Forget About The Money for Just One Second

15 replies
Hello.

This thread is for newbies who are having a hard time making money through the services they offer. I hope you find it useful.

When you start working online it is easy to become obsessed with making more money. It gets addictive after awhile. Once you realize that you can, in fact, make money online, you realize that you can make more. But sometimes, you need to forget about money for a second.

Recently, I have had a major break through with the services I provide. It is much easier for me to find clients I am making significantly more money than I used to.

What did I do?

I forgot about making money.

What?

Yes, I decided that my main objective would be customer satisfaction and the money was just a side benefit.

I used to ask my clients to pay upfront for every order and I conducted business with a robotic attitude. I guess clients could tell I was not particularly interested in helping them on a personal level which is why I did not receive a lot of return customers.

It was just a job.

"You are paying me to do this and I have no personal interest in doing this but I will do it because of the money".

Guess you could say I lost my passion.

It happens. You can either give up or learn from your mistakes and come back stronger. Guess what I did?

I came back. New outlook. New perspective.

Customer satisfaction was my goal. The testimonials began to pile up. The clients started to come in faster. I forgot about making money for a second and only focused on making my clients happy.

And what happened?

Now most of my clients are return clients. There are occasionally days when I don't have any work but I supplement my income with other ventures and my financial situation is steadily improving.

So the point of this thread can be summarized into this...

Do not focus only on the money; focus on building relationships, being friendly, and going out of your way to provide a service that is perfect for your client.

Customer satisfaction should be your highest priority if you offer a service online.

What do you think?
#customer satisfaction #forget #money #satisfaction
  • Profile picture of the author Aveiur
    I totally agree. Provide value and the money will come naturally
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8663428].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author tasmedia
    FAIL, making money is the highest priority.
    What good are happy customers if your business is losing money?
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8664121].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Jonathan Henson
      Newbies need to understand you simply can't throw up any old crap on the Internet and expect to rake in the big bucks. However, I don't personally know one single person who focuses on building relationships with their clients without having the word "money" constantly dangling in the back of their heads the whole time.

      I think you have the right idea about how to create a real business but you can never lose sight of the bottom line: time is money and if building your business the "right way" doesn't work after a fair amount of time, move onto your next idea until you find something that works.

      Overall. your words are good advice for anyone starting out but I hope newbies realize there are long routes and short routes to Internet success; you just have to work at it and find where you fit in so you can make some cha-ching!
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8664165].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Startingstartup
    He didn't say that money wasn't important. He just emphasized that you should apply focus to the satisfaction of the client. If you avoid that, you will not have to worry about the money coming in, because it won't...

    When you have a selfish attitude and poor foresight you ignorantly say things as you have just now.

    LOL
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8664183].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Stuart Walker
    FAIL, making money is the highest priority.
    What good are happy customers if your business is losing money?
    You missed his point.

    If all you care about is "making money" and you're only reason for offering services / creating a site / building a business is "to make money" you can lose focus on actually giving value to your customers, trying to solve their problems, helping them.

    Focus on delivering the best possible service you can to the end user whilst keeping focus on making money and you'll do much better.

    The customers will appreciate you doing the best you possibly can to help them and reward you with more sales, loyalty, repeat custom, recommendations to others, testimonials etc.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8664198].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author dalegolden
    There are occasionally days when I don't have any work but I supplement my income with other ventures and my financial situation is steadily improving.
    This is a valuable point too. It means, never put all your eggs in one basket. Besides doing business with your clients, try to build some other ventures to make more money from there. If for some reason, one stops other one will work for you.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8664502].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Tim Chin
    Good advice. I think it's important for people to be able to find the balance between wanting to earn more money, while also being able to enjoy what they're doing. With a lack of passion, it really shows through in the products and services you provide. However, you also can't simply just provide these things at a loss.

    Very interesting food for thought, especially for newbies just getting into the game. Sometimes you just need to step back and re-tune yourself and find your motivator again.
    Signature

    >> ---> FREE Keyword Tool: Find Niche Keywords In Less Than 30 Seconds!! Click HERE <--- <<
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8664820].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author illiptic
    Great post.

    Bring value to the marketplace by becoming a valuable person, and the money will follow.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8665729].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author cyberzolo
    It is funny how when you don't focus on the money, you make more. It's a beautiful thing.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8665823].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author he_august
    it's just my personal opinion..

    but i think money and customer satisfaction are both un-seperated in online business...

    let's just say that the money you received from your happy customer is "reward" to your self and makes you keep spirited doing your job :>

    Warm regards,
    hendy August
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8666178].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Dave37
    Timothy, I think you have a good point here, that unfortunately will be difficult for many newbies. If you want to build a successful business, whether online or offline, then customer satisfaction should be your top priority.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8666472].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author createyouwealth
    You have made a good point here my friend. A lot of people have to realize that we are dealing with people and not robots. When we show customers that we do care that in turn results in repeat customers(long term business), rather than one time customers.

    I see where your coming from, you are not saying that if you focus on money you won't achieve any income, you are saying that if you focus on the client you will achieve long term success rather that short term income.

    Great eye opener my friend.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8666836].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author seobro
    I call this the marketing paradox. People who focus on making money do not make any. Those that focus on consumer service are a success.

    HERE IS WHY...

    OK so people who focus on getting money are many. They will substitute cheaper components to increase margins. Well, they cut corners. Often the product is crap. Also, their customer service is very poor. Customers call to complain that the product broke and get a busy signal or endless rings. This leads customers to move away. Sadly, after a while, the business develops a bad rep.

    Those of us that focus on customer satisfaction will often lose money. That is in the beginning as we are starting up our company. However, word of mouth will work in our favor over the years. People will come to us. Work on making your fans happy and their money will follow you.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8667020].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Jerry Higgins
      Hey Timothy,

      I think that's a great philosophy! When someone is able to detach from the money and focus on providing value, they find themselves doing things that seem completely counter-intuitive to making money, like....

      > being honest and transparent
      > writing crazy ass copy
      > going way above and beyond the call of duty
      > having fun with their business
      > positioning themselves so customers chase them

      It's kind of weird the way it works but instead of pushing money away they somehow turn themselves into a money magnet.
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8667088].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author TimothyTorrents
    I thought this thread died off but I am happy you guys read it and understood my point.

    Of course, you shouldn't forget entirely about making money.

    I believe when you switch your mentality from "how can I make money as fast as possible" to "how can I satisfy each of my customers by providing an excellent service" you will make more money in the long run.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[8668664].message }}

Trending Topics