Don’t be mistaken, small businesses and entrepreneurs CAN serve-up exemplary customer service with ease just like big businesses.  You can provide an experience that makes your customer say, “Wow!” And you can do it consistently.  The result?  Satisfied customers who are loyal to you and will gladly pay your rates.

Here are the 6 steps you must take to design knock-out customer service with affluent clients:

• An understanding of the value of a customer as a lifetime relationship (and not as a single sale) – Don’t just look at what your customer means today in terms of sales. Look at the potential value if they continue to work year over year growing their purchases incrementally because they are so satisfied in the services you offer.  I’ve had many clients who started with me by buying a $99 information product and then went on to become Platinum Coaching clients.

• The desire to make an affluent customer happy – It’s easy to think about you and your business all the time. Take a moment to step back and consider what would truly make your affluent customers happy.  It’s likely different things for different individuals.  Keep in mind the key attributes your affluent customers value: approval (from peers, the world at large and business associates), recognition, respect, efficiency (don’t waste their time or money), competence and convenience.
• Listening to the wants and needs of your customers – You don’t have to guess.  Your affluent customers will tell you EXACTLY what they want and need.  Make it simple by asking your affluent clients during your new client orientation process.  Include a simple survey that asks questions like, how do you prefer to receive information from us, when is the best time of day to meet, and anything else pertinent to your line of business.  This will make servicing them more pleasurable and their satisfaction will come easily.

• Developing new products and services in direct response to the needs and wants of your affluent customers – Your clients will appreciate that you listened to them and your bottom line will appreciate the easy sales that result.
  
• Ensuring that your staff knows what to do if a customer is unhappy – Build a process and then train your staff on it so that conflicts are resolved immediately.  Here are the steps my team and I follow:

1. Apologize with empathy
2. Take ownership of the problem
3. Fix the problem ASAP
4. Get the customer’s buy-in
5. Offer a small sincere token of apology
6. Follow up

• Consistently responding to the needs and wants of your affluent customers to provide the experience that makes each customer say, “Wow” – Again, it’s all about developing processes that work.  Decide what is right for your customers, develop the steps your company needs to take to satisfy and then train, train, train your staff accordingly.

Continually delivering a level of service above and beyond expectations is the cost of entry with the affluent and it will set you apart from your competition as well.

My strategies for marketing make it SO easy to work with your IDEAL clients and the time and money you spend getting them and keeping them is way less, but typically I reserve this information for my Elite Clients only.  Well, this is it….today is THE day. I’m so excited to announce that I’m finally ready to share it all with you!

Discover How My Clients Implement My Lucrative System for Less Expensive Marketing that Leads to Your IDEAL Clients Faster and Easier.

PLEASE WATCH THIS VIDEO

COMPLIMENTARY TeleCall
Thursday, June 24th 4 PM PST / 7 PM EST

Click here to register now On the “5 Exclusive Strategies to Affluent Marketing that Will Create More Profit, Make Marketing Cost Less and Servicing Your Clients More Pleasurable” Preview Call you’ll learn:

• The #1 way to CREATE programs and products AFFLUENT CLIENTS (your IDEAL clients) DESIRE without wasting precious time and hard-earned money in the process. (And it is NOT what you think!)
• The top 3 reasons why positioning yourself as an EXPERT is the way to earn a ton of money.
• The #1 strategy to convince affluent clients to buy from you and spend more money in the process. (Psst — one of my clients uses this easy method and adds more than $65,000 a year to her bottom line.)
• My secret weapon on how to raise your rates to a premium level–one strategy that is so simple…yet so underutilized.
• How to transform your affluent clients into a loyal pack of raving fans that tell ALL their wealthy friends about your business!!!

Don’t miss out on this prime opportunity to transform your business and your life with a continuous stream of IDEAL AFFLUENT clients who are willing to pay premium prices. Learn all of the details when you click here and register today.

Affluent clients will help you differentiate your business through their perceptions and their grapevine of referrals and acts opinion-sharing. If you are able to communicate your difference effectively, and then fulfill your promise, you can shape your wealthy client’s views of you within your marketplace (product category).

Here are the benefits of a well defined differentiation:

• You will become a client magnet attracting affluent clients to you instead of you hunting them down.
• You will spend significantly less time and money marketing.
• You will reduce your sales cycle because you will stand out at the clear winner.
• You will increase your revenues.
• You will get to choose the clients you work with.

The most effective way to gain a thorough understanding of your ideal affluent clients and to get at the insights that really make them tick is through Market Research. Although the term Market Research often conjures up big dollar signs in most business people’s minds, there are many ways to justify the minimal implementation expense with the maximum knowledge you gain as a result.  Let’s look at the important reasons why Market Research helps you hit your mark:

Why is Market Research CRITICAL?

Market research is an essential part of any business that wants to offer products or services that are focused and well targeted. Market research is the study of groups of people that you would like to sell your products or services to.  Researching your ideal target market can provide you with sound and objective data.

Why You Must Complete Your Marketing Research:

1. You can’t determine what your potential customers want unless you first know who they are
2. Once you know the type of product that your potential customers want and need, then you have to determine who else is selling similar products and how each competitor is perceived in the market place
3. There’s nothing worse than spending time and money developing and marketing a product, just to learn too late that no one wants to buy it

Without a clear understanding of your ideal affluent clients, you are doomed to lack any real authenticity to incent action.  Take the time to conduct market research and learn everything you don’t know before getting started

“Diversity is the one true thing we all have in common.” – Anonymous

You and your neighbor probably do not drive the same car, which means you do not have the same needs in auto mechanics. You and your husband / or wife do not have the exact same preference in cereal. You and your co-worker do not have the same requirements of an interior designer or even pet care.  If personal desires and preferences are so different from person to person, why do so many marketers continue to leverage the broad approach of mass marketing?  Here’s my advice. They shouldn’t!  Because of its ineffectiveness and high cost, I say Mass Marketing is a dying art form for small business.

In this economy, many entrepreneurs seem genuinely surprised that the traditional mass marketing efforts they’ve employed in the past are not working now. With hundreds of messages being pummeled at us every day from every which way we turn, it is no wonder that we have all become sophisticated enough to tune them out (either through technology or just turning a blind eye) and shield ourselves from the noise.

If so, you do not want to miss this call!  My good friend Kevin Nations and I are going to talk about how to move from a slow EVOLUTION in your profits to a complete REVOLUTION of your entire business!

The call is happening on Thursday, February 4th, 2010 at 1 pm PT / 2 pm MT / 3 pm CT / 4 pm ET.

Click here for details!!

It’s MUCH easier to GO BIG than to try for slow, small gains in your business. We’re going to dispel TONS of myths about steady, measured growth and reveal for the first  time ever how you can put the Science of Strategic Success to work IMMEDIATELY to literally revolutionize your own success!

Profitability Point #2 – Affluent Clients Shop on Value, Not Price

Affluent clients will pay the asking price even if it’s 100% more expensive than the competition IF they perceive there’s added value what you are offering whether that is one-of-kind exclusivity, proven results or VIP customer service.  Higher price points create more wiggle room for higher profitability margins.

If you missed the first Profitability point, check it out here!

Listen to Kelly’s Profitability Point #2 here!

Thanks and let us know your thoughts. I encourage you to leave your comments or questions below.

Article by Kelly K. O’Neil, Million Dollar Marketing to the Affluent Coach and Creator of the Marketing to Millionaires™ Programs

I am honored to be featured in Susan Pascal’s column for LA Successful Women Entrepreneurs Examiner, part of the Examiner.com network which provides an insider source for local resources, events and news.  Check out an excerpt below.

A successful business coach is one who possesses a rare combination of business expertise, real world experience, and excellent interpersonal skills. This person also knows the importance of balancing the personal and business life. Kelly O’Neil, founder of UpLevel Strategies, Inc., has taken this skill one step further, referring to her work and services as coachsulting.  She asserts, “I don’t believe that pure coaching or pure consulting works, which is why I’ve crafted a unique blend of both methods. I help clients achieve the mindset they need to attain the business success I help to create. No other coaching or consulting program offers such a holistic approach to success.”

Click here to read her article in its entirety.

Successful Entrepreneurs know how important it is to stand responsible for their own actions. As I teach my kids…you are in charge of your own thoughts, feelings and actions.  No one else.   It is all on you.  And every action has a result.  Some results you like and some results you don’t.

Here is what I know to be true.  We have all created our environments to be perfectly designed to deliver the results we are currently getting.  If we want new results, we need to realign our strategies to create those results.

Those who live at Cause, get results and those in Effect, get Reasons. When people don’t succeed and they give justifications to themselves why they didn’t, they must be aware that that is a form of self deceit. To justify is to give reasons (or excuses).

To be at Cause means that you take responsibility for decisively creating what you want in your life and then from that, what you achieve or will achieve as a result. You view the world as a place of opportunities and move towards what you want. If things don’t pan out as you would like, you take action and explore other possibilities.

Here is an example:

Effect Based Thinking (Reason/Excuse)

Entrepreneur A:

“I would really like to sign up for that coaching program, but I can’t afford it because my business isn’t doing so hot right now because of the economy.”

Now think about this for a moment. What is the first thing that you noticed?  By blaming her business woes on the economy, Entrepreneur A has left herself completely powerless to do anything about it because it really isn’t her fault, it is the economy. She has an opportunity right in front of her that she believes will help her create a better business and yet, she is going to allow something like lack of current funds to limit her from taking the next step to ultimately help her create the funds she needs?  When put in that perspective it sounds pretty silly right?  Is it possible that this kind of thinking keeps people stuck, sick and broke?  You better believe it!

Those people who continually live their lives at the Effect frequently see themselves or live their lives as victims, with no choices whatsoever. The irony is that they do have choice and they have chosen not to choose but to be responsive to whatever is given to them.

Cause Based Thinking (Result)

Entrepreneur B:

“I saw the economy having an effect on businesses and I made the choice to not alter my strategy and as a result of my choice, I don’t currently have the money to sign up for that coaching program.  I believe it can really help me take my business to the next level.  So, how can I create revenue right now that would allow me to take advantage of the opportunity?  What action do I need to take to create the result I desire?”

Do you see the power in that kind of thinking?  What results do you think this person creates in life and in business?