The several systems of card-indexes that can be applied to the purpose are so well known, that it would be somewhat superfluous to detail the arrangements of the cards. The central principle is to have them so kept, that when a customer writes at any time, his record card can be found with a minimum of trouble and clipped to the letter. The member of the firm who reads the letter and decides on the course to be pursued in regard to it, is by this means placed in full knowledge of the particular likes and dislikes of the customer, and of the other points necessary for him to recall.
There is a big advantage in this system over that of the personal call and personal selling—the salesman attending a customer may have forgotten his peculiarities, and may indeed never have seen the customer before, but the mail carrying out a letter-order has before him a compete resunge of all that relates to his wants and personal predilections.
There is, in fact, a far closer relation between buyer and seller in, the mail-order business than in ordinary commerce, and this is the outcome of the science of system.
The Art of repeat orders pay. So much money has to be laid out in attracting custom, and in maintaining it with periodical letters and circulars, that for the first couple of years the receipts will only be marking time with the expenditure.
Once a customer is enticed into the active list, he must be "nursed" very carefully, so as to retain his goodwill and produce a profit on his later transactions with the firm. Regular reminders should be sent to keep the name of the firm well before him, and any touch of personal interest that can be brought into the letters will much increase their persuasive power. As a case in point, a customer writes in reply to a circular that he is going abroad for a while and will not need the goods of the firm for some time ahead. Several months afterwards he writes again, enclosing; a small order. The inference is that he has returned from abroad, perhaps quite recently. In carrying out his order a covering letter is sent, stating briefly that the firm is glad to note he has returned safely, and expressing the hope that his trip has proved an enjoyable one. That is the personal touch. The note of personal interest should never be lost sight of If after the lapse of some years a customer who had given up ordering and had been placed on the "dead" list, sends for goods or makes an inquiry once again, the acknowledgment of his letter should be in the form of courteous recognition, not making a grievance of his having fallen away from "the fold," but regretting the former inability of the firm completely to satisfy his wishes.
When it is necessary to seek for repeat orders, the letter sent will be most effective if it is of the "shake-hands" type, not asking directly for custom, but merely reminding the customer of the firm's existence. Most
regular customers instinctively dislike any obvious pressure to buy ; an implied hint is far more likely to get on the right side of that curious perversity of human nature which is one of the main factors to be reckoned with by a mail-order firm.
The art of letter-writing is thus a vital part of the business. It is a game of psychology. A close student of human nature will so word his letters as to allow for the peculiar whims and perversities of mankind. "The customer is never wrong" might be hung up on the walls of the office alongside of " Do it now." However unreasonable the demand, an attempt should be made to satisfy it. However unfair his contention, it should receive a courteous answer. To satisfy a customer is to open the way for recommendations of the firm, and customers who order on the recommenda tio:i of,friends are in general the most paying class.
The Office Machinery.—In a first-class system the majority of business operations are made as purely mechanical as possible. When brain work of the judgment and initiative order is required, it is concentrated and centralised in as few members of the firm as can be arranged. A perfect system should ensure the automatic work of the business being performed with the accuracy, regularity, and trustworthiness of machinery.
The business machine in a mail-order business might be operated on the lines given below, though it is hardly satisfactory to particularise too much_ as different classes of business require special adaptations of system. Tilt, morning's letters are cut open and any postal orders, cheques, or other enclosures are thrown into a basket for the bookkeeping department's attention. The amount of cash in each letter is notified on the letter. The mail then passes to the index department, where a. record of the letter is added to the customer's record-card, and the card itself is clipped to the letter. If a new buyer, an index-card is of course specially made out for him. It then reaches the "clearing-house," where the order or letter is read by the "clearer," whose position in the mail-order business is of the first importance. The first duty of the clearer is to interpret the letter and p:.cscrilie the treat ment. If an ordinary application or order, the answer or covering letter may well be of a set type already decided on. A large variety of such stock letters form an integral part of the business machine. The " clearer" will then state on the letter the particular answer which appears to him best to meet the case.