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Welcome to SCORE
Greetings!
SCORE, Service Corp Of Retired (and Working) Executives, Counselors to America's Small Business offers free counseling to St. Louis area small businesses. For more information contact us at 314-539-6600 Ext. 242 or www.stlscore.org to learn more about what SCORE offers. Main Office - 200 N. Broadway, Suite 1500, (In St. Louis Place), St. Louis, MO 63102
St. Charles EDC office - 636-447-5000
St. Charles Development Center
5988 Mid Rivers Mall Drive
St. Charles, MO 63304 |
Customers For Life
How to Turn a
One-time Buyer into a Lifetime Customer
Carl Sewell, a successful businessman says, "If you're good
to your customers, they'll keep coming back because they like you". Ask your customers what they want and give it
to them. Don't assume anything. If the customer asks if you can do something
for them, the answer is always yes, providing the request is somehow related to
your business.
If you're in the service business do the job right the first
time and have a plan in place to deal with things when they go wrong. The people who deal with customers must have
the authority to resolve problems.
Use the following checklist to test new ideas:
- What's the benefit to the customer?
- Will the customer easily understand the
benefit?
- What impact will this idea, program, or
system have on our emplowees?
- How will it effect our existing
systems?
- Is anybody else doing it
successfully? What can we learn
from their experience?
- What could go wrong?
- Will it give us an advantage over our
competitors?
- How much will it cost?
- Will it make money?
- When should we evaluate it?
When something does go wrong, first apologize. Then fix the problem. Immediately!
Set high standards for your business and constantly exceed them.
Satchel Page once said, "Don't ever look back, because something might be gaining on you". Always look forward to find new ideas to improve your customer service.
Who is more important, your customers or your employees? Your employees are just as important as your customers, and they need to be treated just as well. Why? For one thing it's the right thing to do. For another, it's in your self-interest. How can you expect your people to be good to your customers if you're treating them badly?
Always thank your customers for doing business with you, and always try to thank your employees for doing a good job. Both thank yous are equally important.
If you smile, odds are they'll smile back. If you are polite, the customers probably will be polite in return. That makes it a lot easier satisfy them. Reward customers for doing business with you with frequent buyer programs. Stay in touch with your customers. They are your best source for repeat and referral business. The best advertising you can get is satisfied customers!
Need customer service advice? See a SCORE counselor for help. SCORE, St. Louis, www.stlscore.org 314.539.6600 x242
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New Feature!
Ask a Counselor
Question:
How do you crack St. Louis's "Circle of Five"? What's meant by "Circle of Five" is the small circle that a St. Louis business will rotate in. The same five people/organizations that they've known most all their life and are scared to death to go outside of. It's what holds St. Louis back as a serious business community and from exploring new opportunities with other businesses.
SCORE Counselor Response:
This is an interesting question. I am not sure if I have ever heard marketing limitations expressed quite that way.
The writer defines the Circle of Five in the following manner:"The same people/organizations that they've (companies) known most all of their life and are afraid to go outside of it.
Perhaps a better way to look at it would be:
ARE YOU CONSTANTLY RE-INVENTING YOUR BUSINESS
Look around you; things are changing so fast it is hard to keep pace, new products, new equipment, new technology, new methods, etc. Take a look around you, what companies that were major players ten-fifteen years ago are no longer around? How about the way business was transacted then? What an impact technology has made on our economy and the way we do business! Better yet, think of the impact technology will have on your business in the next five to ten years!
Are you aware of changes in your industry? Are you aware of new products, equipment, technology and changes made by your competition? What are you going to do about it? What impact will changes have on your sales next year? What changes will you make to compensate for those changes?
If our writer is seeing companies who don't re-invent themselves, perhaps he needs to seek companies who are and will be around for a while!!
- Gary O'Grady, St. Louis SCORE Volunteer
Send us a question about your small business, try to make it general and not specific to just your own situation, and one of our SCORE volunteers will answer your question in a future issue of this newsletter. Let us know if you want your name published or not. Send your question to Ask a Counselor at SCORE St. Louis. |
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Member Meetings
There has been a change in schedule for the upcoming member meetings. There will be a Membership meeting Thursday, October 30th. Originally there was no meeting scheduled for October.
See You There!
Event: Annual SCORE Luncheon
Date: October
2, 2008
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Improve Your Business!
REGISTER NOW!!
SCORE Seminar
"How to Start and Manage Your Own Business"
Sat., Oct. 18, 2008
SCORE has several Entrepreneurial Educational programs to help you learn more about running your business successfully. SCORE programs include:
"How to Start and Manage Your Own Business"
Oct. 18, 2008
St. Louis C.C. @ Meramec
Nov. 15, 2008
St. Louis C.C. @ Meramec
SCORE Workshop
"Relationship Marketing"
October 4, 2008
St. Charles EDC
To learn more about these courses and dates, times and how to register-
CLICK HERE
And starting in January of 2009, a new Workshop series in cooperation with the St. Charles City/County Library. Details soon!
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Recently launched on the National SCORE web site is a site for Women Entrepreneurs. Jump start sales. Set goals. Achieve success. Sign up today!
http://www.score.org/women/site.html
Also, a new Women's blog
http://www.womensblog.score.org
Looking for SCORE, St. Louis, information?
Go To - www.stlscore.org |
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Two New Products on IRS Web Site Enable Small Businesses and the
Self-Employed to Easily Locate Essential Information
These new products are part of a year-long campaign to help educate new self-employed small business owners about federal
tax responsibilities and about filing Schedule C, Profit or Loss
from Business.  IRS article
help them locate important tax information on IRS.gov quickly and easily. They can order this free laminated bookmark on the Small Business Products Online Ordering page.
A new page on IRS.gov
at
"Self-Employed Individuals Tax Center"
is a one-stop, starting point for small businesses and self-employed taxpayers who file Schedule C with their Form 1040 and provides links to information on the most
common issues new business owners face.
To get the latest information about other future Schedule C program events and learn about new products and services as they become available, start a FREE subscription to just go to
e-News for Small Businesses - type in your e-mail address and submit. |
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Coming Soon!
A new SCORE branch office in Kirkwood, MO. Due to open in early October, check our website for details!
www.stlscore.org
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