Tips for success as a CrossLoop Helper

• Improving your profile an search ranking
• Promoting your services
• Remote desktop etiquette
• Charging for services

• Upload a personal picture to your CrossLoop profile: CrossLoop customers in need of computer help are more likely to connect with someone who has included a personal photo. This builds trust. Professional looking photos, where the helper is sitting by a computer or in a work atmosphere, normally work best. For more information watch this video demo on setting up accounts.
  
  
• Use appropriate expertise tags: The tags you use in you profile under the “I can Help With” section are the keys to singling you out of 13,000+ other expert helpers on the website. Make sure to use meaningful tags which include all of your expertise. For more information watch this video demo on setting up accounts.
  
  
• Have the CrossLoop Application running when you are available: You have probably heard of our present release (v2.51).Please make sure you have it and are logged on when your services are available. If your status is set to "available/currently online" your profile will precede all those other profiles which are not currently online in the search results. Make sure you occasionally “test your profile” by finding yourself in search clicking on “Chat with Me” and verifying that the chat works.
  
  
• Make sure you understand the search algorithm: There are many factors that will determine your position on search results.  You can find detailed information here.

• Add your CrossLoop email signature badge to all your emails: The email badge is actually a link to your profile. With this badge in your signature you are marketing yourself with every email you send out from Outlook (see instructions).
  
  
• Use our easy share feature to publish your customer success stories to your social networks
  
  
• If a certain customer was delighted with your service ask them to share their experience with you through their social networks (see how) or with people they know.
  
  
• One extremely valuable source of people seeking help on their computer are popular forums on the internet where they are asking questions and looking for answers.CrossLoop has built an experimental application that can automatically feed you questions being asked in forums like Yahoo!, Twitter, MSN, etc. in real time. Click here to learn more and download the application.
  
  
• Take the CrossLoop Badge and add it on your Blog. Add your badge to your Myspace, Facebook, and your website if you have one. Click here to see a good example of this. Browse Myspace and Facebook groups, there are computers & internet groups on both of these sites where people ask questions about technical issues.
  
  
• Use your URL on CraigsList to generate leads. We did a great post outlining how to do this. Click here to read about how to do this. Use LinkedIn in similar fashion
  
  
• If you use Twitter, 'tweet' your CrossLoop URL there. Twitter is a wonderful site to find people who are having troubles with their computers. Here is a great post about how to use Twitter to your advantage in finding people to help.
  
  
• There is a wonderful interview with Marcus Clarke - Expert Helper which we posted on our blog here. Marcus talks about some of the best practices he uses to generate leads and conduct business on CrossLoop.com I encourage you to read through this interview.

Remote Desktop Etiquette

Assisting customers through remote desktop tools such as CrossLoop poses certain unique challenges. This link deals with the topic in great detail.

Charging for services

We have found that it is a good practice to offer a free consultation to determine the exact problem that the customer is facing and to better assess what the cost of fixing it would be.  Once you understand the customer’s issue you should provide him with an estimate or bill him before performing the service.

We encourage helpers to provide an estimate before proceeding to help a customer. It is true that this doesn’t guarantee that the customer will pay at the end of the session, but we have found it helps. The decision on whether to provide an estimate or demand pre-pay is a judgment call based on you trusting the customer to pay if the service is rendered or not.

Another option is to demand payment before you provide your service.  If the customer is reticent you can bring to his attention that:

1. CrossLoop provides a 48 hr Guarantee as detailed here (it also appears on his chat window)
2. He is asking you to trust him when he is not trusting you…you do this for a living and your profile shows that you have done this before.