How do you handle customer complaints? Do you take them into account?
Having a box and a pack with complaint forms in the corner of your store doesn't sound like a proactive way of managing customer complaints and measuring satisfaction! Do you offer a form with every product or service you deliver? What about customers who are in their own place? Do they have access to these forms? Do you personally ask each and every customer about the level of service and satisfaction they perceive when they consume your products and services? These are proactive ways of handling customer complaints. You need to show real and authentic interest to your customers. You should encourage them to air their grievances. Bear in mind that your goal is not just a one time purchase but repeated sales. How are you going to achieve that if you have dissatisfied customers?
I know many people (I also am one of those!) that when they get dissatisfied with a service or product they will never buy from that company ever again. You certainly don’t want this happen. Furthermore, these customers do not complain or argue with you. They just leave quietly. You need to feel when a customer is dissatisfied or even not pleased with your level of service and try to change his/her attitude before he/she switches brand and left you wandering what went wrong. Complaint management is not as obvious as it sounds mainly because you don’t always get those disappointment messages. So next time you interact with a customer try to be a little more thorough, ask questions, view from the customer’s angle and be proactive.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Paid to Read Industry
In this post I express some thoughts about the industry of “paid to read” stuff.
The “Paid to Read” phenomenon has been taking place for a while on the internet. Paid to read is meant to refer to an advertisement or a message carrying an advertisement (on it) in which someone is being paid just for reading. That kind of “business” can take several forms; most of them are emails, on-site ads and links. There is always an intermediate part between the advertiser and the ad viewer. That part publishes the advertiser ads and offer one portion of the advertising revenue to the viewers. In that way, the service provider motivates people to read ads. Both parts; the intermediary and the client benefit; it’s a win-win situation. Some questions, arise though; for example what about the benefits of the advertiser? Does he/she win? Are one’s ads effective? Below, I try to offer some perspectives…
One can state that as long as people read the ads just for the money incentive there is no real attention to the advertising message but only passive clicking actions. On the other hand, advertisements not including any incentive have the same appealing: no one seems to really enjoy seeing ads. You may be amused with some ads but I bet you are not looking forward to turn your TV on or browse a magazine just to see ads. Ads are always distracting. They try to distract you from whatever you were doing to pay attention to them. In most occasions that is the case. It’s Seth Godin’s distraction marketing theory. Consequently, whether there is, or there is not an incentive (of any kind), people in most cases do not authentically look forward to read ads.
Thus coming to the very first question about the effectiveness of a “Paid to Read” advertising message, if an ad is being placed just to inform consumers about the existence of a product or service, I hold the opinion that both ways of advertising (paid and non paid ads) are almost the same (as concerns effectiveness).
As concerns brand preference and reminding ads my views are: Usual advertising costs a lot more expensive in traditional media that Paid to Read ads. That may lead to the association of a brand being advertised through traditional ways with high value and successful product / service. On the contrary, cheap advertising of paid to read messages might cast a lightly negative impact to the viewers. The previous statements concern ads that are trying to remind the product / service to the user (or call to act) and to improve conceived brand value. Contrary, when there is too much clutter on reminding advertising it may affect viewers of traditional media channels negatively while this is not the case for viewers that get paid to see them. In other words, “Paid to Read” ad networks can effectively bear a lot of ad clutter while other common networks cannot.
…some more views:
Most common and simple forms of “Paid to Read” services refer to emails containing a direct link or/and an embodied advertising.
I personally use some Paid to Read networks, I have been paid a few dollars. Of course in this industry no one should expect to get rich.
Almost all of the “Paid to Read” networks offer user referral systems.
There is also the “Paid to Click” alternative industry. This is very similar to the “Paid to Read” stuff. I will not analyze it (at least in this post).
The “Paid to Read” phenomenon has been taking place for a while on the internet. Paid to read is meant to refer to an advertisement or a message carrying an advertisement (on it) in which someone is being paid just for reading. That kind of “business” can take several forms; most of them are emails, on-site ads and links. There is always an intermediate part between the advertiser and the ad viewer. That part publishes the advertiser ads and offer one portion of the advertising revenue to the viewers. In that way, the service provider motivates people to read ads. Both parts; the intermediary and the client benefit; it’s a win-win situation. Some questions, arise though; for example what about the benefits of the advertiser? Does he/she win? Are one’s ads effective? Below, I try to offer some perspectives…
One can state that as long as people read the ads just for the money incentive there is no real attention to the advertising message but only passive clicking actions. On the other hand, advertisements not including any incentive have the same appealing: no one seems to really enjoy seeing ads. You may be amused with some ads but I bet you are not looking forward to turn your TV on or browse a magazine just to see ads. Ads are always distracting. They try to distract you from whatever you were doing to pay attention to them. In most occasions that is the case. It’s Seth Godin’s distraction marketing theory. Consequently, whether there is, or there is not an incentive (of any kind), people in most cases do not authentically look forward to read ads.
Thus coming to the very first question about the effectiveness of a “Paid to Read” advertising message, if an ad is being placed just to inform consumers about the existence of a product or service, I hold the opinion that both ways of advertising (paid and non paid ads) are almost the same (as concerns effectiveness).
As concerns brand preference and reminding ads my views are: Usual advertising costs a lot more expensive in traditional media that Paid to Read ads. That may lead to the association of a brand being advertised through traditional ways with high value and successful product / service. On the contrary, cheap advertising of paid to read messages might cast a lightly negative impact to the viewers. The previous statements concern ads that are trying to remind the product / service to the user (or call to act) and to improve conceived brand value. Contrary, when there is too much clutter on reminding advertising it may affect viewers of traditional media channels negatively while this is not the case for viewers that get paid to see them. In other words, “Paid to Read” ad networks can effectively bear a lot of ad clutter while other common networks cannot.
…some more views:
Most common and simple forms of “Paid to Read” services refer to emails containing a direct link or/and an embodied advertising.
I personally use some Paid to Read networks, I have been paid a few dollars. Of course in this industry no one should expect to get rich.
Almost all of the “Paid to Read” networks offer user referral systems.
There is also the “Paid to Click” alternative industry. This is very similar to the “Paid to Read” stuff. I will not analyze it (at least in this post).
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