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A recent guest post on RCG has dealt with the issue of how best to treat and respect the time of your customers. The author Dave Blakeman of RPS put forward the idea of sending the customer a gift i.e. vouchers or chocolates as a thank you for your time. The idea is also supposed to increase the chance of a sale. I can see his logic behind the idea, but if I were a customer, I would think that it would be lame attempt at buttering me up.

The best way we have found to deal with customers is to be honest and upfront. We make sure we don’t overstay our welcome, we don’t push for the sale that day unless they want to go ahead, no hard-sell or no pressure. We like to keep it nice and informal, make sure the customer doesn’t feel uncomfortable in their own home. This works nearly everytime because there are still lots of companies using the hard-sell methods and trying to get the sale right there and then. Our customers are always pleasantly surprised when we finish the appointment without lots of pressure to sign immediately.

Treat the customer right, no pressure, no hard-sell and the need to send the customer a gift to say thanks for their time shouldn’t be needed.