How do I help Google find my website?  How do I get my website listed on the first page of Google?

Google is like the Yellow Pages of old.  When we are looking for a business or a product, we are turning to Google to help us find it.  We know that a website will contain a contact phone number, details of the business and the products and often a lot more.

To get Google to notice your website and list it for your potential customers to find, there are many tips that can help you get there.  In future posts I will attempt to go in to these in more detail.  But remember, often a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, no use using an axe when a scalpel is required!

Help Google find your website:

1. Optimise your title tags
2. Write relevant and unique content
3. Get a balance between what your user wants to read and what Google needs to see
4. Give people reason to link to your website. Quality inbound links are seen as votes for website by Google and will help you rise in the rankings.
5. Inbound link text is important - if you have a say in what the words are that are used in a link from another website, try and have them relevant to your keywords you are targeting
6.  Nothing beats age.  If you are getting promised the world by a young SEO specialist, don’t trust them.  If it sounds to good to be true, it is.

When it comes down to it. Good search engine optimisation is all about trust.  If Google trusts your site as legitimate, a good source of information and worthy of it’s users time, then you will climb the rankings and remain in them for the longer term.  When spending the time and effort getting listed and listed well in Google, the last thing you want, is to be a splash in the pan.  Seek and invest in good advice that sets you and your business up for long term success.

Recently I engaged the services of an interpretive service. I needed a simple translation of ten English words in to Vietnamese for a promotional banner stand. What I didn’t expect was the level of service Kate from Chin Communications gave.

From my initial contact, she was professional and courteous, only to willing to help, even if it was only 10 words. She spoke using my name and made me feel like I was talking with a long lost friend, rather than someone I had not spoken with before.  Her follow up phone calls to check if we were going to use their service, as well as to check if we were happy with final product continued to impress me.

Finally, the clincher that brought me to the point, where I could no longer resist telling others about the excellent service I received, was the final closing of the transaction.  In the mail, a day after receiving the translation, I opened a letter from Kate, thanking me for our business, an invoice and a bag of exotic tea.  While I don’t drink tea, I gave the tea to a colleague and bragged to him about just how good my experience with this company had been.

Will I use Chin Communications again in the future? You bet. Why? Because Kate went above and beyond, she astonished me with her high levels of customer service and genuine care for my project. Don’t underestimate it, good customer service does not go unnoticed.

Surprisingly, the waiter was very patient, walking back and forth and never once getting angry. So finally, a second customer asked why didn’t they just throw out the pest.

“Oh, I don’t care,” said the waiter with a smile. “We don’t even have an air conditioner.”

Our real estate agent, Anne Leith from Methven Professional (Australia) was originally recommended to us via friends of ours. They gave a glowing report on how she had found them the perfect house and had always been extremely helpful in all their dealings they had with her. Now, I’m sure Anne probably uses some sort of customer relationship management software or a database of some kind to help her remember the detail, but who really cares? From day one, Anne remembered my name, the name of my wife and who had referred her to us. Not only did she go on to find us the house we wanted, but now she keeps in touch with us every few months, just to touch base and see how we are doing. With each call she remembers something from our last interaction. Recently she rang and discovered we were having a baby. ‘Oh, wow, thats fantastic and so close to your friends also’. We were blown away. She still remembered who we were, who our friends were, and was showing that she’d obviously recently been in contact with them also. Anne followed this all up with a card when she heard our baby was born.

Now you know, and I know that she is wanting my business. She obviously is looking to sell our house for us when the time comes, so wants to make sure she keeps in touch and that her name is on our lips when that time comes. You know what. She has won and earnt that business. Not only that, I recommend all my family and friends to her if I hear they are looking for a house. Why? She gave us a custom customer service experience. Anne continues to make us feel like we are an important customer. She remembered the detail, and to me that is the point of difference, its the reason why she will continue to recieve my business and my recommendation.

Remember the detail. Your customers will remember you did!

As a customer service provider, how do we combat this?

How can we turn a piece of bad customer service in to a positive experience?

Simple. Make it right. I was taught this simple principle when on the phone to my mobile phone company. They virtually called me a liar, not something any customer likes to hear, sense or feel. According to their ‘computer system’ I had not called and canceled my subscription to extra video services. I explained and pleaded with the customer service rep on the phone that I certainly had and gave her dates and times, but to no avail. To her credit, she was extremely courteous and professional at all times. But I was becoming irate. I had an extra charge on my bill and was now being told I was a liar because there was no record in their system of my call.

During the call, I found the call listed I had made on my bill and asked her to look up who I had called that day at that time. There was a pause, obviously embarrassed, as she recognized a mistake had been made. She quickly went in to damage control. She made it right. Firstly she apologized, straight away. Big tick. Then she explained what she was going to do for me. She was going to credit my account and cancel the service.

Now you would say, ‘Ok Matt, that’s what you’d expect, so she should’, but this is where she gave me the ‘custom service’ that took me from having a poor service experience, to having an excellent customer service experience. One that I’d share with my friends and one I’d write an article about.

My problem was, as I explained to her… how could I be sure this wouldn’t just happen again next month? What proof would I have that I even made this call? They couldn’t find evidence that I’d made the first call to cancel the service. To this she responded, “Well Mr. Daly, I will take personal responsibility to ensure it is not on your next bill”. Wow! A customer service representative taking personal responsibility!? Hutchinson 3 Australia, where did you find this person? She said that she would call me the day before my bill was sent and confirm with me that the fee was not on it. Now this made me feel good, actually it made me feel great! Previously I’ve been with Telstra and Optus and never once received service as good as this. But what took the whole experience to the greatest height was, she actually did call, she did follow up, she did what she said. Not only did she keep my business, but she turned me in to an advocate for her company, I now tell everyone what phone company I use and how good they are.

In customer service we are bound to make mistakes and often it won’t even be our direct fault. Don’t make excuses, just make it right. Make sure your staff have the power and resources to make it right. Just remember, if you are going to make promises, do what you say. Follow up and follow it through to completion. You make customers for life, simply by providing a custom customer service solution.