Communication | The Reader Appreciation Project

Do you believe in keeping your users up to date?

20. Jul, 2010 1 Comment

Are you regularly updating your customers?

The next time you go out and get interested in buying a car, chances are you ask what kind of features it has. Your business and blog users are no different. They regularly try to figure out what is changing in the products and services that you offer. Customers want to know what kind of different new features any upgrades or add-ons may have, while potential customers and users try to figure out the specific things your overall core of business actually provides. Unless you provide all of such people with actual updates and notes, you may be losing business or loyalty in the long run.

Keeping your users up to date with the latest release note helps maintain customer loyalty and interest in an extremely powerful way. Your users regularly try to find out what is changing in the services and products they use. Corporate blogs of any kind, from Facebook to PlayStation to Microsoft, help loyal customers realize and relate to what is happening at such companies.

In order to make sure customers know constantly that you are there for them, you have to update your customers and users of all kinds with the different announcements and information that relate to them.

Ways to keep your users updated

Articles

awareness, blog, communication, Customers, featured, interaction, readers, updates

Should You Contact Customers Through Personal Channels?

17. Jul, 2010 1 Comment

Contacting customers through personal channels

Do you contact customers through personal channels?

The most important thing that many customers prefer is communication from and with the companies that they do business with. You can communicate with your clients through practically hundreds of ways. You can realize beforehand, however, that the channels through which you communicate with your clients can be divided into a few categories, including the personal category.

Contacting customers through personal channels shows initiative and actual interest in the success of the customer. It lets the customer know that you are interested in being proactive with your customers. The same way you can communicate effectively or poorly, communicating through different channels could be good or bad depending on what the customer actually prefers.

Should you contact your customers through personal channels? Would you be appreciating clients more if you approached them through personal channels? There are a few ways to figure out the answer that would be best suited for your clients and your business.

Contacting Customers Through Personal Channels

Questions

business, clients, communication, Customers, personal, Questions

Reach Out to Customers

16. Jul, 2010 3 Comments

Are you reaching out to your customers?

If you work regularly, chances are your work focuses on bringing in a set of services or products that will draw in customers. Your business may be trying regularly to generate interest for customers in order to have the customers inquire and interact with your company. While many customers like interacting with different businesses, many other customers including potential customers usually hesitate before contacting a company for further information. Any competitor who may answer all the questions for a potential customer without having that potential customer ask such questions first may end up winning that customer.

Instead of focusing solely on making the customer come to you, you can also try reaching out to the customers yourself. Surprise them and contact them. Let them know what you have to say directly. Solve their problems before they ask for a solution. Help them out with the issues they are facing. Give them advice about things they may be thinking about on their personal blogs. Offer discounts and specials for services they may be interested in. The more you contact customers before they contact you, the more you show to them that you are there for them and that you are looking out for them.

In order to realize more about customer appreciation and to appreciate both your business and your clients more, you have to reach out to them without waiting for them to reach out to you.

Are You Reaching Out to Customers on Your Own?

Tips

appreciation, business, clients, communication, featured, interaction

6 Things Customers Hesitate to Give You

14. Jul, 2010 1 Comment

Customers Hesitate to Give Info About These Out

Do you ask customers for sensitive information?

Every time you buy something in person from a store like Target, Neiman Marcus or Best Buy, the cashier asks you if you have a membership with their store in the form of a membership rewards program or a credit card. Chances are you either have such a card or you are offered an application for such a card. Many businesses ask you for your personal information in order to sell you credit cards and rewards programs to make more money. While such trends are very popular, businesses also realize that customers are very hesitant to hand out their sensitive information.

Your business and blog can perform better if you asked customers information that they are not hesitant to give to you. You can also work harder to make customers feel at ease when you ask them very sensitive information that a potential scammer could misuse. If you ask customers for their real full names while your competitor only needs their e-mail address for the same product or service, chances are your potential customers may start going to your competition. Similarly, if you only need an e-mail address and PayPal information from your customers, while your competitors need more information in addition to those, potential customers may prefer your business because of not having to divulge too much personal information.

What kinds of information should you ask your customers in order to provide more services and to generate more profits? You can start figuring out the answer by looking at the different levels of hesitation customers have when sharing personal information with businesses.

6 Sensitive Things Customers Hesitate to Divulge to You

Misconceptions, Tips

business, communication, Customers, featured, interaction, list, planning, sensitive, sharing

Deliver Your Blog Content in Multiple Ways

11. Jul, 2010 2 Comments

Are you delivering your blog content in different ways?

Your blog content depends on a delivery venue. The computer screens and browsers that your clients use greatly affect the way your site performs and appears in the minds of the blog readers. The same way browsers like Internet Explorer, Safari and Firefox deliver your blog to your blog readers, there are several other methods your blog readers can use to get your blog content.

Majority of the blogs on the internet depend upon the trend of having a blog reader visit them. You can take a step further if you want to be very successful. You have to bring your blog to the blog readers. When you bring your blog to a blog reader, you are basically allowing that blog reader to view and benefit from your content at their own preferred venue and time. You also reduce the number of steps many blog readers have to take in order to get your blog content. The easier it is for your blog readers to get your content, the more loyal blog readers you will get for your blog.

In addition to the regular browser, you can deliver your blog to your readers and clients in many different ways, including the following 4 important and powerful ones.

4 Different Ways to Deliver Your Blog Content

Blogging, Tips

blog, clients, communication, delivery, email, featured, list, message, readers, social networks, Tips

Allow Your Customers to Vent

09. Jul, 2010 1 Comment

Are you allowing your customers to vent?

Probably not a day goes by where your blog does not end up making someone upset. Whether it is because of what you said or because of what your blog stands for, the idea of getting upset means that all of your blog reader and client base includes several people who are not completely satisfied with you. In order to build a good blog, you have to both get customers to become happy and customers to work with you in solving their problems. The only way to do the latter is to figure out what problems customers are having.

You may already be wondering why your clients get upset. In addition to working out different plans to see why some or several of your clients may be upset or not as active as other clients, you can create venues on your blog to allow clients and everyone else to vent and let you know the things that they do not like. Blogs that do not allow customers to vent are like shops which do not allow a customer to do anything other than to pay for a service.

The only successful way to keep a customer loyal and happy for the long run is to actually find out the problems a customer may be having so that you can solve them. And the best way to find out a problem is to have a customer vent to you directly.

3 Ways to Allow Customers to Vent

Tips

blog, business, clients, communication, Customers, featured, readers, vent

5 Important Types of Blog Comments

03. Jul, 2010 2 Comments

What kind of blog comments do you leave?

Almost every blog that wishes to be successful at one point or another had to come across the question “Do I want comments on my blog?” For many people, the answer to such a question is an easy and powerful “YES!” The consequences of such an answer, however, are not easy to realize in advance.

Once your blog is active, the types of comments others leave you and the types of comments you leave in response to other comments varies greatly. Some comments appear great to you, while other comments in your view are simply spam. How can you figure out what types of comments you should focus on? What types of comments should you simply ignore? What types of comments should you yourself focus on promoting through your own commenting? These and many other questions can easily be answered if you realize some of the different types of blog comments people leave online.

Here are 5 important types of blog comments you should realize exist in the online world. Your own blogging and commenting efforts can improve if you figure out the kind of comments you wish to get on your blog or leave for others.

5 Important Comment Types You Should Remember

Articles, Tips

appreciation, blog, blogger, Blogging, business, clients, commentors, comments, communication, featured, list, spam, types

59% bloggers do not reply to every comment – June 2010

01. Jul, 2010 2 Comments

59 percent readers do not reply to all commentors

Do majority of bloggers reply to every comment on their blog?

The most important trends of today will affect your blog and blogging today and tomorrow. RA Project focuses on figuring out what the online and offline world of readers and customers think, so that your business and blogs can function better in order to both appreciate your clients and your blog readers. Today we have very important and fascinating results for you when it comes to figuring out whether or not you should reply to each and every reader or client who leaves a comment on your blog.

Here are the results of the Poll “Should you reply to every commentor on your blog?” which was open from June 18th,2010 and ended last night, June 30th, 2010.

A total of 1,018 RA Project readers voted in this poll.

Majority of bloggers prefer not replying to every blog comment they get

Case studies, Surveys

appreciation, blog, Blogging, clients, communication, featured, poll, readers, reply, results, survey, time, trends

Ask Your Clients to Rate You

29. Jun, 2010 2 Comments

Do you allow your clients to rate your products and services?

The only way to find out whether or not your product or service really works is to have an actual customer rate or review it. Asking a customer to rate something basically means that you make it easier for the customer to let you know whether or not they think your product or service does what it is supposed to. Every successful company is in the habit of asking their customers to provide feedback on some kind of a rating scale system. Every company that wants to be a success in the eyes of the customers should follow this step. You should too.

Asking your clients to rate you and your offerings is the best thing you can do for your business. This should become the central step to pursue with every customer you gain. Such a rating will clearly tell you whether or not your work is providing useful returns for both you and your clients. Without such a rating, it can be extremely hard to find out if a customer is unhappy with your product or if your service simply does not provide the quality your clients are looking for.

Are you asking your clients to rate you? Here is why you should.

Why it Helps You to Have Clients Rate You

Articles, Tips

ask, business, communication, Customers, featured, feedback, list, rating

3 Reasons Following Up With Customers Is Critical To Your Success

28. Jun, 2010 2 Comments

Are you following up with your customers?

Of all the companies you buy from every year, chances are there are very few times when a company follows up with you to see how you are doing with their product or service. Many companies assume that you are happy with their products, while other companies actually contact you in some manner to see how you feel about them after a while. You can learn from that trend as a customer and apply it to your own business. Customers that you follow up with are more likely to remember you than other customers.

Following up with clients is an essential part of any business. Whether done manually and individually or automatically and on a mass scale, following up with clients will surely result in more repeat sales, a very high level of customer satisfaction and an increased knowledge of what your client base wants and behaves like. Clients are also more likely to realize that even if they are dissatisfied with your product or service, you are there to help them and that they simply have to contact you in order to get help.

Do you follow up with your customers? RA Project is here with 3 reasons on why following up with your customers is critical to the success of your business and services.