HOW TO SAVE THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS IN TWO HOURS

Using Your Web Site To Save Money, Give Your Customers The Answers They Want AND Get You And Your Employees Off The Phone

An Armchair Webmaster™ report by Ty Belknap

Page 2 - Saving Time, Man-Hours and Money Using the Internet

TOC
Helping The Customer, Helping Yourself
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
Simple Questions, Simple Answers

What would you do with an extra hour per week? Would you develop a new sales strategy? Would you take time to relax? How much more work do you think your employees could do with an extra hour per week?

Well, sit back and relax. After reading this report, and following the steps, you will have more time to do the things that actually help you make money. How? Read on, dear friend.

Helping The Customer, Helping Yourself

Wouldn’t it be great to have a stream of customers clamoring for your products and services all day long? Wouldn’t be even better if most of the customers came to you with no questions, and ready to buy on the spot? Do you think that could happen? How much time would that save, and how much money is that worth?

Customers have questions, just like we do, and we can help them get their answers quicker and easier, while reducing tension and stress in our own lives. It almost sounds like a fairy tale, but it can happen. All you need to do is plan your actions. Brian Tracy (author of How To Master Your Time (LINK TO BOOK)) says the most successful business managers and owners spend an hour or more planning each day. The better the plan is, and the more detailed, the easier it is to get the work done.

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

• How can a Web site save me thousands of dollars?
• What do I need to do?
• Why does it give my employees more free time?
• Where is the information I need?
• Who can help me?
• Can I do it myself, or do I have to hire a Web designer?

Let’s look at each area.
How can a Web site save me thousands of dollars?
Having a Web site just smart business practice these days. The options for inexpensive marketing are too good to pass up, and marketing is just one aspect of a well-developed Web site. Most the time you spend developing and re-vamping your Web site, you probably think about how it can make money for you, though, don’t you? Why limit what it does?
Can you think of ways it can save you money? Internet marketing campaigns are much less expensive than traditional marketing. That can put a lot of money back into your pocketbook. Or how about putting answers to the most common phone call questions on there, would that save money? It would probably save a lot of phone time for you and your employees, and time is money.
Look at the title of this section: FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions).
The dictionary defines it as:

faq
n : a list of questions that are frequently asked (about a given topic) along with their answers.

We’ve all seen FAQ pages on Web sites before. In fact, it may be one of the most frequently looked at pages on a Web site. Does your current Web site have a FAQ page?

What do I need to do?
Creating a FAQ page is easier than the easiest marketing campaign you’ve ever put together, even if all you did was create a one-page flyer. Sound good? I thought so! So here’s what you can do; think about what customer-oriented tasks are the most repetitive, and take the most amount of time.
One hair designer does foil wraps, and she was constantly on the phone explaining exactly what went into doing a foil wrap. Each call could take up to 15 minutes. Four calls could eat an hour each day, and our time is worth a lot, isn’t it? Well, she sat down one day and wrote out the answer to “What is a foil wrap?” It took about 30 minutes to write it out, and now it’s on her Web site. When people call each day to ask about foil wraps, she asks if they have Internet access. A positive response is all she needs to direct them to her Web site where the answer is. Time on the phone: less than a minute. Four calls a day that used to take an hour now take less than 5 minutes.

Why does it give my employees more free time?
We’re all overworked. There is more to do every day, less time to do it, and it seems fewer resources to do it with. You may not be the one answering the phone all day long, or at the front counter where all the questions are being directed, but you know how much time is spent answering the same question over and over.
It’s easy to put those questions onto your Web site so customers can get the answers before they call. And, if they call before looking at your Web site, it’s easy to direct them there. Even if only 25% of your customers benefit from a FAQ page on a Web site, think of how much time that saves your employees, and how much happier your clients are that they could find the information without bugging you.
Does that sound funny? I’m a small business owner, and I hate bugging other small business owners. I’d rather get the information before-hand so I can call and put my order in quickly and efficiently.

Who can help me? (employees, clients, etc.)
The information you need is as close as your own brain, and as far away as your current customer. Talk to your employees. Find out:
• What small things take up the most of their time.
• What questions are most asked.
• What are the most frequent phone calls.
• Can the answers be put in writing.

Your customers may also be happy to help. See the Research section for more information.

Can I do it myself, or do I need to hire a Web designer?
I’ve met many people that wanted to design their own Web site. I can imagine the excitement in their eyes when they first start, and then changing to frustration in a very short period of time. Web design is much more difficult than it looks. There are products like Microsoft® FrontPage® and Macromedia® Dreamweaver® that help, but there is still a pretty steep learning curve. The easiest way to create the FAQ page is to figure out what questions and answers you want on the page, then let your Web designer format it for the Internet. You are always welcome to contact me also. I would be happy to assist you in formatting the FAQ page to fit your site, and make it easy for your customers to use. Just use the contact form go get ahold of us.

Simple Questions, Simple Answers

We rarely want a five-page answer to a question like: “how late are you open today,” so remember to keep the answers as simple as the questions. If someone were to ask why the Intel Pentium processor chip ran 2x as hot as the Intel 386DX processor chip did, we probably couldn’t answer in one sentence (although some may try!). By the same thought, though, I would not want a customer to wade through an ambiguous answer to a simple question.

Keep the questions simple. The difficult questions will still probably require some of your time to answer, so try to relieve yourself of answering as many of the simple questions as possible.

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Page 1 - Introduction | Page 2 - Saving Time, Man-Hours and Money Using the Internet | Page 3 - Stress Relief 101: Creating the Information That Goes Into A FAQ Page | Page 4 - Taking The Time To Save Time | Page 5 - Giving Your Customers Peace of Mind: Organizing Your Information For Best Results | Page 6 - Put It All Together! | Page 7 - Conclusion