No matter what kind of work you do from home, how you treat those that you work with counts! You may be sitting at the computer in your PJs, but you need to make sure that your interactions with both your customers and any coworkers that you have are both courteous and professional.
When you’re in a casual environment it’s tempting to adopt a casual and carefree attitude about your business interactions. Don’t do it!
Mary Emma, who blogs at Home Biz Notes shares a story from Yvonne Russell of Grow Your Writing business. In the story, a self-employed hairdresser decided send out friendly reminder notes when her customers were due for another haircut. Predictably, her business benefited from this added personal touch.
Here are some other tips to help you provide that personal edge:
- Watch the tone of your e-mails. It’s easy to let an unprofessional attitude creep in. A good trick is to save the e-mail as a draft before sending. Come back later and reread the draft with a “fresh” set of eyes before you send it.
- Say thank-you! When someone is helpful, acknowledge it. So few people even bother to say thank-you any more that this courtesy will quickly help you stand out.
- Relate to your customers and colleagues as individuals. There’s a big difference between relating to your boss simply as “the boss” and relating to her as “Joan, who also happens to be my boss.”
- Ask for suggestions on how you can improve. The results might surprise you. Implementing ideas from customers and colleagues could save you time and money.
- Strive to build ongoing relationships. This is what the hairdresser from Yvonne’s story was doing. Check back in on old customers from time to time. Acknowledge them during the holidays.
Hi Laura
These are all great points. Using email as a business tool is interesting. As you don't have face to face or verbal cues, and emails are often written quickly, there is scope for misinterpretation of the intended tone, nuances etc., especially if you don't know the person well.
Emoticons can be used as "qualifiers" but a lot of people, especially in business, are not keen on receving emails with emoticons. As you say, rereading becomes even more important in business as opposed to casual informal communications.
Posted by: Yvonne Russell | July 19, 2007 8:28 PM | Permalink to Comment