A Little Touch of KindnessBeing kind is important in business networking as well as in life. Build customer loyalty with wholesale greeting cards from Send Out Cards

I know it has happened to me in the past. Maybe it has happened to you at some point as well? In our busy fast-paced world it is easy to loose track of our customers, clients, well even friends and family members for that matter. We have every intention to keep in contact and want to give the best customer service, but we just get so wrapped up in the happenings of every-day life. We may be thinking of getting in touch with a customer one moment and in the next get interupted by a phone call or email and the ‘prompting’ is lost forever… or at least until we think about that person again sometime down the road.

When I found SendOutCards my life became much easier. SendOutCards makes staying in touch with my customers as easy as sending an e-mail, but as personal as sending a handwritten card. I can choose from 15,000 cards to find just the right one for the occasion, or I can make my own using SendOutCards Picture Plus feature. (I used this feature here to make a very special thank-you note for one of my customers.) No more running to the store and picking out a card. No more searching through drawers for the right postage stamp. No more walking out to the mailbox in bad weather to mail it. SendOutCards does it all for me. I pick the perfect card from the Card Catalog, type my personal message and click send. The elfes at SendOutCards print the card in my own handwriting and with my own signature. Stuff it into an envelope. Lick the stamp and put it in the mailbox.

That “Personal Touch” is so important, especially in this time and age where impersonal e-mails seem to have become the norm and the quick way of staying in touch. Just think how your customers or clients will feel if you remembered their birthday. They walk to their mailbox and there among all of the bills and advertisements is that handwritten card from you. (Btw. you can even include a gift with your card.)  Whom do you think they will remember the next time they’ll need your kind of products or service? SendOutCards’ Contact Manager makes it easy to keep in touch with customers, clients, friends and family. Never again forget a birthday or anniversary or that special occasion.

Try it out for yourself. Just visit my website. Click on the red banner that says “Click to Send a FREE Card.” Select the greeting card you want to send from the card catalog, type your message, upload an image and click “Send Card.” Tada! You’ve just sent your very first card. (Here is a video you can watch beforehand that will show you how to send a card.)

Pretty simple, huh? And fun! And pretty easy on the budget as well. You can send a greeting card for as low as 62 cents plus postage. That’s very reasonable considering that the average greeting card costs between $2 and $4 according to the Greeting Card Association. You can also send a postcard for as little as 31 cents (plus postage.)

Well, enjoy sending out your FREE greeting card, and please don’t forget to leave me your comments below.

This story landed in my inbox a couple of days ago and I just had to write about it today. It seems, although we all are so very busy with our lives and don’t seem to care, customer appreciation is still very much alive. Especially in our small towns.

Read this heart-warming story…

The Richest Man in Town

CHAPTER ONE
The Handshake

It’s amazing what can happen just by paying attention. Besides, I never thought I would have a life-changing experience at Wal-Mart.

I don’t remember the exact date I met Marty for the first time. Up to that moment, nothing that day seemed particularly important – certainly not what brought me to the store in the first place. Like a lot of people who want to get through a checkout line, my thoughts were on speed, nothing more. The line I was standing in wasn’t moving as quickly as I wanted, and I glanced toward the cashier.

There stood and affable-looking man in his seventies. Slightly stooped and of average build, he wore glasses and a nice smile. I thought, well, he’s an old guy and it probably takes him a little longer to get the chores done.

For the next few minutes I watched him. He greeted every customer before he began scanning the items they were purchasing. Sure, his words were the usual, “How’s it going?”  But he did something different – he actually listened to people. Then he would respond to what they had said and engage them in brief conversation.

I thought it was odd, but I guess I had grown accustomed to people asking me how I was doing simply out of a robotic conversational habit. After a while, you don’t give any thought to the question and just mumble something back. I could say, “I just found out I have six months to live,” and someone would reply, “Have a great day!”

This old cashier had my attention. He seemed genuine about wanting to know how people were feeling. Meanwhile, the high-tech cash register rang up their purchases and he announced what they owed. Customers handed money to him, he punched the appropriate keys, the cash drawer popped open, and he counted out their change.

Then magic happened.

He placed the change in his left hand, walked around the counter to the customer, and extended his right hand in an act of friendship.

As their hands met, the old cashier looked the customers in the eyes. “I sure want to thank you for shopping here today,” he told them. “You have a great day. Bye-bye.”

The looks on the faces of the customers were priceless. There were smiles and some sheepish grins. All had been touched by this simple gesture – and in a place they never expected.

Some customers would walk away, pause for a moment, and look back at the old cashier, now busy with the next customer. It was obvious they couldn’t quite comprehend what had just happened.  They would gather their things and walk out the door, smiling.

Now it was my turn. As I expected, he asked me how I was doing. I told him I was having a good day.

“That’s good,” he said. “I’m having a good day, too.” I glanced down at the name tag on his red vest, the kind experienced Wal-Mart cashiers wore. It read, “Marty.”

I said, “It looks like you enjoy your job, Marty. “He replied, “I love my job.” Marty told me how much I owed and I handed him some money. The next thing I knew he was standing beside me, offering his right hand and holding my change in his left hand. His kind eyes locked onto mine. Smiling, and with a firm handshake, he said, “I sure want to thank you for shopping here today. Have a great day. Bye-bye.”

At that moment I wanted to take him home and feed him cookies. It was as if Sam Walton had come back from the dead and invaded this old guy’s body.

I left the store, walked through the parking lot and got into my car. On the drive home I couldn’t shake what had just happened. I had been in that store a hundred times and had never walked away feeling like that.

Who was that guy?

He did something different – he actually listened to people.

Click here to watch the 3 minute DVD movie: “The Richest Man in Town”

And if you liked the story, please share it with your friends and leave me your comments

A little touch of kindness goes a long ways. So does a nice gesture. A piece of chocolate. A brownie or cookies.  Have you ever noticed the dish of candy in some professional offices? It’s not for the employees (although they might enjoy it too).  It’s for the clients. There’s something about chocolate that gets us into a good mood. I’ve never seen a person eating chocolate and being crumpy at the same time.  Maybe before, but not after putting that delicious treat in their mouth. And when we are in a good mood we are more likely to buy something, agree with or do business with someone.

Gail was a freelance graphic designer with the typical self-employed person’s problems:
lots of work, but little money coming in. Although her business was brisk and her billings
were high, her clients simply weren’t paying their bills. “My money seemed stuck in their
bank accounts, ” says Gail. Gail tried a number of tactics to convince her creditors to
pay – from letters that said “Please pay soon” festooned with smiley faces to diplomatic
phone calls – but nothing worked.  Desperate, she stumbled on what turned out to be a
brilliantly effective idea: bribing them with baked goods. “I would send out reminders
of past-due invoices with the enticement that if paid by a specified date, I would reward
the client with fresh baked cookies, brownies, cake – whatever they wanted. And it worked.

From The Power of Nice…Let ‘Em Eat Cake, by Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval, pp 31

They say, “you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.” Or in this case with cookies and brownies.

Another example, my husband, who’s in the mortgage industry needed a loan closed before the holidays last December.  As we all know, things move very, very  slow right before the holidays. To expedite the loan, he send a box of cookies to the underwriter and what normally would have taken 2 – 3 weeks was done in just a few days.

Sweeten the deal!!