Comments on: 2 Sure-fire Ways to Lose Visitors and Prospects

By: Suzanne

Suzanne — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 19:14:29 +0000

Michael – oooohhh, that’s another great example. I’ve been burned like that before, too. While I can’t change how everyone else does their marketing, I sure can make sure I don’t do to others what I don’t like done to me! I have gone maybe too far the other direction as a result of ploys like this, and have probably missed some useful information just because I KNOW for sure I’ll get stuck with a bill if I’m not paying attention. I think this kind of thing also falls under the ‘make people jump through too many hoops’ category. I don’t want to have to set a reminder on my calendar to hunt my way back to a site just to cancel something. I’d far rather have them make it easy for me to try before I buy, and buy ONLY when I really want to.

By: Michael E. Cantone

Michael E. Cantone — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:59:57 +0000

Suzanne, Reading your comments to everyone made me realize something about doing business with the Guru's. How about getting sucked into free stuff worth lots of Money, so they say, to find out that a fraction of it will ever be used then get bombarded with with more free stuff from other Gurus with the same use and the "One" they all have in common is their failure to launch like we don't know what a sever is. It's like there all in a club to take your money that covers more than the shipping cost and hope you didn't see the part about the forced continuity that gets slipped into an email later that you ignore. That happened to me recently and I had a hard time tracing it back because; I'm going to be too busy using their stuff to check my credit card statement? Michael E. Cantone´s last blog post..Finally Writer's Digest Turned On The "$" Light Bulb!!!

By: Suzanne

Suzanne — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 14:51:31 +0000

Christa – It’s good to ask yourself those questions from your users’ perspective. Just remember to do it in as unemotional way as possible. Otherwise, self-doubt can creep in and distort your perceptions. Better still, start yourself a list of people to whom you can go and ask these types of questions…not friends and family, so much, as they’ll not likely see you as the ‘expert’ anytime soon…but others whose opinions you respect. We are often not the best judge of ourselves.

Nancy – oh yes – there is always great value is messing up on a grand scale…like you say, those are lessons that won’t likely have to be learned twice. The trick is understanding (like I know you do) that you are going to mess up from time to time, but to never take for granted your audience. People (including me) are willing to overlook the grandest of foul-ups if they know it wasn’t on purpose and responsibility is taken to correct the situation.

The membership site could have easily kept me appeased by sending an email saying, “Hey – I know we promised X by X date, but we’re having Y problem. We’re doing our best to correct it, and will have your X to you as soon as possible.” Nobody understands how the best laid plans sometimes turn out better than me. But so far, not even an acknowledgment that they’ve screwed up has come my way, further cementing my impression that I am not valued.

Marelisa – Yes, it is too bad. And I ALMOST wrote a post recommending you all check it out immediately after finding the site. But a little voice in my head said, “Hold your horses, girlfriend. Let’s see if they can deliver, first.” I’m glad I listened to the little voice.

By: Marelisa

Marelisa — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:09:05 +0000

I know what you mean about people making promises online they can't keep. Too bad about that prompt calendar for blogging, it sounds interesting. Marelisa´s last blog post..Start 2009 With a Bang: Create a Life List

By: Nancy Boyd

Nancy Boyd — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:57:02 +0000

I probably have tons of stories about how someone disappointed me online (in that they either did not meet their promised performance or standards, or failed to meet my expectations.)

But the WORST ones are the times I did this to my own customers or readers! Sometimes, despite the most careful planning, things don’t go the way you expect. Or else, in one case I can think of, I didn’t think through ALL the steps completely and missed some key items that would have made my readers a LOT happier with me, had I done them.

The worst one was when I held a teleconference call with a 14-year-old boy who is a genius at manifesting. We had a few challenges setting the call up, but managed for it to go as planned on schedule, with a recording for backup. But after that, things got dicey again.

One of my VA’s failed to tell me she would not be available to get me the link, or to help me get a mailing out with resources for listeners. So instead of being able to get the news out to interested listeners within 24 hours of the call, it was. . . more than a week! Yuck. That was just awful.

When you build up someone’s enthusiasm and then lat the whole thing fall flat. . . it’s not good.

Big lesson learned there! But what is it they say? Experience is the best teacher? Yeah ‘cos there are some things you don’t wanna do twice, LOL.

Just my 2 cents worth today.

Nancy

Nancy Boyd´s last blog post..Flowers For Giving Thanks

By: Christa

Christa — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:17:25 +0000

Thanks for this post Suze. I often ask myself if my site and message makes sense to people.

I haven’t run into a lot of this nonsense myself mainly because I deal with professional type of people like you.

I don’t have the patience for people who don’t stand by their promises so KUDOS to you for calling these folks on it!