This is an episode to let you know a little about me. It's nice to meet you!

Among the many things are customers expect from us is responsiveness.

This is the willingness to respond to customer needs by answering their phone or email requests quickly, by acknowledging them quickly in-person, and being willing to do what it takes to respond effectively to a service request.

Responsiveness is adopting a can-do attitude, and a willingness to go the extra mile for the customer. There is an increasing large body of research suggesting that soft skills (such as listening, empathy, courtesy and creating rapport) are more important than technical skills in your success in business.  Certainly, you must have adequate technical skills to meet your customers needs, but it's your "soft skills" that will allow you to develop lasting relationships with your customers.

A positive attitude is the first step in building good soft skills. You have control over your attitude. Just like you can choose what clothes to wear in the morning, you can also choose what attitude to assume every day. You can choose to see the glass as half-full, or half-empty. Cliche perhaps, but true nonetheless.  Your approach, or attitude, toward life is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If your attitude is “Every experience is an opportunity!”, then you will interpret everything that happens to you as an interesting journey. On the other hand, if you approach your business and your life in a less than positive way, every bump in the road will seem like a huge obstacle.

Respond quickly to your customers and keep a positive, cheerful attitude and you're well on your way to winning customers for life.

Yesterday, I was cajoled, hoodwinked, and nagged into volunteering by my friend Sara to moderate a Toastmasters event at a local high school.  I didn't really understand what she wanted me to do, but I wanted to do her a favor so I agreed.  I was completely unprepared for what happened.

It turned out that the event was part of the College Success Foundation.  Use the link to learn more about the foundation.  For the purpose of this post, I'll just say that the kids participating in the event were all high-potential students from low-income families.  Through a partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, CSF is providing substantial scholarships and mentoring to these students.  The students I worked with were all between their junior and senior years at Kent-Meridian High School in Kent, Washington.
Sara and I divided the 23 students into two groups.  She moderated one and I did the other.  Each of the students delivered a 5-7 minute prepared talk about their educational and career goals.  Our jobs were to listen to their speeches and moderate as the other students evaluated the speaker.  I had ten students in my group.  Here are their career goals:  doctor, lawyer, humanitarian aid worker, surgeon, pediatrician, French/Spanish teacher (he also wants to form a French/Spanish club for immigrants), accountant, electrical engineer, medicine, criminal prosecutor, doctor.

All of the students were very bright.  Many of them had not been academically successful prior to the program.  All of them are very much concerned with their grades now.  Many of them come from families who don't understand the importance of education.  One of them came from a family that is opposed to her accepting the scholarship and pursuing higher education.  All of them are articulate.  All of them are interested in doing something to make the world a better place.  Thanks to this program, all of them have hope.

At the end of our session, I told the group how much I respect them for what they're doing and how excited I am for each of them.  I told them that the most important voice to listen to is their heart and to follow their heart in spite of all the noise around them.

I came into the event thinking I was doing Sara a favor.  By the end of the two hours, I was emotionally drained (in a positive way) and I realized that, in fact, Sara had done me a favor by including me in the event.  I left the event more hopeful for the future of our country and our world than I've been in a long time.

Thanks to Sara, Randy (the coordinator), Bill and Melinda Gates, the hundreds of other volunteers in CSF, but especially thanks to Tetiana, Edith, Stephanie, Nichole, Eryka, Cristian, Venus, Henry, Marian, Asha, and Amandeep.  God speed!

It may seem a bit odd to think of “emo” in business.  We usually associate the cultural slang term “emo” with a genre of emotionally-charged music for 17-year-olds who wear black and don’t smile.  Anyone who deals in customer service, however, has on occasion dealt with emotionally charged individuals who aren’t smiling.  (Perhaps they’re even wearing black!)  Sometimes, those emotionally charged customers affect our own emotions and often in a negative way.  One way of learning to deal with such situations is to gain an understanding of emotional intelligence.

The science of emotional intelligence offers insights into ways to effectively manage our own emotions and influence the emotions of others.  The proponents of emotional intelligence believe that your emotional intelligence is more important than your IQ in predicting future success.

Emotional intelligence has become quite a buzzword in business and pop-psychology circles.  It is a popular academic pursuit, but also popular as a personal path of introspection and growth.  From a practical standpoint, I prefer to think of emotional intelligence as emotional maturity.

Regardless of the labels you choose to apply, emotional maturity can be boiled down to three basic concepts or abilities:

1. The ability to understand and respond appropriately to emotions within yourself and others:   This means that you understand what’s happening with your own emotions and the emotions of others, and respond in a way that achieves the desired outcome.
2. The ability to control your own emotions:  This means that you have developed methods of controlling how you feel and how you respond to your own emotions to achieve the desired outcome.
3. The ability to influence the emotions of others:  The means that you have learned ways to say or do things to influence the emotions of people around you to achieve the desired outcome.

Gradually, as we live and experience different people and situations, we develop methods of responding to those people and situations.  Sometimes, we learn how to deal with people and situations by watching others such as our parents, teachers, respected friends, or celebrities.  Sometimes, we read and study how to react to various people and situations.  Often, our responses are shaped by a combination of external influences and things we read and study.

Think of the various encounters you’ve had with people recently.  Are you always able to identify the emotions that people are feeling from their facial expressions?  How about their body language?  Often, we can identify others’ emotions from facial expressions and body language.  It’s important, however, to note that such physical cues are not always accurate.  For example, it’s a somewhat commonly held belief in the United States that people who don’t look you in the eye are hiding something or being deceitful.  In certain other countries, looking someone directly in the eye is a sign of aggression and polite people will avoid it.  The point is you have to consider many factors in making decisions about what another person is feeling.  A good way to gather information about the other person is to listen to what they’re saying.  Ask questions and give them a chance to say what’s on their mind.  Combine what they tell you with what you observe.

Once you’re able to recognize and identify emotions in others, you’re ready to work on responding appropriately to those emotions.

Think about how you have responded in the past to emotions in others such as anger, hostility, sadness, jealousy, excitement, pride, nervousness, or skepticism.  Now, think about whether your past responses were the best way to deal with these emotions in others.  Go through the emotions again and try to identify better ways of dealing with people in those situations.  You see, as in every other aspect of life, developing emotional intelligence is a journey; not a destination.  If we work on it, we can improve it.
How can you control your own emotions?

The term "emotional labor" was first defined by sociologist Arlie Hochschild as the "management of feeling to create a publicly observable facial and bodily display".  A good example of emotional labor occurs when a server in a restaurant smiles and expresses positive emotion toward diners.

It’s easy to be pleasant and positive when you’re already in a good mood or when you’re dealing with people who are also pleasant and upbeat.  Your challenge comes, however, in being pleasant and positive when you don’t feel well, when you’re stressed because of personal or work issues, when you’re hung over, or when the other person is stressed, argumentative, or generally unpleasant.

Although there are many techniques that can be used to control your emotions and your responses to others’ emotions, author and psychologist Daniel Goleman suggests one short term and one long term solution.  First, the short term solution:  Perhaps as a child you were taught, when angry, to count to 10 before doing or saying anything.  Good advice.  Today, in dealing with kids, there are programs called social/emotional learning.  One of the programs uses a stop light metaphor.  The kids are told, when they’re upset, to remember the stoplight:

1. Red:  Stop, Calm Down, Think Before You Act
2. Yellow:  Think of a Range of Things you Can Do
3. Green:  Choose the Best One

So, the short term solution is to pause and calm yourself before you react, then consider the range of possible responses, and choose the best one.

The long term solution is meditation.  Studies have shown that, after as little as eight weeks of meditation, physical changes take place within the brain that help you respond more calmly and appropriately to stressful situations.  Meditation doesn’t require that you isolate yourself on a mountain top in the Himalayas.  There are many forms of meditation including one where you sit quietly with your eyes closed and focus on your breathing for eight minutes a day.  Search the web for more information on the myriad forms of meditation.  The point is to find ways to generally calm yourself.

In my own life, one of the lessons I’ve learned is the importance of taking my time.  I’ve learned to pause before I react.  That gives me time to calm myself in stressful situations.  It doesn’t need to be a long pause, but when I’m calm, I make better decisions.  I’ve learned to allow extra time to get to my destinations.  That gives me time to wait for slow drivers, raised drawbridges, and slow freight trains without stressing.  I’ve learned that time, appropriately used, is a great source of calming.  When I’m generally calm, I’m better able to deal with the stressful situations of business.  Perhaps not by coincidence, I’ve noticed that as I have learned to use time appropriately, my overall stress levels have gone down and I feel happier and more content.

The great news is that, unlike traditional I.Q. which most experts feel is fundamentally unchangeable, your emotional I.Q. is something you can work with starting today.  You can mold it, improve it, and begin to see the benefits almost immediately.

Don R. Crawley
Writer, Speaker, Trainer, Actor, Musician
On the web:  www.doncrawley.com
On the phone:  (206) 988-5858

© 2009, Don R. Crawley.  All rights reserved.

I like to write and talk about things TO do, instead of things NOT to do.  Talking about what not to do is similar to telling someone not to think of a pink elephant.  What immediately comes to mind of course is a pink elephant.  Cliche perhaps, but true.  We tend to do that upon which we focus, regardless of whether it's what to do or what not to do.  Having said that, I'm going to break my own rule with this list.  These are five fatal flaws of customer service.

Complaining

No one likes to hear someone else complaining.  People are simply not interested in hearing about your aches and pains, your spouse's shortcomings, the bad weather, your car's mechanical problems, your fights with city hall, or anything else.  I recently visited a small coffee shop that had just opened near my home.  I'd heard good things about it, it looked great from the street, and when I walked in the door, I was greeted by very pleasant decor.  I was excited to be there and looking forward to coming back.  Then it happened.  The owner started complaining to the other customer and me about his fights with city hall.  He didn't just tell us about the problem he was having, but he went on and on and on.  He spent so much time complaining that it took him ten minutes to prepare my drink.  The negativity was draining.  By the time I left, I'd changed from "Excited to be here" to "Can't wait to get out of here".  The next day, I stopped in at our neighborhood Starbucks and was greeted cheerfully by the baristas who had my drink ready within about three minutes.  It was a 180 degree change from the previous day's experience.  If a giant like Starbucks can master great customer service, there's no excuse for a small business not to do the same.  Our jobs, as business people, are to create a great experience for our customers in every way possible.  Certainly it includes the products and services we offer, but it also includes the way we make our customers feel.  Consumer decisions are emotional in nature.  The better we make people feel, the more likely they are to do business with us.  No whining!

Ignoring

In another recent experience, I dropped my lawn mower blade off to be sharpened.  I spoke briefly with the owner who assured me the blade would be ready by a certain time on a certain day.  He and I chatted briefly about a subject of common interest and I left, looking forward to picking up my blade on the promised day and time.  I was also looking forward to chatting with him more about our common interest.  I went back to his shop on the agreed upon day and time to pick up the blade.  He was talking with another customer.  I waited fifteen minutes, but he never even acknowledged my presence.  He didn't greet me, he didn't say, "I'll be with you in a minute."  He did nothing to acknowledge the fact that I was in his shop.  Eventually I noticed my blade, still unsharpened.  I retrieved it and left, never to return.  We all get busy, we all have customers that required more time than others, but we must always acknowledge our customers.  A simple "Hi.  I'll be with you in a minute." would have made all the difference in the world.

Deceiving

This seems obvious, but it bears mention.  We must always be completely honest with our customers about matters related to our business relationship with them.  If there's a problem with an order, if something goes wrong during a delivery of service, we must be candid about what happened and we must do so in a timely manner.  In spite of our best efforts, mistakes happen.  When we handle our mistakes with integrity, we have an opportunity to earn customers for life.  It's not, however, just a matter of dealing with mistakes and problems.  I once had a customer ask my firm to do something for which we weren't qualified.  When I declined the job, I was shocked to discover the customer was angry with me.  I would much rather have declined the job and maintained my integrity than accepted a job for which we weren't qualified and dealt with repercussions afterward.  This may seem especially difficult in today's world when we want to accept every piece of business that comes our way, but it's even more important now.  Maintaining our integrity today is what will position us for tremendous success when business picks back up.

Not Following Through

This also seems simple, but bears mention.  Do what you say you'll do.  If you need to do some research to provide an answer for a customer, make sure you actually get back to your customer.  It's okay to say you weren't able to find an answer.  It's not okay to not get back to them with something.  In my customer service seminars, we talk about under-promising so we can over-deliver.  If you think something is going to take two hours, promise it in four.  Customers rarely complain when something is ready ahead of time.  When something isn't ready on schedule, however, it can have a negative effect on their business or life.  Of course, things happen sometimes to cause delays.  Make sure, when that happens, that you contact your customer with an update before they contact you asking what happened.

Not Communicating

In the absence of communication, our customers’ minds fill-in-the-blanks.  Answer every email, return every phone call, even if it’s an auto-responder or a staff member who returns the call.  Several things are possible when our customers don’t hear back from us (none of them are good):

• They get angry at us
• They think there’s a problem with the business relationship
• They think there’s a problem with our company
• They think we’re sick (this only applies to our compassionate customers)
• They start looking for a replacement

Always respond to your customer in some way.  When you don’t respond, in effect you’re suggesting to your customers that they should sample your competitors.

Communication is not limited to just answering emails and returning phone calls.  Communication can be information you provide in printed materials or on your website.  The more information you provide, the more comfortable your customers are with your company and the easier it is for them to do business with you.  This concept even applies to restaurant menus:  I love fried chicken (it's necessary occasionally to feed one's soul), but great fried chicken takes longer to prepare than many other foods.  I appreciate restaurants that say, on their menu, "Please allow 30 minutes for preparation."  Armed with knowledge, I can make a decision about whether I have enough time for fried chicken or whether to just order a salad.  Restaurants that do that have done a good job of communicating with me.

Review your own customer relationship practices and those of your employees to ensure that these five fatal flaws are not part of your customer’s experiences.

Don R. Crawley
Writer, Speaker, Trainer, Actor, Musician
On the web:  www.doncrawley.com
On the phone:  (206) 988-5858

© 2009, Don R. Crawley.  All rights reserved.

In business, everyone is involved in customer service.  No matter what your job title, you’re also a customer service rep.  For those of us in small businesses or who are sole proprietors, our customer service skills are even more important.  In most cases, small businesses thrive or die based on the customer service skills of the owners and employees.

There are many articles and books that discuss the importance of providing great customer service.  Very few, if any, people would argue that it’s not important, but how can you help your employees (and yourself) learn techniques of great customer service?

In my customer service training seminars, one of the foundational skills we work on is empathy.  Your ability to empathize may be your most important ability as a person who deals with customers. Empathy means providing caring and personal service. Dictionary.com defines empathy as "the intellectual identification with...the feelings, thoughts or attitudes of another." Empathy is your ability to truly put yourself in your customer's position so you can understand his/her frustration. Once we truly understand our customer's frustration, fears, and aggravations, we can start the process of delivering a great experience for them. Empathizing is not necessarily a lengthy process; sometimes it only takes a moment to really understand where our customer is coming from. Sometimes it takes several minutes of listening combined with empathetic statements such as "I understand why you feel that way." or "I'd feel that way, too, if I were in your situation." Regardless, until you can empathize with your customer, you're not ready to start the other aspects of customer interaction.

As a customer service person, you convey empathy when you listen for the hidden meaning in what a customer is saying, when you acknowledge the emotion, and when you offer caring assistance.

Empathy is especially important when dealing with a customer who is irritated, angry or emotional. When customers are emotional, it is difficult for them to act rationally. This is because of the way the human brain is structured. Our emotional brain, which is a relatively primitive part of the human brain called the amygdala, in essence “hijacks” the rest of our more rational, analytical brain and takes control.

To get someone out of the grip of the emotional brain (an amygdala hijack) and pass the power over to the analytical brain can be difficult, but if you remain calm and empathetic, your odds increase of helping the emotional individual think and act more rationally.

It is important to understand this as we deal with emotional, upset or angry customers. Empathy is a remedy for calming an emotional person by simply and genuinely acknowledging the emotion that the customer feels. Empathy is very powerful because it diffuses emotion. If you want to be able to deal rationally with an emotional customer, or if you simply want to ensure that an interaction does not escalate into an emotional one, remember to use empathy. When sincerely applied, empathy works like a charm in many situations.  (“Sincerely” is a key word; insincerity or condescension can actually exacerbate an emotionally charged situation.)

Here are some examples of empathy statements:

• “I can hear how frustrated you are.”
• “I can see how that would annoy you.”
• “That’s terrible!”
• “I understand how time-critical this is.”
• “I would be unhappy if that happened to me, too.”

Author and speaker Ross Shafer really gets to the heart of the matter when he points out that people don’t really want customer service as much as they want customer empathy.  The same concept applies to customer support incidents.  When you sincerely empathize with your customer, you convey to them a sense of caring and understanding.  There’s a quote in customer service circles that says, “They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”  When a customer believes that you genuinely care about their particular situation or problem, no matter how many times you’ve heard it before, you’re well on the way to creating a satisfied customer.

Don R. Crawley
Writer, Speaker, Trainer, Actor, Musician
On the web:  www.doncrawley.com
On the phone:  (206) 988-5858

© 2009, Don R. Crawley.  All rights reserved.

This is a podcast about service:  service to customers, service to end-users, service to friends and family, and service to yourself.

Episode 2: Emo for Grownups:  Managing Your Own Emotions and Influencing the Emotions of Others

October 25, 2009

We usually think of "emo" as a genre of emotionally-charged music for teenagers who wear black and don't smile. In this podcast, I'll share some ideas about "emo" for grownups. Download Episode

Episode 1: Coon Huntin' or Organ Practice

Many of us have threads that run through our lives from childhood through adulthood and on to death. This episode is about one of the threads in my life. It will let you know a little about me. I hope you enjoy it. Download Episode

As a help desk technician, you could very well be a hero to your user today!  Your job is incredibly important, because you are often the bridge between where a user is on a project and where s/he wants to be.  You even have the power to help your users have a great day by solving their problems and freeing them to think more creatively and be more productive in their jobs.  There are many studies that have shown how well-trained help desk personnel add directly to a company’s bottom line by helping employees work more productively and creatively.  Here are ten simple and practical techniques you can put to use today to start making a positive difference in peoples’ lives.

1. Respond quickly.  Quick responses can take several forms.  Ideally, you simply answer the phone and solve the problem.  Anyone who has spent any time in a help desk position knows that’s not always possible, so what other options exist?  Automated voice response systems that let callers know about how long they should expect to wait are great; email responses that do the same thing are also great.  The key is to inform users as to the approximate wait time until they get a response.  Armed with accurate information, users can then make an informed decision as to whether to wait on hold or hang up and call back later.  If they’re communicating via email, they can make a decision about whether to wait for a response or move on to another project and return to the one requiring support at a later time.
2. First impressions count.  Start the call or in-person visit with a pleasant, professional greeting and for heaven’s sake, be real!  In other words, a simple, “Hello, this is Don Crawley.  May I help you?” is far better than some contrived greeting such as, “Hello, this is Don Crawley.  How may I provide excellent service to you today?”  (If your organization requires you to say specific words in your greeting, work on making them genuine.  Nothing is worse than hearing someone answer the phone reading a script in a monotone voice or a condescending tone. When you’re forced to use a standardized greeting, try to understand your employer’s intent in requiring the standardized greeting.  Even if you think the words you’re required to say are phony, your employer’s intent is not phony; your employer wants you to deliver excellent service, so find a way to believe it and mean it when you say it.  Make it real!)
3. Display honest competence.  Tell callers that you’ll either fix their problem, find someone who can, or find a workaround.  No one has all the answers and no one expects you to have all the answers.  They do, however, expect you to be familiar with common troubleshooting techniques, to be honest about your abilities, and to be honest when you don’t know the answer.
4. Reassure your users that you’re committed to solving their problems. Saying things like, “Tracy, I’m creating a file on this issue so I can follow up on it and make sure we solve it for you”, assures your user that you’re taking ownership of their problem.  In fact, when you say those exact words, “I’m taking ownership of this issue”, you tell your users that you’re with them and you’re going to see the issue through to some sort of resolution, whether it’s actually solving the problem, escalating it, or developing a work-around.
5. Keep it positive.  Focus on what you WILL do instead of what you WON’T do.  Keep the conversation upbeat, even when the user wants to complain about things unrelated to the problem at hand.  Your user doesn’t want to hear you complain about computers, Microsoft, the company, or any of the myriad things people complain about.  Dare to be different and avoid the temptation to join users in their complaining.
6. Empathize with your user.  You can empathize without complaining.  Use empathetic statements like, “I don’t blame you.  I’d be frustrated too, if that happened to me.”  Ross Shafer says people don’t want customer service as much as they want customer empathy.  Imagine how you’d feel if you were under deadline and a document failed to print.  Imagine how you’d feel if you were trying to get out the door and your computer locked up.  Remember the three “S’s”:  Keep it sincere, short, and then deliver a solution (or at least a workaround).
7. Be gracious.  Similar to empathy, graciousness helps endear you to users; it lets users know you appreciate them and what they’re going through in trying to do their job.  As you’re working on their problems, thank them for calling and let them know how much you appreciate the opportunity to help.  (The reality is that, when they call and ask us to help, we can often head off bigger problems down the road.  We really DO appreciate the opportunity, because it can save us a lot of time and frustration in the future!)  As always, be careful to be sincere. People can easily detect insincerity.
8. Be respectful.  Thanks to the mass media, our society has become disrespectful.  It’s not necessary to respect someone in order to treat them respectfully.  In the movie, “The Green Mile”, Tom Hanks’ character treats condemned criminals on death row with respect. Certainly, persuasive arguments can be made that the condemned men with whom he dealt were not deserving of respect, but he treated them respectfully anyway.  People tend to behave the way you expect them to.  Often, the way you’re treated is a mirror of how you treat others.
9. Offer one bonus tip:  This could be something new that you’ve discovered in a widely-used application such as Microsoft Outlook or a new resource available on the company’s network.  Use good judgment on this; if your user is obviously in a hurry to get back to work, save your bonus tip for later.  If, on the other hand, you’ve established rapport with your user, offer a bonus tip by saying something like, “By the way, Pat, we’re letting everyone know about a way to color code appointments in Outlook.  It’s really easy and people seem to use it a lot once they know about it.  Are you aware of this?”
10. Remember, the final three questions:  “Have I solved your problem?”, “Are you satisfied with the way I handled this incident?”, and “Is there anything I could have done better?”  I often recommend starting the session by telling the user that you’ll be asking those three questions at the end of the session.

As with all things, be sensitive to your users’ mood and circumstance. If they’re obviously in a hurry or angry, avoid small talk and say something like, “I can tell you’re in a hurry, so I’m going to be respectful of your time and just get to work on your problem.” or, “I can tell you’re upset right now.  I don’t blame you at all, so I’m going to get right to work on solving this issue.”  Be sure to punctuate lengthy periods of silence with comments like, “I’m not ignoring you; I’m still working on this problem.”  If the person with whom you’re dealing is technically sophisticated, you could even let him/her know what you’re doing.  If, on the other hand, the user is not technically sophisticated, just let him/her know you’re not ignoring them.

Above all, remember that our jobs in information systems and technology are not about technology at all; they’re about delivering creative solutions to workplace problems.  Everything revolves around our users.  We have to help them be more productive and creative in their jobs by helping them be more proficient with the tools of information systems and technology.

One of the biggest challenges of being a small business person is finding support for the things you want to do. In a large corporation, there's usually some department staffed with subject matter experts on commonly needed areas of expertise. When you're a small business operator, however, you sometimes feel all alone in the world. (Sob!) Sure, there are forums, blogs, and Google, but often you don't have time to spend researching a particular topic to find just the right answer. I've often been more than willing to pay someone for help, just so I won't have to spend a lot of time on some problem. There are several websites that are designed to help you find a guru. The one that I've used from time-to-time is www.guru.com (appropriately). The cool thing about guru.com and similiar sites is that they're reputation-based. In other words, like E-Bay, you can look at the reputation of the expert and read other clients' reviews of his/her work before you make a commitment. They even offer an escrow service where funds aren't released until you're satisfied. Experts are available in many different categories ranging from finance and accounting to legal to I.T.

Legitimate email marketing is a great way to stay in touch with your customers and prospects. It’s inexpensive, fast, efficient, and environmentally friendly. Email marketing allows you to target your customers and prospects by their particular interests, it allows you quickly announce special promotions (either planned promotions or impromptu promotions based on changing conditions). Email is the perfect way to send a monthly newsletter. Email marketing’s efficiency was underscored in a study by the Direct Marketing Association which found that in 2005 email marketing returned an amazing $57.25 in revenue per dollar spent on it!

How can you get started with email marketing?

Start by collecting your customers' email addresses. Even if you don't currently do email marketing, gather your customers' email addresses now so that, when you decide to start communicating with your customers via email, you'll already have a good list. Have a sign-up sheet at each of your checkout counters or at your reception desk. Be sure to include a sign-up form on your website. Offer an incentive such as a monthly drawing from the collected email addresses. Be sure to include a privacy statement on your forms and sign-up sheets such as, "Privacy notice: We don't share your information with anyone." (Of course, that means you can't share that information ever.) Remember, email addresses are free (or very inexpensive) to gather.

Now, the three secrets to making email marketing a winner for your business.

Secret number one: Do only "permission-based" email marketing.

In other words, only send email to people who have requested your email messages and make it easy to opt-out of future emails. There is a slimy side to email marketing thanks to spammers. Obviously, you want to be associated with the reputable side of email marketing. If a customer, a prospect, or a site visitor willingly provides their email address, you're not spamming. If you get it any other way, you’re spamming. A commonly used technique for dealing with subscription requests from your website is called a “double-opt-in”. A double-opt-in requires the individual to first request your email marketing, then a confirmation request is sent to their email address. They must click a link in the confirmation email or otherwise confirm their desire to receive your email before they’re added to your list. The rule is simple: If in doubt, don't send it out.

Secret number two: Make your email marketing messages compelling for the reader.

Keep them short and to-the-point and ensure that the recipient will see the value in whatever you're saying. Increasingly, people are becoming distrustful of “hypie” messages that sound like they were written by an advertising copy writer. Make your message real, make it personal, and make it deliver a benefit from the readers' perspective. If there's nothing in it for them, they'll just delete your message or possibly even report it as spam.

Secret number three: Be consistent.

Whether you choose to send an email campaign every week, every month, or every quarter, be consistent. One very successful email marketer even includes these words at the top of every email he sends: "Sent the third Tuesday of every month..." Your consistency in your marketing efforts reflects your dependability as a company.

What about the mechanics of email marketing? Many very small businesses just use their regular email accounts. Such a solution can work, but it doesn’t scale well as your email list and business grow. It also requires you to manage your new subscribers and unsubscribe requests. A better solution is to use a commercial email marketing service. Such companies provide templates to make your messages look professional. They also provide tracking information on how many messages were actually opened and read, automatic opt-out links on your marketing messages, tutorials, assistance in complying with the CAN-SPAM act, and more. Costs start at about $10 per month and go up from there based on various criteria such as the size of your list and the frequency with which you send messages. Most such companies provide a free trial period so you can get familiar with their service. There are many email marketing companies, but here are three for you to consider: iContact, GetResponse, and Constant Contact.

Make sure you’re compliant with the CAN-SPAM act. Of course, this is not legal advice (I’m no lawyer!), but that means being honest in your subject lines about the content of the message, including an easy opt-out method in every message, and including your complete contact information in every message.

Regardless of how you decide to do your email marketing, now is the time to start gathering email addresses. Email marketing, done properly, is flexible, affordable, efficient, and potentially very profitable for your business.