Are People Talking About You?

By Terry
Posted Saturday, August 28, 2004

If I were referring to the local town gossip, you would probably want your answer to be no. Although, the way I see it, if they are talking about me, they are leaving everyone else alone. But, alas, I do believe I am a boring subject for our town gossip!

But if I were referring to the business world, you would definitely want your answer to be YES! Good old-fashioned word-of-mouth advertising. It is still one of the most effective business builders there is.

Even if people are talking negatively about you and/or your business, it can be a positive for you. This talk might make a person curious enough to check out your business and (hopefully) they will find their experience to be pleasant and satisfactory. Then they would possibly go back to the original talker and tell them of their positive experience with your business and the original talker would try your business again.

No matter how great you, your employees, and your business are, you cannot please everybody. But you can please MOST people if you run your business efficiently and effectively. Some ways of doing this are:

*Be True to Your Word! You must be trustworthy and do what you promise to do for your customers. Do not make false claims or promises. Your customers will remain loyal if you are true to them.

*Build Relationships With Your Customers! Get to know your customers as people. Talk to them like you were a friend. But you must be sincere. Do not put on the big "Slap on the back, nice to see you" act.

*Appreciate Your Customers! Have contests, give away freebies, do whatever you can to make sure your customers know that you appreciate them. A simple Thank You can do wonders!

*Provide Help For Your Prospective Customers! If your customers need advice or answers make sure you do your best to see that they get that help. You need your customers more than they need you!

*Treat People With Respect! You definitely do not want to be rude or inconsiderate to people. Treat them the way you would want to be treated in the same situation.

*Provide A Good Product or Service! This one speaks for itself.

*Make Sure Your Customers Are Satisfied! You should do everything you can to ensure that the customer leaves your business feeling satisfied.

Visit these sites for more tips and ideas:

(http://www.busreslab.com/tips/tip23.htm)
(http://www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~ohioline/cd-fact/1301.html)
(http://ebusiness.dci.com/articles/eb99092.htm)
(http://advertising.utexas.edu/world/Mouth.html)

In doing all these things you will build a solid reputation that will keep tongues wagging for a long time!!

About the Author
Terri Seymour owns and operates MyOwnEzine.com Learn to publish and promote your own ezine. mailto:myownezine@subto.us FR'EE Program to help you get subscribers. (http://myownezine.subto.us) Fr'ee MOE Ezine Publishing E'course mailto:moe-mini-course@getresponse.com