5. Answer the phone professionally. If the phone rings while you’re soothing a crying child or eating breakfast, let the answering machine take a message. You can always call back. Nothing sounds worse than hearing a crying child, a television or a barking dog in the background. When you do answer the phone, be sure that you’re ready to take the call. Don’t make the customer wait while you hunt down a piece of paper and pen to take an order.
6. Set regular business hours. Most businesses have set hours and so should you. When a business is in your home, it’s easy to let business encroach on your family time. If you don’t set regular hours, you may find yourself drifting back into your business space and doing work on personal time. You wouldn’t do that if you worked for a large corporation. Why do it now that you’re your own boss?
7. Talk in business terms. Even though you’re home-based, you can still sound like a big business. If you’re away from your desk because you’re making a cup of coffee in the kitchen, tell the client, “I’m away from my desk. Just a second.” Don’t describe what you’re doing at home. If you have your inventory in a garage, tell the client that you have to go to the “fulfillment center” to check on their order. Create department functions that you can use to describe where you are: shipping, customer service center, cafeteria, etc. If you want to be taken seriously, learn to talk like you’re a business, not a home-based hobby.
8. Sound like you take orders all the time. Every once in a while you’ll get a caller who wants to order over the phone, even though they can easily order online. Here’s a neat trick. While you have them on the phone, simply pull up your shopping module on your website. Tell the customer to wait a moment while you pull up the correct “customer service screen” to take their order. Then simply enter the order online for them, walking them through the questions and taking their credit card like any established customer service department would do at a large retailer. If helps build trust with the customer and saves you time re-entering the order.
9. Business address. If you live on Lilac Lane or Blackberry Circle, you may want to consider getting a PO box for your business address. Boxes are relatively inexpensive and it looks very businesslike when your correspondence has a professional sounding address. The post office often has a waiting list for their PO boxes. If they do, go to a mailing center such as the UPS Store and get a box there. If you live in an apartment, use “Suite” instead of the “#” sign for your address. It looks like you’re leasing office space in a complex.
10. Have a separate entrance. If customers are going to be coming to your home business, think seriously about having a separate entrance. Leading a client through your personal space to get to your business can be embarrassing for the client. There’s a bonus too. You don’t have to worry about dirty dishes in the sink or the mess your kids made in the living room last night.
