Should home business owners give holiday gifts to their customers/clients?  If so, what should they give and how much should they spend?
This all depends on your business, the number of customers, and how much you have to spend.
Receiving gifts pleases most customers and serves as a good public relations technique.  However, most businesses can’t spend too much on gifts and must be careful they don’t favor one customer over the other.
Some ideas:

Calendars
Planners
Cheese and crackers gift box
Something you’ve made
A hand written thank you note
Grab bag
Include something extra with a holiday purchase
Open house party

What do you give as gifts…to your walk-in customers …read more

This era of e-mails, online ordering, and contact with people around the globe has provided  a boost for many businesses and has enabled new businesses to crop up.  However, we can’t get so caught up in the enthusiasm of online business and that we forget the importance of the “personal touch.”
In one of my home businesses, customers have commented that they don’t want to order online themselves, even though I can set them up to do so. 
 ” I like the personal touch of calling my order to you, Mary, and getting a chance to chat.”
Another customer, an elderly couple, enjoy having my …read more

In a previous post, Concentrate on Customers, Not Yourself, I mentioned service that might discourage or lose you a customer.  Today, I’ll relate customer service that made a very positive impression.  Although this occurred at a fast food restaurant, the principle applies in any business, including your home business.
A friend returns to the drive through window of this particular fast food restaurant to grab a sandwich after church each Sunday before her long drive home.  (She lives about an hour away.)  One of the window clerks, who also is a shift manager, has learned about this and always includes extra …read more

“If you don’t have anything else to discuss, do you mind if I get some paper work done?” the owner of a recently established small kitchen and bath design business asked my husband and me as he ushered us to the door.  This was after he had spent most of the time we were there telling us about himself.
Apparently when he found we weren’t there to purchase any services or appliances that day, he considered us not worth bothering with.  Justifiably, he probably had estimates and paperwork to do, but he really hadn’t talked with us enough to find out …read more

HomeBizNotes.com

Text messaging and cell phone calls have their place in business, but there can be times when they drive away customers.  They’re part of our modern technical world and can be an assistance in business.
However….there is a time and place!
This is something you must be aware of and enlighten any employees.  When a customer is talking to you, he/she doesn’t want you distracted by text messaging or a call on the call phone. 
While one customer was talking with a clerk in the electronics department of a store desiring information about a specific product, he realized he wasn’t receiving the young …read more

HomeBizNotes.com
Customer service and customer relations are very important for maintaining your business.
*Encourage customer feedback and learn to handle it in a diplomatic way.
*Sometimes, no matter what you do, you won’t satisfy a customer and are better off without them. However, try, as much as possible, to have the parting amicable.
*Develop an interest in your customers so they feel you care about serving them.
*Smile.  This makes customers feel better when they meet you.  It often diffuses a difficult situation.
*Try to be patient with people. Unfortunately, in today’s “instant results” world, many people aren’t patient and …read more

HomeBizNotes.com
E-cards and postcards…do you use them?  A discussion evolved about this at a blog I read regularly.
I used to open e-cards and enjoyed receiving them. Then spammers and hackers began using them for their own reasons, even to infect our computers with viruses. So there is only one person whose e-cards I’ll open.   (Some say they don’t even open cards from people they know from concern someone may have “borrowed” their friend’s e-mail.)
 However, people still like to receive cards and notes in the  postal mail. So I spend the postage to send these to customers and special people in my …read more

Home Biz Notes.com 
 Dealing with difficult customers presents a challenge in any business and home businesses are no exception.  This sometimes is additionally challenging to those involved in the arts because they’ve often concentrated solely on creating their work.  Now they discover, if they want to develop an income producing business, they must deal with customers who can present difficulties.
Generally, most of your customers are pleasant to work with and understanding.  They pay you on time and the agreed upon amount.  But you must be prepared for the exceptions.
At  The Artful Crafter, you’ll find several posts discussing this topic.  These may …read more

HomeBizNotes.com
 (Oops!  Somehow this title got posted instead of saved.  So I’d better finish  and let you know what I was thinking. So if you saw only the title, here’s “the rest of the story.” )
Generally we regard blogging as a method to help promote a business by informing customers, providing added information resources, bringing a more personal side to one’s business and reaching customers/clients whether you have an online or walk-in business.  So, in general a blog connected with a business adds value.
However, can blogging by disgruntled customers (someone who thinks their feelings have been slighted, a person who doesn’t like your product but doesn’t give …read more

HomeBizNotes.com
 Valentine’s Day provides an opportunity for families to have fun, and for you to do something special for your home business customers. Perhaps you decorate your shop or web site, give cards to your customers, have goodies to eat when they stop by, hand out a flower, hold a drawing or contest…in some way spread some cheer.
I’m sending out postcards to the customers I work with in my skincare and make-up consulting business. If I don’t have their mailing address, but have their e-mail, I’ll touch bases that way.
However, as one customer remarked, after receiving a postcard from me, “I …read more