GETTING THEIR NUMBERS.

Business Computing Tips
By Karen Fainges

The hardest part about contacting customers sometimes is finding their phone
number, fax and e-mail. You can buy lists from list brokers, industry
associations and groups or ring everyone in the phone book. The easiest way
is to ask.

Offer discounts, free newsletters, a birthday club whatever works best with
your client base. It can be as easy as a tissue box covered with paint and
some photocopied entry forms sitting on your counter. But just letting it
sit there doesn't work. Prompt them. With each receipt or bag, hand them an
entry form. Online businesses can do the same thing with forms and e-mail
prompts.

If you find it hard to choose what kind of incentive to use, ask people what
they would prefer. People like it when their opinions are listened to. Ask
and really listen. Keep a tick sheet behind the counter to tick which one
they choose, but while they are there, really listen. They are the people
who are going to spend money with you, probably thinking reasoning adults
who know what they want. All you have to do is ask them what it is.

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Please feel free to pass this newsletter on to your friends, just keep my
name on it.
Karen Fainges holds a Bachelor of Business, and a Grad. Dip. of Vocational
and Educational Training. A tutor for all ages, she specialises in helping
people get started on the long road to technology. "It has to be practical,
it has to be cheap, and it has to work."
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