• A customer profile will help you determine whom you want to attract to your business, how to reach them, and how to keep them.
• Using a computer spreadsheet, you can categorize them by age, gender, occupation, income level, marital status, family size, and leisure activities or any specific subsets that are particular to your industry
• Begin using a Contact Management program so you can gather information on your customers and then use it in the future to keep your profiling up to date.

Remember, people prefer to buy at their convenience, not yours. A recent study of retail shopping buying habits showed that…

• 30% of consumers buy between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays.
• 30% purchase on weekdays after 5 p.m.
• The remaining 40 percent buy on Saturdays and Sundays.

People have very little patience when they are searching on line for either products or services. Your competitors offering are just a click away and most of the “big box” organization sites whether it’s McKenzie for consulting or Amazon for shopping are frustrating to navigate.

People also demand a liberal return policy. Ask yourself, what’s it like returning something at your business or getting a refund for a service they are not satisfied with?

There’s nothing stopping smaller businesses from regaining the edge in personal service. Your small size is one weapon that the large chains can’t match. Breed & Co. employees install faucets for free, and Fisher Office Products slips Tootsie Rolls into customer deliveries.

Small businesses can offer relationship-building services that the big organizations can never match. One appliance store offers to come to its customer’s homes to show them how to program a VCR and most small service firms know their customers on a first name basis.

Large organizations often put customer service callers thru “voice options hell.” Once dialing thru the maze and selecting the right option, the customer often then has to wait even longer before speaking to a live person.

How often have you had that experience and then found out that the customer service representative on the other end was too poorly trained to help you, spoke so poorly that you couldn’t understand or that you must call back during “normal business hours.”

Strive to improve the atmosphere you create inside and outside of your business. What does you website look like? Are the trees pruned, grass cut, and is the building freshly painted? Inside, do your employees convey a professional image; is everything neat and well lit? If your place looks “tired,” or your employees “tattered,” people won’t do business with you.

Don’t try to beat the giants on “price,” rather command a premium and earn it by giving your customer a far better “value” and a pleasant experience. Remember to always say thank you. After a big sale, put it in writing. In this increasingly impersonal world, a handwritten thank you card makes a great impression.

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