These days, every company is looking for ways to get more out of their marketing budget. Experience suggests that an internal review of how you handle information requests and your ordering process is likely to uncover a wealth of opportunities. A couple shocking examples illustrate why I say that:
• In a recent column by Stephen Lett in All About ROI, he reported that six weeks after requesting catalogs from a sampling of websites, 50% of the catalogs had not arrived. I’ve heard similar figures about questions emailed to companies going completely unanswered.
• In the Secret Shopper Survey sponsored by the Mailorder Gardening Association earlier this year, only 53% of shipments were rated excellent or very good. The reasons for low scores ranged from poor communication to inadequate packing to missing packing slips. Some of the details were outlined in our blog posts of July 22 and July 24.
Before looking for new income opportunities, make sure you’re maximizing what’s already in front of you. Make sure you respond to your customers’ and prospects’ questions and requests quickly. Look at the shopping experience through your customers’ eyes, and do some comparison shopping with the competition.
Take a closer look at your website, your phone orders, customer support, your outgoing packages and every other customer touchpoint, and you may be amazed at how many opportunities you’ve been overlooking.
