How Do You Treat Your Customers?

I stopped by my sister's office briefly tonight before I came home to give her some papers she needed. She has owned her own business for over 20 years now; she is an award winning Certified Professional Resume Writer and has been published in numerous books. In June of 2008 her husband retired with 30 years of service as the Director of Printing at Ohio University. Since he was only 48 he wasn't really ready to "retire," so they expanded part of my sister's business that already existed under a seperate name from the resume writing service. They do custom printed clothing, promotional products of all kinds, engraving, trophies, plaques, banners and lots of other fun stuff!!

As I was in her office, a customer came in to pick up his order. My sister had just shared his story with me before he came in to the office. He'd stopped by their office earlier in the day as he was upset with a nationally known company that he'd went to here in our town to get some work done for his business he is starting. He explained to my sister that the magnetic signs he got from this company were the wrong type of magnet and caused damage to his truck when he tried to take them off. While the damage was minor, it was still a major problem and this company basically took an "i don't care" attitude with him. They offered no compensation, no refund on the defective product...they did nothing! So as he was leaving town very upset, he drove past my sister's office and decided to stop to see if they could help him with the right type of magnetic signs for his truck.

My sister assured him that they could provide him with the right type of sign for his truck and that they could have it for him later in the afternoon. And while he was in their office, he discovered they could also do his business cards for him. He left their office a happy man and returned in the late afternoon to pick up his signs and business cards and was thrilled.

He thanked my sister over and over again for the wonderful customer service they provided and said he would definitely be back to order some other things from them. He also said that he would be telling other people about their business.

BINGO!!! Just what every business owner wants to hear! A customer that is happy and goes out and tells everyone else about your business...some of the best advertising you can get and it is FREE!

Taking care of our customers is extremely important. We all know this as business owners because without them...we don't have a business! :-) As small business owners, its even more important that we go out of our way to take care of our customers and make them feel special and encourage them to return to our business and also tell others about our business. And taking care of them doesn't always mean giving them something extra, it can simply be a smile or a friendly email that let's them know you appreciate them and want them to be completely satisfied with their purchase!

So let this be a friendly reminder to you...take care of your customers! Show them why dealing with a small business is a good thing! We never know when the "big guys" might mess up and we might have to clean up after them!

Until next time ~ Blessings! ~ Dawn

Business & Marketing Review Service

I thought I'd take a few minutes and provide some more in-depth information about this new service I am beginning to offer for small businesses. I think some are thinking this is just a quick "shop" critique and its more than that as you will see below!

To start the process, we will send you a brief questionnaire. It will ask a few general questions about your business and what you are currently doing with your business in order to promote it along with some other general questions which will allow us to fully look at your business as a whole. This will then give us the chance to give you a full review of your business from your store to your marketing to how you ship your products and more after receiving your responses!

This is more than just a quick "store" critique. This is a chance for us to review your on-line blogs, ads, off-line marketing techniques and more and give you recommendations and suggestions in to your business as a whole.

If you are looking for a full in-depth review of your business and how it is working, then this service is for you!

Still have questions about this service? Feel free to contact me at shadesjewelry@aol.com!

Thanks, Dawn

New Service Being Offered

Just a quick note to let you know that I am now offering a new service for small business owners! Notice on the right side of the blog that we are offering small business reviews! After some requests from business owners and wondering if I would do personal reviews of their businesses, I decided that I would offer this service for those interested.

I'm currently offering it at a low price of $30 for a limited time. I feel this is a great deal as I will spend at least two hours or more reviewing all the information you give me on your business and I will then prepare the report which will give you detailed information regarding your business. This is a reasonable rate for probably 3 or more hours of work! :-) But I wanted to keep it affordable!

Feel free to email me with any questions regarding this new service! shadesjewelry@aol.com

Until next time...Blessings! ~ Dawn