Costco Connection

; FRESHviews

PAUL AND SARAH EDWARDS: LIFESTYLES FOR THE MILLENNIUM

MARY ANN HALPIN PHOTOGRAPH Y

Paul and Sarah
Edwards ( www.
elmstreet economy.
com) are the authors
of Middle Class Life-
boat and 16 other
small-business books.

Don’t drive away
busıness

HOW HARD DOES someone have to work to become your customer? Are you guilty of any of these things that drive folks away?

answering incorrectly requires users to reenter
all of their order or registration information
• Cluttered Web pages that load too slowly.
The average time a Web page takes to load is
3. 5 seconds, but today websites need to load
in just a second or two for mobile devices.

• Complex or confusing payment directions. You need to make it extremely easy for users to buy from you or to get further information. You do this by offering call-to-action buttons or links along with your content.

• User passwords and PINs getting rejected. Sometimes this comes about because sites change the requirements for passwords, such as requiring both upper- and lowercase. If you make a change like this, provide visible notice that a user’s password will need to be changed.

Gomobile

Telephone troubles

• An automated voice mail system that
doesn’t give callers an opportunity to reach
an operator or leave a message
• A telephone-tree messaging system that
is so long or complex that people get lost
• Long messages repeated in another
language without the alternative for English
only at the outset of the call
• Telephone operators whose answers are
limited to scripted replies

Email aggravations

• Putting people on group email lists without
their permission
• So many promotional emails that people
ask to be taken off your list
Unless what you offer is mandatory and you
are its sole source or you have decided to limit
your customers to only the most ardently dedi-
cated (such as restaurants that don’t have a
sign), you risk losing business unless you make
it easy! C

Website wrangles

• Requiring CAPTCHA security (when you type in and match the random letters presented in a box) in order for users to send an email or access portions of your site, especially if

More in archives
On Costco.com, enter
“Connection.”At Online Edition,
search “Paul and Sarah Edwards.”

Billing and
receivables
solutions

CHRIS A RUSNAK

THE BASICS of owning your own business can keep you up at night, with revenue generation and positive cash flow being two of the biggest headaches. The Small Business Barometer sponsored by Western Union Payments offers several tips to help you deal with them.

Cash flow. Forty-three percent of business owners say 5 percent or more of their customers are late in payment in an average month. Look for a solution that helps customers by accepting a spectrum of payment options online (even without a website), from credit cards to electronic checks, at all times instead of only during business hours.

Time savings. Some billing and payment solutions offer automated services to ensure monthly invoices, reminders and receipts can be sent simply and efficiently. Also, provide an automatic debit option for customers’ convenience—and yours.

Customer relations. Look for a customer relationship management (CRM) tool with customizable components to track customers’ behaviors and preferences. It should have integrated CRM functions to help you, in seconds, better understand your customers—and their purchase history, preferences and challenges.

Better communication. Improve marketing with a customizable tool that provides the opportunity to market to and educate your current customers. Offer referral discounts, updates and general info that will help you retain and grow your customer base.

Competitive pricing. Find a solution that charges a flat monthly rate for all services, does not limit the number of users and offers competitive credit card transaction fees. C

For more information about the Small Business Barometer survey, go to http:// smallbusiness.westernunion.com/barometer.

A YELLOW PAGES listing was once necessary for business. That evolved into the need for a Web page. Now, it’s all about apps: interactive tools for smartphones and tablets.

Costco member Daniel Burrus, a tech-
nology forecaster, business strategist and
the founder and CEO of Burrus Research
( www.burrus.com), says, “Most retailers
haven’t considered a mobile strategy yet.
They know their customers and consum-
ers use smartphones and tablets, yet they
view these things more as threats than
opportunities. But if you want to thrive in
2012 and beyond, having a well-planned
mobile strategy is key.”
Here are some points to consider.

Embrace the shift. Society has shifted from the information age to the communication age. Don’t just inform people of products and services. You need to connect, interact, engage, create and share with consumers.

Look where technology is going. Intelligent personal assistants, such as the iPhone’s Siri, employ a natural-language technology that allows users to ask a question in regular language, with the assistant answering in a human-like voice. The time for a retail-specific version is ripe. Think of it as a mobile concierge for your store.

Don’t frustrate customers. When customers can’t find what they’re looking for and can’t find a salesperson to help them, they leave frustrated. You would make more sales with an app that enables them to find what they want, with a store layout and showing where salespeople are in real time.

Make it easy to work for you. Instead of keeping employees tied to a countertop computer, use tablets with apps that enable them to help customers on the floor in real time by checking if products are in stock, giving arrival dates, processing simple exchanges, etc.

Let your apps sell for you. Create a feature that lets customers type in a specific product’s brand name and find the equivalents you carry, and that also explains why the brands you stock are better than what the customers request-ed. You’ll be helping them make better and more informed buying decisions.