Introducing our first customer blogger (and iPad contest winner), Shelley Nystrom of EcoCandle!
If you fancy yourself a bit of a writer, and have an interesting business story / tip to share, drop us a line at Patrick (at) CityMax (dot) com.

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By Shelley Nystrom

We’ve been selling candles for seven years now. Everyone gets a kick out of our line of candles for men, The MANdle. They always ask how we came up with the idea – but it all happened by accident.

Flashback: a dinner party years ago with friends and family, drinking and being merry. We were talking about the subject of my new endeavor – the new Eco Candle Company store I had just opened in Oshkosh, WI. My main product is natural soy candles, but I also sell incense, bath & body products, and handmade soap. A total “chick store”.

I shared with them that many male customers were stopping in: shopping for their mother, wife, girlfriend or sister. Some were with girlfriends, obediently smelling scent after to scent and politely saying, “Yes, I like that one too” - just waiting to be set free from this trap. But many of them came back to buy candles for themselves. I never anticipated it, but a lot of guys really liked candles!

So the conversation moved to making candles in manly scents. WD-40, dog, meat, beer… Then my friend Isaac blurted, “Yeah, you could call them MANdles, ha!” Everyone laughed, but I was thinking: “Oh… my… God…. BRILLIANT!!!”

I started brainstorming instantly. What kinds of scents do guys really like? How “manly” do they need to look? Shortly after The MANdle was born. Our customers loved them – and still do. People laugh out loud and call their friends over to read them all. Sometimes I get the occasional customer ask, “What’s a MANdle? I don’t get it.” Oh well, we can’t “wow” everyone!

Things I have learned along the way…

• Have fun with new ideas – people are always looking for a laugh and something unique.

• Don’t expect every new idea to work! Nobody buys the “Frat Boy” candle that smells like the aftermath of a kegger party. Seemed like a great idea, but it sits on the shelf.

• Ask your customers for their opinions – they always want to share them. 1) It makes them feel appreciated and special and, 2) They can come up with some really great ideas!

• Protect your ideas - if you feel like a name you came up with for a product or your business really “sells it” then – trademark, trademark, trademark!!! It’s an investment you will never regret.

Back story: I got state trademarks for all of my product lines, but wasn’t aware that I needed to actually get federally registered trademarks to protect myself. I also took my time getting them because I was selling them already, so I should have been protected, right?! No. I wasn’t. A couple years ago, we saw more candle companies stealing our MANdle idea and tried to register it. Too late!

Another company had just trademarked a line of glowing neon candles called “Mandle Candles”. They had nothing to do with our premise of MAN + CANDLE, but the USPTO said it was too similar and confusing to consumers. To fight it would have cost thousands in lawyer fees to try and fight the registration at this point.

Eventually I realized that I had spent a lot of time whining and crying about corporate crooks. I finally decided to put my big girl panties on, stand up and move on. Sad ending to this story, but we definitely learned a valuable lesson and that’s what running your own business is all about. Live and learn!

This week I had the chance to see a best-selling author speak. Shep Hyken is a professional speaker and author who specializes in “helping companies build loyal relationships with their customers and employees.” In an entertaining and informative session, Shep delivered a presentation on how to create an amazing customer experience. In this first post of a two-part series, we’ll look at identifying and handling what Shep calls Moments of Misery.

When dealing with an unhappy customer, you have an opportunity to create a Moment of Magic – or turn that unpleasant experience into an amazing one. Focus on being helpful, rather than defensive (or even aggressive!) by following these three steps:

1)    Empathize – Let the customer know you understand their situation.
2)    Sympathize – Ask questions that prompt for positive responses.
3)    Educate – Let your customer know that you care.

For example, if you pick up the phone to a screaming irate customer, your initial response might be to defend your product or your service. Instead, try to segue into something like the following:

“Mr./Mrs. Jones, I understand that you are not happy about this situation and I am going to do everything I can to make this right/rectify the situation.” <= Empathy
“The reason you called today is you hope we can solve this for you right?” <= Sympathy
“I know that you are upset, so would you please explain one more time from the whole problem/situation from the top.” <= They know that you care! (You are letting them vent, and the repetition will often take the steam out of their sails.)

This should give you a solid start to turning customer issues into positive experiences - but there is more to customer service than simply fielding complaints.

Important points about unhappy customers

•    Just because a person doesn’t complain, doesn’t mean he/she is happy.
•    The typical business hears from only 4% of dissatisfied customers.
•    95% of dissatisfied customers never make a complaint – and 70-80% will never come back!

So, aside from the miserable customer finding you, how do you find them?
•    Send a satisfaction survey
•    Ask them!

According to Shep, the two most important questions is to ask your customers is this:

Ask your customers, on a scale of 1-10 how likely they would be to refer you to a friend? (If the answer is 9 or 10, you’re doing great. 7-8 is okay, anything else and you’re in trouble.

Is there one thing you can think of that would make doing business with us better?

In part two of our series, we’ll look at some of Shep’s tips on communication, and how to create Moments of Magic for your customers.

After an exciting month, our “Save a Chicken, Win an iPad!” contest wrapped up today!

Over the course of the contest, 358 people entered on the CityMax.com Facebook page and today our President & Chief Evangelist, Dean Gagnon, pulled the winners’ names out of the bucket!

Since we had so many excited entrants, we decided to throw in one extra bonus prize. Now, let’s get to the results!

Our runner-up winner is…

Barbara White of Vancouver, BC!

Barbara wins a free CityMax.com website, domain, and hosting for one year. Congratulations!

And now, drum roll please.

The grand prize winner of the Apple iPad is…

Eco Candle Company of Appleton, Wisconsin!!

Founded by Shelley Nystrom of Wisconsin, the Eco Candle Company wins a 16GB iPad with Wi-Fi and 3G capabilities. A flock of chickens will also be donated in Eco Candle’s name to Heifer International. This plucky flock of chickens will help an impoverished family in Tanzania.

A big congratulations to our winners and a huge thank you to everyone for entering the contest and for sharing so many positive comments on our Facebook page!!

You probably already know all about Facebook. You might even be thinking, why should I care about Brenda’s late night out or what Tommy had for lunch?

The answer: with over 400 million active users (50% of them logging on every day), businesses big and small are using Facebook Pages to connect with customers and enhance their relationships.

When you consider that the average user has 130 friends, you can quickly see that Facebook provides an unparalleled opportunity for businesses to engage and network.

With that in mind, we’ve decided to launch the CityMax Facebook Page - better late than never, and we want to hear what you have to say! Go to www.facebook.com/CityMax and hit the “Like” button to start contributing to the conversation.

Why connect with us on Facebook?

1. access to special promotions and offers,
2. the chance to promote your own website, and
3. the opportunity to leave and ask for feedback.

To celebrate our launch, we’ll be giving away an iPad! To enter, simply join the page and tag yourself in a “Save a Chicken, Win an iPad” photo.

The CityMax.com Facebook page has a “Favorite Pages” section – that spot is reserved for all of our customers’ Facebook Pages (which is why you should create one for your business!).

One example of a great Facebook Page is CityMax.com customer Classic Shaving – their page has an impressive 1,505 “Likes” (formerly known as “Fans”).  Their page offers special discount codes, and allows customers to ask questions and leave comments.

With the growing importance of “Likes” in 3rd party websites and its use in search engine optimization, we recommend that all online businesses have a Facebook Page. To get started on your own page, click here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php.

The judges made their final tallies and have declared Marco Barberini of OvernightPetTags.com our Homepreneur of the Year!

Marco’s vision, story, and growing success stood out from an impressive group of finalists. The 24-year old former gas station employee from a tiny Michigan town began his CityMax.com site in 2006 with no HTML experience. In 2007, he ended up quitting his job to focus on his business and has now tagged over 32,000 pets!

In an interview, Marco said: “A few years ago, my wife Heather and I realized we were tired of working paycheck to paycheck and started focusing on Overnight Pet Tags. We built out our site with CityMax.com and eventually started ranking in the search engines. Our online sales have increased by 100% each year and our dream is to tag every pet in the United States.”

OvernightPetTags.com is currently generating $6,000 - $8,000 in monthly online revenue and, according to Marco, requires only 7 to 10 hours of his time each week.

As Homepreneur of the Year, Marco is the winner of a $10,000 prize package, including a round-trip flight to Vancouver, Canada, three days in a beautiful luxury hotel, the Red Carpet treatment, a day of 1-on-1 expert consultation at CityMax.com HQ, and a complete redesign of his website. He’ll also receive a life-time subscription to CityMax.com for himself and five small businesses of his choosing.

Our two runner-up winners are:
Meredith Patterson (MeredithPatterson.com), an enterprising musical theatre and TV actress who has appeared on All My Children.

Michael and Mary Ferrari (UnusualThreads.com), a retired couple who are generating millions of dollars annually with their online celebrity fashions business.

Our runner-ups will each receive a custom redesign and website makeover ($1,000 value), plus a lifetime subscription to CityMax.com for themselves and three small businesses of their choosing.

Congratulations again to all of our inspiring winners!

If you know someone you’d like to nominate for Homepreneur of the Year (online home-based business, please email homepreneur@citymax.com.

The polls are closed and the votes are in! Time to tally them up and find out our Homepreneur of the Year…

Thank you everyone for sending in your emails, Tweets and even snail mail! We received hundreds of votes and messages of support for our intrepid finalists.

Later this month, we will announce the grand prize winner, who will be flown to Vancouver, Canada for the full red carpet treatment and a complete website redesign package!

The judging panel has a challenging decision ahead of them to determine the winner. They will be taking each of the following criteria into account:

• innovation and originality
• entrepreneurial ‘spirit’
• revenues generated through home-based business
• prior experience and success
• business sustainability and scope
• electronic votes via Twitter/email

Stay tuned to find out who the winner is, and congratulations again to all of our truly inspiring finalists!

Wendy Lau of BlueWonderCloth.com, our Small Business Makeover winner, made the trek down to our offices last week to meet the CityMax.com team and give her online presence a shot in the arm.

Nine years ago, Wendy started selling environmentally friendly cleaning products online as a part-time distributor. She quickly grew to the point where she actually bought out the original owner four years ago and now runs the entire business!

We were excited to meet Wendy, who’s been with CityMax.com since we were just three people huddled in a tiny office. She’s already had some serious success, but Wendy told us she now wants to “make more and do less.” Sounds like our kind of challenge!

Our experts sat down with her and talked custom re-design, local search marketing, and search engine optimization for her site. Wendy even got to check out our daily huddle and meet our two dogs. All in all, it was a great start to the makeover - stay tuned to see what Wendy’s finished makeover looks like!

Presenting the finalists for 2009 Homepreneur of the Year! We were overwhelmed by the amount of amazing entries, and thank you all for your submissions. You have some truly incredible small business website success stories and made it hard to pick just eight finalists!

From the Pet Tag Prince to Grandma Cuddles, these finalists come in all shapes, sizes, and ages! Now it’s up to you. Check out their stories on the voting page and help us choose who should be the Homepreneur (home-based business owner) of the Year!

Thank you for all your entries! The contest is now closed and we’ll be announcing the winner shortly.

In celebration of Small Business Month in Canada, we’re giving away a small business website package and a full day of one-on-one consulting with our team of online marketing experts, including Dean Gagnon, a co-founder of CityMax.com and one of BIV’s “Top Forty Under 40”.

If you’re the lucky winner, you’ll be invited to spend the day at CityHall, CityMax.com’s legendary headquarters, located in the heart of historic Gastown, Vancouver BC.

Once there, you’ll receive one-on-one consulting on:

• How to Get MORE Targeted Traffic to Your Website
  
• The Secrets to Converting More Visitors into Leads & Sales
  
• Easy, Inexpensive Ways to Generate Free PR for Your Business

The winner will also receive a custom-designed CityMax.com website or a complete makeover of their existing CityMax.com website from our award-winning in-house designers.

This full day of consulting and web design with our team of coveted experts is valued at $10,000, but in celebration of Small Business Month in Canada it’s free to the winning entrant!

Put your hands together for October’s delicious Website of the Month, Calexicocart.com! Founded by three brothers in New York City, this site is selling “mind-blowing” tacos, tortas, and other yummy Mexican dishes. These guys are hungry for success and it shows – they’ve recently been featured on ABC News, New York Times and in other top-tier media. Great job Calexico - maybe you could send us some burritos?

If you’d like to be featured as Website of the Month, please send a short description of your CityMax.com site and a link to websiteofthemonth@CityMax.com.