Customer Service
How to Handle an Impossible Interior Design Client
The interior design business can be a triumph or a trial, and sometimes both. There are always lessons to be learned and improvements you can make in your practice. I’m leaving names out to protect both the innocent and the guilty. If you’ve been in business over 5 years, and likely over 1 year, you’ve…
10 Wickedly Simple Ways to Woo Your Clients
You can do what everyone else in business does or you can stand head and shoulders above the competition and make a real impact and remarkable difference. The “10 Wickedly Simple Ways to Woo Your Clients” described here will help you stand out when you implement them on a consistent and persistent basis with your…
Interior Design Fail: When You Screw Up Do It With Grace
On a recent project where we’re installing hardwood floors, my clients offered to have their handyman/contractor, Tommy, receive the hardwood. We had it delivered 4 days early to acclimate before installation. I know Tommy through another client who has used him for years. When I called him, I got a pick up on the first…
How to Increase Your Furniture Profit Potential
The great news about home furnishings is that for every home built, every home renovation completed, every move made, and every family addition whether a baby, young adults, or seniors moving in, furniture is needed. Knowing how to increase your furniture profit potential is the key to benefiting from the consumer need for home furnishings.…
How to Sell More Furniture by Design
How to sell more furniture is actually pretty simple, but you may have been hiding your retail gold. I meet a lot of furniture retailers who have a valuable team of designers but they aren’t showing them off as the gold they are, to attract and capture a boatload more business. If you don’t have…
Don’t Send Holiday Cards to Clients…Here’s WHY
Do you always send holiday cards to clients? Stop it. You aren’t standing out from the crowd, in fact, you are just another bit of noise at a very busy time of year for everyone. In addition, if your card isn’t written personally and addressed by hand, all it says is “I sent one of…
Irresistible Customer Service: They Do It With Two Hands, Do You?
I’ve got a confession. I’ve developed a very bad habit lately. It’s called Pinkberry, do you know it? I was originally a fan of Yogli Mogli (if I didn’t explain these are frozen yogurt outlets, you’d think I had some strange disease, lol.) The trouble is that I’ve become allergic to a lot of food,…
Customer Service Fails: Are You Taking a Bite Out of Your Business?
The other day I was at a local neighborhood vegetarian cafe. It is owned and operated by my former caterer. His food has always been great, but customer service sometimes questionable. For example, there was the last party he catered for me, food was divine, mouth watering bite-size appetizers including such delicious morsels as brie…
5 Steps to Handling Unhappy Customers
Recently I got one of those many emails promising me a peek at my credit score. Well it had been over a year and I was curious as it is always a good idea to keep tabs, so I filled out the necessary information. I know, I know, when they asked for my credit card…