This is a question that should not be over looked. The front desk is first and far most important to start with, because this is your business face. It is not the looks, but it is the way your front person answers the customer. The way you express yourself gives an impression of who you are- be it, a personal encounter, on the phone, or the tone and the look of your home web page, can tell you are smiling.

What you should know is you are, and will always be dealing with consumers who have full buckets of questions. Not everyone is familiar with your product, and your everyday customer is always not your next client, so patience and a grin will be magical believe me. A consumer is looking for assurance, knowledge of your product, and of course options. One thing they are not there to do is waste your time and temper with your patience buttons.

I recently took my youngest son to a dentist office near my home. Our regular dentist moved and my son had a terrible toothache, and I had no time to drive to his practice out of town, but opted to try the nearest I could get. Sure enough, I was told to bring him in- this is just five minutes drive from my house, and for me, this was it, I am changing wheels, for convenience.

I entered the practice, and behind the desk a lady sat, her eyes fixed on the computer screen in front of her. I approached the glass window and she looked up and asked, "yes! can I help you?" For me her tone of her voice was not welcoming, it sounded rather like, "yes! what do you want here?" I didn't make much of it, until on my second, then third visit, and later on the phone when I was explaining my insurance policy- why they wouldn't pay 100% if they don't submit the billing with proper information. Now she was literally screaming on the phone, because to her, what I was explain was nonsense, until I got my insurance customer service to have a three way phone conversation, then it made sense. As I listened in, she still had her high tone, and I was close from telling her to emulate the other customer service person. This was it for me, and I don't know how many have left, because you can call in any time they will accommodate you, their appointment book is not full, they seem to have time for knew clients.

Do You Change the Quality When Demand or Your Costs Changes?

Most companies normally change the quality of their services or products when they encounter high demand and high costs. One thing you should have in mind is that, the client chose you not because of your prices, but the quality and value they are getting from your business. It is common sense, the higher the demand the higher the price, but make sure you increase the quality of your services to keep it from dropping nose first.

Whatever your services are, your client's most concern is, the safety and quality you are offering. They are open to options, but are you offering safety; this is the same in any type of business, airline, manufacturer, food industry, drugs, the list would go on- it is safety...!

Don't put your cost on the clients to minimize your loss and maintain your profit. Rather, look in other ways of sharing the cost and keep your client, you will be surprise how open to share the cost the clients are, when their satisfaction, and safety is considered.

Many food chain companies, especially fast food providers make this mistake, when their cost of products goes up. Instead of maintaining the quality of their product, the very thing that brought their clients, they opt to maintain their profits. Customers will go for smaller potions, with quality, if you are lucky, they will return sooner than you expect them or order double meals, and the only thing you can do is, lose the last cents from the numbers on your menu, e.g $12.99 to $12.50. You will be surprise what number psychology can do to many food loving people.

I noticed recently, with the oil prices relentlessly driving the prices of food up- many eating places have changed a few unnoticeable items on their regular plates. For example they used fresh mushroom, but now they use tinned mushroom, putting the consumer who is watching his daily intake of sodium at risk, as the tinned products turn to have high levels. This is a small but unconsidered thought, for it is only saving the provider's profits and compromising the consumers health. It seems unnoticeable, but not to a regular client, who is coming back for more because of the quality of your product. You don't want to lose your old clients and gain a few new ones- because it is the old clients who spread the news about your product and you wouldn't want to lose such a force.

You want to grow you business? start with your facial expressions, your front desk. You don't have to fire anyone, but you can surely train an old dog new tricks. If it is your front page of your website, give it a facelift, there are great and modern young graphic designers out there, a few dollars won't hurt, but restore. Then please keep the quality of your product intact and just keep on improving on safety, and look out for new trends on demand, right now, green sales.