Do You Believe Customers are an Asset or a Cost Center?

Do You Believe Customers are an Asset or a Cost Center?
5 Things that Make Your WordPress Site Run Slow and How to Fix Them
How Video Helped Dropbox Get 75,000 Subscribers in 24 Hours
4 Trade Show Tactics For Small Business Success

Posted: 28 Nov 2013 04:00 PM PST

zanes cycles2

We’re going to explore one example closely by looking at how Zane’s Cycles grows – because they know and respect the lifetime value of their customers.

With only one retail location, Zane's Cycles of Connecticut is one of the three largest bike shops in the United States. They sell $15 million each year in bicycles, and bike supplies, with a relationship grounded in customer trust.

For example, on any given day you might see a $6,000 bike go out the door for a test drive without any one of Zane's folks asking to collect the customer's identification or any type of collateral. "Do you want my license?" is often asked by the customer. The response is always, "Nope, just have a good ride."

Zane's makes this decision because they want potential customers to know that in this world there's a store that trusts them, and it's Zane's. Made as a decision to embrace customers, this decision also sends a strong message to Zane's staff. Owner Chris Zane says:

“This is not about protecting ourselves. We're in the people business, not the thing business. This decision helps our staff understand and act on that key difference."

It gives customers confidence and a lasting impression that they have found a place where they'll want to do business.

Each Customer's Lifetime Value is $12,500

Zane's won't risk that. Zane's Cycles decided to act on its belief that the majority of customers do what's right. Chris Zane says:

“We calculate the lifetime value of every customer at $12,500. Why start out that customer relationship by questioning their integrity? We choose to believe our customers."

New Zane's employees often suggest that they protect the business by taking customers' keys or wallets when they test drive a bicycle. Chris Zane firmly says "no" to this suggestion. This is when employees and customers realize Zane's is a service business, not a product business. And it sets the tone for how they interact with people. It frees them to do the right thing.

Trust Is Reciprocated: Zane's Loses Only Five Bikes a Year

Customers feel trusted by Zane's and that trust is returned to Zane's. Of the 4,000 bikes they sell each year, only about 5 are stolen during test drives. For Zane's it's just not worth having the whole attitude of the company change because of the attitudes of five dishonest people.

Zane's believes customers are good. That attitude frees Zane's to grow. They have achieved an average annual growth rate of 23 percent since opening in 1981. Why not take a page from Zane's, and take a hard look at your policies?

Change or eliminate any that exist to "protect" you from your customers and ask yourself:

Do you know the value of your customers? Does everyone in your company?
Does how you value customers guide decision making?
Are you investing in customers or managing costs?
How would you rate your intent and ability to understand the value of customers and invest in them?
Do your decisions on how you value customers earn you "beloved" status today?

Take a hard look at your policies. What one thing can you change or eliminate that "nickels and dimes" your customers, especially your best customers?

Image: Zane’s Cycles

The post Do You Believe Customers are an Asset or a Cost Center? appeared first on Small Business Trends.

5 Things that Make Your WordPress Site Run Slow and How to Fix Them

Posted: 28 Nov 2013 11:00 AM PST

site runs slow

A slow loading website can hurt your small business by turning away visitors who expect fast load times and smooth online experiences, and harming your reputation.

If your site runs slow and you’re running WordPress, there are plenty of things that could be slowing you down. Below are five common reasons for sluggish performance on WordPress platforms, and how you can fix them.

If Your WordPress Site Runs Slow. . .

You're Running Too Many Plugins

The problem

With thousands of shiny plugins out there promising to do amazing things for your website, it's easy to get caught up and catch plugin fever. Soon, you've got plugins controlling every function and feature on your site—you might even have plugins for your plugins.

This is a problem for a couple of reasons. First, the more plugins you have, the more work your website has to do while it's loading. And second, not all plugins are created equally—poor or outdated plugins can slow down site performance drastically.

The Fix

Evaluate your current plugins to figure out which ones you actually need. Get rid of multiple plugins that perform the same functions, plugins that you're no longer using, and those that were created more than 5 years ago and have never been updated.

Surprisingly, you can check the performance of your plugins with…another plugin. The P3 (Plugin Performance Profiler) shows you how each plugin impacts your WordPress site load time, so you can adjust accordingly.

Your Homepage Has it All – And Then Some

The Problem

In most cases, the homepage is the first one your visitors see. So you might have designed it to show off everything you can, in order to impress new visitors. Widgets are cool, right?

But the more widgets and content you have on the front page, the longer your site takes to load.

The Fix

Keep in mind that a clean design is just as impressive. Don't stick sharing widgets everywhere on your homepage (save them for the end of your blog posts, where they'll have the most impact). Pare down and remove any unnecessary widgets or plugins.

You can also speed up load times using the WordPress options to show excerpts instead of full posts, and limit the number of posts per page—5 to 7 is a good number.

Your Stunning Images Take Up Too Much Space

The Problem

The higher the size and quality of an image, the longer it takes to load. If you have amazing graphics and an image or two (or more) with every blog post, your loading time will be slower.

The Fix

There are a few ways to address the image issue. One is with Lazy Load—a process that loads only the images appearing "above the fold," or on the part of the site a visitor is actually viewing. You can do this automatically with the jQuery Image Lazy Load plugin.

Another is with an image optimizer program like Yahoo!'s Smush.it. You can use the tool right from the site to compact images (without losing quality)—or you can install the WP Smush.It plugin to have it done automatically when you add images to your site.

You're Using a "Free" Third-Party WordPress Theme

The Problem

Free is the best price for anything, and you may have searched for a free WordPress theme to avoid using the same themes that everyone else has. However, like free movie sites and music downloads, there's an excellent chance that "free" theme comes with a price tag in the form of spyware or viruses, which do more than slow down your site.

The Fix

Unless you have a really good reason to completely trust the developer of a free theme, only use themes from the official WordPress theme repository. If you want something different, consider investing less than $100 in a premium theme.

Your Host Isn't the Most

The Problem

If you're running the WordPress.org platform, you need a Web host for your site. There are free Web hosting providers, and incredibly cheap hosts. Of course, you're interested in saving money—so you might have gone with the lowest possible price tag.

But a poor Web host can hurt more than your load times.

The Fix

If your Web hosting solution is free or dirt-cheap, consider upgrading to a well known host, which usually runs between $4 and $8 per month. Here's what to think about when choosing a web hosting company.

Are you satisfied with how fast your WordPress site loads?

Slow Website Photo via Shutterstock

The post 5 Things that Make Your WordPress Site Run Slow and How to Fix Them appeared first on Small Business Trends.

How Video Helped Dropbox Get 75,000 Subscribers in 24 Hours

Posted: 28 Nov 2013 08:00 AM PST

shooting video

With $257.2 million in funding and a $4-billion valuation in 2011, Dropbox's Drew Houston had one of the hottest startups in the game.

How did he get there?

According to Houston:

"There were a couple of important inflection points."

The first occurred after Dropbox released a demo video that captured Y Combinator's attention and helped Dropbox secure an invitation to the exclusive startup program. Milestone two occurred when Dropbox released another video on Digg a year later during its private beta launch. In that video, Houston says his team layered "easter eggs… aimed at the Digg audience" into the otherwise mainstream presentation.

The creativity worked. Within 24-hours they "had 75,000 people signup for the wait-list." They were expecting 15,000, max. Clearly, those creative videos were instrumental in Dropbox's success.

If you look at the research associated with online video you'll understand why they decided to do a couple. According to Comscore, people who view a Web video are 64% more likely to purchase than those who don't. If the video is kick-ass, that number is probably even higher.

Another bit of research (PDF) says that 59% of senior executives prefer to watch video instead of reading text, and 80% are watching more online video today than they were a year ago. The trend is clear. Yet, amazingly, most websites still have no video. And, the ones that do often have video that's not up to professional standards.

In "2 Types of Video to Build Your Business," I share a couple types of Web video that companies, like Dropbox, are using. They are:

1) Animated, explainer videos.
2) High-concept, creative web commercials.

Depending on your business or product, one might be a better fit than the other.

Most importantly, if you don't have professional quality video content on your site to help tell your message or product benefit, now is a good time to think about getting some.

Video Photo via Shutterstock

The post How Video Helped Dropbox Get 75,000 Subscribers in 24 Hours appeared first on Small Business Trends.

4 Trade Show Tactics For Small Business Success

Posted: 28 Nov 2013 05:00 AM PST

trade show tactics

Trade shows aren’t the least expensive way to market your small business, but they are one of the most powerful if leveraged correctly. Trade shows allow you to reach and speak to people who you might never get the opportunity to do business with otherwise. Planning ahead using a few simple trade show tactics is the key to a successful trade show marketing appearance.

Create A Clear Goal for the Trade Show

Some small businesses make the mistake of assuming that simply appearing at the trade show is enough to spark interest in their products and a desire to do business with the company.

However, every time you attend a trade show you need a clear goal in mind for what you hope to accomplish. Examples of clearly defined goals include:

To gauge customer response to a new product or service.
To promote brand recognition.
To drive traffic to your website.
To build new leads.
To educate consumers about new product or services.

Once the goal is clearly defined, you can craft a booth, presentation and literature to achieve this goal.

Create A Powerful Image for Your Booth and Presentation

Never underestimate the “wow” factor at a trade show. You only have about 30 seconds to capture your audience’s attention, so make those first few seconds count. Tools for introducing the “wow” factor into your trade show appearance include:

A colorful, well-designed booth.
Knowledgeable booth staff who can easily engage people in conversation.
Working models of your unique product or service.
Audio and/or video to capture attention across a busy venue.
Literature and/or product samples for potential customers to take home and remember you by.

Build ways to garner attention at the event, as well as stick in attendees’ minds afterwards. Part of this is color coordinating your booth artwork with the literature or samples you hand out, so the attendee recognizes your logo and name later on.

Promote Your Appearance at the Trade Show Well Ahead of Time

Radio ads, TV ads, billboards, and social media are all excellent ways to get the word out ahead of the trade show that you’ll be there. But don’t just promote your appearance, give people a good reasons to come to the trade show and make the effort to stop by your booth.

Offer prizes, hold contests, give social media users a booth check-in option, and offer special presentations throughout the event via your social media outposts.

People are more likely to come if there’s a reward involved.

Choose A Heavy Traffic Event Over A Small Niche Trade Show

Some small businesses think that a small niche trade show is better for them to get noticed than a huge, more generalized show, such as a home and garden event or ladies’ show.

However, those larger events get much more traffic, which means more exposure for you than you could generate at a small event with fewer attendants. Even if you attend an event where most people are outside your niche, you never know how meeting, greeting, and networking can pay off in the long run.

If small businesses plan and use smart strategies and trade show tactics to design the booth, produce quality literature and up the ante with audio or video, they can measure up to the big guys and come out on top.

Trade Show Display Photo via Shutterstock

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