Business stationery

Stationery – five golden rules

• make sure all your contact details are clearly displayed and easily legible
• decide on a style and layout and keep to it
• make sure your letterheads, compliment slips and envelopes match in colour and quality
• don’t recycle old letterheads or envelopes
• keep an adequate supply in stock.

Are your contact details clearly displayed?

Make sure that all your contact details are clearly displayed and easily legible on all your business stationery. This will help to distinguish your practice from that of any other therapist – as a client may have requested, or been given documents or leaflets from a number of sources.

Keep on top of any changes to your details, whether these are changes to your practice address, telephone number or additional qualifications (if you list these).

Layout and style

Layout and style help to define your image. Try out different styles and layouts until you decide on the one you would like to keep, and keep in mind the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act. This Act places a requirement on all service providers to provide information in as accessible a manner as possible. This means you should:

• select sans serif fonts such as Arial or Verdana
• refrain from using underlining, italicised or capital letters
• choose good contrasting background and font colours
• ensure your general correspondence is written in font size 12 or larger.

Thes measures will help anyone who is visually impaired to access your information and services. For more information on the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act, see Chapter 12.

Do your letterheads and envelopes match?

Your letterheads and envelopes should match in both colour and quality in order to present a professional image. If you use different coloured paper in order to differentiate different aspects of your initial booking package keep these to a minimum in order to avoid a messy or over-fussy look. Use pastel shades, not only are these easier to read text from but they will send out a much calmer message than a document which has been printed on a bright or neon colour background.

Recycling stationery

This should be avoided. Re–using old envelopes by sticking labels across them presents a poor professional image, as does amending letterheads or compliment slips by sticking on new address labels. Instead if you want to prove your ‘green’ credentials buy good quality recycled paper and envelopes from a reputable source.

Labelling your products

If you produce CDs or tapes, or your own brand of essential oil mixes, or any other products, make sure you also produce labels or insert details which clearly mark you out as the producer of these goods. Such items often get loaned out or given to friends, family or work colleagues – if your details are professionally displayed on these items, you may find yourself with another client.

That all–important first contact

Greeting clients

Ensure that your client feels welcomed and that any information they share with you will be treated in a confidential and respectful manner. Give your client time to settle themselves, hang up their coat or use the bathroom. Most clients appreciate some space at the beginning of a session in order to settle down, particularly if they have been rushing to see you straight from work and may be bringing with them the stress of their work or the journey. If you offer your client a drink as part of the settling-in process, make sure this is simply water unless you have time to allow your client to finish a hot drink.

Recorded messages

Your answerphone should have an appropriate message recorded for your business callers. If you record this yourself any potential clients will be getting a feel for you as a person by listening to your message even if they can’t speak to you direct. Ensure your message is friendly as well as professional.

Fax machines

Some clients will find it more helpful to keep in contact with you by fax. If you use your fax machine to reply to any client queries you should ensure that your response is made on your business headed paper and that you include a confidentiality statement. A form of words is given below:

The information in this fax is confidential to the intended recipient and may also be privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, please destroy this fax and notify the sender. You should not copy this fax or use it for any purpose, neither should you disclose or distribute its contents to any other person.

Replying to emails

If you get enquiries by email, it helps to have some standard replies ready in order to speed up your responses to requests for further information. If you keep these in a word- processed format in a separate folder, you will be able to catalogue your replies and cut and paste these into your emails as appropriate.

It’s good practice to include your signature and your contact details at the bottom of any emails you send, and you should also include a confidentiality statement. A form of words is given below:

This email and any attachments which may be included are confidential to the intended recipient and may also be privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify the sender and delete this email from your system. You should not copy it or use it for any purpose, neither should you disclose or distribute its contents to any other person.

Your website

Your website may be the first point of contact for some of your clients, so make sure that you have a well-designed site which is regularly updated and conforms to the accessibility guidelines for websites.

Compliance with DDA standards

It is a requirement of the Disability Discrimination Act that all information provided by a service provider be accessible. This includes your website. There are a number of organisations which can offer advice and help you to design web pages that can be accessed by most users whatever the nature of their disability or impairment.

Whilst many people with sight problems have at least some useful vision and can read web pages in exactly the same way as a fully sighted person, the needs of others with poor sight can vary considerably. Some can read large text, while others can read only smaller letters. Some will require a strong contrast for the colour scheme. Because individual needs vary so much, your website will need to be flexible in design, allowing a user to utilise their own browser to adjust the text and colour settings to suit their own particular needs.

People with little or no vision read web pages with the help of access technology installed on their computer, either via synthesised speech software or Braille software. If your site is poorly designed it could mean that a user utilising this equipment will not be able to access it.

The general advice from the RNIB on background, text and colours is:

• Choose a single, solid colour for your background – avoid images, patterns or bright colours.
• The contrast between the background and the text is generally more important than the colours.
• Make sure that your colour scheme can be over-ridden by the user’s browser settings.
• Avoid images of text, as these are graphics and will not be able to be overridden by the user’s browser settings.
• Capitals should be avoided as many people find these difficult to read.
• Restrict the use of italics as these can also be difficult to read.
• Avoid underlining text, as this can be difficult for some people to read and can be confusing as it usually indicates a link.
• Moving, blinking or auto-refreshing text are all best avoided – not only are they hard to read but are inaccessible to anyone using speech or Braille output.
• Text size is not so much of a problem, medium size text is fine, but you should ensure that you use relative font sizes in your code rather than absolute, as some browsers can’t override absolute font sizes.

For further information about web-based accessibility issues, see Chapter 12 which lists a number of useful websites and contacts where you can get further advice and download accessibility guidelines.

Good housekeeping

There are a number of routines or practices which will help the smooth and efficient running of your practice and promote your professional image. These are:

• keeping good filing habits and file structures
• backing up your business systems
• keeping clients informed
• keeping the work environment clean and tidy and supplied
• knowing where and when to make referrals
• using encryption, passwords and screen savers.

What are your filing habits?

Make sure you have a place in which to store everything you use, as this will help you get into the good habit of filing documents away as soon as you have finished using them and putting away any equipment after use. Files and other items left lying around not only make your practice look cluttered, they can be dangerous, cause a breach of confidentiality or cause you to waste time looking for documents.

Your filing system, whether manual or computer-based, should be simple and well- structured and you should allow yourself some time each day for keeping your filing system up to date. Any files or documents which are no longer current should be archived and kept in your long-term storage system, and any documents which you no longer need to keep, and which contain personal information, should be disposed of securely. For more information about keeping and disposing of records, see Chapter 6. You should also get into the good habit of regularly clearing down your phone messages, whether voice or text, and your emails.

Backing up your computer files

It is good practice to keep your computer files and system regularly backed up. How frequently you need to do this will depend on how you use your computer system. Ideally any files you have been working on should be backed up the same day, with a regular back up of all your files at least once a week. Keep your floppy disks or CD copies of your files in a locked filing cabinet when not in use, and make sure that they are appropriately labelled.

Keeping your clients informed

You should keep your clients informed of:-

• any changes to your practice details, such as a new telephone number
• any changes to your practice code of conduct
• any times when you will not be available
• any changes to your professional memberships
• any need to cancel or re-schedule appointments.

Any changes to your practice details should be updated as soon as possible on your website and on all your business stationery. You may also find it useful to include an appropriate message on your voicemail and answerphone and include the new details in any emails you send. Changes to your code of conduct could include changes to your cancellation policy or charges as well as any changes to your professional memberships, so it is important to regularly review this document to ensure that it is up to date.

If you need to cancel or reschedule appointments for whatever reason, it is good business practice to let your clients know as soon as possible. Contact your client by phone rather then email, as not everyone checks their emails every day. Keep your clients informed if you are going away on holiday or will be out of contact for any reason. Make sure you record a suitable message on your phone and leave a message on the auto-reply facility on your email system. If you would like to have your messages dealt with while you are away, investigate buying in some services. Some companies offer a PA/secretary service to handle all your business calls whenever you are unavailable, and you may find this useful.

Using encryption, passwords and screen savers

It is important to keep all your computer-based information secure in order that any personal data you may be storing on your computer is kept confidential. Your system should be password protected, and your files should be encrypted. Encryption software will often be pre-installed or included in the software bundle you received when you bought your computer. If you don’t have any encryption software you can download shareware software from the internet. For more information about encryption software, see Chapter 12.

It is good practice to have a screen saver which is password protected. Get into the habit of always leaving your screen saver on whenever you leave your computer for a few moments as this will avoid any potential problems with others trying to access your files.

Keeping the work environment clean, tidy and supplied

Keeping your work environment clean and tidy is important for the maintenance of your professional image. Whether you clean your rooms yourself or have a cleaner to do this for you, make sure that it is done regularly. If you use towels, pillow cases, couch covers or any other linen as part of your work, make sure you have a routine in place for getting these items washed and returned to your practice on a regular basis, or check whether it is cost-effective to get a company to do this for you. You may also find it cheaper, easier or simply more hygienic to use some disposable items, such as paper cups or paper handtowels.

Keeping adequate stocks of everything you use is important, not only will it save you from the embarrassment of running out of anything, it could also save you money. If you maintain your stocks and supplies at a certain level you may be able to save money by ordering in bulk, and also save time by ordering any supplies just once a month.

Making referrals

There are times when you will need to make a judgement as to whether you can, or want to, work with a client. This may be because you lack certain experience in relation to your client’s problem, or your therapy is not appropriate for your client’s needs, or you feel you have little rapport with the client which may hold back the healing process. In these situations you will need to make a referral to someone else. It is good practice to keep a list of other therapists or organisations to which you can refer your client. Make sure you keep telephone contact details as well as email or website details. Most clients are happy to accept a referral when you explain the reasons to them. It is more professional to refer someone on and your clients will often thank you for doing so.