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World's
Most Usable E-commerce E-zine
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SITE-SELL! Issue #001
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SITE-SELL!
The World's Most Usable E-commerce E-zine
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>A free, twice-monthly e-zine dedicated to showing you ...
> ... how to MAKE YOUR SITE SELL!
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July 15, 1999
Issue #001
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PLEASE SHARE THIS E-ZINE WITH FIVE FRIENDS...
... AND ZERO COMPETITORS! ;-)
OR SEND YOUR FRIENDS TO...
>> http://www.sitesell.com/site-sell.html
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To sell on the Web, you only have to succeed at three
points, each one *DIRECTLY UNDER YOUR CONTROL*...
1) develop a great product, properly positioned for the Web
2) write a Web site that "SITE-SELLS" with deadly effectiveness
3) attract targeted customers to the site.
Make Your Site SELL!, the book, shows you how to absolutely
nail each of "THE BIG THREE." The SITE-SELL! e-zine picks up
where the book leaves off.
>> http://www.sitesell.com/
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Each issue of SITE-SELL contains USABLE
content in 1 or more of these categories...
CATEGORY IN THIS ISSUE
SITE-SELL XPRESS --> YES
HANDS-ON SITE SELLING --> YES
SITE-SELL! SPOTLIGHT --> NO
BEST OF THE REST --> YES
TEST YOUR SITE --> YES
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SITE-SELL XPRESS -- News
Sorry it's taken so long to launch SITE-SELL! The response
to MYSS! and the 5 Pillar Program has swamped us. But we're
all set now. And not just for SITE-SELL!...
For those of you who own MYSS!, watch for SALES FROM THE
EDGE next week (available only to MYSS! owners). I'll be
publishing the results of two fascinating experiments that
are currently running on the SITE-SELL! site (my living
Web test tube!).
If you're selling on the Web, BOTH experiments will open
your eyes. I can almost guarantee you'll look at your own
site with fresh eyes -- odds are that you'll improve one or
both!
Anyway, on to the SITE-SELL news...
1) The BOOK.............................
Over 3,000 happy book owners already! The sitesell site
shows a steady growth in daily sales volume -- it is now at
50-100 copies per day (peaks Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
valleys on the weekends).
But the most rewarding aspect, by far, has been customer
response... phenomenal reviews by Web authorities and
readers alike...
>> http://www.sitesell.com/testimonials.html
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2) The PROGRAM.............................
Over 1300 5 Pillar Affiliates have registered in the first
20 days -- affiliate response has generally called the 5
Pillar Program "the single best program on the Net."
The downside? Affiliates keep telling me that I'm nuts to
give the Manual away for free. *THE* authority on affiliate
programs, Allan Gardyne (www.AssociatePrograms.com) said
this in a recent article that was headlined "The BEST manual
for affiliates is FREE"
"Ken Evoy must be bonkers ... He's just spent
three months writing a 224-page manual
for affiliates, telling you, step-by-step,
how to succeed with revenue sharing programs
. . . And now he's giving it away."
But at least he closed the review on a kinder note... :-)
"All you have to do to get the FREE manual
for affiliates is join Ken's free program,
which just happens to be the BEST revenue
sharing program out there."
>> http://www.sitesell.com/affiliateprogram.html
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3) The PRODUCTS.............................
New product development is well under way...
a) MYSS! branding -- series of books related to selling
on the Web. Slated for end-of-year launches.
b) e-corp.net -- Web hosting, with unique e-commerce
modules, is on schedule for September launch
c) ezBizTools -- also on schedule for Sept-Oct/99.
All new products are automatically included in the 5 Pillar
Program -- so your "lifetime customer" keeps generating
commissions for you. And so does your lifetime Team!
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HANDS-ON SITE SELLING
Based on our own experience, or on yours (send e-mail to
hands-on-column@sitesell.com), this column features
original, in-the-trenches info that you *WILL* put to good
use... IMMEDIATELY.
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Customer Support -- Your Most Important Product!
It dawned on me the other day. I thought we had three major
product lines (MYSS!-branded books, e-commerce Web hosting,
and ezBizTools). But I was wrong -- we have four.
The fourth is our customer support. Sure, it turns up in
the Profit and Loss statement as an expense. But believe
me, in the long run, *GREAT* customer support is a profit
center. Why?
Let's start with three examples...
---------
EXAMPLE 1) A digital bank -- we're looking for ways to
transfer funds electronically to all our affiliates. While
searching the Web, I came across Security First Network
Bank...
>> http://www.sfnb.com/
Sent them an e-mail inquiry. Sent them another 2 days
later. One week later, I gave up and phoned them. The SFNB
support person told me that "phones come first."
Well, for every phone support call that comes in to us here
at sitesell, we get 100 e-mails. I would assume that they
must see the same ratio. After all, if you're online, you
e-mail, right?
Yup, this "digital bank" is turning business away... in
droves!
LESSON? E-mail rules! Support it if you want to grow
big and fast.
---------
EXAMPLE 2) A Web hosting service -- Until very recently, we
used to host my goodbytes/PennyGold site with tabnet.com, a
huge hosting service out in sunny California.
One day, the server went down. I had some urgent business
to get done. So I filled out their "Trouble Ticket"...
>> http://tabnet.com/help/index.html
I told them that...
o their ftp and mail servers were down
o it was urgent, so please reply to a different address of
mine (and not to the goodbytes address since their mail
server was down).
Two hours later, I discovered, on my own, that the servers
were back up. I completed my business and forgot all about
it. But then...
Two days later, I got an impersonal message telling me
that they were back up and running. And you know what?
They sent it to my goodbytes address!
It would have been better if they had never replied -- after
all, I had forgotten about it. It would have been best, of
course, if I received a personalized reply, immediately, and
to my other address.
But wait. It gets worse. The next week, I got a rude
letter from sysadmin, explaining how my site was in
"violation" of their allowed megabytes of disk space.
Me, a "violator"? Geez, I felt like they were accusing me
of stealing the crown jewels. What did *I* do wrong?
A sales person or ad copywriter should have worded that
message -- it should have been an opportunity to upgrade my
account with them. Instead, they allowed techie-speak to
insult me, a "lay" person.
Although I had been putting off this decision (I knew a lot
of de-bugging would be involved), I immediately pulled the
site and brought it home, onto our own server.
LESSONS?
LESSON 1) Don't let your techies word anything that your
customer might see. "Tech-speak" does not jive with
"human-listen."
LESSON 2) Respond appropriately and quickly. There's a
human sending you a distress call. Don't send him some poor
excuse for a lifesaver... two days after he sinks.
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There's a P.S. to this story. I notified tabnet of our
"move" on June 30. On July 6, I received this reply...
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"Dear kevoy@goodbytes.com,
We received your e-mail dated Tue Jul 06
09:24:42 1999. Your reference for this
account request is 931271081.002.
Verio will make every attempt to respond to
all customer inquires within a reasonable
period.
If you wish to append information to this
issue, please reply to this email address
without altering the subject headers.
You may wish to visit our customer service
website at http://dalgate.verio.net:8089.
Thank You,
Verio Account Management"
-----------
Kind of gives you the warm and fuzzies, doesn't it? Needless
to say, I chose not to visit their "customer service
website."
And on July 15 (today), 16 days after sending my "moving
notice," I received this just before I sent this note...
-----------
"Dear Valued Customer:
Your request has been received and
implemented.
Thank you Verio."
-----------
Sheesh!
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OK, time for a *GOOD* experience...
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EXAMPLE 3) A trademark search service -- We're registering a
lot of trademarks. I use BrainWave to do some good, cheap,
and thorough preliminary searching...
>> http://www.brainwave.telebase.com/
A few weeks ago, I needed to prepay more money to BrainWave
from my credit card. They already had my credit card on
record.
All appeared as it usually does -- I only had to enter my
username and password, and a verification word. OK, done...
Whoops! "Credit card prepayment is down."
So I clicked to their Web-chat-based "Help Desk." I'm a big
fan of Web-based chat support (refer to MYSS! book on this).
Of course, you have to have a fair-sized operation going,
because it obliges you to provide 24 x 7 real-time support.
So let's not worry too much about their excellent use of
technology. Let's concentrate on results. Because right now,
they have an unhappy customer on their hands.
In rapid sequence, here's what happened...
STEP 1) Chat support was fast and efficient. But they could
not resolve the problem. So do you know what Tom did? He
simply added $2 to my account, to allow me to get my final
search done. I did *NOT* even have to ask!
I was delighted -- not only did I get my work done...
... I saved $2! ;-)
STEP 2) The problem was supposed to be resolved by the next
day. But it was not. So I had a second chat session, this
time with Pat...
Ring-ring! Phone call for me, while I was chatting with
Pat. It was Tom on the phone!
He explained that they were changing systems, and that it
would be a day or two longer. At least I know, right?
STEP 3) The next day, he followed up with e-mail to say that
they found another problem -- the card had expired!
STEP 4) I e-mailed back to ask how to update the card info.
STEP 5) *Immediate* reply from Michele to call their 1-800,
which I did the next day.
STEP 6) Backend was still fouled up. So you know what? I
had told Pat in another phone conversation to pre-pay
manually if their backend was still messed up.
So they did! And I'm back in business! :-)
Thank you to Tom, Pat, and Michele.
LESSONS?...
LESSON 1) Don't mess up to begin with. Nothing is better
than a smooth backend. And there's a strong side effect --
you'll cut down the amount of support necessary.
When I could not pre-pay, the backend error message should
have told me that my card had expired.
LESSON 2) If you do mess up, individualize the error
message, then empower the customer to fix the problem
himself.
In my case, I had to call 1-800 to do this. But it took
more support to figure this out. If the error message also
provided me with a form on a secure server to update my card
info...
... Wow -- very impressive! And it cuts down on support
again. :-)
LESSON 3) Give your support people some latitude. Allow
them to add $2 to a customer's account! Encourage them to
make a long-distance call to solve a problem.
LESSON 4) Get sharp people who don't just "do their job" --
Tom went above and beyond when he called while I was
chatting with Pat.
LESSON 5) Finally, most important, if you do mess up.,..
>> DON'T LOSE THE CUSTOMER.
I've got the Thomson & Thomson manual and have an account
with them. I would have taken the hour to learn how to use
them if customer support had not been so sharp.
And BrainWave would have lost a paying customer forever.
Instead, I'm still theirs.
Score for BrainWave's backend? 10 out of 100.
Score for BrainWave's support? 100 out of 100.
Honestly, this company did everything it could to lose my
business. Customer support saved it. Actually, they not
only saved it -- I told thousands about it! :-)
And that, dear reader, is why I say that customer support
is really a company's fourth major profit center. It just
does not show up on the P&L.
-----SIDEBAR 1-----
Great customer support can't clean up a messy backend
forever. Customer support must let the propeller-heads know
where major problems are. Then clean 'em up.
-----END SIDEBAR-----
-----SIDEBAR 2-----
We're putting our own customer support into place right now.
>From time to time, I'll update you on what we've learned.
Seems like we're doing something right, because I got this
e-mail the night before I wrote this...
"Thank you for prompt reply. How do you
organize your site so you can give such
prompt replies...number of people,
automation, etc? This, might be an
answer...on site management &
organization...that many of your customers
would be interested in."
Richard Lundquist, infotechmain@mail.com
If you're not getting e-mail like that on a regular basis,
you need to improve your customer support.
-----END SIDEBAR-----
-----ACTION STEP-----
Entrepreneurs: are you answering your e-mail within 4 hours
(8 hours for overnight?)? What frame of mind are you in
when your answer it? If you get mad at "one more idiot," I
guarantee that it shows up in the subtext of your answers.
Relax and enjoy the process of helping -- you'll help
yourself at the same time. :-)
Businesses with customer support: send five e-mails to your
company's customer support, from non-company addresses (set
them up a hotmail.com if you don't have one). Measure
speed, friendliness, and helpfulness.
-----END ACTION STEP-----
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SITE-SELL! SPOTLIGHT
We feature part of a site to illustrate a particularly
powerful way of "GETTING THE ORDER."
See www.brainwave.telebase.com -- they certainly kept my order!
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BEST OF THE REST
This section only contains especially important Web
sales-getting articles from other e-zines (we subscribe to
over 100 of them). Only major stuff "makes the cut."
Nothing really important has hit me until today, in I-sales.
Your domain is your business life. I never had any idea
just how vulnerable it could be to attack. Protect it. This
post to I-sales from Leo Sheiner explains...
"Two days ago I was puzzled when I received an
email from Internic telling me that they had
changed the details about our Safe-Audit.com
domain. When I looked at the details they had
changed I saw a name that I recognized as one
of our members. He had become our system
administrator. Needless to say I immediately
contacted Internic through our ISP and this
situation was reversed. There than followed
48 hours of nail biting while every time we
had a change installed, the perpetrator
followed with a change of his own. I should
explain that once in charge of a domain, an
individual can steal all your traffic, create
a spoof site in its place or do anything they
please. Finally we were certain that our
details were back intact and that they were
now protected.
Most people do not know that the default
position is that Internic will only recognize
changes if they come from a specific email
address (the one you used when creating the
domain). But of course it isn't rocket
science to send email with a spoofed address
and Internic obligingly provides all that
information when you query their whois
database. There is an option to set a
password and another to use PGP for a more
secure lock. My advice to you is, if you have
not protected your domain by at least setting
a password, do it now."
Leo Sheiner
http://safe-audit.com
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If you don't yet subscribe to I-sales, you should...
>> Just send a blank e-mail to
>> join-i-sales@list.mmgco.com
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This newsletter is part of a package guaranteed to AT LEAST
quadruple your Web sales within 6 months...
The other two parts to the SITE-SELLING package are...
1) MYSS! book -- No matter what you offer on the Web, your site
must SELL! Join the one in a hundred who know how to *GET THE
ORDER* on the Net. It's all you'll ever need to know to truly
SELL on the Web. Order at ...
>> https://secure.sitesell.com/order.html
2) "Sales from the Edge" -- our "push-the-limits" Web sales
newsletter. We include a LIFETIME subscription to this
newsletter with your purchase of MYSS!
Together, SITE-SELL!, MYSS!, and Sales from the Edge *WILL* do
exactly what the title of the book says...
... Make Your SITE SELL!
Wishing you great success in your Web efforts,
Ken Evoy, M.D.
P.S. What can I write about that will help you sell more
effectively on the Web? What do you need to know? Please send
ideas for topics by replying to this e-mail. Thank you.
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Back issues available at...
>> http://www.sitesell.com/site-sell-backissues.html
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TO UNSUBSCRIBE
To unsubscribe, go to the following URL and enter your e-mail
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>> http://www.sitesell.com/unsubscribe-ss.html
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Written by Ken Evoy, M.D.,
President of SiteSell.com Inc.
(c) and ™ SiteSell.com Inc. All rights reserved.