Always keep in mind that most consumers are understandably wary. They won't hesitate to abandon an intended purchase if they encounter doubts or inconvenient snags in process.

I invite you to do a bit of honest self-examination when considering following tips, since problems in this area may be costing you dearly in lost sales, right this very minute.

Acting to improve on what you discover could very well help boost your sales immediately.

1) How Easy Is It for Your Customers to Access Information Needed to Buy From You?

a) For example, does design of your web site make it hard to navigate, or is majority information needed to complete a transaction within easy access to your customers, with minimal mouse clicks?

Poor navigation is but one of many, many different snags that hinder web site sales. Problem is, most site owners, designers, and webmasters don't realize how much more a site could sell, if it were only more user-friendly.

b) While you may wisely reduce amount of repetitive customer service issues by answering questions through a FAQ, (an acronym for Frequently Asked Questions) etc., some prospects may yet have additional questions not covered in it.

Do your prospects have a way to contact you to have such questions answered, and do you have an efficient system in place for answering them, promptly and efficiently?

Is form of contact convenient to your prospects?

2) What Forms of Payment Do You Offer Your Customers?

a) Do you require your customers to send payment to you by check, cash or money order only via regular postal mail? If you're selling online and not accepting credit cards, you're likely losing many sales.

b) What types of credit cards do you accept? Virtually any type of business can increase sales by accepting payment by Visa and MasterCard.

But even businesses already accepting Visa and MasterCard may still be losing sales by not also accepting Discover and American Express, especially in U.S.

The primary target for quality expenditures in accordance to 69 % respondents to Quality Magazine survey was to increase efficiency. Reducing rework was second most often cited reason at 58 %.

Quality Cost Areas

Quality comes with a price tag but benefits out weigh cost due to improving customer satisfaction, reducing cost, and operation efficiency. Quality costs are segmented into major categories. These categories are: ·Prevention Cost - cost to plan and execute a project so that it will be error-free ·Appraisal Cost - cost of evaluating process and outputs of processes to ensure product is error-free ·Failure Cost - costs of activities specifically designed to prevent poor quality in products or services. ·Internal Cost - cost incurred due to duplication of work ·External Cost - cost incurred due to errors detected by customer. This includes warranty cost, field service personnel training cost, complaint handling cost, and future business losses

The goal of any quality cost system is to facilitate quality improvement efforts that will lead to operating cost reduction opportunities. This strategy is based on premise that ·For each failure there is a root cause ·Causes are preventable ·Prevention is always cheaper

Project Cost Avoidance

How do you know which quality improvement project you should select? First, identify a process improvement area within your business or department. Once project is selected, then decide on team members and a leader. Selecting right quality project will have direct impact on your operations. Ideally, quality project should have 3 to 6 months duration to gain most benefit and support from team.

The project needs to be aligned with your business priorities. Here are five basic guidelines to assist selection of quality project according to iSixSigna quality organization. ·Ask your business leader for three greatest issues facing business. Make sure project addresses one of issues or is directly related. ·What are greatest issues as seen from eyes of your customers? Look review customer complaints logs, listen to call center telephone conversations and call back customers that have stopped your company’s service. ·Is project manageable? Can project be completed within 6 months? If project will take longer than 6 months there is a possibility of losing team members due to job changes or feelings of frustration. ·Will team have a measurable impact on business processes or financial bottom line? Take on a project knowing what benefits are to business. ·What is your capability? If you haven’t been measuring your process. How do you know it needs improvement? Make sure you know what amount of defects process is currently producing and define your project desired outcome.

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