While the holiday season is a great time to gain new customers and capture the attention of consumers, you’re also working nonstop to make sure your business is running at full capacity. Here’s a quick list of items that can make an impact this holiday season, but won’t tax your already limited time available as a small business owner.

1. Make Sure You’re Where Your Potential Customers Spend Their Time
More people go online first to research local businesses for their shopping needs. If your business is not easily found, you are missing out on potential new business opportunities and new customers. Ensure that you are found in search engines, local directories, social sites, GPS devices, and mobile applications so your business is found no matter what way your customers look for you. Many small business owners do not have time to manage this on their own, so they have enlisted us to promote their business for them.

In addition to search results and online listings, Facebook is another area of opportunity for small business owners. With more than 800 million active users (source: Facebook) and with more than 50% of the active users logging on to Facebook any given day, it’s a great place to source potential new customers.

Ensure that your business has a presence on Facebook so that people can check in and broadcast that they were at your business to their entire network of friends. A Facebook Company Page allows you to have a customized business presence that competes with many national businesses that advertise on Facebook. The company page serves as a personalized view to your business showing photos and status updates about new items, and it serves as a communication tool for users to ask questions and connect with your business.

2. Keep Your Website Updated
It’s important to make sure you are delivering accurate and updated information to your website visitors, but also that it is updated frequently so that search engines are encouraged to come back and index the new information. Take a look at your website now and make sure you have all of your products and services updated, include any holiday specials or coupons prominently on the home page, update new extended business hours, and anything else you notice that needs an update.

If you’re too busy to update your site, and you are an existing Web.com customer with our monthly update service included in your website package, call us and we’ll get your website updated for you.

By 2014, 53% of total retail sales (online and offline) will be affected by the Web, as consumers increasingly use the Internet to research products before purchasing.
Forrester, March 2010

3. Give Visitors a Gift
You’ve probably noticed people during the holidays walking around shopping malls or entering your business who have a somewhat glazed look on their face. The holiday shopping crunch and all the activities related to the busy shopping season do tend to wear us down. Something that doesn’t have to cost much but will go the extra mile is to give your customers a gift when they visit your website or your business. It may be as simple as a cup of gourmet coffee in a ceramic mug with your business logo, free gift wrapping, a wrapping paper kit to save customers that extra trip to the store, a coupon for a family holiday photo session, or other time-saving items. Make sure you promote it to customers now, by putting out a sign advertising the free gift, and include it in your email marketing and Facebook Company Page updates to get the word out.

When asked what sources “influence your decision to use or not use a particular company, brand or product,” 71% claim reviews from family members or friends exert a “great deal” or “fair amount” of influence.
Harris Interactive, June 2010

Your gift to website and business visitors will quickly become something to spread instant word of mouth for your business as your customers tell their friends about your offer.

4. Ask for Customer Reviews
Asking for customer reviews is often overlooked and is a very important factor in influencing new customers to do business with you. Your happy customers are the best advocates of your products or services and why they choose to do business with you.

During this holiday season, ask for reviews . . . or even better yet run a contest to encourage customers to provide their reviews on Google Places or Yelp or email them directly to you. Make sure it’s easy for customers to enter their reviews, and that you are set up on Google Places, Yelp, and other review websites before you ask for the reviews. Don’t forget to include your customer reviews on your website as a great way to showcase your business.

83% of all holiday shoppers are influenced by customer reviews.
ChannelAdvisor, “Consumer Shopping Habits Survey,” August 2010

No matter how busy you are this holiday season, make sure you are presenting your business in the best way possible. Ensuring your customers can find you and keeping them updated about your business is the best way to keep your business top of mind . . . and the place to make purchases during the holidays and thereafter.

4 Tips for Preparing Your Business for the Holiday Season is a post from Web.com | Blog

The process of monitoring thousands of calls across all types of businesses to ensure quality leads for our customers has given us great insight into some of the most common mistakes small businesses make doing a seemingly basic task—answering the phone. You’re probably thinking, “This is a no-brainer. I know how to answer my business phone.” Likely so, but does your staff?

Here are ways you and your team can avoid the top seven mistakes:

1. Monitor. If you’re the business owner or manager and have access to call recordings, be sure to listen to them. You’ll quickly find out which staff members are doing a great job—and which are not. Plus, you can use the calls for training purposes, as well as to help you understand what your customers truly want. With a small investment of your time, you may be able to make a significant positive impact on your business.

2. Shorten your automated greeting. Click. That’s what you’ll likely hear when a caller encounters a lengthy automated greeting or an extensive menu selection. Many callers simply hang up without pressing an option or waiting for voice mail. Take another listen to your greeting, and consider reducing the time it takes for callers to reach a live person.

3. Hello? I’m always surprised when I hear a business answer their phone and simply say, “Hello?” Here’s a typical conversation—verbatim:

   Business: “Hello?”
   Caller: “Hello?”
   Business: “Hello?”
   Caller: “IS THIS BUSINESS XYZ???”

   Rather than confusing or frustrating your callers, be sure to confirm that they’ve reached your business. “Joe’s Pest Control” or, better yet, “Joe’s Pest Control. How may I help you?” lets the caller know they’ve reached their destination.

4. Don’t be rude. Some businesses actually come across as inconvenienced when answering the phone. One example is a business that had two agents handling calls. The first had a very gruff phone demeanor, and the second, a very polite one. The gruff one? He didn’t convert a single caller into a customer. The polite one? Almost every caller became a customer! Exuding a bad tone does not help you gain new business. Sincere smiles, on the other hand, can turn callers into customers.

5. Listen. Sounds obvious, but sadly it’s not. A comedy of errors ensued when a caller wanted to rent a car but had incorrectly dialed an airport shuttle service. The first mistake the business made? You guessed it—answering the phone with “Hello?” The second mistake was not listening to the caller, and instead speaking over them. I heard the caller’s intent very clearly from the start, but it took the business almost six minutes into the call to recognize the mismatch. Six minutes! Both parties ended up laughing, but wow, what a waste of time.

6. Enunciate. This is especially important with the increasing variety of accents, dialects, and nonnative English speakers in the population. It’s frustrating to hear callers repeatedly ask for clarification when the business agent is either speaking too rapidly or not clearly enough. Wait for the other party to stop talking and then e-n-u-n-c-i-a-t-e.

7. Sell! This one is super important. If you can’t provide what the customer is requesting, do you have an alternative? I listened to multiple examples of a charter service that failed to offer alternatives when they could not accommodate specific dates or times. Instead of saying, “Sorry, we can’t help you,” how about, “Sorry, we’re booked that day, but we have availability the next. Will that work?” Calls that offered an alternative to the customer frequently resulted in bookings. Don’t hire people to simply answer the phone—train them to sell!

For small businesses in today’s economic climate, how (and if) they answer the phone can make or break a sale. For managers, try to take immediate action on the first two mistakes above, and then review the rest with your teams. Quickly correcting these common mistakes can help you build trust with your customers and increase sales.

7 Costly Mistakes to Avoid When Answering Your Business Phone is a post from Web.com | Blog

Web.com is excited to be a featured partner in Dell’s new program for small businesses: My Business Toolkit. Customers who purchase Dell’s Vostro line of desktop and laptop computers will automatically have access to small business solutions, including the creation of a professionally designed website or custom Facebook page by Web.com. Nearly one million small business customers have already discovered that Web.com’s professionally designed website or Facebook page is a critical component to being found in a local search on the Internet, and Dell has made it particularly attractive for new Vostro owners to join those satisfied customers. My Business Toolkit is available on select new Vostro computers, and one click on the My Business Toolkit icon starts the simple process to have Web.com get your small business website up and running. You can learn more at Dell’s My Business Toolkit.

Good Things Come in Small (Business) Packages! is a post from Web.com | Blog

There are many reasons why your company needs a good logo design.

In this fast-paced world, people tend to judge businesses at first glance. On the Internet, it’s especially important to capture the attention of your audience and draw them in quickly. If users have to choose between two unknown companies for a particular product or service, they’ll usually go with the company that has a more professional image, as this conveys trust and the sense of a “real” business.

Even if you have a great website design, if you don’t have a logo, your brand is not as memorable as it could be. A good logo design conveys the essence of your business, and it relates to your industry and the products or services that you offer. When you have a memorable logo, your customers will instantly recognize you when they see it.

Although many small business owners think it’s difficult and costly to create a logo, with Web.com’s LogoYes tool, you can create a high-quality logo design in minutes—for only $69.

Our do-it-yourself (DIY) logo design tool provides tens of thousands of top-quality icons that have been created by professional designers. You simply walk through a wizard that guides you to an appropriate icon based on your industry and personal style, and then you choose your font and colors. And if you prefer to work with one of our designers, you can choose a custom logo for less than $300.

Once you have your logo design, you can output it to your business cards, signage, brochures, website, and other marketing materials. Your logo becomes an intrinsic part of your business identity.

So if you don’t already have a logo for your business, I encourage you to check out the design possibilities at LogoYes.com. Once you start looking at the sample DIY logos, I think you’ll see why an effective logo design can help your business stand out from your competition.

The Importance of Logo Design for Your Business is a post from Web.com | Blog

Undoubtedly, no single thing matters as much for increasing sales and engendering loyalty as building a great customer service brand. And considering the immediate and ubiquitous nature of the Internet—where details about a negative customer experience can spread like wildfire—it’s more important than ever for small business owners to join the conversation online and help to manage their company’s reputation.

Whether you like it or not, consumers are most likely talking about your business on the Internet. And if you’ve recently heard about a customer service problem at your business, it’s likely that you became aware of the situation in the same way that most consumers do: by finding a review about your company via a search engine.

So how can you be proactive about managing your reputation online? Let’s look at two ways:

1. Increase the number of online reviews about your company. You can begin this process by asking your top customers to post a review about your business on customer review sites such as Yelp.com and MeasuredUp.com. By asking your top customers to post reviews, you’ll likely generate a number of complimentary reviews quickly and easily. These reviews will help to offset any existing negative reviews, help to increase your visibility on search engines, and help to attract potential customers who are searching for your products or services online.

   When you come across a complimentary review about your business, you should add a quick “Thank You” in response, and mention that you appreciate the support of your customers.

2. Respond to negative online reviews about your company. You can tackle this effort by having a staff member—who understands your company culture and brand—spend a few hours each week searching the Internet for unflattering reviews about your company. (Note: There are online tools available that can help you accomplish this.)

   When there’s a comment field available in a review, the staff member should respond with some helpful and constructive content that shows that you care about providing good customer service. In addition, they should state that they are an employee of the company. The respondent should never pretend to be a consumer, because that deception will likely be discovered, and will likely produce even more uncomplimentary content.

   The employee should also include a link to your website in the response, which can help to drive traffic back to your website.

The goal here is not to have only good reviews, because even some of the best companies have bad reviews written about them. The goal is to achieve an effective balance, and to make sure that you don’t allow uncontrolled rumors to spread online. You also want to demonstrate through association that your brand is focused on good customer service . . . and that you’ll take steps to improve it when you fall short.

By leveraging online reviews about your company in your favor, you can often have a greater impact on the purchasing intent of consumers—who are deciding what to buy and where to buy it—than even the best TV commercial or magazine ad can have.

——————————
Marc Karasu is a senior marketing executive and digital marketing expert with 20 years’ experience. He’s also the founder of MeasuredUp.com, a leader in online customer service solutions and online reputation management. You can reach Marc via MeasuredUp.com or MAKtaste.com, his marketing consulting website.

Want to learn more? Follow us on Twitter and join us on Facebook.

Leveraging Customer Reviews to Help You Manage Your Reputation Online is a post from Web.com | Blog

A few days ago, I noticed a strange Facebook wall post from my sister, Robyn, about a cheap laptop deal. Because it’s quite unlike her to care enough about a cheap laptop to take the time to share the details with her friends, I just had to call her to find out more.

While we were on the phone, she told me that she hadn’t written the out-of-the-ordinary post that was on her Facebook profile. She panicked, and anxiously asked what she could do to fix the problem. At the time, I thought the issue was caused by a virus, so I recommended that she change her password on Facebook, delete the post and all of its “autoposted” comments, spread the word that the laptop entry was potentially harmful, and run a malware protection program to eliminate the infection.

Ultimately, my recommendations solved only part of a much more complicated issue.

Several days after the Facebook fiasco—and several malware scans later—Robyn noticed some strange transactions on her bank statement. You can likely guess where this is headed. In addition to her Facebook account, Robyn’s PayPal™ account had now been hacked. After several stressful phone calls to PayPal and her bank, we narrowed the security breach to an overseas person(s) who had been using her debit card, via PayPal, to purchase expensive goods from Walmart.com.

How could this have happened?

Both Facebook and PayPal require an email address and password as log-in credentials. The hacker, unfortunately, rightly assumed that the log-in credentials for Robyn’s PayPal account were the same as those for her Facebook account.

So what’s the moral of the story?

Because most of us use multiple websites for personal and business needs, it’s often difficult to create unique log-in passwords for each of those online services. In my job, for example, I manage comparison shopping engine accounts for eCommerce merchants, with each client needing unique passwords for each of the shopping engines. Although managing the process can get a bit cumbersome, it’s well worth the time and effort to do so carefully.

Here are a few tips for creating unique, secure passwords that can help you protect your personal and financial information online:

• Use different passwords for different websites. Because all website security measures are not created equal, it’s important that you manage your online identity, rather than assuming that a website’s security system will protect you.
• Avoid using any sequence of numbers (such as 12345), letters (such as abcde), or keys that are next to each other on the keyboard (such as QWERTY). There are programs that can automatically put those strings together and crack your password.
• Avoid using a word (or even a commonly misspelled word) that’s found in the dictionary. Password crackers can filter through passwords by setting dictionary files—similar to the dictionary file used to spell check your text in Microsoft® Word—to attempt every entry in the dictionary file until they are successful with logging in. And some of the existing dictionary files, unfortunately, include commonly used passwords. Always avoid using passwords that a person or computer can easily guess.
• Avoid using any part of your name, log-in name, Social Security number, or phone number. Although doing so may help you remember the password more easily, it also makes it easier for a hacker to figure out your password.
• Use unique symbols, and always keep in mind that longer passwords are better than shorter ones. Combine letters, numbers, and symbols in a manner that’s meaningful to you, but that can’t be easily guessed by a robot or another human.

Although there are several websites devoted solely to generating random, secure passwords, with your creativity, and the tips I’ve provided, you should be able to create secure passwords on your own. So with that in mind, may you have fun, be profitable, and remain safe while you’re online.

Protecting Your Online Identity with Hard-to-Hack Passwords is a post from Web.com | Blog

Benjamin Franklin—and many grandparents since—have used the phrase: “A penny saved is a penny earned.” This concept is particularly important during times when dollars earned are scarce and profits are down. To that end, I’ve listed five creative and thrifty ways that small business owners can stay mindful of their spending . . . and help decrease their expenses:

1. Employ Bartering. Although this age-old form of commerce has pretty much fallen by the wayside, it’s a valuable tool that can help you meet the needs of your business and save money on your expenses. Do you own a hair salon? Perhaps you can barter your services with a local plumber, who could assist you with the maintenance of your salon. Are you a CPA? When tax time rolls around, your expertise will be highly sought after—you could trade for lawn or landscaping services, event catering, or items that you’ll use for employee recognition.

   It’s important to define your needs, know their approximate value, and be prepared to offer services in kind. The terms of the arrangement should be determined in advance—and preferably put in writing—so that there’s no gray area about who will do what and when.

2. Take On an Intern or Apprentice. If you’re in a field where hands-on experience is a valuable part of job education and training, then you may be in position to place an intern or apprentice. You’ll not only be contributing positively to the future of your field, but you’ll also gain an additional pair of hands for your business. The extra help might allow you to subsidize production, or simply free up more time to network and drive business through the door. Check with your local schools and colleges to see if this might be an option for you based on the requirements for the position.

3. Maximize Your Online Marketing Efforts. Are you spending a lot of money on mailings for your business? Offer your customers the opportunity to receive emails from your company instead. You can accomplish this by simply placing a sign-up form near your register or passing out info cards with each purchase that direct customers to a sign-up form on your website. With email as the preferred method of communication for many people these days, your customers might appreciate the connection online . . . and you’ll save on the postage.

   In addition, if you’re spending a lot of time answering the same questions over and over and explaining the same things to different people, it might be helpful to add content to your website that provides this information to your customers on-demand. This will save you valuable work time, and it will get valuable information into the hands of your customers 24/7.

4. Use Coupons and Savings Cards. These money-savers aren’t just for your household. Keep an eagle eye open for deals on products that you use regularly at your business. If you see a lower price on an item at a store other than the one you prefer to shop at, ask your store to match the price. Many retailers will do so to ensure that they keep your business.

   Coupon websites such as Coupons.com and RetailMeNot.com have become incredibly popular, and they’ve made it much easier to find the deals you’re looking for. Bookmark a few sites, and then do some quick searches before you shop for supplies or furniture (make this a habit for your grocery list as well).

5. Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Cutting down on paper waste at your business and recycling appropriate items will help you save money . . . and have a positive effect on the environment. Companies like Staples®, OfficeMax®, and Office Depot® will give you rewards credit for returning used printer or toner cartridges to their locations. Used cell phones, PDAs, and other small electronics are also candidates for recycling for cash.

   If you don’t have any options locally, conducting a simple search online will lead you to companies that will take your old items off your hands and provide cash in return. Before you reach out to a company you find online, be sure you check out their reputation through a group such as the Better Business Bureau®.

What tips can you share about saving money at your business? I’d like to hear from you.

5 Money-Saving Tips for Small Business Owners is a post from Web.com | Blog

I’ve always had an interest in psychology and its role in business strategy. There is a phenomenon in psychology known as “projection,” which deals with people’s tendency to project their own ideas and feelings onto others. Projection is something I think most people have experienced in relationships, but in my years as a business consultant, I found it to be a rampant cause of failed business models.

The reason that projection often leads to less than optimal performance—or even failure—is because we tend to create models that satisfy what works for us—rather than base a business model upon objective research. If what works for us happens to be what most people want, then there is a good chance of success. But if what we think will work happens to be relevant only to ourselves and a small group of people, there can be a big miss.

These kinds of misses—or failures—happen not only in small businesses, but also in the very biggest businesses . . . just look at Microsoft® and their numerous failed operating systems and Office versions. Remember Clippy? Seriously, whose brilliant idea was that? Clippy was supposed to help, but it ended up being a total nuisance that insulted your intelligence time and time again. Did Microsoft really think that most people wanted that?

Asian technology behemoths have failed to realize that their instruction manuals are about as useful to Westerners as hieroglyphics. German car manufacturers have failed to realize that Americans drink coffee and soda in their cars and need better cup holders. Fashion designers have failed to realize that most women want to be able to purchase certain classics every season. Restaurants have failed to realize that when children turn 11 or 12, they haven’t necessarily earned an adult meal ticket, nor do they usually want one. Computer programmers used to think that their interfaces were perfectly intelligible, when in reality, most people had no idea what they were supposed to do (this problem has mostly been corrected with the advent of user interface designers).

An ingenious business model is often one that simply recognizes what isn’t working for most people and fixes it. Starbucks® is a good example . . . they recognized that the less expensive Robusta coffee beans being used throughout America were producing a decrease in overall coffee consumption and that coffee was losing market share to soda over the course of generations. So they began making coffee drinks of European quality . . . using the more tasty and expensive Arabica beans. Soon the entire industry started using the better beans, and coffee consumption went up—with Starbucks getting the brand recognition for being the leader in premium coffee.

If you want to move the needle on your business, you could likely benefit from doing both customer and market research. This can be as simple as keeping up with industry trends and asking people what they like and dislike about your business . . . or having comment cards that facilitate this function for you. It’s also beneficial to encourage a transparent work culture where your employees feel encouraged to share their feedback. Tapping your friends and family members can also provide you with valuable insights.

If you recognize that it’s simply human nature to get absorbed in your own creations, then you can take steps to prevent the phenomenon known in corporate culture as “drinking the Kool-Aid®” . . . or even worse . . . “eating your own dog food.” Despite your best intentions, this is simply what happens when you live and breathe in a particular business environment every day. To keep your business fresh and relevant, try to get out and away from your business from time to time and see what other businesses are doing—don’t be afraid to check out your competitors. If you build in a plan to improve your business based on ongoing feedback and research—you may find that even the smallest changes will have a big impact on your bottom line.

Moving the Needle on Your Business is a post from Web.com | Blog

On my way to work every day, I drive over a curved bridge. There are some very tall streetlights on this bridge, and there are some large blackbirds that like to perch on top of these lights . . . they often do so in pairs. I was admiring the birds as I started the ascent today . . . leading a pack of cars. Just as I reached the apex of the bridge and began the descent, a smaller blackbird hopped off the median ledge and landed right in the middle of the road.

I braked, as did the car next to me, thank goodness. “What are you doing, you goofball?” I said out loud. It made no sense for this bird to hop onto the road in front of a steady stream of oncoming traffic . . . there was nothing apparent in the road that might have interested him.

As I approached the bottom of the bridge, I noticed a policeman standing in some bushes and holding a laser device . . . he was tracking the speed of cars as they crossed . . . right at the point where a car would speed up because of the descent. I thought . . . glad I wasn’t speeding! . . . then I remembered the bird that hopped in my way.

Whether you believe in Divine Providence or happy coincidences, there is definitely a play of luck involved in our everyday lives. Luck often makes the difference between a smooth ride and a catastrophe. As I pondered luck after the play of events this morning, I thought about how highly successful people—no matter what their profession—nearly always make a reference to their “good luck.” Hard work and perseverance are of course also relevant, but luck is a significant factor.

Luck is the phenomenon of being in the right place at the right time. And luck is very important for any business. You may have thought more than once that one of your competitors “has all the luck.” So, you ask, how can your business get that lucky?

While luck seems to include elements of the “unseen,” there is a certain aspect of luck that is a known factor in the success of any business: being in the right place at the right time. Although we’ve heard the “location, location, location” cliché time and time again, I don’t think it can be emphasized enough. You need to be in the right place so your customers can find you when they need you. This applies to both your offline store and your advertising efforts—including your website.

In the offline world . . . you need to choose your location carefully. You need to study the demographics of the area and your potential competition. It’s always great to “get there first” and be the first business of your kind in a particular area . . . but if you don’t get there first, you need to develop a strategy that differentiates you from your competition.

In the online world . . . you need to be found where your customers are looking for you . . . in local directories and on Google™, Bing™, and other search engines. Many businesses attribute their success to their high search engine rankings or their effective pay-per-click campaigns. While getting on the first page of Google may often seem like “luck,” it’s actually based on science. So you need to find search engine scientists who can help you get there.

Web.com offers a number of products that can improve your visibility online, and we also have some of the top search scientists in the industry. You’ve probably read some of Patrick Hare’s articles on this blog. As part of the Web.com Search Agency team, he’s a veritable brain trust of search engine optimization (or SEO) knowledge. If you’d like some assistance in gaining your competitive edge on search engines, feel free to contact our team of professionals.

So . . . whether you were born under a lucky star or a starry night, taking the right steps for your business can greatly increase your chances for success. And if you take the steps to ensure that your location is optimal . . . then your customers will surely find you when the time is right.

Being in the Right Place at the Right Time is a post from Web.com | Blog

In 1983, I was driving my first car, a used Datsun 210. I stopped at a 7-Eleven® to get a Diet Coke® . . . came back to the car, and put the gears into reverse . . . David Bowie music blasting as usual. But what happened in that moment was not usual at all. The car jolted backwards before I even hit the accelerator, and it began to pick up speed—in REVERSE. I was trying to navigate through my rear-view mirror . . . and at the same time trying to figure out how to make the car STOP. I hit the brakes, threw it into park, pulled the emergency brake . . . nothing worked, and the car veered out onto a major highway.

As I realized there was nothing I could do to stop the car, it dawned on me: I am going to DIE. Everything went into slow motion, and I had this odd feeling of peace . . . yes, one of THOSE moments. I continued to hold the steering wheel, but had no idea what I was doing by that point—I had only been driving a few months.

Miraculously, I didn’t hit any cars on the highway . . . but instead veered into a commercial construction lot, went up a ramp, and landed over a 100-foot ditch. All four wheels of the car were perched “just right” so the car would not fall into the ditch. Emergency workers came fast, and I was pulled from the car with a hurt finger and a sore neck. The local media even showed up and took my picture next to the crazily positioned car for the newspaper.

I remember thinking that no one really understood what happened to me in that car. Whenever I told the story, people would make a funny expression and cock their heads. My Dad wanted to get me a Volvo. He wanted me in a tank because he—like everyone else—was silently thinking “driver error” . . . I mean, had anyone ever heard of a car (other than Herbie the Love Bug) that drove itself?

Now today, no thanks to Toyota, most people have heard of this problem: autoacceleration. It’s one of the customer-reported issues for several Toyota models . . . and some of the passengers have apparently not been as fortunate as me. But what REALLY perplexes me is Toyota’s initial response to the numerous customer complaints.

Toyota is one of the most reputable brands in the world. I’ve owned Toyota cars, and they were virtually maintenance-free workhorses that served and served. Given their brand, which is synonymous with reliability, it’s practically unimaginable that Toyota would have such horrendous issues this year. BUT . . . everyone makes mistakes. If there is one lesson to be learned here—and I believe there are several—it is that no entity, however stellar, is immune to errors. Whether this is due to arrogance . . . or to a lack of testing for economic reasons . . . or even to the fact that new technology is sometimes flawed . . . we don’t really know yet. But everyone makes mistakes, and mistakes are forgivable: they are forgettable, even, over time.

What’s harder to forgive is denial. A company that does not own its mistakes and humbly make amends is doing damage to its brand . . . which is difficult and costly to repair. A blow to one’s brand can take years to overcome . . . it can even be fatal. If Toyota would have paid attention to its customers early on, instead of attempting to minimize the problems and find fault with the customers . . . losses on so many levels could have been avoided.

Realistically speaking, customer complaints are present in ANY business, no matter how great the business . . . and that brings me to the second lesson I see in this fiasco. While it is true that some customer complaints are unnecessary and are due to out-of-scope expectations . . . many of them are genuine and deserved . . . and there’s a delicate balance between managing customer complaints and maintaining your company’s forward progress. But ignoring and/or minimizing customer complaints, no matter what the source, is ALWAYS a mistake. Positive and negative customer feedback needs to be considered equally valuable in any business operation . . . it’s what your business needs to move forward successfully and to continuously evolve.

I don’t think anyone knows the fate of Toyota at this point: only that it will cost them a LOT of money. But there is one thing for sure. Given the powerful influence of customer conversations in this brave new media era—your business cannot afford the cost of unhappy customers. Turning a difficult customer around may involve some effort, but in today’s world, it can make the difference between ongoing success and avoidable losses for your business.

P.S. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

When a Brand Rests on Its Laurels . . . the Rest Could Be History is a post from Web.com | Blog