1. Fine-tune your website. The expected 49%  increase in online shopping is encouraging enough to make double sure your website is fine-tuned and ready to go.
2. Hire temporary help. Interestingly, budget pricing and sales-watching were not considered during our nation’s time of economic recovery. What was suggested was to utilize the high unemployment rate to snag some quality temporary help to give the best possible customer service. Get creative and utilize the exceptional talent that is available right now—you’ll be helping them while they help you.
3. Beef up your customer services. Be sure your customer service is absolutely the best it can be, adding 800 numbers and customer chat capabilities to your website if possible. Email alerts, fast shipping and consistent availability of hard to find items are good ideas, too.
4. Social Networking. Facebook isn’t just for students anymore. With over 300 million active users, the over-35 demographic is the fastest growing. This doesn’t look like a short-lived trend, and a Facebook-Twitter presence has  become as essential as a good web page in essential business practices.

Open Forum believes that the 2009 holiday season will be markedly different from last year. We all know that predictions aren’t always correct, it’s always good business to be ready for the busiest season of the year.

Read the entire article here: http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/money/article/what-customers-want-for-the-holidays-julia-rogers

An important side note for Christian families:

A Timely Homeschool Entrepreneur Discussion Topic:

We always try to pass along  tidbits to help your home business, but our main objective here at HSE is to encourage and highlight the benefits of mentoring through a family business. It’s so easy to get caught in the undertow of the commercial aspect of the holiday season, with or without a family business to run. Discuss with your children how your family really wants to experience the holidays, and how you feel about this time of year – and what you want your family/business to stand for. This is the season that most retailers prepare all year for. How should Christian entrepreneurs really respond to that? Set goals as a family that will reflect integrity over profit – and enter this season deliberately, before the whirlwind hits. It will be a lesson your children will carry with them for a lifetime.

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Many of you out there will wonder if I’ve gone a little looney, and others will know exactly what I’m talking about. After a few years of homeschooling, it starts to become second nature to see learning opportunities in everything you do, and developing the ‘Entrepreneurial Mindset’ is no different.

Teaching the entrepreneurial mindset is often as simple as noticing when a business is doing an exceptional job. Pointing out many of the details you might take for granted trains them to see how things are run from an owner’s point of view. This was an excellent example.

Last week we took a trip to my son’s college to watch him play soccer and spend a little time with him. He happened to be playing on a Tuesday night, and we returned home the next day. That evening we learned that my oldest daughter’s 2 year old, who has a rare condition called MPS1, or Hurler’s, had been approved for a bone marrow transplant. I’ll spare you all the details, but it  involves a four (4) month stay in the hospital and the best hospital to do this procedure is 18 hours away (Minneapolis, MN) from our Tennessee home. This will put their family (my oldest daughter, her husband and MY 5 grandchildren) 18 hours away – in a hospital – over Thanksgiving AND Christmas.

Like many homeschool families, we are very close, and all live in the same area in Tennessee. Josh is the farthest away in college, a little under 3 hours away. So the thought of everyone being separated at the holidays was hard, but if it gave little Josiah a longer life, it was worth it, of course! Immediately we tried to plan a time the entire family could get together before they left for Minnesota.

So when the prospect of everyone getting together at Josh’s college, the only weekend that worked for everyone was the coming weekend. Yes, only 3 days after we had just visited. Sparing you all the details, it was the only time it  worked for everyone before they had to leave for Minnesota. But there were still lots of details to work out… and it depended largely on if the hotel would work with us or not.

Long story short, we contacted the Holiday Inn in Dayton and explained the situation to them and made our requests. They replied promptly and were extremely gracious in their accommodation. I mean really gracious. I don’t want to tell you everything because I don’t want them to have to deal with all the extra requests they might encounter as a result, but I wanted to make a point that customer service is truly the commodity of the century-and they get an A+.

I know that hotels are supposed to be hospitable, but we have stayed in several places in the area, and that isn’t always what we have found. If you have stayed in many hotels, you know that quality varies widely – even in the same chain and star-rating. There were 12 of us that stayed in 4 rooms, and everyone noticed the service, the cleanliness and the AMAZING breakfast. However, the most outstanding feature was how nice and helpful ALL the staff were. It was definitely one of the best run hotels we have stayed at.

My point is that not only have they secured all of our families’ loyalty, but we’ll tell everyone. So they invested a little time, gave us a small discount and, IMHO,  received a great ROI in return. One of my (grown) children even commented that they wouldn’t mind owning and/or running a hotel like this.

So next time you experience a company giving you extraordinary service and you have your children with you, point out to them how that makes you feel. Then ask them how that kind of service might affect a business. One of the best ways to teach the ‘Entrepreneurial Mindset’ is to make it a habit to notice how different businesses are run, and how it might be improved, and why. Sometimes exceptional experiences in certain establishments have even inspired young (and old!) people to go into that particular business.

By the way. . . that Holiday Inn is in Dayton, TN. Tell them the Maubach’s sent you. (They might even leave the light on for you…)

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Entire companies are created simply to study and help other businesses improve their customer service and image. It takes a great deal of time, effort and money to gain one customer, and simple tokens of your appreciation for them can cement their loyalty to you for life.

Competition is fierce in every field, and outstanding customer service will set you apart. This young entrepreneur has caught this concept early and has given you three simple ways to show your customers how much you appreciate them, ways they won’t soon forget.

http://www.juniorbiz.com/general-business/77-3-simple-things-you-can-do-to-make-your-customers-happy

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