SOHO Summit Shines Spotlight on Homebased Business Owners
Last month, corporate America met at the SOHO Summit to discuss a lucrative marketing opportunity: you. Find out if they're getting any closer to understanding your consumer needs.
By Jeffery D. Zbar
Corporate America, take note: Some of you just don't get the
SOHO experience.
Today's SOHO workers strive to be professional corporate
citizens, using technology and tools that mimic those they once
used in the corporate tower. Heed their words: Your product
offerings and customer support often don't deliver the human
contact, expertise and speed needed to help homebased business
owners who are overwhelmed, understaffed and generally stretched
way too thin.
Customer service is iffy, often linked to voice-mail hell. Tech
support? Don't make them laugh. They don't have the time to
deal with that. Homebased business owners need software that helps
them operate faster and more efficiently, computers and other tools
that help them multitask, and customer service representatives who
are trained to anticipate and service the specific needs of the
homebased worker.
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Serving these very specific needs for individual customers
"may be unrealistic and seem over-demanding, and the economics
may not make sense, but it's what we need," Julie
Morgenstern, a long-time at-home worker and author of Organizing
from the Inside Out, (Owl Books, $15) told 200 attendees at the
recent SOHO Summit in Carlsbad, California. "If I, as a small
business, can come across as a big business, that's going to
help me thrive. I need vendors who get it and feel excited to be a
part of our team. Our strength gets us through it, but we need your
expertise."
Guess what, corporate denizens? Morgenstern isn't alone.
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