few of the new blog programs in specialty areas we’ve developed:

  1. Diamond Level by Sue – $50 per post
    Diamond Level blog posts are written exclusively by our most experienced  blogger, Sue Guirl, a graduate from the University of Missouri’s School of  Journalism. As a professional journalist, Sue has a unique style of writing  that is both informative and engaging. She knows how to craft a blog post,  turn a phrase, and paint a picture with her words that provides for an exceptionally  fine level of writing. With many of our client’s asking for her by name, Sue  is our most popular writer. Due to the mastery of her craft, Sue writes exclusively  at the Diamond and Platinum Levels for blogging. She also writes website content and feature  articles for web and print publications.
  2. Platinum Level by Sue – $60 per post
    The Platinum Level is priced to provide a  longer word count than the Diamond Level blog post and is recommended for more difficult topics or those that need more research time by our writer.Platinum Level blog posts are  written exclusively by our most experienced blogger, Sue Guirl, a graduate from  the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism. Sue has a very unique  client-pleasing style of writing that is both informative and engaging. She  knows how to turn a phrase and research a topic that provides for an  exceptionally fine level of writing. Sue is by far our most popular writer. As  she is in such demand, Sue writes exclusively at the Diamond and Platinum  Levels for blogging. She also writes website content and feature articles for  web and print publications. She also writes website content and feature  articles for web and print publications.
  3. Medical Practice Blogging – $40 per post
    Medical  Practice blog posts are written by only our most experienced and educated  bloggers. Catering to doctors, dentists, and plastic surgeons, our medical blog  writers write about your specific services in an engaging, informative style. With this blogging level you have one writer for the life of your blog project with us. This  allows our writer to develop strong experience in your topics, lean the style  of writing you like, and helps them to become knowledgeable on your topics  allowing for more effective writing. As writing for your specialty requires  more time to research and write, our preferred frequency and lowest pricing is for  writing three days a week. We can write less frequently but at a slightly  higher writing rate.
  4. Bed Bug & Pest Control Blogging by Rhonda – $40  per post
    Bed bug and pest control blogging is done exclusively by Rhonda Crehan, a  seasoned pest control writing expert. Rhonda has over four years of writing  experience in the pest control industry. She has strong pest control experience  writing and has over two years of specialized in writing about bed bug control,  prevention, identification, bed bug dogs, and pending bed bug legislation.  She is extremely interested and knowledgeable about the pest control industry  and this interest and passion shows in her well written blog posts for clients.

You can read samples of blogs at these new levels on our specialty blog services page.

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Afraid to Test AdWords Try Google AdWords Express

Some clients may be selling a service or product that may not be a wonderful match for Google AdWords. There’s a great way to test if AdWords is right for you before taking the big plunge in regards to set up fees and click charges.

First, this is why AdWords may seem not be right for your business:

  1. Your products or services are priced higher than other competitors in your market. For example, you may only sell products bundled into a four pack and your competitors will sell singles. This makes your superior product, seem more costly than the competition.
  2. Your service is unique but costs more to buy due to your expertise. Others who do not have your longevity in the industry may be selling what seems to the consumer the same service but at half the price.
  3. You are offering coupon codes to discount your products and promote them widely on the Web, but when a consumer reviews your product (which they can buy elsewhere) head to head on the Web without using the discount your product and shipping may be higher.

Second, this is how you can test AdWords for your business with minimal set up expense:

  • Set up a Google Places account or claim your listing. Then use AdWords Express within the control panel to show ads in up to a 50 mile radius to test the waters with your AdWords program.
  • Although this is a local test and not a national test, for just a few minutes in set up, and no keyword entry, you can try out Google AdWords to check the viability of your product or services on Google AdWords.
  • When you set up a Google AdWords Express account, Google will set your cost per click, create a simple keyword list and even create your ad text.

Third, when should you consider the test successful?

  1. If your traffic and phone call level have improved from this limited scope test, it may be time to consider a full Google AdWords program. I recommend moving to this new level only if you have the budget to truly test a four to six month period at an ad spend of $500 to $2,000 for a 30 day period.
  2. If you got lots of clicks and no sales or phone calls, I would recommend that you review your position in the market to one see how you can clearly differentiate yourself from low price competition, re-align selling policies and prices to be more competitive in the consumer’s eyes, and evaluate if there may be alternative ways to cost efficiently promote your products and services other than Google AdWords.

If you are looking to move into a three or four month AdWords evaluation program after testing the waters, we’d be a good match for your needs. With a strong focus on sales and lead conversions, our service and honest advice will identify if AdWords is the place for you.