6. Make sure employees know and use your customer service policy. Give your employees bonuses or incentives to practice excellent customer service. Tell employees to be flexible with each individual customer, each one has different concerns, needs and wants.

7. Give your customers more than they expect. Send thank you gifts to lifetime customers. E-mail them online greeting cards on holidays or birthdays. Award bonuses to your customers who make a big purchase.

8.Always be polite to your customers. Use words your welcome, please, and thank you. Be polite to your customers even if they are being irate with you. Always apologize to your customers should you make a mistake. Admit your mistakes quickly and make it up to them in a big way.

9. Reward customers a point for every one dollar they spend. Let's say customers can get a free computer for 300 points. That means customers will spend $300 dollars on your products and services to get enough points to get free computer.

10. Build strong relationships with your customers. Invite them to company meetings, luncheons, workshops or seminars. Create special events for your customers like parties, barbecue's, dances etc. This will make them feel important when you include them in regular business operations and special events.

Some basic steps you can take to open your site to potential clients:

1) Make sure all of your relevant and core content is in text-based format. For example: if you have power statements as graphics embedded in your content they will not be readable by a speech synthesizer (a tool used by people to turn written content into an auditory format).

2) Make sure your images have alt tags that say what they are. If someone is using a Braille display to view web, untagged images show up as a large blank space that could easily be interpreted as end of content.

3) Try changing your setting to quickly view your site in black and white. This is an option that people with color blindness in any degree often use so they can avoid missing valuable content. Check to see if your color palette allows text and hyperlinks to still be clear and readable.

New technology is bringing more and more people online everyday. Is your site ready and open to everyone?

Have a successful day! Leslie Durand