REMEMBERING

Business Computing Tips

By Karen Fainges

Remember when you were a kid and you got your own mail for the first time.
It was addressed to you and it was for something fun, like a birthday card
or Christmas. It made you feel important.

You can pass this feeling on to your customers. If you have a record of
birthdays, great, but for most of us, this information is too hard or
embarrassing to come by. So make up your own holiday. Give them a "You've
had your new rubber duck for a year, Happy Birthday duck" card. Make sure it
has no blatant advertising on it, but it must have your phone number and
other contact details. Leave the advertising for a separate sheet.

On the separate sheet, tie the advertising to the celebration. Give them a
list of duck presents, upgrades for their duck, or a second duck for their
friends. Offer a discount or free gift. Be sure they have to fill out an
info card to get it. Viola, you have the makings of a great database.

Don't be scared to do your database in whatever program you have. With the
FIND command in most word processors and spreadsheets now, it doesn't even
have to be a proper database. The main thing is keep it up to date and input
all the details in the same format. Otherwise it makes it difficult to use
the information for mail merges and other applications.

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Please feel free to pass this newsletter on to your friends, just let them
know I wrote it.

Karen Fainges holds a Bachelor of Business, and a Grad. Dip. of Vocational
and Educational Training. All that is nice but it's the 14 years of having
to make sales or starve that make her think she has really learnt what does
and doesn't work. 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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