If you’re thinking about turning your hobby into a business, it is a path many have taken, but it also means many have struggled to stay afloat for a number of different reasons. Small home-based businesses need to maintain one thing with their customers: a personal touch. And while this term can seem somewhat generic and vague, let’s zoom in on this and help you utilize one or many of the following strategies:
Customized Services or Products
When you take to individual customer needs and preferences, this goes a long way to give them that faith in your abilities to deliver excellent customer service but also to make them feel special. While this may seem like a big task, there are little ways for you to customize or personalize each order. Something like foil printing with a number of different designs can help you to do something personal for them. Handwritten thank-you notes or personalized messages are also a great way to add a human touch.
Personalized Communication
We have to stay ahead of the curve, particularly when it comes to tailoring our services to the individual. Therefore, personalized communication by using their name in emails, messages, and during interactions can help build that all-important bridge. It may be difficult to remember customers’ names, and, particularly, their preferences and past purchases, but this is where a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system can be the very tool you need.
Flexibility
If you accommodate customers’ schedules, this means you are going one step further than most. Granted, when you are delivering services to customers through home-based deliveries, you can create a firmer intimate connection if you deliver them yourself. But if you can work with the delivery provider to offer some form of flexible schedule or even put across the impression that you are more amenable than you really are, this will do a lot for your reputation.
Personal Shopping Experiences
This is something that many high-end businesses do and may not be feasible as a home-based business. However, if you have a core group of customers that keep returning, for example, through subscription services, you can provide things like one-on-one consultations or virtual personal shopping experiences. This can help customers find exactly what they need, while also ensuring you put across that personal touch.
Exclusivity
When you provide special discounts or even early access to new products to reward loyalty, you will make them feel more valued. This sense of exclusivity can be extended to things like follow-up communication, interacting with customers on social media platforms by responding to comments and messages, as well as sharing something of yourself through personal stories to help customers feel more connected to your brand.
- There are a number of strategies at play, and small home-based businesses can find themselves limited in specific ways predominantly due to budget. However, this is where you can double down on the little things that create personal and memorable experiences for your customers and will foster loyalty and set yourself apart from contemporaries and even larger, less personal competitors.
