Do your customers or clients know you appreciate them? Really know? Here are some tips for proving your customer appreciation:

1. Make others know they are important.
2. Show them what's in it for them in what you're doing.
3. Put yourself in your customer's shoes.
4. Show them you're human.
5. Refrain from negative advertising... always emphasize the positive.
6. Ask your customers how you're doing... and act on their feedback.
7. Defuse problems quickly.

I've found that one technique that helps to do almost all of the strategies above is to send greeting cards. It's such a caring way to let others know you're thinking of them and it is so unexpected... especially from a business. Sending cards is almost a lost art, you know?

You can read more about these customer appreciation ideas in greater detail at my main website, GainCustomerLoyalty.com...

"Is SendOutCards a scam?" is a question I get a lot at my website and there are many, many searches on this topic each month in the major search engines. One might think where there is smoke, there is fire, right?

But here's the thing... I am a distributor for this card system, and I have to say, it's one of the best small business marketing opportunities I've found. The Send Out Cards scam just doesn't exist. It's true that many online companies are nothing more than scams, out to take your money and disappear with it.

But, in my opinion, this company is much different. You see, they offer a service that ANYone can really use... from my next door neighbor, who just wants to stay in touch with her large extended family that lives all over the US... to my real estate agent, who sends cards to all of her potential prospects... to the Web-based consultant who follows up with his clients periodically to stay in the forefront of their minds... and so on.

If you have a need to stay in touch with others or let people know you appreciate them... and who doesn't?... then Send Out Cards can help. Yes, there is a business opportunity -- if you want it-- and yes, it is a network marketing plan, but it's not a pyramid scheme and you don't have to join the business opportunity to be able to participate in this card system.

The best way to see for yourself, though if SendOutCards is a scam, is just to try it out... on me. I give free gift accounts to anyone who's interested in seeing for themselves what it's all about. Send 2 free cards to anyone you want and I'll pay for it. Not only that, but I'm available to answer questions, walk you through the process, and show you all the things that the system can do. Don't worry... I don't use hard sell techniques... I'm just your friendly, everyday small business woman, who's seen for herself how effective this type of relationship marketing can be.

Check it out... on me...

Business concepts and buzzwords come and go. Kaizen marketing, "the customer is always right"... you've probably heard them all. Some concepts are right for their times or for a specialized target market.

Others are more enduring. One of those enduring concepts is the idea of "relationship marketing". So what is it? Well... Relationship marketing is an emphasis on building a long term rapport with customers rather than individual transactions.

There are many ways to do it. One of the ways I've found to work best, though, is by sending out hand-written, printed and personalized greeting cards to show my customers that I appreciate them, that I'm thinking of them, and that I value their business.

According to Wikipedia, relationship marketing is defined as follows:

"Relationship marketing is a form of marketing that evolved from direct response marketing in the 1960s and emerged in the 1980s, in which emphasis is placed on building longer term relationships with customers rather than on individual transactions. It involves understanding the customer's needs as they go through their life cycles. It emphasizes providing a range of products or services to existing customers as they need them."