interview Tag

28 October

Listen To Your Clients Or Set Firm Boundaries? Advice From A Successful Designer

Erika Madden | Business Tips, Customer Service | No comment

Can you set boundaries in biz and still listen to your clients?

Or does being a small business owner mean you get to run things your way, all the time?

One of the biggest mistakes I some people make when they start their own business, especially online (where other people can seem far away and relationships less personal), is subscribing to the idea that they need to dominate over their clients.

"This is my business and I make all the rules. If you don't like them, don't hire me!"

Have you ever run into a business owner who made you feel that way? (I have, and it's an icky feeling.)

Boundaries ARE important -- particularly when it comes to essential biz operations like payment policies -- and it's not bad to have them.

But as in all things in life, when they are taken to the extreme, they can stop being healthy and start being used as an excuse to treat people badly.

And that doesn't just hurt clients or customers, it hurts our businesses, too. It's difficult to run a thriving brand when people feel as if their needs + wants come in third, fourth, or last place!

In this interview today, Fashiony Fab owner Maru Ramirez (a favorite classy boss lady of mine) talks about this very issue -- as well as shares her best practices when it comes to email replies to clients, how she helps recurring clients feel extra special, and what crucial (healthy) boundary she learned to implement early on in her biz.

Check it out below:
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18 October

Do You Have the Audacity to Make an Authentic Personal Connection in Your Biz?

Erika Madden | Business Tips, Customer Service | 2 Comments

Making people happy in biz boils down to how well you can impact them on a personal level. Read more in this interview with FitfFizz founder Kelly Wilson!

Making a personal connection in biz can improve your client + customer service -- and radically improve the impact you make as a brand.

That's because it helps you stop seeing your online business only in terms of straight numbers, and start seeing it for the fullness of what it TRULY is:

A help for living, breathing, struggling, aspiring human beings.

When you start seeing what you do in this way, you treat people -- well, you treat them differently.

In almost every way, you treat them better.

This not only makes you a great biz owner. It makes people like you. Listen to you. TRUST you.

If you've ever wondered how you get to be an "influential brand" -- that is, how you reach that level where people mention you on social media, often refer people to you, and faithfully rely on your advice or solution to their own problems -- this is the (plain and yet sometimes hard) answer.

You need to care about people and reach them in a place that matters before you can even think about reaching the heights that matter to you.

Happily, Kelly Wilson of Fit Fizz Studio gets that -- and that's why I'm eager to share her customer service wisdom on the blog today!

Read on to discover how she tries to make that authentic personal connection with her clients and customers (even when the things that come up in conversation are intimate and difficult):
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04 October

Building An Unforgettable Brand? Deliver Beyond The Expected

Erika Madden | Business Tips, Customer Service | 3 Comments

Go beyond expectations if you want to have a business people can't forget!

Richard Branson, entrepreneur and business mogul, once said regarding heroic customer service, "The key is to set realistic customer expectations, and then not to just meet them, but to exceed them — preferably in unexpected and helpful ways."

It's one of my top quotes that I refer to again and again in my own business, as it reminds me that to be the kind of unforgettable online brand I want to be, it's NEVER enough to just "do the job."

(That just keeps you out of trouble! ...

27 September

Clients Are People, Too: Tips on Giving Better Customer Service in Your Biz

Erika Madden | Business Tips, Customer Service | 1 Comment

Customer service as an online biz owner is hard. Giving better service starts with the realization that clients are people, too! Get more tips from this awesome interview with Jessica Freeman of Jess Creatives.

I first discovered Jess Freeman when I was the in the midst of building the Olyvia.co website + brand.

I took a glance at her biz website at www.jesscreatives.com and said to myself, "Now that is a woman who knows what she's doing."

(Go ahead. Look for yourself. You'll see!)

It was #bizcrush from Day One, but back then I didn't realize the full extent of Jess' delightfulness online. Now, though, I have even more reason to admire her. That's because over the last couple of years I've seen her not only exhibit the great online marketing savvy and design talent I first swooned over, but also something much rarer (and arguably more precious) in the small biz world:

Sincere, kind, and attentive service skills.

Even if you've only had the pleasure of interacting with Jess in the Facebook Groups she frequents, or chatted with her on Twitter, you, of course, already know this. Jess is one of those lovely humans that is just as wonderful in her private emails as her public posts.

In other words, she is the real deal.

What better person to talk customer service, then? She has plenty of tips + gems to share, and I'm eager to share them with you in this interview! Today Jess is sharing:

1. Why she feels client happiness is so important.
2. How working for someone else prepared her for serving clients in her own biz.
3. How she is "working herself out of a job" -- and why she's happy to do it.
4. How she messed up with a client -- and what she did to fix it.
5. Why it's crucial to remember that your clients are people, too.

And so much more. :)

Please read on, then be sure to chime in with your answer to the question at the end!
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13 September

Solo Business Owners And Customer Service: You Don’t Have To Be ‘On’ All The Time

Erika Madden | Business Tips, Customer Service | No comment

Wondering how to provide great customer service as a solo business owner? Thinking you have to be "on" all the time -- and it's burning you out? Read these wise biz tips from successful social media coach Julia Jornsay-Silverberg!

When the subject of solo business owners and customer service comes up in biz conversation, people (understandably) tend to get nervous.

Running all the aspects of a business is daunting: there's licenses, and bookkeeping, and taxes, and proposals, and websites, and marketing, and packaging, and affiliates, and creating and/or providing the actual services and products, and, and, and. (You know all too well how it is.)

How in the WORLD does a solo biz owner fit heroic customer service into that whole mess?

Do you have to respond to every email within 10 minutes?

Do you have to devote your weekends to every "urgent" client text that comes your way?

Do you have to stay up until 2 a.m. slogging through last minute "minor" modification requests?

Do you have to be "on" ALL of the time?

Today in the first feature in the new Olyvia interview series on customer happiness, (the totally amazing) social media consultant and coach Julia Jornsay-Silverberg talks about precisely this. Plus, she's sharing how she serves people through free coaching calls, a communication mistake she learned from early on, and how a story of Pythagoras inspires her to go above and beyond with people in her business.

Enjoy!
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25 March

Olyvia Works: An Interview with Elizabeth Kelsey Bradley of Savouring Simplicity

Erika Madden | Olyvia Works | 14 Comments

Are you using social media effectively to grow your blog or business? Elizabeth Kelsey Bradley of Savouring Simplicity shares her thoughts on mistakes people make when promoting their brand, + tips on entrepreneurship and being a mom business owner. | Olyvia.co

You know me: I can't get enough of the kind + brilliant women in the world. Women who know their stuff inside, outside, and sideways -- but don't let it go to their head.

Elizabeth Kelsey Bradley of Savouring Simplicity is that kind of woman.

A social media consultant and life coach for holistic women entrepreneurs, this lady is making a big impact in her space. But every time I see her, guess what she's doing?

She's out there reaching out to + cheerleading for other women.

And not just influencers, but the new gals. The women who really need it.

Obviously, I couldn't NOT have her on here. (Let's pretend that makes sense. haha)

Today Elizabeth is going to share:

How she uses her multiple passions to offer services she loves

The hardest thing she had to do as a new entrepreneur

How she juggles motherhood with work, and the one smart thing other mompreneurs should do if they're struggling with time

Her brilliant strategy for getting more brand exposure

Why social media is completely misunderstood and misused by small and big businesses alike -- and 4 epic tips on how to use it the right way

Here she is! ...