Customer Service

29 December

The 39 Essential Customer Service Quotes for Online Entrepreneurs + Creatives

Erika Madden | Business Tips, Customer Service | 1 Comment

The essential customer service quotes for online entrepreneurs and creative business owners. Inspiring and eye-opening, these quotes will transform how you run your business. Click to read + bookmark.

If there's one thing that applies to all of us hardworking, persevering, only-slightly-insane business owners who deal with clients and customers on a daily basis, it's most certainly this:

We all need inspiration.

An intoxicating dose of it.

We need her in order to fend off the lurking boogeyman all biz owners fear in their deepest bones (you may have heard of him -- he goes by Burnout).

We need her in order to improve.

We need her so that we can deliver our best.

(Which is recognized by all to be The Business Without Excuses, Grumbling, or Customer-Shaming.)

I know just how desperately we need inspiration because I need it, too. Without it I get tired. Maybe even a bit lazy.

You feel me, don't you?

It's why in this post today I'm specifically sharing with you those motivational customer service quotes that inspire me in my own business. (You know how I feel about customer service and being delightful online; it's something I strive for personally and believe in...

10 December

The “Secret” Trick to Delivering Consistent Customer Service as an Online Business Owner

Erika Madden | Business Tips, Customer Service | 9 Comments

The "secret" to consistent customer service online! This trick is used by big politicians + successful companies to wow their customers EVERY time -- and it's ideal for busy solo business owners, too! Implement it and you'll be faster + better at giving people the customer experience they hope for with your biz.

When I was a Journalism major back in college, I did something unspeakable.

I decided I wanted to work in the White House.

(I blame it all on Allison Janney and The West Wing. She made political work look like an irresistible adventure.)

This slight detour in my education landed me a coveted internship for one of the U.S. Senators for my state. Among a collection of rather mundane duties (checking the mail, collecting press clippings, gossiping with the chief of staff's assistant), I was responsible for one extraordinary thing:

Responding to hundreds of constituent letters.

In the Senator's name.

How did I do this? I could put a sentence together as well as anybody (or so I thought), but something as significant as a politician's official correspondence would not be left to chance.

These letters also had to be written quickly; there was no time to agonize over tone, massage adjectives, and then recruit a higher-up to edit for accuracy + political correctness.

The trick? A script database. A big one.
...

28 October

Delight: The Digital Biz Owner’s Guide To Creating A Pro Client + Customer Service Plan (A Workbook)

Erika Madden | Business Tips, Customer Service, E-Books, Reputation | 9 Comments

The complete guide to creating a customer service plan for your small business. Delight: The Digital Biz Owner's Guide To Creating A Pro Client + Customer Service Plan is for creative business owners, freelancers, Etsy shop owners, and entrepreneurs who want to get more clients + buyers + forever fans by delivering heroic service.

A long time ago (32 weeks, to be exact) in places far away (that would be Twitter, Instagram, + Facebook), I posed a question.

It went a little like this:

After a lot of studious tallying by candlelight into the wee hours of the morning (not really), the answer was resoundingly clear.

"Create #2!" the masses cried.

It was a happy day, as you might imagine. (Oh, if all our future business plans could be so obvious.) But today? Oh today, my friends, is even happier.

That's because Delight: The Digital Biz Owner's Guide To Creating A Pro Client + Customer Service Plan is finally here. (And I can't wait for you to see it.)

What are the details of this one-of-a-kind workbook? Let me show you:
...

22 October

Winning Trust: 50 Proven Ways to Make Your Business Look Professional Online

Erika Madden | Blogging Tips, Business Tips, Classy Marketing, Customer Service | 40 Comments

Use this heroic list of 50 proven ways to make your business look professional online to boost your brand cred and be more successful. The tips here will help you be a trusted, respected authority online, meaning you get the followers you want and the clients + customers you need.

You've figured it out by now.

If you want to be successful (read: get followers + make money to pay your bills) in business online, it's not enough to simply have a website.

It's not enough to simply put up some services or products.

It's not enough to simply post on some social media accounts.

You can have ALL those things -- and still barely get noticed.

And while you no doubt get that, it's still frustrating. That's because while you know that it does take more, chances are that you're simply not sure what that "more" is.

Does it take gobs of money? Friends in high places? A whiz partner helping in the background?! Or maybe $20,000 worth of e-courses + masterminds?!?!

Let's all take a collective cleansing breath, because I'm happy to tell you that NO: it does not require a single one of the above.

(If I can be a little bit personal with you guys here, I'll tell you that I myself had none of those things that I just listed when I started Olyvia.co. The truth is, I had just left my destructive marriage, was living alone and on food stamps + Medicaid with three young children I had to care for full-time, had absolutely ZERO business connections because I had been a stay-at-home-mom for the past seven years [blogging + doing mostly free freelancing in my spare time], and could not afford to buy a single e-course or mastermind "opportunity.")

What it takes, more than anything, is to make the right impression.

In part 1 of the #heroicbrand series, I taught you all about making an impression through relationships. In part 2, you learned to build a reputation for yourself via the quality of content you put out into the world. Today, in part 3, we're going to take it a step further: You're going to learn the 50 exact...

23 September

Earning An Audience: How To Be Irresistible + Grow Your Brand Online

Erika Madden | Blogging Tips, Business Tips, Classy Marketing, Customer Service | 79 Comments

How to earn your audience: the actions that REALLY make you noticeable + irresistible as a small business and brand online. Get 13 beginner community-building tips + 4 advanced strategies with examples and questions to help you improve.

The best way I know how to share what I'm about to share with you about building a business on the interwebs is to start off with a little story-slash-confession. I promise, pinkie-swear, and cross my heart not to be boring.

Before I launched the Olyvia brand, I spent my time reading.

By my estimations, I read about 157 gazillion articles on business marketing strategies on a daily freaking basis in the months leading up to my website going live.

You see, even though I had experience in growing communities online -- launching + promoting around a half dozen blogs over the previous 10 years, advising non-profits on social media marketing, informally assisting my friends who owned small businesses, and other rather unremarkable things -- the truth is this:

I was certain that anything I knew would prove to be woefully, shamefully inadequate. Oh yeah: and I would fail.

In my mind there simply had to be the Holy Grail of marketing strategies out there that would guarantee my entrance into biz blogging heaven. I just needed to find it behind some internet guru's squeeze page.

(Don't even ask how many newsletters I signed up for in my quest for marketing enlightenment. #likewhoa)

But ~~sales pitch after sales pitch~~ errr, I mean webinar after webinar, all I found at the end of the rainbow were $2000 courses I couldn't afford -- and didn't trust enough to buy even if I could.

So, alas, the day came when I finally could do nothing more than push Olyvia.co into being. I hoped (and ohhh it was a desperate hope, I might add) that what I knew from my past online experiences -- in point of fact, what I had built my entire brand around -- would be enough to get me started.

What was my so-called strategy?

Only this: ...

13 May

How to Handle Negative Comments Online (Like A Pro)

Erika Madden | Business Tips, Customer Service, Online Etiquette, Reputation | 33 Comments

How to handle negative comments online like a true pro. There are great customer service + reputation tips for creative business owners and entrepreneurs in here!

I know how it goes down.

You're busting your (sometimes) manicured nails on your blog, staying up until 1 a.m. hustling for business, and trying to convince yourself that:

1. you DO have something worth saying,

2. you ARE capable, and

3. gosh darn it, people like you.

And then, just when you think you've found your groove, what happens?

Someone comes along to tell you just how ridiculous, incompetent, fraudulent, and ignorant you really are.

(Or at least that's how negative online comments feel, yes?)

The experience can be horrifying.

And worse, it can make us want to be horrifying in return.

But I have a better way to deal.

(Because there's only ONE thing more destructive for your biz or blog reputation than critical, complaining, and rude comments, and that's a poor response to them.)

This is how to handle negative comments online, Chief Olyvia style. Ready to roll with me? Let's go!
...