Service Providers

Exactly What is a Service Provider?
A service providers normally doesn't provide a physical product or they create them specifically for each individual customer. You could be:

cartoon artist
an import and export specialist for Europe
an investment specialist in bonds
an expert in Renaissance art
an tax accountant
a copywriter
a trainer (of just about anything!)
an editor
someone who creates indexes for books
a pharmaceutical expert
a translator (do you know two languages?)

Or your service business could be local in operation.

a chimney cleaning service
a plumbing contractor
a catering service
landscaping company
a concrete repair service

No matter who you are or what you do, you could benefit tremendously from a Web presence. Odds are most people are already selling their services as a primary source of income; but have never thought seriously about generating customers globally by using the Internet. In fact, selling your professional service online is the most overlooked and virtually untapped opportunity on the Internet.

"I only have a small local market"
It doesn't matter any more. Even if you only service a small, localized market, your online competitors are more than happy to seek out your clients and lure them away by offering better support. A business who markets on the Internet 24 hour a day better suits our modern lives. A business with a strong Internet focus requires less employees and can be more competitive in pricing their products and services.

Do your clients use the Internet? I can guarantee you that if they don't now, they will soon. Consumers are becoming more net-savvy. In the years to come, "mainstream" advertising will increasingly direct people to your company website.

Interactivity and content are the key to creating "brand" loyalty. With the web, you can be the "little guys" in terms of physical resources while being the biggest online presence in your area, and well known via your web site.

Local Searches on the Internet
Local searches on the search engines are growing in popularity. Recently, on a Monday night at 7 pm, the water pipe from the water meter to my house broke. Water was pouring down the street and the break was on my side of the meter. I needed a plumber, fast. I have a phone book, but I went to Google and typed in +plumber +08759 (my zip code). I got back the name, telephone number and website address for four plumbers in my area. I checked out their websites.

Unlike the phone book, their websites told me all sorts of things about each plumber such as their specialty, years in business, license number, etc. I then checked the better Business Bureau to see if there were any complaints against these businesses. There weren't any listed. So, based on the information each plumber provided on their website, I made a decision on who to call. My first choice wasn't available immediately, so I called my second choice. He came out and fixed the problem.

It is no longer just "cool" to have an interactive web presence for your local business - it's vital.

How Can You Sell Your Services on the Internet?
Despite the fact that it is both inexpensive and easy to display your knowledge and skills before a world-wide audience, most Service Sellers don't bother. In order for anyone to contact you directly about your service (without a word-of-mouth referral), you will have to successfully convince that person that

You are the best in your particular field, and OVER deliver on your service.
You are trustworthy, credible, easy to work with, and THE BEST at what you do.
You are competitive in your pricing.
Your service provides the solution that the potential customer is looking for. Even better, convince them that your service
is the only solution to the problem.

Selling a service online is no different than selling it in person. You need to establish a relationship with your potential clients. A content-rich Web site and newsletter that build trust and credibility will develop and solidify this relationship. It is only after a relationship is established that prospects will begin to respond.

What Kind of Ecommerce Does a Service Seller Need?
That will depend entirely on what kind of service you offer. If you do custom work, you probably won't actually be collecting money on the internet. The goal of your site should be to get that potential customer to contact you.

Let's look at the local plumber I found on the internet. He listed the type of services that he offered. His normal business hours. There were some general tips on how to keep your septic system in top notch shape and an article on how to winterize your pool. He also stated that there was a flat fee for an emergency call and that the actual work would be billed at his normal rate. I liked his willingness to give away some free tips and the up-front nature of the flat emergency fee. My neighbor had given me a general idea of how long it would take to fix the problem and since I know the normal hourly rate for plumbers in my area, I had a pretty good idea of how much the repair would cost. That way there were no nasty surprises. (Actually, the bill was a little bit less than I had estimated.)

As I stated elsewhere on this site, Advertisers talk about something called Top Of Mind Awareness or TOMA for short. What they are talking about is having people think of your business first when asked a question about a specific product or service. For example, most people think about Dominos when asked about take-out pizza.

You want to keep your business name in front of your potential customers. The plumber we talked about earlier provided some how to articles and general maintenance tips on his site. That is an excellent way to get people to check back occasionally to see what's new. A better way would be to put a form on his site to get people to sign up for his newsletter. He could write a short monthly newsletter that could be emailed to the potential customers who sign up. He could write up those general maintenance tips and send them to his list. He could also archive all of the tips on the website so visitors could look up the information if they wanted. Who do you think the people on his mailing list will call the next time they need a plumber? Who do you think they will refer their friends to?

How Can You Send a Monthly Newsletter?
There is a service offered by a company called Vertical Response that allows you to create do it yourself email marketing that is perfect for a service provider. They only allow you to use your own opt-in email list, but they provide tools to help you build and manage your email list from your website.

You can publish a newsletter, send targeted emails using your own designs or their templates and track the results of each mailing. In fact, their service checks to see whether your potential customer can accept HTML email or whether the email needs to be text only and will send your message in the correct format for each recipient.

You can also create post cards that will be sent by regular mail to your customers. This is great for specials you want to offer or for people who don't have email. The best part is that you only pay for the emails or postcards that you actually send. You purchase credits to use each service. Emails cost from $7.50 to $15 per 1,000 emails depending on how many credits you purchase with a minimum purchase of 1,000 credits. Postcards cost between $0.73 and $1.09 per credit with a minimum purchase of 9 credits.

Since you only pay for what you actually use, Vertical Response's service is worth looking into. Click Here to read more about Vertical Response.

What If You Want to Sell Physical Products As Well?
Selling physical products that compliment your services is a smart way to provide extra income for your business. Let's use my plumber as an example again. He offered free tips on his website on how to keep your septic system in top shape. It would be logical for him to sell the stuff you dump down the toilet to help maintain the system, wouldn't it?

Now, he could stock the product and sell it directly on the internet. If he does this, he will need a method to accept money and some method of order fulfillment for the products. Click Here to read more about accepting money.

Alternately, He could also arrange with a company that sells the product to pay him a commission for products that his customers purchase. This requires a method of knowing what customers he sends to his partner. If the partner he chooses sells on the internet, they may already have the necessary system in place. In this case, he would only need to make the necessary arrangements with his partner and periodically cash his commission check. This would also remove the geographical barrier for his business. He could sell products to anyone, anywhere.

What method you choose to sell physical products depends on what products you want to sell.

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