Goodbye US Post Office

STOP relying on the US Post Office for your payments

Now more than ever, you should STOP relying on the US Post Office to send out your invoices and to receive prompt payments from clients! Here's one MORE reason why-http://bit.ly/10OCF56-our mail is about to get even slower, even if Saturday delivery is preserved. Go electronic using custom methods that suit you, and your payments will speed up. Many clients prefer to use electronic methods as well. I can show you how you can accommodate them.

Hey! Whose Money Is It Anyway?

I finally got to reading some of my paper mail. My bank, a local CT-based bank, where I have kept my business account for almost 10 years, has decided to charge me $9.95 a month for keeping an average balance below $2500.00.

What? Huh?

I banked with them in the first place because they offered free business banking.

I was trained as a banker so I understand this industry and I certainly don't believe in paying for a checking account: it's MY money, not theirs, so why pay the bank for using my money?

And a hit of $9.95 a month? for balances under $2500.00?

I don't know about you, but it's my deliberate intent to wisely use my company's money and not leave it idle in the bank. I pay myself for all this hard work!

So I called to protest. No sympathy, as you would expect, from the automatons at the toll-free number. They'll notify management. Ho hum.

I called my usual branch manager. He left the bank a few months ago. Besides, I was told, my account has been moved to another branch because a few times I went to make a deposit there on my way to the highway. It's clear across town; my usual, and now former, branch is 1 mile away.

So I need to call the manager there, who won't know me, so I didn't waste my time or his/hers to call. Anyway, why did they take the unilateral decision to move MY account without any notice?

Ok, as you can tell I wasn't happy.

So this afternoon I made an appointment to go to the local branch of another CT-based bank and opened a free checking account with a delightful banking representative named Wadie. I get all the services, and more, that I am used to.

He assured me that I will never pay a monthly service fee for business checking. I guess I will have to believe him. He is now my personal banker.

$44.00 later for the 250 paper checks I had to order online, I am satisfied. (Yes, every so often an e-payments guy like me needs a paper check!)

Lessons:
1) Read your mail carefully for little notices that are BIG changes.
2) Bank where you feel welcome.
3) You don't have to pay ransom for your money in a business checking account!

Don't know "squared"

Don't know "squared." (If I could figure out how to make the superscript 2 on this, I would have!) That means someone who doesn't know what he/she doesn't know.

Now that the definition is out in the open, why bother blogging on this topic?
Because many people think it's perfectly acceptable to proclaim they know it ALL. And they try it all, sometimes not so successfully. Or at least they don't know how unsuccessful they have been until an expert lends a hand.

I certainly don't know it all. I don't perform dentistry on myself. Nor do I think I can figure out how to bury all the gremlins and demons that I encounter in my business and personal life. But I know enough to ask for expert advice from seasoned experts. I might have to pay for it. Paying a fair price for continual service and attention is part of what I expect to have to do.

Put another way, I am as good as my vendors so I keep great company. I choose who to represent. And...my clients get more than just plain service. They get 110% of me. Good service is already hard to find today. Great service is rarer.

For those who don't know what you don't know, I suggest you ask for, and try to get, experts with a little gray hair. Experience and expertise go hand-in-hand.

I can recommend a bunch of great experts. Just ask me if you need a referral to a great service provider in whatever area you need help.

PayPal wants your checking account PIN

For shame! The invisible folks at PayPal now think that in order to verify your credit card payment/donation on a PayPal page, you should voluntarily give them your checking account number and personal ID number (PIN) to assure them you will pay.

I am not the only one taking exception to this.

The New York Times ran an article in the Sunday Business section on March 26th. They think it's foolhardy too.

Why would anyone ever give more personal information that is absolutely needed?

The combination of your street address, zip code (called Address Verification in the e-payments business,) coupled with the CVV (3- or 4-digit code on the back of Visa/MasterCard/Discover cards and front right corner of American Express cards, respectively) is plenty of identification in almost all cases, in my opinion.

The real effect of asking all this information PLUS your checking account number and PIN, is to drive e-tail purchasers and online donors, away from PayPal payment pages. While this appears to hurt ecommerce and online donations, to quote Martha Stewart, that's "a good thing!" for you. Really.

Why?
PayPal is expensive, allows no customization and lacks efficient client service (according to my clients). I have lots of other reasons too, acquired from former PayPal clients.

Now they want your personal ID number and checking account number! C'mon...

How else can I help you?

A current client emailed me asking to help his sick family member raise money for hospital costs, asking if my services could provide fundraising.

No, I replied, unless you have a 501c3 and a bank account, and, and, and...

But back in my memory I had filed away www.chipin.com as a way nontraditional fundraising could be handled for needs that are too small for formal organizations. This was a great application, I thought. So, while I hate turning away an existing client who comes to me asking for fundraising help, I was able at least able to refer him to ChipIn.

I touched base with him this morning and asked how it was going.

His reply:

I am using Chipin.com...and have raised over $5000 in 48 hours…unbelievable and a renewed sense of the American spirit.

I am glad to be able to help in another way!

Now a few words from guest blogger Doug Campbell

As a CEO Coach and Business Owner, I am constantly looking for ways to make businesses more efficient and easier to operate. About 9 years we began accepting credit cards for our tutoring business (Sylvan Learning Center in Darien CT). It seemed like a big step at the time, and it was also potentially costly because our average charge is $100+. Nevertheless, it has been widely successful. Within 6 months 70% of our clients were using credit cards, and it is now close to 85%. The time spent preparing bills and mailing each month has been cut by 6 hours. The money is in the account almost immediately each month. Cash flow is less of a worry, and the rent check can go out on the 3rd of the month.

If you are a small business and still not using credit, reconsider the benefits in time, administration, and cash flow when you think through your strategies. If you are using credit, you should also periodically review your vendor – we lowered our fees substantially after 3 years with the first vendor and now receive better service. There are also incredible new tools to help you with cash flow and profitability in your business that are constantly being developed. Don’t let your competitors get a leg up on you. Make the time to talk to a credit expert – you will be surprised on the upside.

All the best.

Douglas Campbell III "The Success Coach"
203-975-0320 cell 203-952-1161
www.thesuccesscoach.com

Speaker * Author * Entrepreneur * Executive & Career Coach

Coaching Top-Performing Executives & Business Owners to Achieve Even Higher Levels of Success

The Success Coach on Networking (7) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=boKH8yfYFNk

Business Conference Speech http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b61rV19JAk

The Success Coach, Business Expert, for Wells Fargo Bank on Onboarding New Employees

https://wellsfargo.imaginationdigitalmedia.com/business-insights/?episode=C7 (5)

Author Where To Go From Here: Reinventing Your Career, Your Business, Your Working Life (2009). It is available through Amazon, at Barrett Bookstore (Darien), Elm Street Books (New Canaan), and through the author as a book or ebook.

Why are some people so RUDE?

What a week!

Obama is heckled and called a liar in the Capitol by an elected official! Imagine!

Pity the young singer at the music awards ceremony accepting an honor for her musical talent only to be interrupted and preempted by a rude and obnoxious celeb upset his favored singer did not win. At least the honoree kept her cool.

Not so in Flushing Meadow. Did you see the tennis player explode in anger and unsportsperson-like language on the US Open tennis court? $10K and an apology later, it's all but forgotten.

Today a former client called to let me have it, for nothing I did wrong. It was entirely her fault and she can't come to grip with the fact that she messed up. A shame.

Finally a friend was just laid off from her job and given 1 hour to clear out. No warning.

I sometimes feel like the world has gone mad and taken formerly polite people down with it. We all want what we expect is ours, and we want it now, in just the way we expect it to result. Dealing with our errors and disappointment is tough. But there is a proper way to do so, and with grace. Let's all try to find that grace.

Myself included, I suppose...

Sage advice

Aim with your heart, adjust with your head, and always, always, always, do all you can.

A new client sent this to me; thanks, Linda! It epitomizes what we all need to do better, continuously, in our business and personal lives.

No soapbox ranting form me. The words themselves say it all. Let's all practice this!

Guest Blogger Lesley Mattos Tells Us How NOT To Be Treated as a Client

From her blog Adesso Albums entitled,

"Authorize.NOT"

Friday, July 3, 2009 by Lesley Mattos

About 11:00 p.m. Pacific last night, there was a fire in the data center in Seattle, Washington where the credit card processing company for our e-commerce site is located. It was almost 12 hours before Authorize.NOT, as I like to refer to them now, resolved the issue but it took them 9 of those hours before they reached out to their customer base through Twitter.

The scary thing about this is that the Companys back up servers were impacted by the fire as well. Now I'm a very (VERY) small business compared to Authorize.net and even I know that redundancy means more than one copy of your important data and more than one place for it to reside. For God sake, they're the #1 credit card processing company in the world, you'd think they'd know that too!

Whoever is tweeting for them is now singing the praises of their response to the situation. The "tweet" - "Been on conf. call with the team for hours now. Impressed with how calm & meticulous they have been thru this entire event." Great. Next time try communicating that you've got it all under control the instant the issue arises so your customers aren't pulling up a blank website or calling a number that says the company is closed for the holiday weekend. Communicate with YOUR customers so that they can be proactive with theirs. It's not rocket science, it's just good customer relations.

Absent any information, here's what we did for our customers who were unable to complete purchases of our unique instant photo guest books to use for their wedding guest book, baby keepsake album, birthday or wedding shower guest book:

* We checked to see who had abandoned their shopping cart since the outage

* We sent an email to each of them, informing them about the outage and letting them know that we'd contact them again when the situation was resolved

* We offered them a 10% discount on their order when they did come back


The good news (and there always is some) is that I'd bet that someone has lit a firecracker under the "calm and meticulous" Authorize.NOT team are thinking long and hard over this holiday weekend about redundancy and beefing up their crisis communication plan. Let's hope so!

It's what we do

From time to time we get an email thanking us for what we do best: support the client....a radical concept in this world of outsourced customer support and just plain poorly run business!

We were actually surprised this week when we emailed a complaint to Suncast about a snow shovel that wasn't wearing well and they replaced the item with a brand new one in 2 business days--unusual. But we are digressing...

Such outstanding customer support can lead to referrals to new clients or to additional business with existing clients down the road. (Buy Suncast!)

This was one such week of satisfaction:
1) a compliment from a new nonprofit client for our recently completed project,
2) the offer from a client to use him as a reference at a later time,
3) a client referred us to someone starting a new e-commerce business,
4) and the best was a client supplementing the existing work we do with them with a brand new donation/shopping cart to support their product sales and new online fundraising and event planning needs in the early spring.

It feels good. My client feels good. The latter is more important than the former.

In re the death of customer service-now hear this!

I just received this in an email and thought it was brilliant:

Customers want you to listen to them. They want you to show them respect and listen to their needs. Don’t assume you know what they’re going to say. Let them tell you. And don’t interrupt them!

Customers want you to take responsibility. They want you to own them and their problem. Don’t pass the buck. Take care of them the way you would take care of your grandmother. See their issue through to completion. And then follow up with them and make sure they are happy with the outcome.

Customers want you to pay attention to the details. They want you to use their name when speaking to them, and call them back when you say you are going to. They want to feel important because they are!

Customers want you to remember it is their time and money. They don’t have to do business with you; there are other companies they can buy from. Remember, you are not doing them a favor. They are the reason you are in business. To serve them!

Give customers what THEY want, and they’ll be sure to come back! And they’ll tell others to come as well. And isn’t that what WE want?

I printed this and placed it on my bulletin board next to my office phone. I hope you will too.

Customer Centricity

A snippet of something someone said about us today in an email: "He’s great at getting back quickly."

That's nice to hear, because that's how we operate.

I hear horror stories about interminable wait times on so-called client service 800 numbers, lack of follow through by the service provider and the all-time worse: an emailed answer to a question you didn't ask, not answering the question you DID ask!

We are here for the client-that makes us client-centric!
Let us know if you need help.

Back with more good news from a nonprofit

I have been remiss in posting to the blog for the past couple of weeks.

Too busy installing new services at new customers, a nice problem I guess.

Here's an email I received yesterday from one of those new clients, a nonprofit:

Marc, you exceeded my expectations. We are very happy so far…….Thank you for everything, and I’ll be sure to pass along your name…. All the very best for a happy holiday season, L

That makes me feel good.

You can feel that way too, just ask us!

Flattery will get you everywhere

Funny how things happen in pairs.


First, at the Thanksgiving table, several of us got into a discussion how bad customer service has become. We all agreed that our businesses would die if we gave the same lousy customer service to our clients that we receive as consumers.


Then, I received this accolade from Fred Klein, guru of Gotham City Networking, a nationwide social-business networking organization that he founded 10+ years ago and runs as a labor of love. His Thanksgiving posting on the Gotham blog was arranged as an acrostic, and I was mentioned in the "H" line (quoting Fred below):
...
As I have said many times, we are a social-business networking group which is more akin to a tribe than anything else. It is fun for me and I hope it is the same for you. We pledge to keep innovating,invigorating, pushing the envelope, waving the wand and one last note--feel free to make a suggestion (and you will own it).

Happy Thanksgiving to all of the Tribe from A to Z:
...

H-Marc Halpert for being our service obsessed credit card maven.


Thanks, Fred, for recognizing what we do differently than the rest, in front of over 500 other Gothamites, for the unique service quality we give to you as our client. AND thanks and for the opportunities Gotham has given me as a member of such a great organization.


Folks, just ask me about Gotham! Got an hour or so? As we say in Gotham, what goes around, comes around. Today, the thank-yous are flying.

I'll be there

No, I won't sing this in falsetto like Michael Jackson.


I will, however, be there to support you as we approach the renewal of your merchant account contract ahead of its expiration. The idea is to keep you running with the best processor at all times.


But, price and quality go hand in hand.


Just because someone comes in and offers you a better price doesn't mean better service or support. Show me the better price and I will analyze it, describe what is being offered, and if it appropriate for your business or organization, I will meet it or beat it at the time of the contract renewal.

If I have done anything right during our relationship, I hope I have added integrity, high level of service and continuity to your processing, from contract renewal onward...

Please call us first

I read with great amazement in the New York Times last week that Netflix was being complimented for improving its customer service. How? By adding humans in its Washington state call center rather than outsourcing to another company or to another country.

I was amazed because, as a service provider, Netflix decided adding a more human touch was important and Booz Allen Hamilton, a consulting firm, confirmed this suspicion: people hate customer service that seems not to be connected to them or to the service.

Here's a quote from a Booz Allen representative: "There’s so much more competition, this is something they’ve done to get closer to the customer, because without that, there’s really no connection a customer has to Netflix.”
(New York Times, Business section, August 16, 2007 "At Netflix, Victory for Voices Over Keystrokes " by Katie Hafner)

As my kids would say, DUH! How much did Netflix spend to come to that conclusion?
How many times have we all spent hours waiting on a queue to speak to a human only to find that the human had no idea what we needed or we wanted in order to solve the problem?

We have a vested interest in your being satisfied. Our clients get us as the first level in solving a problem. If we cannot figure it out, we will find the right person at the right level at the vendor(s) that can, often without taking any more of your time, saving you the headache, and later we confirm the solution has been finalized. This is one thing that separates us from our competition. Call us first, please.

Often Wrong, Seldom in Doubt

Each credit card or e-check transaction depends on all systems being at "go" all the time. The fact is, errors and glitches sometimes happen.

When they do, merchants suddenly are aware of the mechanics they think are at work in a transaction. It can go on for a few days unless we are notified of a potential problem. Or in a few cases, they get mad at the messenger. Then we are the ultimate bad guys.

It takes a dedicated customer service team to monitor all systems, even if the systems are fully not under our control. The fact is, once the card transaction is released to the "system" many parties are involved that we are not in charge of. We coordinate with banks, data centers, "front ends", "back ends," gateways, shopping carts, web developers of varying expertise, the Federal Reserve Bank (yes, they have problems from time to time too) and so many others.

So if something goes wrong, as the first level of customer service, we take the heat. That's OK, that's what we do.

We also provide the solution. We know who to ask for assistance. We get it done. So if one transaction goes wrong in any way, it is remembered by the merchant for a long time. But it was fixed, according to the rules and regulations.

Once resolved, there is no doubt, at least in our mind, that we have provided the best level of support and customer care. We check back to be sure.

We want to rekindle that confidence again in our merchants' minds. We are responsible for your cash flow. We take that very seriously.

Now, being pragmatic, let's remember all the transactions that went right too.