There\’s a huge amount to learn when you set up an online business. You have to know how to build a website, how to bring in traffic, and how to monetize your visitors so that your site gives you an income.
There are plenty of very experienced experts around who can teach people how to do all of those things.
There\’s one thing though that no one ever has to teach a new business owner.
You can\’t please all the people all the time.
As soon as you get more than about three visitors a day, you can be sure that one of them will be unhappy. The bigger your business grows, the large the number of unhappy people will grow.
That\’s not very pleasant but it\’s a part of doing business. Not everyone is going to like you. I know… you\’re thinking \”But everyone likes you, Joel, so why can\’t they all like me?\” But no, even I\’m not universally popular… especially when I share some very vocal opinions! People do come to my websites, click away and don\’t come back.
Usually, none of this is a problem. As long as the number of happy people – the ones who like you and stick around — grows faster than the number of people who click away, it doesn\’t really matter.
But it begins to matter when almost everyone is clicking away.
And it matters even more when they don\’t just click away, they start warning other people about you too.
Your business might be making sack-loads of money but if you lose your reputation, it will be over before you can reload a Web page. Viral marketing can rocket a website\’s popularity, but viral criticism can kill a website in a flash too.
When you get serious complaints, you have to act on them right away.
If you\’re selling a product and someone doesn\’t like it, then do exactly what your guarantee says and give them their money back. I\’ve found that happens very rarely, but when it does happen, even if you know the customer has used it and enjoyed it, it still pays to hand over the cash than risk damaging your brand.
We can talk a lot about the importance of content but ultimately, the most valuable part of your business is the quality of your name. When you\’re building success, never risk it, and always do everything you can to protect it.