Use Time Management Skills to Keep Customers Happy

Use Time Management Skills to Keep Customers Happy
Customers are the greatest asset an Internet marketer has and savvy entrepreneurs know how to get them and just as important, how to keep them. While Internet shoppers spend billions and billions of dollars online each year, the competition for those dollars is fierce, and only those who are meeting and exceeding customer expectations will survive. Therefore, it is absolutely essential that you deliver what you promise your customers 100% of the time. Without effective time management skills, you could be in danger of letting your customers down so realize early on that time really does mean money.

Turnaround Time

If you’re a marketer who ships goods to buyers, have you set aside certain days for shipping? Are you meeting your promised delivery times? If not, this is something you should immediately address before you lose loyal customers. Some Internet marketers rely on positive feedback or ratings from customers to help draw in new customers, some of which will only purchase from those with extremely high ratings. However, even if you’re not operating under this type of system, rest assured that your customers will rate you and spread the word about their experience with you or your company. They may blog about it, tell their friends, or cancel their order so don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are not operating under some type of rating system. You are!

Do You Need to Hire Help?

Anytime you have difficulty keeping up with customer demand you may need to assess whether or not you need to hire someone to help you to keep up. Even if you can’t afford to hire full-time help, having a dedicated person to respond to customer inquiries can help you to retain those customers and attract more, which will profit your bottom line and move you to a position where you can afford full-time help. If that just isn’t possible, schedule a block of time each day to ensure you are on time with such tasks as answering customer questions or complaints, issuing refunds, processing orders, and anything else that your customers need from you. If you’ve promised customers an immediate refund upon request, make sure you keep that promise. If you need to set aside one day a week to take care of such tasks, indicate in writing that requests will be processed within that time frame. That way, if it takes a week for customers to receive a refund or another type of communication, they will be expecting to wait a few days instead of fuming because they haven’t heard from you.

Take the time to put your customers first, whether they are complaining or buying, and they will return the favor by putting you first when they are deciding where to spend their share of the billions of e-commerce dollars spent annually. Once you’re able to discern how much time you need daily or weekly to tend to customer concerns, utilize time management skills to stay on schedule.

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5 Tips for Effective Time Management

Effective Time Management

The time to be concerned about time management isn’t when things are falling down around you and you realize you aren’t getting much done. The time to think about time management is before you even start your business, when you are still in the planning stages. If you haven’t yet implemented a well thought out plan for time management, here are some tips to get you started.

Keep a To Do List

Maintaining a to do list is a crucial step for any business person and important for Internet marketers because you have enough to do without constantly trying to remember things and because having a list that you consult on a daily business will keep the important things at the forefront of your mind.

No one has enough time to do everything; however, a to do list will help you to prioritize what is really important so that you don’t get caught up in tasks that may need to get done but are not as important as the ones on your list. You might want to make up a Master To Do list on a weekly basis and go over it each night and assign the tasks that you need to get done the following day, crossing them off as they are accomplished. No tool can keep you more organized than a well maintained to do list.

Keep regular hours

Internet marketers often work irregular or odd hours, especially those that may be dealing with global markets or customers. As much as possible, though, try to stick to a regular schedule, even if the hours you work are not the usual 9 to 5. By working the same hours every day, your body and mind will be more efficient and others in your life will know the hours you are working so there is less chance for interruption. Internet marketers, especially those who work from home, have to have a great deal of discipline to be successful and working the same schedule every day is far more efficient than working a few hours here and there.

Use Time Management Skills in Your Personal Life

Time management isn’t just good for business; it’s also a necessary skill in your personal life as well. In fact, the better managed your personal life is, the smoother your business life will go, and for those Internet marketers working from home, this is especially important.

Be Kind but Firm when Faced with Interruptions

Not everyone will realize you are working when you are home and even if you work from an office away from your home, you are sure to be faced with interruptions from time to time. Although it’s always important to be kind, it’s just as important to be firm when it comes to your working hours. Internet marketers working from home who are also parents may have very little time to devote to their business and often must guard their time jealously. No one says you have to answer the phone every time it rings, but do try to return calls. If they are business related, though, you may need to answer, although today’s technology can tell you whether it’s business or personal before you ever pick up the phone. If it is personal, either don’t answer or tell the caller you’re working and will call them back later.

Schedule Time for Everything

Beginning Internet marketers have to wear a lot of different hats. They may be product developers, writers, graphic designers, content buyers and sellers and yet still have administrative duties, such as billing to contend with. If you have various functions to perform, be sure and schedule specific time for each function so that you are able to balance each facet of your business.

Remember, time is money and the better you manage your time, the more money your business is likely to bring in.

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Using Lists to Better Manage Your Time

Manage Your Time
One of the chief benefits of using lists to help manage all areas of your life is that you can free your mind to deal with the important things of the moment rather than trying to remember too many things at once. By committing your tasks to paper (or computer) you are less likely to forget important duties or appointments. Forgetting to get back to a customer just one time can not only lose that customer but many others as word of mouth, blogs, and reviews can broadcast that lapse in memory and end up costing you big time. Lists are, without a doubt, one of the best tools of effective time management.

Take Time to Save Time

You can actually save quite a bit of time by first taking the time to make lists. Lists are one of the best organizational tools you can use to stay on top of your business. For example, when you make a To Do list for the following day, you know at the outset what tasks you will be accomplishing and you will be eager to get them done so you can cross them off your list. Whether you need to contact customers or have equipment serviced, keeping detailed lists can save you time by keeping you on track.

List of Lists

Take a few moments to consider how some of the following lists could help you to save time in your business. You may not need to use all of them; however, even one or two of these lists could save valuable time and help you to keep customers happy.

To Do List

Master Supply List

Master Customer List

List of Service Personnel

Vendor List

Price List (Yours or for those you do business with)

Appointment List

Master Phone Number List

List of Calls to Make

Keyword List

Product List

List of Tax Deductions

Inventory List

List of Past, Present, and Future Promotions

Lists are a simple time management technique that can help keep you at the top of your game. Keeping your lists on paper or on the computer and utilizing them on a regular basis can keep you organized and save time, thus giving you more time to spend on growing your business.

Using Lists in Your Personal Life

Don’t forget to use lists in your personal life as well because keeping your personal life organized is good for your business. By utilizing time management skills in your personal life, there will be less chaos, fewer interruptions, and more time and energy to grow and manage your business. Since time really does translate into money, how well you manage your time can have a great bearing on how successful your business is.

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Using Technology for Effective Time Management

Effective Time Management
If you own a computer, you most likely already have all the time management tools you will need at your fingertips; there’s no need to buy expensive software to help you manage your time wisely.

Manage the Phone

By far, one of the best technological advances that can help you manage your time effectively is the technology on your phone, whether it is a wireless phone or a landline. Between voicemail, caller id, call waiting, call waiting caller id, and call forwarding, you should not be wasting precious work time stuck on a phone call that you’d rather not be on in the first place. Use your phone’s features to take only the calls you want to take. Just be sure to return calls to friends or family in a timely manner.

Bookmark Websites

Although it’s fairly easy and time efficient to use an Internet search engine to search for websites and information, you can save a lot of time by bookmarking the ones you visit often. Take advantage of the technology on your computer to not only bookmark websites you visit often or plan to visit again, but organize these sites into folders. If you do this at the time you are adding them to your favorites, you will be able to find them again much sooner than if you simply add them to your favorites. If you keep all of your bookmarked websites in one generic favorite’s folder, you’ll have to scan through dozens or hundreds to find the one you’re looking for.

Organize Email

Home organization experts advise people to open their mail over the trashcan and immediately file the mail in its appropriate folder, whether that is the trashcan, a to do folder, or a folder set aside when it’s time to pay the bills. In the same way, if you will organize your email at the time you open it, you will save a lot of time and aggravation by not having to look for a specific message when you are ready to deal with it later. If you have regular clients that send you email, make folders for each client and immediately send the email to the corresponding folder. Make sure you’re using an email application that weeds out the Spam so you don’t have to weed through it at all. In addition, always add important email addresses to your address book so that important correspondence doesn’t end up in the Spam folder.

Most people don’t need to buy new and expensive gadgets to use effective time management strategies and techniques. Remember, most of the skills that have to do with effective and wise time management can be found in simple organization, self-discipline, and commitment.

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When Everything Goes Wrong: How to Effectively Manage the Rest of Your Day

How to Effectively Manage the Rest of Your Day
Your workday will likely suffer if your water heater bursts and floods your home or office but you don’t have to lose the entire day when less serious interruptions occur. Although it is tempting to tell yourself something like, “well, half the day is already gone so why worry about the other half,” most of the time it’s worth trying to salvage what you can of the rest of the day so you can keep your business on track. When you practice effective time management skills, unforeseen circumstances don’t have to spell disaster.

Discipline, Discipline, Discipline!

Imagine for a moment that you have a boss. (You may have many; they are called clients or customers.) When you have a boss looking over your shoulder, though, you are expected to get right back to work after a break. You can’t just blow off the rest of the day because your best friend just called about a terrific sale. Remember, most events and situations, short of real emergencies, can be managed and planned for ahead of time. Even one-day sales are often advertised ahead of time and if you plan for them ahead of time, you can save time and money.

If you’re a serious Internet marketer, you should already be screening your phone calls and taking personal calls only when you’re not working. Sure, kids get sick and things come up but unless it is really necessary to take the rest of the day off, take care of the situation at hand and then get back to work! Successful Internet marketers utilize time management skills to plan for distractions, manage them, and then get back to work!

Administrative Duties

Set aside a certain amount of time each week to take care of administrative duties. This is also when you should make your own schedule and check over any lists you may need to make or adjust for the following week. Also, check your supplies during this time so that you do not have to rush out to purchase ink or toner or any other critical supplies during the middle of your workday.

You probably already know how hard it is to get back to work after you leave your office in the middle of the day to run a “quick errand,” especially if the weather is nice. It’s too easy to stop for lunch, drop off the dry cleaning, and pick up dinner while you’re out. Before you know it, the day is shot and the rest of the family is home and demanding your attention. Smart entrepreneurs set aside time to do the shopping and errands and leave work time to grow their business. It may take a while to develop effective time management skills, but by practicing simple tips and techniques and by being self-disciplined, your time and your business can be managed effectively.

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Time management Tips for the Work at Home Internet Marketer

Time management Tips
If you’re running your business out of your home, you may face challenges separating your work life from your home life. It may be difficult concentrating on work when you’re looking at a stack of dirty dishes or a pile of laundry waiting to be washed. Furthermore, since you don’t have a “real job,” you may be the victim of friends and neighbors who think they can impose on your time just because you are at home. While there are more businesses run from the home today than ever before, for some people, it can be difficult to believe that one is actually working when they are at home.

Household Responsibilities

It won’t throw your whole day off if you throw a load of laundry into the washer or load the dishwasher but if you find yourself tempted to scrub the floor or mow the lawn, it might be a good idea to refrain from doing any household duties during working hours. You may find that even though you work at home, you’re more productive by sticking to a regular work schedule and doing household chores after hours, just as you would if you worked away from the home.

Friends and Neighbors

Whether you’re a beginning or seasoned Internet marketer, you’ll have to establish ground rules from the start when you work from home. If not, you’ll find that you are dodging almost constant interruptions from people who want to visit or want you to sign for their packages or watch their children after school. You’ll most likely find, though, that if you treat your business like the business it is that others will too. Time management skills are just as important whether you are working from home or from an office away from the home.

Don’t be afraid to accept a lunch date now and then. After all, if you were working outside the home, you would probably have lunch with a friend at least part of the time. You’ll be much more productive though, if you purposely schedule lunch dates instead of stopping your work every time someone wants your company. While you don’t have to be obsessed with time management, adhering to a regular schedule as often as possible will boost your productivity.

Unforeseen Interruptions

Of course, you can’t control everything. Sometimes there will be interruptions that you have to deal with immediately or at least sooner than you thought. You may be waiting on a service person who has a scheduled appointment to perform routine maintenance or repairs. When this happens, try to stay focused on your work until the person actually arrives, take the necessary time needed to handle the situation, and then get back to work.

It takes incredible discipline to work from home and stay focused and productive without giving in to every distraction that comes alone. The first order of business is to treat your business like the business it is and diligently guard against unnecessary distractions and interruptions. Then, when the necessary ones come along, you’ll be able to handle them without throwing your entire day or week off.

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Time Management Tips

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Time Management Tips for the Work at Home Parent
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Time management Tips for the Work at Home Internet Marketer
When Everything Goes Wrong: How to Effectively Manage the Rest of Your Day
Using Technology for Effective Time Management