Working from a home office never felt so cool
Last week I set up a video conference call with a client who was on the West Coast, while his assistant was on the East Coast. During the call I learned a few tips I’ll use on my next call.
If you decide to leave the room during the call, make sure it’s during a time when no one will notice. When you’re the next one on the agenda, it will be fairly obvious to everyone on the call that you’ve left your computer. [Read more...]
The other day I called a client and the receptionist told me he wasn’t in, so I asked her to transfer me to voice mail. She told me the company didn’t have voice mail because the owner thought it was too impersonal. I wanted to ask her if she used an IBM Selectric instead of a computer, or carbon paper instead of a copier, but I kept my thoughts to myself.
Voice mail is invaluable to most companies, but is only as effective as the person using it. Consider these 5 ways to make voice mail more effective.
When you record your voice mail message, let the caller know within the first few seconds whether or not he or she can bypass it. Long, boring messages are annoying, and most of the time callers don’t listen to them anyway. Instead of wasting callers’ time by making them listen to a long message, give each person the option to go straight to the tone. [Read more...]
When I worked in a corporate office — I’ve tried to block out that part of my life — a vendor called my office and thought I was the receptionist. He was rude, condescending and had no trouble showing his true colors.
He never knew why, but I did business with his competitor instead of with him.
No matter how talented you are, or how great your business reputation is, at some point you’re going to have to get past business gatekeepers. Consider these three gate-crashing tips.
When you can’t get through to someone, your first thought may be to push harder. Instead of making progress, you’ll aggravate the person on the other end of the line. At that point you essentially squelch any chance you may have had of seeing or talking with the person they’re protecting. And by the way, yelling, “Don’t you know who I am?” rarely works. [Read more...]
source: schipulites
My friend’s grandma used to say, “Don’t do special for me.” She didn’t want anyone to make a fuss over her because she knew her family cared and they didn’t need to prove it to her.
What about your clients? Do they know you care? Meeting your clients’ needs, completing their projects on time, and helping their business grow is part of your commitment to your clients. It’s also one way to show them indirectly that you truly take an interest in them.
Consider these five easy, inexpensive, yet more direct ways to show your clients that you care.
When a client is celebrating a birthday, anniversary or a promotion, you can send an e-card, but a card you send via snail mail can mean even more. Don’t just sign the card…include a short, personal note. Although you’ll want to acknowledge happy occasions, don’t forget the sad ones. One of my clients recently lost her husband to cancer, so I sent her a card and made a donation to the charity included in her husband’s obituary. It was a small gesture but I wanted her to know that I was thinking of her during a difficult time for her and her family.
To read the rest of my guest post on Success Your Way, click here.
source: discoodoni
A friend of mine keeps as many promises as she breaks. Why are we still friends? The main reason is that the promises she makes to me aren’t important.
When she promises to meet me for coffee, I enter the time in my iPhone and then before I leave my house, I send her a text to confirm. Sometimes she remembers and sometimes she doesn’t.
While those broken promises aren’t earth-shattering and haven’t affected our friendship, if she did the same thing to her clients, her client list were dry up. To a client, any broken promise is important, so you need to do what you can to keep every promise you make.
Start with these tips.
A huge corporate client with a large budget may tempt you to make promises you can’t keep, and add more to your plate than you can handle. Before you say yes to a request from a big client, take a close look at your current schedule and decide whether or not you have time to complete the job. Don’t forget to consider if you’re even the right person to handle the project. If not, recommend someone else who can help your client. [Read more...]
One of my clients, a business consultant, has worked with the same clients for years. She helps a client solve a problem, the client’s business grows, and then she finds other ways to help that client again. She knows that if her clients are happy, they’ll refer her to new clients…and they do.
When your business is thriving, you may not be worrying about getting more clients. On the other hand, if you’re waiting for the phone to ring, hoping that prospects will fill out your “get more info” form, and you have more bills to pay than clients to cover them, you’re probably thinking about ways to find more clients.
You can go after new clients, which can cost time and money, or you can find new ways to serve old clients. Studies show that it’s less expensive to service an existing client than to market to a prospect. Consider these tips before you spend more time and money trying to find new clients.
Before you give up on a client who hasn’t contacted you lately, ask yourself it there are any other services you can offer them. They’ll enjoy hearing from you, you’ll enjoy reconnecting with them, and the bottom line: you’ll be able to help them again.
How have you found new ways to help old clients?
source: Ant Smith
Yesterday, I grabbed a sandwich at a deli near my house and the place was packed. While I was waiting in line, one of the employees almost knocked me over. He was busy mopping the floor and putting the rugs back, while customers tried to walk past him to pick up their orders.
The floor needed to be mopped, but did the guy have to mop during the busy lunch rush? He was doing the right thing, but his timing was off.
How is your timing? Consider these questions:
A superstar realtor friend of mine has had a record year. Why? She calls her prospects back on the exact day she promises to call. When she shows that much attention to detail, the prospects are so impressed (and surprised), they hire her to represent them.
One of the few times a prospect she was working with decided to sign with another realtor, was when she responded to the prospect’s text at 3 am. The client had sent the text at dinnertime the night before and didn’t appreciate the text in the middle of the night. [Read more...]
In my last corporate job before I started my first business, I represented cartoonists and negotiated licensing deals for them. The first mistake I made was that I didn’t have an employment contract.
The second mistake was that I trusted my boss to have my best interests in mind. He didn’t.
For every deal I negotiated, I was supposed to earn 15% of the final price of the contract. When my boss realized how much money I was going to make on my first deal, he changed the rules and paid me a percentage of the amount the company made, not a percentage of the whole deal.
I quit shortly after that.
When friends asked me why I quit, and I explained what happened, they asked me why I didn’t have a contract. Ummm…I didn’t think I needed one? Obviously, I did.
The purpose of a contract is to make sure that you and your client understand what services you’re going to provide and at what cost. Otherwise, your client’s perception of what you’ve agreed to provide may be different from yours. With a contract, no one has to second guess what the deal involves and who is responsible for what. When you create a standard contract that you can use for most clients, consider having an attorney review it.
It’s important to build rapport with your clients and offer to help them as much as possible, yet you need to set limitations. When a client asks you to perform duties not included in your contract, let them know ahead of time that they’ll be billed for the extra time. No one likes surprises, especially when they involve money. Your clients will receive the services they request and you’ll be compensated for your time.
Stay in touch with your client throughout the project. It’s up to you to let them know the status of the project, so make sure you know whether they want you to call them or communicate via e-mail.
Work to fulfill all of the terms of the contract and to meet the agreed upon deadline. Don’t assume anything. If you’re unclear about any aspect of the project, contact your client.
A contract doesn’t ensure that everything will run smoothly, but it’s a good start.
Have you ever had a problem with a contract or the lack of a contract? Please share your comments below.
I’m trying to settle a disagreement between two of my friends. One is remodeling her home and the other is an architect. I convinced my remodeling friend to hire the architect to help her create the perfect plans.
I thought they’d work well together.
I was wrong.
Last week I sent my remodeling friend an e-mail to ask her how things were going with the architect. She sent me a one-page e-mail describing everything that had gone wrong with the project. She couldn’t understand why I would have a friend as nasty and unprofessional as my architect friend. [Read more...]
Yesterday I went to my favorite stylist to get a haircut. While she cut my hair, she mentioned how frustrated she is with her business.
She has too many clients.
In my book, that’s a good problem. Not so, in hers.
Instead of running her business the way she wants, she’s letting her clients take over.
Her main complaint is that a client will call her and expect to get an appointment within the next few days. (I learned the hard way and now book my next appointment before I leave her salon.) She feels bad about turning away clients, so she stays late or comes in early. She’s finally reached the point of burnout and isn’t sure what to do. [Read more...]
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