It started innocently enough. It was part of a conversation that I was having with Fabeku, the crazy cool guy behind Sankofa Song (he gets you unstuck with music). Since that meeting, I’ve had dervishes twirling and dancing in my head:
- Most people are not considering customer service with their online businesses.
- How do you want your audience to feel?
Hours later, dervishes still whirling, I was sitting on my couch having a philosophical conversation about why quality e-book design matters. Yes, a philosophical conversation about e-books is possible (I didn’t know this before recently either).
I mean, really, why does it matter if you put out a beautifully designed e-book or if you put out a PDF that you published in Microsoft Word using the default font settings? Print books get away with looking lame all the time. 8 pt. Times New Roman with hardly any line space and pages that go on forever – no problem, right? Why can’t e-books get away with the same thing?
Because as much as people think e-books are books, they are not books. They are digital experiences. A print book has an experience we’ve been trained to expect – there is the feel of the pages, the appeal of the cover, and the smell of the paper. With e-books (I’m talking digitally delivered PDFs, not the e-reader variety), there is no expected experience. It is an experiential laboratory where you either draw people farther into your business or push them away.
What’s the determining factor of whether they keep coming back to your product or move on to another one?
How they feel.
Do they feel served? Do they feel appreciated and cared about? Do they feel loved?
The two dervishes of earlier mention aren’t as far apart as they might seem. The feeling someone walks away with is intimately tied to their experience of customer service.
How do you want your audience to feel when…
… they visit your blog?
Do you invite them in and create a resource that is useful for them? Do you make it easy for them to find the information that is helpful to them? Do you really pay attention to their experience?
Or are you more concerned with driving people to your e-mail list with spammy pop-ups? Do you focus on yourself instead of on helping your audience?
… they open your e-book?
What does your e-book say about you as soon as you open it? If you check out Danielle LaPorte’s Firestarter Sessions, it says, “Damn, this is Hot and begging to be read.” If you open up a “special report” from someone’s email list that threw together a hodge-podge of information because a guru told them to, it might say something like, “You might need to wash your eyes.”
This might seem crass or over simplified, but what you put out in the world directly reflects on you and your business. How you do one thing, is how you do everything. Why should I hire you for whatever service you provide if the products you put out are terrible? I would never hire someone that doesn’t take pride in their own work and any client worth working with would not either.
… they receive your newsletter?
When I wrote How to Market Yourself Without Losing Your Soul and 5 E- Mistakes That Are Killing Your E-Mail List, I was frustrated with all of the crap newsletters out there that were only intent on selling me something, boosting their bottom line and didn’t actually give a damn about me as a customer. That is not customer love – it is dehumanizing wallet love.
I looked at e-mail marketing as an evil, and by God, I was the crusader to fix it. Slowly, I realized that a newsletter can be a tool to deepen interaction with your community. It can be a way to serve even more fully.
If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I’ve recently become a huge fan of Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich. He uses a newsletter in this way, and it’s evolutionary. I cannot wait to open his newsletter every time I get it. Why? Because he provides an insane amount of value. It’s hard to even wait to hear what he has to say in them. I immediately make time to read them, even though they’re pretty long messages. I’m excited to read his e-mails.
That is the feeling that I aim to deliver to The Bootstrappers. It’s why I sent out the best addition to the Bootstrappers Toolkit yet – The E-Book Planning Workbook – even though I kept getting told I should charge for it (don’t worry, if you missed the email, you can sign up here to become a Blogging Bootstrapper and get access to the entire Toolkit, including the latest Workbook).
How do you want people to feel when they open your newsletter?
Are You A Customer Love Machine?
Loving your customers matters. There is a new paradigm for doing business online and it comes down to love: loving your customers by pouring love into every action that you take with your business.
I’m not talking about sappy, gooey, romantic love that you catch on Oxygen. I’m talking about love in action – the type that makes a meteoric impact on the lives of those that are open to receiving it. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: It’s not about the products you create – it’s about the lives you change.
This translates into everything that you do in your business. By delivering incredible and valuable content, you give love to your customers. By taking the time to put together your products in a professional (and hopefully, beautifully designed) way, you show you care. By reaching out to people, you show them sincerity and a human presence.
This Wednesday, LaVonne Ellis and I are launching The Customer Love Machine, based on this principle of love in action. We’re committed to helping you build a business around your blog and your products that embodies these principles.
It’s stuffed to the gills with incrediblosity (I hear that’s going to be a new periodic element soon). Check it out:
- Daily emails to take your product (whether you’re making an e-book, podcast, video training, services, courses or physical product) from concept to launch in 29 days.
- Interviews with successful customer lovers such as David Crandall, Tyler Tervooren, Molly Gordon and Alexis Neely where they share their thrilling business experience.
- The Customer Love Machine Factory – An active network of other Customer Love Machine’s that are passionately building their businesses by loving their customers and a forum where you get to get feedback and support at every step.
- One on One Coaching – LaVonne and I are committed to supporting you in making products that rock. To this end, we’re both offering up individual coaching to guide you through the product creation process.
- Awesome Bonuses – Many of the people we have interviewed have decided to contribute some frickin’ awesome bonuses because they love you too.
It’s awesome. It’s got sugar, spice and everything nice, with a side of sarcasm and wit. And… we’re doing something to share the deliciousness with you.
How I Love My Customers, Grow My Blog, Freelance, Create Incredible E-Products and Still Make It Home In Time For Dinner
OK, I work at home, so technically I don’t have to commute more than about 15 feet to make dinner… but you get the point. There is a sort of alchemy that goes into managing this type of creation & production schedule.
LaVonne and I aren’t pulling any punches – we want you to see how creating a product while loving your customers is the best way to run your online business and we want to show you how to make it happen.
We’re holding a webinar on Wednesday at 12pm PST / 3pm EST. It’s free. No strings attached. In fact, there’s going to be all sorts of goodies for anyone that attends, including a pretty unbeatable product creation formula.
Salivating?
I hope to see you there. It’s my mission to love and serve this community every day, and I’m incredibly grateful to be able to partners with someone who really gets it and deliver The Customer Love Machine to you.
How are you making your customers feel with everything you do?
Photo credit: Dominic’s pics
