Archive for Customer Service
Cheap, Cheap, Cheap…
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Are you too cheap?
I read an excellent post this morning by Kathie Thomas about being a VA doesn’t mean ‘cheap’. Kathie makes some very good points, especially about charging enough so you can meet your cost of living.
There seems to be an attitude among business mums and WAHMs in Australia where they seem to be afraid to charge for their services. And, on the flip side, they seem to expect other businesses to put their prices lower simply because they are a business mum or WAHM.
Just because we work from home, doesn’t mean we have to do everything free or cheap. We are running a business to earn an income.
Melinda Brennan over at SuperWAHM created a WAHM Manifesto. This is free and well worth a read. Among other things, the Manifesto states that “Every WAHM has the right to earn a decent income”.
So, are you undercharging for your services? Are you too cheap?
If you’re not sure, try raising your prices slightly and see what happens. You may be pleasantly surprised.
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Unfortunately, my kids have inherited both mine and my mothers teeth, meaning we have been spending quite a bit of time sitting in the dentist office lately. My mother has also been receiving reminder letters from her dentist. These reminder letters are typed up & printed on letterhead to remind her that she needs to make a follow up appointment.
This all got me thinking. One of Brenda Thomson’s favourite strategic alliance story is about a dentist and a masseur. I won’t tell the whole story here, but if you want to find out more, check out her site. In a nutshell, the masseur made the return visits a lot more attractive.
For children, the dentist can be a scary place. Can you imagine what would happen if the dentist teamed up with someone who created letters from the tooth fairy and sent reminder letters from the tooth fairy?
Keeping this in mind, if you need to send out reminder letters, is there a creative way you can send them out? For many of us, this may not be relevant, however if you find you send reminder letters and they aren’t getting results, think outside the square.
I know that if my kids received a letter from the tooth fairy suggesting a check up so their teeth would be perfect when it came time to collect them, they would be hassling me to make an appointment for them.
Do you have a creative way to send reminder letters to your clients?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- For your daily dose of business mums websites and blogs, check out Business Mums DailyE-mail doesn’t always work…
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Email isn't always the best form of communication
Recently I changed the way people can get a newsletter from my business. Now, they can either get it via email or in the post. A number of people questioned this and the answer is simple - not everyone wants to get an email newsletter, some people prefer something in the post, and others simply don’t sit on the computer as much as we do.
I run a number of workshops and events - one is tonight - and I sent invitations to my database via email. Looking at the statistics, less than a quarter of the people I was inviting opened the email, and even less clicked on the link to book or for more information.
Thinking about my own habits, I often receive an email newsletter and leave it marked unread until I have the chance to go back and read it… and sometimes it stays unread until I delete it to clear out my inbox.
So, what have I learned from this?
Simple, communicating with your customers solely via email doesn’t always work.
It’s helpful to communicate via a number of methods, both online and offline. This could include sending something in the mail and picking up the telephone.
What am I going to do next time?
Next time I run an event, I plan to send a postcard or invitation to my database as well as send them an invitation via email, Facebook and other places they hang out.
How do you communicate with your customers? Is it solely via email, or do you have other strategies as well?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- For your daily dose of business mums websites and blogs, check out Business Mums DailyChoosing a charity
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Choose the right charity for your business
If you’re anything like me, you are constantly asked to give money and donate products for charity fundraisers both for your business and in your family life. There often isn’t enough money in your bank account to give to everyone who is asking, and the same with products.
So, what do you do?
The best thing is to choose a charity or two that are important to you and give to those. Then, next time you’re asked to donate something you can tell them that you have your chosen charity and give to them (it’s amazing how effectively this works).
The next thing is to work out which charity to support. There are so many worthy causes out there it can be hard to know what to choose.
For a business, it can be a good idea to choose something that fits with what you are doing. For example, my chosen charity is Opportunity International because they help people start up small businesses, so it fits with what I’m aiming to do with my business.
I know of some business mums who use their family history as motivation for choosing a charity. For example I know of one business mum who supports Mummy’s Wish because a close friend of hers had cancer and received support from the. And another who supports Backpacks 4 Aussie Kids because her parents had foster kids when she was growing up. These charities don’t necessarily match their business, not in any obvious way anyway.
If your business does support a charity, it’s a good idea to have a page on your site explaining why you chose this charity to support. I have seen some businesses who make a big thing about supporting a charity, however if it’s not a charity I am not passionate in supporting and I can’t see an obvious reason why they are supporting this charity, then it won’t sway me to purchase from them. However if I can see a story behind why they support this charity, it is more likely to sway me.
Some time ago, I bought a gift online. Inside the package along with the item I purchased was a sheet thanking me for buying from them and explaining why they had chosen their charity and how my purchase helped support their cause. Unfortunately I can’t remember which business it was (it was quite a while ago), but their extra bit of information has stuck in my head.
Do you have a charity your business supports? Do you let your customers know about it? Please add a comment and share your story.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- For your daily dose of business mums websites and blogs, check out Business Mums Daily“Free” Samples
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Are "free" samples getting you results?
Samples are great. They can help customers try before they buy, they can be used as fillers for goodie bags, they can great.
There is also a down side to samples. As a business owner, it usually costs money to purchase or create these samples, so when you get “sample hunters”, people who just want to get samples, they are not so free, or so useful.
I went to the Australian Business & IT Expo a couple of weeks ago and there were some high school students running around collecting pens and other samples off stalls. It seemed they were playing the game “He/she with the most free samples wins”.
I have also heard of a number of business mums being contacted by people who only want the free samples.
So, how do you get around this?
One idea is to pre-qualify sample hunters with a survey or similar. Also, let them know you will add them to your database and will follow up. If people are just in it for the samples, they may not fill in your survey.
Another idea is to charge for the samples. For example, you may charge $5 for the samples to cover postage and the sample. You may want to include a $5 voucher with the samples, meaning if the customer loves the samples and goes on to buy a full size product, the samples will be free as the voucher will cover the samples. If people are just in it for the sample, they won’t pay for them.
If you are at an expo or market and people just want your samples, put them a little further back, or only hand them out once people have either bought something or entered your prize draw. Again, this puts your sample to work for you and you are handing them out to people who are genuinely interested.
Samples also make a great gift with purchase - include a couple of samples with your orders so customers can try something else in your range. This works as a reward to your current customers as well as introducing them to new products.
If you are giving out samples in a goodie bag or similar, include a gift voucher or similar with the sample to encourage people to buy and so you can track any sales that may come from this marketing activity.
As with any other marketing you do, work out what you want out of it and put your samples to work for you.
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Host Beneficiary ideas for baby products
Over on her blog, Brenda Thomson spoke about host beneficiary strategies. As she explains:
“A host beneficiary program is an alliance strategy where one business owner (the beneficiary) supplies another business owner (the host) with the offer of something of value to pass on to their clients.”
Over the years, I have either been involved in, at the receiving end of, or observed many host beneficiary programs. This post will share some of these with you, looking specifically at baby products.
1. New Baby Gifts - a while ago, we had many members having babies. A children’s clothing business contacted me about providing a baby dress or t-shirt for each newborn baby. We were then able to send each new parent a gift that included the details for the children’s clothing business.
2. Gift Vouchers - when a friend of mine was pregnant, she purchased some maternity wear (as you do). She shopped at a high end shop as she needed clothes for work. When she made her purchase at the checkout, she was given some gift vouchers to local baby stores to buy products for her new baby. She didn’t end up using all of them, however she did use a few.
3. Childcare Service - I heard recently about a hairdresser that was new in the area. Nearby there was a Maternal and Child Health Centre and an occasional care centre that welcomed babies. The hairdresser spoke to the health nurse to offer free hair cut to new mothers, especially ones who weren’t coping and needed some time out. She also spoke with the occasional care centre about a deal for these mothers to look after their babies while they got their hair cut. I haven’t heard how this went, yet, but I’m hoping it was a success.
4. Gift for Mum & Older Siblings - nappy cakes are a great baby gift, as are baby bouqets and any other sort of hamper. If you have items for Mum or for older siblings, you could contact some of these businesses and include a gift voucher for the parents and/or older siblings with the gift hampers.
These are just a few ideas. I’m sure you could come up with some more.
If you would like more strategic alliance ideas, or simply want to learn more about strategic alliances and how they can help you in your business, check out the Strategic Alliance Success Club.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- For your daily dose of business mums websites and blogs, check out Business Mums DailyIt has to suit YOU!
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Choose a date that suits you!
One issue with social media is you can be too accessible to your customers and their thoughts.
I recently saw some posts on Facebook from a number of different people trying to find a date for a chat and/or an online party plan style sale. The gist of the posts were trying to find a date that suited everyone. It seemed that every customer had an opinion in the date and time, leaving the poor business owner in a tizzy because she was having trouble choosing a date.
Whenever you are trying to choose a date for something, you will always find there are people who can’t come. You can’t please everyone. The best thing to do is make sure the date suits YOU!
It may be that an evening after the kids are in bed is best, or first thing in the morning. There will always be someone who can’t make it, that’s a fact of life.
The best thing to do is to have an alternative available. For example:
- If you are running a webinar, record it for those who can’t attend
- If you are having an online party, give customers the opportunity to order from a catalogue before hand
There will be some things, for example a market night, where you may not be able to offer an alternative that exactly matches what you are doing, however by having an online shop, people can still purchase from you.
One thing to keep in mind - it is your business, it has to suit you and your family.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- For your daily dose of business mums websites and blogs, check out Business Mums DailyFriday Five - Location
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I look at many Facebook pages, websites and blogs, many of these have no indication of where they are located!
This week, I will give you five reasons to let people know where you are. I don’t necessarily mean to give an exact location, especially if you work from home and don’t want just anyone knowing where you live. In most cases a state and country is enough, or even something like “Melbourne, Victoria, Australia” if you want to narrow things down further.
- Buy local - there are many people who want to support a local business. This could be businesses in their direct local area or just in the same country as they are. If people have no idea where you are, they may move on to the next business.
- Postage - if you are an online store, postage may be cheaper if you are in the same country or state. Having a location on your Facebook page as well as your shop may help customers decide to buy from you as the postage costs won’t be as much as they would be if they were further away.
- Local information - one blog I read regularly has great business information and are located in the US. Because I know they are in the US, any information to do with tax or regulations I ignore because they don’t apply to us in Australia. The same with many recipe’s, metric and imperial measures are different. If you share information, it can help your readers to know where you are.
- Local Products - even with the Internet, there are some products that are only available in certain locations, or if you are the local distributor, it is helpful for people to know where you are. Another thing to consider is DVDs have different zones and something that is for zone 1 may not work in a DVD player in zone 6 (for example).
- Meet You - especially if you blog about markets or networking events, your readers and customers may want to meet you face to face. This is another place where it’s helpful to have a location. For example, if you say you will be at the local Farmer’s Market this Sunday, it is helpful to know where that market is. Also if you are travelling interstate to attend a certain event, let people know so customers know you aren’t in the same state all the time and to attend that event to meet you.
For me, the biggest thing about having a location is I love to support other Australian business mums, and I know there is a whole community of business mums out there who feel the same. At the very least, please put your country on your Facebook page, blog and website so we know where you are.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- For your daily dose of business mums websites and blogs, check out Business Mums DailySales - helping or hurting your business?
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Sales - are they helping your business?
I see so many business mums have sales - whether they are Facebook garage sales, end of season sales, or some other sale - whatever they are, there are new sales cropping up all the time.
Are these sales really helping these businesses?
One thing that sales can do is teach your customers not to pay you full price. I know I head down to K Mart whenever there is a children’s clothing sale, rather than paying full price. If your customers know you will be having a sale at a regular time, they may wait to buy from you until the sale starts, especially if you have a lot of them (like K Mart does).
Another thing I’ve noticed with sales is the prices barely cover the cost of the product, let alone the business owners time or any other overheads associated with running a business. Some sale prices look like they are below wholesale!
There is nothing wrong with the occasional sale or special, or putting end of season or end of line items on sale to clear them out, it’s more the regular sales that will cost a business in the long run.
Before having a sale for your business, think about why you are doing this and what you want out of it. And remember, you still need to make money out of it! Set a budget for your sale to make sure whatever your sale prices are, it’s not costing you money.
Everyone loves a sale and love buying things on special, however you don’t want your reputation to be sales all the time or your customers won’t pay full price.
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Boost sales with a Sales Club
Do you sell something that is consumable and people will need/want regularly? You may want to consider adding a “Sales Club” to your list of products.
Generally a sales club works by customers subscribing to the club an paying monthly, and each month you send them a package of whatever the products are.
One example I have seen recently is the Oz Material Girls website with their Bag Club. Every month, members receive a pattern and fabric to make up a bag.
A Sales Club can help you with cash flow as you will know how many members there are in the club and how much they are paying. It can also help when ordering in stock, and you may be able to get a better price from your suppliers as you will have a guaranteed minimum to order each month.
When setting your price, make sure you take the postage of the items into account so you aren’t out of pocket. You may also want to plan out the items you are including over a 12 month period and have an average price each month, especially if the products you are sending vary in price.
Some ideas for sales club could include:
- Earrings
- Thread for cross stitch or embroidery
- Fabric for quilting
- Hair clips/accessories
- Beads
- Ribbon
- Recipe
- Book
Essentially pick something that your customers like and buy regularly anyway. Having a sales club can help them buy from you regularly without having to think about it.
Give your customers an idea of when you will be sending the items so they can expect their parcel. For example, it may be the second week of the month. This way, you can check to ensure the monthly payments have arrived before you post out the parcels.
Depending on what you are sending, if you have a lot of parcels, you may be able to get a discount on your postage and packaging. It is worth talking with Australia Post about this.
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