Gift Basket Business Blog

Help Your Employees Succeed and Help Your Gift Basket Business

Maybe you’ve found the perfect person to hire! She has experience in a similar business and demonstrates all the skills that are required for the job. But how can you be sure that she’ll succeed in your business?

Even a person with experience needs to know your expectations and learn your procedures. When you hire someone new, take some time to teach them what they need to know to be successful. Be clear about your vision and mission for your business as well as the values you hold about handling customers and working cooperatively with other employees. Make sure that you’re very clear about your “rules”: what time they are expected to get to work, how long breaks and lunch should be, whether they can accept personal phone calls, etc.  Then, be concise about how you want things done. If you have certain expectations for cleaning the work room, make sure they know it. If you have want specific information from all new customers, give them a list of questions to cover when they’re helping a customer.

Once a new employee knows what you expect, give her lots of feedback during her first weeks at work. Correct mistakes, but also point out when things have been done exactly as you want. Ask her questions: take advantage of her experience. And most importantly, model the behaviors you want. If you expect your customers to be treated with dignity and respect, then treat your employees in the same way.

Helping your employees be “the best they can be” will work well for them, for your customers and for your business!

4 comments July 26th, 2009

Good Service Relieves High Stress

In the July/August issue of Specialty Foods Magazine, author Ari Weinzweig offers “Even More Low-Cost Service Tips for High-Stress Times”. This is the third installment of this three part series. If you missed the beginning of this series, read Part 1 and Part 2 for some great ideas.

I especially like two of the tips that Weinzweig suggests in the final portion of this series.

• “Just Say Yes”. When a customer calls you with a problem, he/she is often angry, disappointed or frustrated. Before dealing with the problem, it’s important to deal with the feelings. After listening to the customer make his/her points, you can simply say “yes, that sounds like a problem, let’s work something out”.  This type of response can diffuse the negitive feelings. It offers the opportunity for the customer to feel “right” and gives you a chance to start to solve the problem rather than being the recipient of all those negitive vibes. After all, if you’ve been agreeable, why would the customer need to stay angry? Now, you can offer some suggestions to resolve the issue.

• “Be Careful Where You Say I’m Going on a Break“. If I’m waiting for a someone to take care of me, there’s nothing more annoying than a sales clerk who sees me standing there, then announces “it’s time for my break”. It’s not that it’s wrong for your employee to take a break when there are customers around, but there’s a better way to deal with this situation. Approach the customer and acknowledge that he/she is waiting. Then tell the customer that you will find someone to help them immediately. This way, the customer feels “noticed” instead of annoyed. Once your employee brings someone else over to the customer and says, “this is Anna; she’ll help you right now”, your employee can quietly leave for a break without ruffling feathers.

These simple, straightforward customer service tips will impress your customers and make them feel that they’ve come to the right place! What other low-cost customer service tips do you use in your business?

Add comment July 21st, 2009

Growing Your Home Based Gift Basket Business

Many successful gift basket businesses started as home based businesses. And if you are interested in starting such a business, be sure you check out Shirley Frasier’s “How to Start a Home Based Gift Basket Business” and learn how to create a business plan, find suppliers and new products, set prices, market, stay profitable and much more!

But once you’re up and running, the work has just begun. There are still many things you can do to continue to grow your home based business. Read this article on Entrepreneur.com: Ten Ways to Grow Your Homebased Business.

Here are a few of the ideas that will help you be successful.

1. Start by focusing on a specific product or group of products. Think about what you love: are you a sports fanatic? Did you just have a baby? Draw upon your interests to find the best products and create the most unique designs one or two categories. You may also want to read Flora Brown’s blog: “Three Ways to Determine Your Niche Market” for ideas on how to choose the focus for your business.

2. Expand your product line to offer complementary products or services.  If you specialize in gourmet and gift baskets for weddings, think about adding wedding accessories such as invitations or wedding favors.

3. Join forces with another company to promote your business. Remember those wedding  baskets? Ask your local florist to pass out your business cards to brides. Likewise, you can distribute the florist’s cards to your all of your customers.

Learn more and grow your home based business into a powerhouse!

1 comment July 9th, 2009