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iplug is a business directory

iplug is a testimonial collection service

iplug is a Word of Mouth marketing tool

iplug is where customers and clients go to find RECOMMENDED businesses

iplug is only $99 (+GST) a year. There is only one pricing level.

iplug is Word of Mouth on steroids!

or the long winded version

Business owners! Put yourself in the shoes of your customers for a moment...

It's a fact... People are far more likely to use your business if recommended by a satisfied customer than they would if lured by an advertisement.

Yet customer recommendations / testimonials are FREE! Which means...

Having happy customers extol your virtues to the world can only be good for business! This is called Word of Mouth, and all canny business owners know that it's the best source of new customers there is.

For more on Word of Mouth, click here

The problem with Word of Mouth

Having new customers directed to your business by past customers is great!

But it can be awfully SLOW and UNRELIABLE.

You have no control over when or if it happens

Few customers can actually be motivated to do something about recommending you (many intend to do it, but following through is rare)

Most positive feedback comes to you by way of a letter or an email – and who gets to see those?

It's extremely difficult to form a marketing campaign that relies on Word of Mouth to get the message across.

iplug is Word of Mouth on Steroids!

Why should you list with iplug?

A quick summary of why you should list your business on iplug;

Begin collecting Plugs from customers immediately

Display to new and existing customers that you care about customer service

Let your past customers promote you to prospective customers

Get a full web page that's searchable in Google and other search engines

Get to read what customers have to say about your business

Put all your testimonials in one place – and show them to the public

Rise up the iplug search rankings without spending extra money

It's only $99

Listing your business on iplug is a no-brainer!

In more detail...

Get new customers…

Potential customers will ultimately use iplug as their first choice for seeking businesses. Intending customers can look at your profile on iplug to see what other people have said about you before they use you or buy from you.
Customers can ‘find’ you through our search engine, with the results returned in order of your Plug Rating.
Customers can ‘check you out’ if they've already heard of your business but haven't dealt with you yet.
Customers who read your Plugs can have confidence that they’re dealing with a reputable business.
A good Plug Rating is a selling point for your business and can be displayed on your website and stationery.
A really high Plug Rating will ultimately become a quantifiable measure of your business' goodwill. When selling the business, you don't have to say 'we've got lots of happy customers', you can show proof.
The perception of businesses who are not listed on iplug could be that they’re afraid of adverse comments.

Retain existing customers…

Not only are new customers ‘checking you out’, your existing customers will be too.
By empowering your customers, you increase their confidence in doing repeat business with you.

Get customer feedback – easily and simply…

Businesses pay $1,000s on customer surveys and feedback returns. With ipug you can get this for free!
Show your customers you are taking them seriously… List you business, listen to what they are saying, and then do something about it.

Use iplug to help you focus on what really counts – your customers…

By Listing on iplug, your attention can turn to pleasing your customers and attracting Plugs, which can only improve your customer relations, and hence your future potential business.
Set a goal to improve your Plug Rating. Make it specific with a date. Then start taking action and use your Plug Rating to monitor how well you are doing.
Involve your team and make iplug an external measurement of the success of your internal team building.

Automate a very difficult business task...

All business owners and managers are aware that getting referrals from customers is essential for continued business growth (and in some cases, existence). But physically asking a customer to send an email or a letter thanking the business is something few business people are comfortable doing. (Or if they habitually do this, they don't like it!)
iplug automates this task and allows the owner or the staff to simply say PLUG ME?, or PLUG US?, or GIVE US A PLUG?
iplug even offers handy merchandise to facilitate this process and take it out of your hands.

Reduce your marketing costs…

Introducing your VERY BEST promotional tool – your customers!
As iplug grows your need to market elsewhere will be reduced.
Have a hard think – and then stop wasting your money on the advertising that doesn’t return bang for buck. Focus on your customers instead.
Here’s your chance to get to the TOP of the search rankings based on your performance, not on having to pay out big dollars.

And the price...?

$99 plus GST for a year's listing subscription.

All businesses pay the same amount, without exception.
One flat subscription for all businesses; appear in as many ‘categories’ as you wish. Add as many keywords as you want. No strings, no extra expense.
This is cheaper than the smallest Post Office Box or a single box advertisement in a weeky newspaper.
Once you have listed, we won't pester you with upgrade offers! (Although we will offer advice on how to gather Plugs and increase your Plug Rating – and hence your search ranking.)
Such a small price to pay for what could become your most important marketing thrust.

What do you get?

A full page website of your own for one year (renewable), discoverable on Google and other search engines.
A Plug Rating for one year (renewable).
Keywords to help your business show up when people are searching.
Full contact details for your business.
The opportunity to tell your business story to potential customers.
A link to your own website.
The ability to reply to adverse comments about your business, should you get any.
Access to iplug branded POS merchandise to help you get Plugs. Click here for more information.
All the benefits listed in the ‘Why should you list…’ section above. Click here to review.

NOTE:

If you're not listed, your customers who are registered as Pluggers can ’list’ your business in order to Plug (or Slap) it. Businesses ’listed’ in this way can attract Plugs but do not contain any contact details, or any of the other benefits offered to Listers. Should this happen, you will be contacted by us and informed of the Plug. For more on Orphan Plugs, click here

This isn’t a site where you have to pay out heaps of $$$ for advertising or discount your product or service to get attention – you will get attention on iplug if your deliver value to your customers.

Where do you keep your testimonials?

Most good businesses receive letters, phone calls and emails thanking them for their service. Some of these are long and detailed and wax lyrical about the benefits of doing business with the company in question.

But how do you show these to prospective customers?

Usually the phone calls are forgotten, the emails deleted and the letters end up in a filing cabinet in the office.

Occasionally a letter might make it onto the company website, or even find itself in a frame and hung on a wall for prospective customers to see.

But it even the best testimonial will only be seen by people already in the office or visiting the website!

iplug lets you put all your testimonials in the public eye, and gives you the tools to ask for more!

Why should you list RIGHT NOW?

It's easy to put any decision off to 'wait and see' what happens. But sometimes waiting can be detrimental to the business. Why?

The sooner you start collecting Plugs the quicker you can build your Plug Rating. Businesses that list later will have to catch you up… if they can!

Your smartest competitors could be listing right now.

What’s your downside? $99? That’s not a heck-of-a lot for the amount of return on offer.

Show your customers that you are a LEADER when it comes to customer service, not a follower.

Plugging for rewards

Here's another point to consider...

iplug is vigorously marketing its Plug for Cash scheme, in which New Zealanders receive valuable Plug Points for every Plug that they make to businesses just like yours.

Tens of thousands of New Zealanders will be seeking businesses to Plug – and searching the iplug site for businesses to use.

If your business is NOT on iplug, you could be missing out on valuable testimonials and potential new customers.

Addressing some major issues;

With any new concept (and although Word of Mouth has been around for millennia, iplug's application of it is NEW) there are reservations. Our research has shown that the price – less than the cost of the smallest PO Box – is not an issue. The only real issue is that some business owners are worried that they might attract a lot of negative feedback.

Here is a discussion on that topic;

What if you get Slapped? (negative feedback)

It's a natural evolution of any forum that allows customers to comment on a business that some of those comments might be negative in nature (what we call a Slap).

The first thing to consider is this; if a customer of yours is willing to come to iplug and Slap you, they have to have a reason, right?

And if there are customers out there with bad things to say about you, your business, your products or your service, they will be saying them regardless – to anybody with an ear.

Don't you want to know what they're saying?

It's a fact that the business owner or manager is often the last to know the negative comments circulating about their business, and this can be an extremely dangerous situation. Customers stop returning, sales fall, and ultimately it could even mean the demise of the business.

A few years ago there was a coffee bar in the city (not saying which) that served poor coffee. They were sited in a good spot (and paid the high rental to prove it), and received a lot of passing business. But their clientele was always changing, and their turnover never seemed to grow. In fact, after a time it began to fall. Then one day the owner overheard two people discussing her coffee bar whilst in a rival establishment, and she learned that people just didn't like her coffee. The result was that she changed her brand, trained up her staff and put a sign in the window to that effect. Customers soon changed their tune and turnover grew.

The moral of the story is that if the owner had not overhead a conversation she would probably have gone out of business. That's because very few people complain directly to the people concerned – especially over something like that. If she had asked a customer directly if they liked the coffee, they'd probaby just nod politely and want to leave as quickly as possible.

iplug can change all that. Had iplug existed, and the coffee bar been listed, she might have had a 'Plug Me' sign on her counter, and at least some of her customers would have done just that – except they may have Slapped her business. She would have read the comments and could have done something about it sooner.

Some businesses pay $1000s for surveys and feedback mechanisms to see how they are performing in the real world.

With iplug, you can have a permanent survey mechanism in place for $99 +GST per year.

"I'm going to get Slapped anyway"

There are only a few reasons why a business owner might fear adverse comments about his/her business;

You are in an industry that naturally attracts scorn or negative comments (tow-away/clamping business, supermarkets, fast food outlets, local councils etc.)

If this is the case, then your rivals are also be receiving adverse comments, and you can still thrive by having the LEAST amount of complaints. Few people will Plug a checkout operator in a supermarket – but if you can attract some Plugs for your shop, it could put you ahead of the one down the road!

You use a lot of third parties and people beyond your direct control and worry about transferral of bad experiences to you business (travel agencies, mortgage brokers and construction companies etc.)

Once again, your rivals within the industry will also receive un-deserved comments, and if you can reduce these to a minimum, or be creative with your responses, you can still come out on top.

You have an irrational fear of being wrongly blamed for something that's not necessarily your fault (which could apply to any business)

The reality is that Plugs outnumber Slaps by many hundreds to one, and this is unlikely to be a problem. Remember the irrational fear of selling or buying stuff online through an auction site? What if I pay and they don't send the item? What if they promise to buy, but don't show up? These fears were very real, yet more than half the population are comfortable with online auction sites now. Give it a go at least...

You already attract a lot of complaints from customers for your service, your employees or the way you do business

It would be tempting to say; then we don't want you on iplug. But there's no such thing as a lost cause; perhaps you can use iplug as the motivation to tidy up your act!

Summary

Get a full web page on which to advertise your business

Collect Plugs from past and present customers and use these Plugs to build a Plug Rating that lifts you in iplug's search rankings

Word of Mouth is the best form of marketing there is – except that it can be slow. iplug speeds up this process and allows you to control it

iplug allows you to read exactly what your customers are saying about you

iplug is less than $100 a year

iplug puts all your testimonials online and encourages new customers to 'check them out'

Only on iplug can you get to the top of the search rankings without spending a lot of money

For information on Finding businesses, the benefits of Listing Your Business, Getting Rewards or Fundraising with iplug, click on one of the following links...

LIST YOUR BUSINESS ON IPLUG TODAY