Business: Customer Service - why some people just shouldn't own shops

Customer Service - why some people just shouldn't own shops

Written by James Yuille

Continued from page 1
“How can I do that?” He asked. Here’s what I told him to do … The scenario is one you see very day. Two people come in and order a coffee each. They become engrossed in a detailed conversation and soon their cups are empty. Instead of just clearing repparttar

empty cups (or worse still, leaving them there until they go), you walk up and say something like this “You look like you’re deeply engrossed here – let me get you more coffee” You may get a No, but you’d never get repparttar 106090

Yes if you hadn’t asked. When you take their fresh cups back, take a little tray with a small selection of cakes and ask if they’d like to make a selection. One buys, repparttar 106091

other doesn’t. You’ve now converted a sale for two coffees into four coffees and a slice of cake. Maybe $6.00 into $18.00 or more. How many times in a day do you need to do that to double your turnover? One table in three. One in six will increase your turnover by a staggering 50%. Imagine now that it’s getting towards lunch time. Take a menu and ask if they’re staying. If even one says Yes, you’ve added another $15 to their table account. The initial $6.00 is now over $30.00 – unbelievably you’ve increased repparttar 106092

value of their custom by a whopping 500%. Just by asking three simple questions. This really works. A client of mine, David, was repparttar 106093

manager of a café in Brisbane. He tried this one wet, quiet Sunday morning and repparttar 106094

average spend per customer that day was repparttar 106095

highest it had ever been on any Sunday in repparttar 106096

café’s history. With fewer people in repparttar 106097

café than on any previous Sunday that year. Needless to say, it was very quickly adopted as standard practice. It’s still being used there to great effect. Jack was unconvinced. He doubted he could do it. I had to go – I was on a promise to pick my kids up from repparttar 106098

movies. It was about 5.30 and there were still lots of people in repparttar 106099

shopping center and yet, behind us, Jack’s staff were putting down repparttar 106100

shutters and mopping repparttar 106101

floor. I asked him when repparttar 106102

shops closed and he said some were open until 8. Why wasn’t he staying open until then I asked, especially when his two competitors, a donut shop and another café were showing no signs of closing. “I always close by 6, he replied”. I walked away shaking my head. I guess there are some people you just can’t help.

About the writer: James Yuille has 30 years experience in sales, sales management and training. He is currently involved in sales in the education market in Australia. He has written several courses on selling and information about his ebook, “Selling ISN’T Marketing” can be found at www.sales-training-tips.com

The Little Things You Need To Know If You're Self-Employed

Written by Jeff Colburn

Continued from page 1

To really succeed you need to strive to exceed expectations. If you can make repparttar client say, "Wow," then you will have a client for life.

Remember to always be honest. Never make false claims or stretch repparttar 106089 truth. It will always come back to haunt you.

As things get busier remember to delegate work or get outside help. Need a part time secretary? Use a secretarial service. Are your promotional mailings getting to be too much for you? Outsource them to a fulfillment house or get family and friends to help. My girlfriend helps me attach address labels and stamps when I have a mailing going out. It never hurts to have others do these things so you can concentrate on running your business and finding new clients. Just be sure you can afford to do this so you don't go broke. You may be able to get free help by becoming a mentor for a local college. They send out students who work for free or very little in exchange for work experience. I also know a man who hires ex-convicts because he gets a tax break for doing this. Check with your tax preparer.

Every business needs to promote itself. You can do this with a lot of flash, or with simplicity. The secret is to try several promotional plans to see what works best. You could have themed parties, support a local little league team or charity, offer your services free to some local organizations or simply pass out pens with your company's name and phone number on them. If you do pass out pens or other types of products, be sure they are of excellent quality. A client will love your pen if it works, and hate it if it skips and clogs. Be creative and have fun with your promotions.

When I was a freelance photographer, I made monthly desktop calendars on my computer. It was printed on a piece of paper with a 3x5-inch photograph attached to one side. This was then mailed out to clients monthly with a promotional cover letter. The client would fold repparttar 106090 calendar so they could see repparttar 106091 photograph and month, then on repparttar 106092 backside was a promotional statement about my company, so that anyone sitting across from my client would see an ad for my business.

Several years ago, I came across a wonderful promotional piece. While walking in a mall, I spotted a folded $50 bill lying on repparttar 106093 ground. I couldn't believe my good fortune. I picked up repparttar 106094 bill but when I unfolded it I found myself looking at a business card. It was a simple fold over card, but a section of a $50 bill had been printed on repparttar 106095 back. I'm assuming that repparttar 106096 business owner simply dropped a few on repparttar 106097 ground wherever he went. Did he get any business from this? I have no idea, but I'll wager that people scrambled to pick up his cards.

There are a million things you need to know to run a business, I just hope this article will save you some of repparttar 106098 wasted time, money and frustration that I've encountered over repparttar 106099 years.

Jeff Colburn is a freelance writer who specializes in business writing, articles and genre fiction and he can be reached at JeffColburn@CreativeCauldron.com. His books, "The Writer's Dictionary Of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Mythology" and "The Youngest Ninja," can be purchased from his site, The Creative Cauldron at www.CreativeCauldron.com.

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