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Getting Repeat Bookings:
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Apart from following the advice on having a happy home party hostess , you also need to keep in touch with your previous hostesses, to give them more opportunity to book with you again.
Only a select few will suddenly decide out of the blue that they’d like to host another party, hunt down your business card, and get on the phone to you.
Here are a few ideas on ways to stay in touch with your hostesses:
Guest parties
If guests have booked parties through a hostess, she will usually attend their parties too – make sure you spend a little time chatting to her personally, thanking her again for this booking and asking whether she enjoyed hosting her party, subtly finding out whether she might be interested in doing another one.
You could perhaps put a little discount voucher in with her purchases to encourage her to buy again another time. If she’s a regular customer she has more chance of booking another party with you.
Newsletters
Try asking each hostess for her email/postal address and send her updates on what new crafts you’ve created, perhaps offering discounts to her as a hostess. You could also try getting guests to sign up at parties, so that they are also aware of what you’re up to. Just make sure they’re happy to receive these newsletters first. Regularly mention in your newsletters any special offers for hosting a party, or upcoming special occasions they might want to host a party for (eg Mother’s Day).
Hostess only parties
A nice idea once you have regular bookings is to have a home party at your own house that is just for previous hostesses. This will make them feel special, give them a chance to see what new craft items you’ve created and hopefully lead to more bookings. This is a good way to boost your Christmas bookings if you hold your party in September or October.
It all comes down to good customer service. If a hostess has a good experience with her first home party and then continues to feel like a special customer she’s very likely to want to do it all again. So one of the best customer service tips I can give you is to find ways to make your hostesses feel special!
In keeping with this, you also need to deal with any awkward situations that crop up in a sensitive way. Occasionally you might find some items missing at a party that you didn’t sell – if you want to get more bookings from the hostess, DON’T blow it all out of proportion. Here is a really useful survey in relation to this. For those of you who make jewellery, the rest of the site is a gem too!
Another difficult situation is when a customer is unhappy with their purchase for one reason or another. Whether it’s the customer herself or the hostess that contacts you about it, do whatever you can to resolve the situation and keep them both happy.
Offer to replace or refund, and I would also send a small token by way of apology, e.g. a gift voucher or one of your smaller items. You’ll never gain anything by being rude to a customer (even if they are rude to you first), but you do have lots to lose. One of the best known customer service tips is 'the customer is always right' and that's because word of mouth advertising can make or break a small business.
Take heart though, this shouldn't happen very often. Your guests have usually all had a chance to check out their purchases before they’ve bought them, and also don’t want to embarrass the hostess by making a big stink! So as long as you always strive to create the best quality crafts you can, you won't have too many problems.
Follow these few customer service tips and hopefully you'll have hostesses queuing to book their next party!
