Managing Your Customers When You Work at Home

Work at Home Mom Managing Customers

When you think about managing your work at home business, you probably think about things like managing your time, your household, keeping up with deadlines, and finding ways to work around the kids. You might not have considered that you'll have to manage your customers and clients too!

If you haven't yet encountered a customer who needs to be "managed," count yourself fortunate. They will come. Ever heard of the 80-20 rule? It says that 80% of your customers will use up 20% of your time. And, you guessed it, 20% of your customers will take up 80% of your time. Those are the needy customers, the ones who want to remain in constant contact with you, the ones who change their minds all the time. And they're unavoidable, so plan ahead of time for how you will deal with them. And if you're already feeling like your clients don't respect you or your time, the following tips can help you regain some control.

First of all, you can protect your boundaries by having set business hours and letting your new clients know what they are. That will give them some parameters to follow when they want to get in touch with you. And hopefully keep you from receiving frantic phone calls in the middle of the night when you're trying to sleep.

If you want clients to respect your time, you will need to respect theirs as well. One way you can do that is by responding when you say you will. If you tell them you'll follow up with them on an issue on Tuesday, actually do so. That keeps the customer feeling like you do care about their needs and are maintaining communication with them.

You probably have voicemail on your phone, so use it. This is a good way to manage phone calls throughout the day, and you can reply to them when you have time, rather than get distracted from what you're already doing. On your voicemail, though, let the caller know when they can expect you to return their call. That will help keep them calm until you are able to get in touch with them. Some customers like to chat and need that personal touch. Let them know when you're available to take their phone call, and how long you'll have to talk. Then during the conversation, try to keep them focused on the topic at hand.

The same goes for your email. Some people expect an immediate response once they send you a message. Realistically, that isn't possible, unless you want to answer your email all day instead of earning an income. Setting up an auto responder message is pretty easy. In your outgoing message, thank them for getting in touch with you and let them know when they can expect you to reply. Then set aside part of each day to respond to your messages.

When you start working with a new client, let them know what the guidelines are. Remind them that these are in place so you can do your best work for them. Then stick to your policies. They will help you keep on top of your deadlines and keep all your clients happy.

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Managing Your Customers When You Work at Home

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