All businesses have a common bond: they exist to serve their customers. To serve customers well, know as much as possible about them. What do they shop for? Is it to fill a need or a want, for “good feelings,” or for “solutions to problems”? Knowing your customers means knowing what makes them feel good and providing them with it, as well as understanding their problems and addressing them.

A customer profile will help you determine whom you want to attract to your business, how to reach them, and how to keep them. Categorize
them by age, gender, occupation, income level, marital status, family size, and leisure activities.

Make it easy for customers to tell you who they are and what they think. Provide postage-paid cards for customer surveys. Hold a drawing for free merchandise, and ask on the entry form if they intend to purchase the type of product you sell within the next 60 days. Consider giving a $25 gift certificate to the customer whose suggestion is chosen as the best.

Direct Tire in Watertown, Massachusetts, goes after customers who want to be pampered. “While customers could spend less for a set of tires at the nearby Sam’s Club or Sears, they won’t find better service anywhere.”

While customers wait, they can either relax in a clean customer lounge stocked with free gourmet coffee and fresh pastries, or drive one of 15 free loaner cars.

Breed & Co., a hardware, housewares, and lawn and garden store in Texas, found its niche in the battle against Home Depot. “If you can’t find it at Breed & Co., you won’t find it in Austin.” Breed expanded beyond hammers and bolts to Italian pottery, Waterford crystal, and furniture.

Fisher Office Products, in Boise, Idaho refocused their business around customers with 50 or more employees, and took steps to deliver competitive prices and outstanding service. They joined a large buying group, invested in an expensive computer system, and moved to a spacious distribution center.

People prefer to shop at their convenience, not yours, and they demand a liberal return policy. A recent study of shopper’s habits showed that 30 percent of consumers shop between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays. 30 percent shop on weekdays after 5 p.m., and the remaining 40 percent on Saturdays and Sundays. What’s it like returning something at your store?

An advantage of the big stores is they post greeters at the door, and train their people to use the customer’s name when they pay by check or credit card. At Home Depot or Wal-Mart, the turnover is so high that a different employee is at the door each time a customer returns. Your small business is run by people with familiar faces. Moreover, few of the employees at big stores possess real product knowledge.

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 stores can never match. One appliance store offers to come to its customer’s homes to show them how to program a VCR.

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. Or, using your customer files, send birthday cards offering a discount during that month.

San Diego store, Brady’s Clothing for Men, ask customers not only for their names and addresses, but also for preferences in colors, styles, and sizes. When the store finds itself with a surplus of size 40 shorts, employees can search the database for men who wear that size and reach out to them with a special offer.

It costs five times as much to gain a new customer as it does to hold on to an old one. Improve the atmosphere you create inside and outside your store. Are the trees pruned, grass cut, building freshly painted? Inside, is everything neat and well-lit? If your place looks “tired,” people won’t shop there.

First impressions on the phones are also important. The phone should be answered on the third ring. Pick up too quickly and you startle the caller; wait six or seven rings and the caller becomes frustrated. Identify your business clearly, and ask, “How may I help you?” or “How may I direct your call?”

Your employees are the ambassadors for your business. Find good employees, train them well, and treat them like superstars. Successful companies pay their employees more than the going rate. Keeping them happy has them rewarding your customers with better service. If your staff is more interested in talking to each other, than to the customers they will take their business elsewhere.

What people want more than ever today is a personal relationship with whom they’re doing business. They want personal service at a competitive price. One size fits all leaves out a large portion of the market. Find your niche (what your customers really want and need) and fill it.

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