Gift Basket Business Blog

“No Cost” Gift Basket Services

May 16th, 2009 at 11:52am Lorie Obernauer

As we try to regain our share of the market and keep our customers coming back, we often turn to strategies for advertising and marketing. And many of these approaches cost money which we might not have in our budgets during these tough economic times.

In the May issue of Specialty Food Magazine, author Ari Weinzweig offers some “no cost” ideas for attracting and keeping customers. Here’s some ideas that you can easily implement.

• Make Your Customers Feel Welcome. Whether you have a “brick and mortar” store, or you do most of your business by phone, it’s critical that we make our customers “feel good” as soon as they contact us. If you have a store, this can be easily accomplished by greeting each customer with a smile and a big “hello”. Make sure that your employees don’t assume that someone else is taking care of the customer. Every employee should stop what they’re doing for a moment to say hello and inquire as to whether the customer needs some help. Likewise, your employees need to be attentive when they answer the phone. I’ve had many experiences when I’ve called a business and the person answering the phone sounds harried or bored or generally, less than enthusiastic. Frankly, that type of greeting makes me cranky (not a good attitude for a customer)! Ask your employees to stop what they’re doing when they answer the phone and act as if the person is right in front of them. In other words, smile and say hello with warmth…and mean it!
• Actively Engage the Customer. Whether the customer is in your store or on the phone, your employees should spend as much time with them as possible (instead of trying to finish up the sale quickly). Taking some time to “chat”, and using good questioning techniques coupled with good listening, an employee can learn a lot. While the customer might be purchasing a gift for her mother, she might remark while chatting that her husband’s birthday is around the corner or a friend just had a baby. These could be two more opportunities to sell a gourmet basket.
• Make Time for Employee “Tune-ups”. While we might do an excellent job with orientation and training with our new employees, we sometimes forget that our long-term employees could also use a refresher course in customer service. In addition to traditional training opportunities such as workshops, have your older employees help train the new recruits. Ask them to tell the “newbies” how they treat new customers: what they do to keep the customers happy and coming back. This might be just the reminder they need to “perk up” when they are greeting and waiting on your customers.

Read the full article and take advantage of these “no cost” ways that you can increase customer loyalty and satisfaction AND see the results in your bottom line. Please share your ideas on “no cost” ways to make your business grow.

Entry Filed under: Uncategorized, Business Tips, Customer Service, Employee Training