If Something Went Wrong: How to Write an Apology Letter to Your Client

Posted on October 21, 2021 by Leamon Crooms

In an ideal world, you would never make mistakes that could have a negative impact on your relationship with clients. However, even the most experienced business professionals are human and will do things wrong at times. Writing an apology letter is the best course of action if you make a mistake, especially one that could threaten an established client relationship. Here’s how to write an apology letter to your client that communicates your sincerity and desire to have another chance.

What is an Apology Letter, and Why Should You Write One?

An apology letter sounds pretty self-explanatory on the surface. You made a mistake and want to acknowledge that to the client in writing. However, human nature being what it is, apology letters can be tough to write. Admitting wrongdoing takes humility and the ability to take ownership of mistakes.

Apology letters can take many forms, with the most common one today being email. If that’s not your style, you have a few other options, including mailing a letter, using video messaging, or picking up the telephone to express your thoughts. The length of your apology letter should correspond to the degree to which your mistake impacted the client. Remember that your apology should feel personal, even if it goes out to more than one client.

Consider Your Client’s Point of View Before Putting Your Apology in Writing

You may not immediately understand why a client is upset, and you never will if you only consider how the situation affects you. Looking at the situation from your client’s perspective requires reflection and empathy. Without proper consideration of the situation, your apology can come across as self-centered or insincere.

For most people, feeling validated is an essential aspect of a positive interaction with a business. They want to feel like someone has taken the time to truly listen to their concerns. You might be surprised by how much a simple statement like “I understand how frustrated you must feel” can help reduce tension in a situation.

Describe How the Mistake Happened without Making Excuses

Most clients appreciate a concise explanation of what went wrong. While you do not need to share every detail, clients can tell when you try to protect someone or hide something. Transparency is always the best policy when it comes to rebuilding trust. Your apology letter should address every concern the client has raised without downplaying them or pointing fingers at someone else.

Offer a Solution, Including What You Will Do Differently Next Time

Knowing that you have heard their complaints and taken responsibility for contributing to their distress is only the first step in a good apology. The apology letter quickly becomes meaningless if your company does not follow through on making the situation right. For example, assume that your employee made a mistake that cost your client time or money. You could offer to repay the financial loss or provide a discount on their next purchase as an act of goodwill.

Sometimes, clients become upset over issues that represent a more significant problem within a business that you cannot fix right away. In this situation, the best thing to do is to let your client know you are aware of the problem. You can outline what you plan to do to address it and then follow up with the client once your company has implemented changes. One common example is when a client receives poor customer service due to staffing or training issues.

The #1 Rule of How to Write an Apology Letter to Your Client

Each of the tips we have shared above is important. Even so, we recommend that you do not start writing an apology letter to a client until you are in the right frame of mind. You may feel hurt, angry, or defensive if you write the letter too soon after the incident. Your feelings are bound to come across and not leave the client with the impression you hoped for in this case. Be sure to take the time to calm down and collect your thoughts before you start composing an apology letter.

You also do not want to wait too long after an incident that upsets a client before you acknowledge it and offer an apology. Ideally, you should send the letter within a few days. This timing is ideal to avoid a scenario of having the client assume you do not care about them and becoming even more upset.

You Take Care of Your Clients While We Take Care of You

You have a lot on your plate managing a business while keeping both clients and employees happy. When you have little time for marketing but know it is important, Strategic Growth Advisors is here to help. Please get in touch with us to request a consultation where you will learn about each of our marketing services in greater detail.

Small Business Goals: How to Set Realistic Goals for Your Small or Expanding Business

Posted on July 19, 2021January 20, 2022 by Leamon Crooms

If you have a small business, you can keep it from getting stagnant by setting small business goals. These goals can also help you stay focused on increasing your business, which means ongoing success. Most people set goals at the beginning of a year, but you should be setting goals at least quarterly for a small business with the exception of one: Business branding and marketing should be monthly goals.

Choosing Small Business Goals

When you have many goals, make a list of them, then list them in order of priority. You can set more than one or two goals per quarter if you believe you can achieve those goals during that time. Each goal should have short-term and long-term actions and a plan for meeting that goal. For example, if you want to increase business by 50 percent over the year, your short-term goal might be to increase business by 12 to 13 percent each quarter.

In addition to the long-term goal of increasing business by 50 percent for the year, this goal needs to include a plan for getting to your goal and a plan for keeping the new customers. Your small business goals might consist of one or more of the following, including business branding and marketing. Some of these goals are for small businesses just starting, and others are for small businesses that have been in business for several years.

Hiring Employees

Whether you are a sole proprietor or have several employees, you will need to add additional employees as your business grows. It is best to speak with your accountant before hiring people to make sure you know about the regulations, and if your business can support the employees you need to hire. Some companies get trapped because they need another person, but they can’t support a full-time person year-round.

If you can hire the right employee at the right salary, the employee’s contribution should be able to pay for himself and bring in extra money to achieve other goals and help with the increase in business completing other goals created.

Manage and Reduce Business Expenses

The cost of running your business cuts into your bottom line, so the best thing you can do is reduce and better manage your business expenses. This goal could save you down the line should the economy crash.

Keep track of your business expenses, how often you incur the cost, and look for ways to reduce a specific expense. You might refinance to a lower interest rate to save on the mortgage payment for your building, or you might find a supplier with equal or better quality products for a more reasonable price.

Additionally, managing and reducing business expenses helps to make other goals easier to reach. When you minimize certain business expenses, you have more money to increase your business. For example, when you reduce your monthly utility usage, you can use that money to increase your budget for business branding and marketing.

Create Lists and Sub-Lists

The easiest way to set a realistic goal is to use lists. The top of the list should have the main, long-term goal, such as ramping up productivity. You should then list the actions you need to ramp up productivity. These will be the short-term goals you need to meet to bring the major goal to fruition. This list might look like this:

Check employee break times to make sure they are not over-extending breaks.

Keep employees off social media and personal email.
Make it easier for employees to do their jobs.

The third sub-goal might have its own sub-goals, depending on the type of business you run and the amount of restructuring you need to make an employee’s job easier. For example, if you have a restaurant and the cook is prepping, you might consider hiring a prep cook. The cook can then concentrate on cooking, which might mean opening earlier for lunch or staying open later for dinner service.

Additionally, you might provide the cook with better equipment. If you have a stove where one or two burners do not work, it is time for repairs or a new stove. Does the cook have all of the tools required to be more productive? For example, is the cook mixing something by hand that could be done with a new mixer? All of these issues cost money, so you need to separate this sub-goal into more than one part so that the goal is more realistic.

Create Timelines

Even though you might plan to accomplish a goal in 6 months or a year, you should establish a timeline, especially if a goal has several short-term goals that make it up. For items that cost money, know how much you need to save or borrow and how long it will take to obtain the cash. For employee items, you might discuss your plans with your employees – they will most likely have to make some of these changes to allow you to realize your goals on time.

For example, do you want to increase your online visibility? You might need a new website, or you might need to update your current website. While this sounds like a tedious task that could take months, but if you break it down into short-term sub-goals, you’ll have your branding and marketing in place before you know it.

Breaking your business down into sections and creating web pages for each area within a particular time is one of the easiest timelines to make. You can also hire professional web designers to help with online marketing, including websites, social media, and other digital marketing practices.

Contact Strategic Growth Advisors

For those businesses that need professional help in small business marketing strategy, Strategic Growth Advisors can help create a plan to grow your business. Contact us to set up a consultation to start growing your business branding and marketing.

Is Your Website ADA Compliant?

Posted on December 23, 2019 by Leamon Crooms

ADA Compliance and Your Website: Everything You Need to Know for 2020

In the 2017 court case, Gil v. Winn-Dixie, a federal judge ruled that the supermarket chain’s website violated the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) because it wasn’t accessible for people who are visually impaired. Earlier this year, Beyoncé’s own management company was hit with a class-action lawsuit due to her website’s lack of accommodation for visually impaired individuals who tried to purchase concert tickets online.

In fall 2016, a similar lawsuit was filed against Domino’s Pizza after a blind customer tried ordering a customized pizza through their app, but it wasn’t compatible with the screen reading software he used. Dominoes argued that the ADA did not apply to websites, since the law was enacted nearly thirty years ago when such technology did not exist. Then in late 2019, The Supreme Court declined to hear the case, a clear victory for disability advocates. In essence, this trend isn’t disappearing anytime soon.

This may come as a surprise to some business owners, since the ADA is widely associated with physical locations and the idea of companies offering the right accommodations to serve individuals with disabilities, such as wheelchair ramps, and braille on ATM machines. However, Title III of the ADA is now bring interpreted to include websites as public places, and Title I businesses – or those with 15 full-time employees and that operate 20 or more hours per week – also must comply with the ADA.

According to an article on Medium, websites “with significant inaccessible components can be seen as discriminatory against persons with disabilities, in violation of Title III of the ADA.” Additionally, the ADA is a strict liability law, which means there is no latitude in terms of excuses or defenses for violating accessibility guidelines. Failure to comply could leave a company at risk for financial liabilities, lawsuits, and damage to brand reputation, according to Business News Daily.

What Makes a Website ADA Compliant?

The downside for business owners is that there are no ADA regulations that clearly define what it means for a website to be ADA compliant. In Gil v. Winn-Dixie, U.S. District Judge Robert Scola Jr. stated in his ruling that the Winn-Dixie website was in violation of the ADA because it didn’t offer screen reader software, making the site difficult for those who are legally blind to navigate and use.

“The services offered on Winn-Dixie’s website, such as the online pharmacy management system, the ability to access digital coupons that link automatically to a customer’s rewards card, and the ability to find store locations, are undoubtedly services, privileges, advantages, and accommodations offered by Winn-Dixie’s physical store locations,” Scola wrote in his ruling, according to Courthouse News Service.

In general, web content for ADA Title I and Title III businesses must supply “reasonable accessibility” to users who are visually and hearing impaired or have other disabilities. A good place to start is to look at ADA compliance guidelines used for the websites of public entities, such as local, state, and federal governmental agencies.

Within Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, there are also levels of acceptability for being ADA website compliant.

A = below acceptable
AA = standard (and where you want to be)
AAA = exceptional

Here are a few common tools business owners can incorporate throughout their website to demonstrate they have made an effort to accommodate all users:

Adding alt tags for images, videos and audio files that can be read or heard
Using colors that are easy to decipher for those with color blindness
Including text transcripts for video and audio content
Using refreshable Braille text compatible with touchscreens
Providing non-text content
Organizing content in a way that is easy to navigate
Including videos with both audio and captions
Offering screen readers
Interactive functions must be operable through keyboard commands

Here’s What To Do In 2020:

Even though there are no codified ADA accessibility guidelines for websites, businesses have no excuse for not making a good-faith effort to accommodate users with disabilities. Taking measures to increase accessibility is not only good for brand image but also to protect companies against costly lawsuits. Additionally, companies risk losing valuable business by not making their digital space accessible to a wide range of individuals. According to a November 2018 article in the Los Angeles Times, lawsuits targeting businesses over ADA regulations are on the rise. In 2018 alone, there were over 2,250 Federal Website Accessibility Lawsuits, triple that from just a year earlier in 2017. In the first half of 2019, these lawsuits increased 51.7% over 2018’s same six-month period.

Lawsuits Targeting Businesses Over ADA Regulations are Expected to Rise in 2020!

The internet is a huge part of our daily life, and ADA compliance will gain more attention going forward. For 2020, here are your 5 options:

At the bare minimum be aware of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
Assess your company’s website and identify your level of compliance
Develop a plan to correct any existing ADA website compliance issues
Bring your website in compliance
Document and maintain a record of new ADA features and functions that are added

If you are a high-profile company that attracts users to conduct business on your site, then you will want to be as aggressive as possible to ensure you avoid the unnecessary legal expense or negative PR that will surely come from an ADA compliance lawsuit.

As your trusted advisor for all things related to marketing and the growth of your business, StratGrow is here to help. Contact StratGrow today to discuss this or any other business growth topic.

5 Ways to Use Social Media Marketing to Increase Your Business Profits

Posted on April 15, 2019 by Leamon Crooms

Your business must have a social media marketing presence to be effective, but you can use your social media accounts for far more than just engagement. Used correctly, your social media channels can help increase sales, drive revenues, and improve the organic reach of your business. Here are our top methods of leveraging social media marketing for sales and revenue:

Drive Social Media Traffic to your Main Site

While entertainment, engagement and relationships are the focal point of your social media strategy, you should also be using your social media channels to drive traffic to your main website. Your site is your primary selling tool—sending traffic from social media to a specific landing page designed with conversions in mind can help move prospects into and through your sales funnel. Tracking the posts that drive the most traffic to your websites also allows you to see which pieces resonate best with your target audience. Set these posts (or ones like them) to automatically enter your social feeds, even if you are not available to post.

Post to Social Media Consistently

Both your posting frequency and variety can contribute to your growth and sales success. If your accounts aren’t current, you post outdated information, or are just languishing, you can’t rely on that content to refer users to your site. No referrals means no leads for your sales team—and no sales for you. Make sure your social sites are optimized and updated with new content regularly to leverage them for sales.

Run Social Media Only Campaigns

Make select sales open to your followers only or try offering select social followers the first chance to buy your latest items. This is an effective strategy if you sell to consumers and have one strong social media platform and hope to develop another. Letting your Facebook followers know there’s a special deal available only on your Instagram page will drive traffic to your page and some of them will certainly take advantage of the social media campaign as an active user.

Promote your Opt-In

If you have a tempting opt-in for your email newsletter, make sure you promote it regularly on your social channels. Every person that opts in will enter your sales funnel and move one step closer to actually making a purchase. Change your opt-in reward regularly to offer new content and fresh opportunities for your followers, which will increase brand awareness.

Use Social Media as a Customer Service Opportunity

Social media can boost your profits in more ways than one. If you’re accessible, customers can easily reach out to you with concerns. Handle these well and you’ll not only prevent the loss of a valuable account, you’ll show other followers how well you handle complaints and requests. Losing a customer or prospect can chip away at your profits, but savvy use of social media for your Tucson business can prevent losses and safeguard your revenues.

Your social media sites serve you best when they are part of a digital marketing strategy that incorporates all of your marketing efforts and is tailored to match your chosen audience. Contact us to learn more about creating a social media marketing strategy that will appeal to your target prospects, assist you in making the most of your existing social channels, and increase your profits.

The Best Social Media Practices for Your Business

Posted on March 18, 2019 by Leamon Crooms

Is it time to stop winging your social media? Time to see some real results? Your Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and other social media outlets can serve as a very effective part of your digital marketing strategy. One which saves you time and money and focuses your efforts on a targeted audience 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

In a recent survey of digital businesses, 64% of respondents said that the decline in organic reach online was a huge challenge for their business, moving forward. In order to keep up, many of these companies have had to increase their online ad budgets in order to reach the same number of people online.

This method, however, isn’t necessarily the way to go. Paid advertisements on websites can definitely help increase reach and brand awareness as the number of posts and content increase on the web, but it’s more important to stay up-to-date. To learn current social media algorithms, how to best target your content, and get it in front of your ideal audience. Here are a few best practices to consider when doing social media for business in 2019:

Use Social Media for Real-Time Responses

When someone comments on your content, these prospective customers expect quick responses to queries. A Millward Brown study commissioned by Lithium states that 53 percent of Twitter clients expect that a response will arrive in less than 60 minutes. If a client has a complaint, the number goes up to 72 percent!

StratGrow Pro Tip: Have someone monitoring your social media platforms for messages, comments, reviews, and more. With the right help and automation, you can drastically cut down your average response time on social media and create a personal connection.

Get Complete Buy-in From Your Organization

In order to really create a viable social media presence and digital marketing plan, it’s important to have buy-in from all of your decision-makers in the business. If your CFO believes in paid ads, but your CEO believes in organic traffic and real-time responses, much of your team won’t have the patience for an organic marketing strategy if they believe funds will do the trick rather than content and management. Organic marketing strategies tend to take longer but cost less overall.

StratGrow Pro Tip: Ensure that your entire marketing team is on the same page. Share recent articles regarding best practices for social media from entrepreneurial publications such as Forbes Magazine.

Dive Deeper into the Analytics and Data

Gartner finds that only 1% of companies who use Instagram Stories and similar social media tools do a deep dive into the insights, analytics and data! What a waste of precious marketing results! As it turns out, the further you go into that data, the more you’ll know about what works. This also makes social media marketing more fun overall!

By digging a little deeper, no longer will you have to guess what the next marketing campaign should be – oftentimes you’ll get the best ideas from a Facebook conversation or an Instagram comment thread.

StratGrow Pro Tip: Take the time to look through analytics and data on all social media platforms to recognize trends and discover what works. Use that information to help you plan future campaigns.

Understand Different Social Platforms and How they Work

Facebook is meant for a different audience than Instagram, which is meant for a different audience than LinkedIn, and so on. If you want to know who is using which platforms, start with Pew Research statistics. Using those stats, you’ll be able to see who visits each website. Instagram, for example, attracts a much younger audience than Facebook. LinkedIn attracts business to business specialists, as well as small business owners looking to network and make a name for themselves.

StratGrow Pro Tip:

Have Fun with Your Social Media Marketing

Try a few of our social media tips and you’ll soon find an entirely new audience at your fingertips. Social media for businesses is relatively new but the key is to be creative, patient, and do lots of planning ahead. If you need help with your social media marketing, website, SEO, or digital marketing campaigns, be sure to get ahold of our expert team here at Strategic Growth Advisors. We’re here when you need us!

Video Ideas for Your Business

Posted on September 16, 2017 by Leamon Crooms

Videos are the up and coming method of marketing and advertisement for small to large business. With videos increasing traffic 157%, it’s worth bringing it into your business marketing strategy. Merging videos in to your social media strategy is a great way to make you more competitive and get your business out there, letting potential clients get to know your company.

1. About You and or Staff
Getting to know a business is important. Customers are looking for trust. It will never hurt you to have an “About Us” video even for your website. You can even expand the idea into different departments or individual employees. This is something you can share on all social media platforms and will help solidify your brand. Be clear, be personable.

2. Explainer Videos
People love explainer videos, whether it’s how to’s or how something works, explainer videos are a great way to engage people into your products and or service. It is one of the highest viewed types of videos, and one of the easiest to make. If you make them into short clips, you can create a series of videos to share.

3. Fun Things Around the Company
We love to see the interaction of co-workers, you can post short videos of people singing happy birthday to a coworker, or even videos about potlucks you have at work. Videos of visits from animals in the office do very well. Keep it fun, keep it light.

4. Events
Also promote events your company takes part in. It is a sure way to get some fun videos, and to show what kind of company you are. Show what is current, have the events live in the now. Live streaming is exciting and people are 82% more likely to watch a live video then a regular post video.

5. Time-lapse/Speed Up Videos
If your business creates/builds something, it’s worth showing the work it takes to create your product. Most people will stop to watch these time-lapse videos because they are interesting, and catch the eye. Everyone loves to see the finished product, but the process is really entertaining.

When you create these videos, don’t forget to place them on all your social media platforms, even create a YouTube channel if you do not have one. If you have a website make a video page and place some videos throughout the site. Videos will go a long way in natural growth for social media so make these videos work for you.

By Leamon Crooms

Tag: business