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- Websites link of the Week
www.ancestry.com & www.familysearch.org
& www.pro.gov.uk/census If
you have ever wondered where to start looking on the worldwide web to find
out your family roots and heritage, then these three sites will give you a
great start. The third one is the newly released British Government site
that details the full census completed in the UK in 1901. It makes for
very interesting reading.
This week’s customer service "Touchstone"
- Birthday and festive seasons cards to clients.
I don’t know anybody who doesn’t enjoy receiving a birthday card or a
card celebrating their particular religious festival. And that includes your
customers.
Never underestimate the power of sending a customer a birthday card. And
when you do, make sure that, just like the thank you card, it is hand
written.
But how do you get your customers date of birth? Sometimes by asking
them, but more often than not customers fill out various forms when they do
business with you that have their date of birth along with other personal
details. This is another reason for maintaining a good accurate customer
database.
Most of us know the birthdays of our close friends and relatives. I
challenge you to achieve the same level of awareness with your customers.
An alternative to cards, which some businesses are using, is the sending
of virtual flowers or a virtual bottle of wine. This is an email generated
greeting which, whilst it has some novelty value, I’m not sure whether it
has the desired effect or not. The first time I ever received one of these,
I confess to having somewhat mixed feelings and thinking that if they
thought enough of me to send a virtual bottle of wine, why couldn’t they
send the real thing. Wine after all, is for drinking, not looking at, is it
not? I believe there are more effective ways of sending a birthday greeting.
In the western world, there is a strong tradition of sending Christmas
cards to customers and suppliers, a tradition that I wholeheartedly support.
However cards that have been mass-produced and mailed out in the hundreds or
thousands without being personally signed lack sincerity and run contrary to
the spirit of the festival. If the only reason you send out cards is because
you think it is expected of you and you are hell bent on making the process
as quick and cheap as possible, do you and your customers a favour and don’t
bother. It is better for customers to think you don’t care than to send
this type of card and confirm it.
One of the problems with Christmas cards is that your message gets lost
amongst the myriad of other cards that your customers probably receive
around this time of the year. And if you are unsure of the religious
persuasion of your customers, send a general ‘festive season’ card as
opposed to a ‘Christmas’ card. Another option is to send a New Years
card instead. Because New Years cards are hard to find, you will most likely
have to get some designed and printed. This will increase the ‘specialness’
of your greeting card and have you and your company stand out from the pack.
Until next week, many happy customer returns!
Graham Harvey APS
Next week: Clean vehicles.
Watch out for Graham’s new book Seducing the Vigilante Customer – winning
strategies to guarantee the return of happy customers and healthy profits,
available in all good book stores early in 2002.
Previous newsletters available at www.grahamharvey.com.au/Articles/
Please feel free to recommend "Touchstones" to your
family, friends and business colleagues. Tell them that their free
subscription is waiting for them at www.grahamharvey.com
