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The Personal Touch - Edited By Laura Wheeler Automation has its place, but for small businesses, the greatest selling tool you have is YOU. How to make your personality and distinctive style your greatest advantage. The Need for a Personal Response In this automated world, people are very pleased when they receive a rapid personal reply. When you take the time to answer an email in a way that shows you really listened to their question, when you answer the phone with a real person, or when your suggestions for a solution indicate that you have given thought to their unique needs, you form a lasting impression in the mind of the person. You show that you'll attend to their needs in a way that is just for them. That kind of attention has great power in marketing, because you are not just telling people what you do, you are building a relationship. When to Automate When you can offer a more effective service based on the desires of the customer through automation, you should. When you cannot serve your customer better by automating, you should not. Automation should be an issue of seeing things from the point of view of the customer. Yes, it should make things more efficient for you, but if it does not also benefit the customer in a way they can see, they will go elsewhere and it won't benefit your business! Putting a shopping cart into a website complies with customer expectations and desires. They know that a shopping cart will get them the ability to place their order quickly and on their own schedule. Phone menus on the other hand waste their time. They feel that they have already accomodated you by calling during business hours, so making them wade through menu options and then wait on hold is just another inconvenience. It only becomes a reasonable option when they would get poorer service if you did not automate it. Automation, like other things, should not be done until the work load demands it. Because it invariably costs something to do, and it invariably loses some of the unique distinctiveness of your service when you do it. Writing Well Being able to write well is a tremendous asset, especially with an online business. When people email you with questions, if you can answer in a friendly way, that is not abrupt or badly written, they get an impression of warmth and attention that is priceless. Poor writing, on the other hand, conveys an impression of stupidity, even when the writer is quite intelligent. Abrupt writing (such as many people produce when they are in a hurry, or if they don't like to write), speaks of impatience and lack of consideration. People pick up on that and feel they'd rather go where someone cares a bit more. Using Your Personality to Advantage If you enjoy working with people on a personal level, if you like management, or if you are an entrepreneur, then you can use that to your advantage. With the right business, you become the niche, and you offer personal touches based on what you already naturally do. Business has not been hard for me in many ways, because I can just be myself in my interactions with my clients. The ones whom I can work well with respond to that, and we build friendships as well as working relationships. Being Accessible Delegation and automation have their place, but you also need to know which things you should handle yourself. Customers need to know that the business owner is reachable. If something is serious enough to need your direct attention, you need to give it. Company contact information needs to be readily accessible from any page in your website, and you need to have an About Us page that tells who you are and why you do what you do so that the customer or visitor can identify with you on some level. Carving a Niche With Caring Service is an overused term. People will not pay unreasonable amounts for better service. But they won't pay less for downright lousy service either. Service just means showing your customers that you care about their needs as an individual, not just as another customer through the door. It does make the difference between one time purchases and repeat orders. And it can be a powerful business asset in that way. You must target your niche market, but often that niche will be further refined by the way you treat the people you associate with. Caring is a powerful thing, and can become the major feature of the niche. Even when this is not what you specialize in, your customers will come back to you and ask if you can do it because they'd rather deal with you than a stranger. They'll recommend you to friends on the same basis - "She did this for me, I bet she can help you with that."
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