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Over lunch with the manager of a craft store, I learned of a customer who regularly brings her ill behaved children to the store. They deliberately break things, tear signage, and in general leave a mess wherever they go. The employees cringe every time this customer shows up with kids in tow.

Last week, the customer decided to take her children to the store’s restroom, and was stopped by an employee. She was told they don’t have a public rest room, and that no non-employee was allowed in the back area.

The customer got indignant, got loud, and harrumphed out. The question during our lunch discussion of this story was about word-of-mouth. Do this woman’s friends know how her children behave? When they hear her story, will they automatically assume the store is in the wrong, or will they understand that their friend has parenting issues?

And, if these hypothetical friends are like our customer, do we want more of these people in our stores?

I don’t shop in craft stores, but I do wish parents of ill-behaved children would be encouraged not to bring them to dine at my favorite restaurants. Hearing about a place that defended my dining experience, by insisting that the parents reel in their kids or leave, might result in great word-of-mouth for people like me.

In Website design it’s common practice to create an anti-persona which represents a vendor’s biggest time wasters, and in hopes of driving off others like him, design a less than optimal experience for that personality. Is there a parallel in the bricks and mortar world? Have you seen this happen? How has it affected the store’s word of mouth?

I welcome your comments.

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Have you ever had it happen, that you’re discussing something obvious with another person who refuses to admit the current circumstances, and insists that things SHOULD be different? Every now and then marketing consultants run into this delusion, usually held by the owner of a small business struggling to stay afloat.

It’s hard to see your business as potential customers do when you’re wrapped up in the day-to-day operation of that business. That’s why you bring in someone from outside – to give you the unbiased perspective you need.

I refer you to a hypothetical small Internet Service Provider in a small town. The town doesn’t matter. The business, as I said, is hypothetical; at least, for the purposes of this article.

Diversify!

It made perfect sense to the ISP owner to add web design services. He hired a designer, and a coder.

Then, he decided to branch into the creation of a web-based software product. He hired another coder, and some (by the hour) highly-educated professional people to write the individual software modules.

And finally, seeing another opportunity, he invested in hardware and software to provide off-site data backup.

Of course, with no dedicated sales staff, people were not lining up to hire his web design, or web-based software, or even his off-site data backup.

His additional payroll started eating away the profits of his original business.

Came the press release.

One day, according to the local newspaper, a large local business contracted an out-of-town company to design its e-commerce web site.

Our friend, the ISP owner, was outraged. “They didn’t even let me bid on the project!” he vented. “People in this town just don’t want to support local business.” At least, that’s probably what he would have said, if this had ever happened.

And had I been part of this conversation, I’d have likely pointed out that the large local business was going to invest a lot of money in their e-commerce site, and needed the assurance that they were getting help from a company that specialized in solving e-commerce problems. I’d have noted that when the stakes are high, only a specialist provides assurance that you’ll get exactly what you need.

There’s a basic problem in marketing your business.

There’s a problem in marketing any business. You can compete as a commodity producer and try to be the lowest-cost provider, or you can be clearly and compellingly unique.

Here’s a hint: only that which is different gets noted, or talked about. Want strong word-of-mouth? Do not be interchangeable with any other company.

Second hint: for incredible word-of-mouth, become known as the solver of one particular problem. Don’t try to be all things to all people.

Put yourself in the mindset of a customer. Say you own a company which deals in vast amounts of computer data, and were worried about the safety of that data. You’re concerned about fire, or earthquake, or even vandalism. You’ve heard of off-site data backup and storage, and you’re intrigued by the possibilities. Will you trust the future of your company to a provider that also does web design? Or will you find yourself inexorably drawn to someone who lives and breathes data safety, 124-bit encryption, and full redundancy?

It’s not the customer’s fault that he isn’t comfortable trusting the ISP to deliver a completely different service. He needs to stop blaming those potential customers who do not feel doing business with him.

The good news is it’s not too late to turn things around.

He needs to dump the web design business, sell off the web-based software product (if he can find a buyer), and set up the off-site backup as a separate company with a qualified salesperson as the separate company’s new manager. He needs to go back to being known for providing Internet service.

At least, that’s what I’d have told the ISP owner, if this conversation had ever actually taken place.

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I attended my first Amway recruitment meeting in 1978. A successful looking young man, and an equally successful looking middle aged woman each did a 20 minute monolog on how much money each of us “up-line” would make from each person we recruited, from the people they recruited, and from the recruits recruited by the recruits of the recruits.

I sat quietly for about three quarters of an hour (and through six charts designed to help me visualize my income increasing geometrically with each additional recruitment level).

Finally, when they offered to answer any questions, I asked “Who sells the soap?”

The presentation we sat through assured us we could make money by recruiting, rather than by selling. But the company exists to sell cleaning products. At some point, someone has to sell soap.

Telling people they can succeed in multi-level marketing without having to sell is an attempt to draw raw numbers of people into the organization, in hopes that some of them might stumble across a sale before they get discouraged and quit. The vast majority of them will never sell anything.

It’s the “stuff against the wall” theory.

It’s very much like the numbers from the early days of e-mail marketing. People spent nearly nothing to blast out 5 million e-mail offers a day, and made pretty good money on the 650 or so who responded. That translates to a conversion rate of 0.0000013%, if you’re counting.

More stuff against the wall.

But, let’s not get sidetracked. Today we’re talking about selling the soap.

Ever notice that just about every expert at selling on-line, teaches how to sell “How to sell on the Internet” information?

It’s the 1978 Amway presentation all over again – make your money on recruiting other people who will recruit other people. Don’t worry about moving product. Instead, buy the resale rights to somebody’s report, and sell that report to some other fool.

These things appear to work because people so badly want to purchase their dreams.

Everyone wants to own a company that has lots of sales, but no one wants to do the selling. Everyone wants to be 6 levels up-line, but no one wants to talk to shoppers about soap.

Yesterday, while researching a topic for a client, I blew $8 on a report titled What Your Potential Joint Venture Partners Really Want. On the last page it says “Making money with this report is very easy. Simply send people to the sales letter site using this URL . . .”

So, you buy the report. You then have the privilege of selling the same report, while sending your “customers” to the writer, where he fulfills their orders and harvests their e-mail addresses.

(Side note: since I’ve purchased the resale rights, I’ll sell it at my price: $0.00. If you want a copy, drop an e-mail to ChuckMcKay@ChuckMcKayOnLine.com, and I’ll send you the report at no charge. If you feel guilty about not paying for it, make an $8 contribution to your favorite charity).

Information marketers know most of the people who buy information are paying a premium for the dream, and will never apply the info. It’s also common knowledge that people who buy “how to” information buy lots of it. Many spend thousands of dollars on advice that they never apply.

And then there are the gurus who promise the secrets of setting up a web site that “sells for you 24/7,” so that you never have to make a sales call while the money comes rolling in. You know what the sad part is? When it doesn’t work, the dream purchasers assume they’re doing something wrong, and they only need to buy the next big Internet “secret” to have the cash start rolling in.

A public speaker I’ve crossed paths with, frequently makes thousands of extra dollars per talk by selling information products from the back of the room. Suspecting that people weren’t applying the information from his course, and wanting to find out, he packaged a six audio CD set, deliberately manufacturing #2 and #5 as blank disks. He told me that out of 300 courses sold, only two people contacted him to complain that #2 was useless. No one called to ask for a replacement for CD#5.

To his credit, he’s in the process of changing careers.

People want to buy the dream. They will pay handsomely for it. Especially if they don’t have to sell anything.

Let me wrap this up by reminding you what you’ve known for decades. If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Now, you have an additional tool to analyze any potential offer.

Figure out who sells the soap.

If it’s not you, it probably is too good to be true.

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Final thought: there are people making money selling through the web. They’re not necessarily getting rich, but they are experiencing positive cash flow. They’re building sustainable on-line business the same way entrepreneurs have been building bricks and mortar businesses for thousands of years: by meeting the needs of one customer at a time.

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Empowerment. It’s what’s shifting the balance of information from sellers to buyers.

Just a few years ago the conventional selling wisdom was to brag about the good word-of-mouth, and try to hush the bad. Since the only thing customers tended to have in common was that they purchased from the same seller, they weren’t able to tell each other much about their respective experiences.

When the seller told prospective customers the good news of a positive referral, they may have never heard the bad news from other customers.

But technology has changed that balance by connecting, and empowering, the buyers. They’re connected through cell phones, through IMs, chats, e-mail groups, blogs, podcasts, and vidcasts. They’re sharing information.

They’re talking about you. They’re doing it right now.

In the past I’ve stated you are in control of your company’s word-of-mouth. I’ve even explained how to budget for word-of-mouth. And here I am telling you that customers are talking to each other and leaving you out of the process.

Let’s discuss some real world causes of word-of-mouth.

Imagine a customer planning a getaway for a family of four. She’s checking prices online, and finds Best Western has a price-match guarantee. She finds a better price at HotelClub.net, books a non-smoking room, and submits a price-match claim.

Best Western rejects the claim because she booked a non-smoking room, and HotelClub.net didn’t guarantee a non-smoking room.

Being the stubborn type, she goes back to HotelClub and books a smoking room. She again submits her claim and is again rejected. This time it’s because although their hotel only offers two double beds for the occupancy of four persons, she didn’t specify that she wouldn’t accept a double and two singles, or even four singles.

Think she might put her story on the web?

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Suppose a customer was excited by the news that as of January 1, 2005 Blockbuster was no longer going to charge late fees on their movie rentals. Further suppose he had rented one, and didn’t return it within a couple of weeks. Would he be upset to find he’d just purchased that movie?

Then, to add insult to injury, the company indignantly states that there ARE no late fees any more, which technically is true. They’re not charging a fee for keeping the disc. Instead, they’ve just sold it to him.

What do you think? Will he sit on this story, or share it with other anonymous prospective buyers?

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Making false promises, and weaseling out of them is so common that savvy shoppers automatically begin by reading the fine print in the offer.

Look at the basic price match guarantee. To qualify for the price match, a shopper should have to compare apples to apples. That’s fair, isn’t it? In order to match the price, the items sold must be exactly the same, as evidenced by the model number.

Suppose a shopper found the exact same Minolta camera at three different major retail chains. Oh, wait, they’re not exactly the same.

One is marked 430si, one 450si, and one 400si. That model number is literally the only difference. The major retailers (who purchase a lot of Minolta cameras) have successfully negotiated with Minolta to help make sure they’ll never have to pay off on any price match guarantee.

Might a disgruntled shopper put that story on the web?

It isn’t just Minolta, and this strategy isn’t limited to cameras. My brother-in-law found a similar situation with Dyson vaccuum cleaners. No two chains carry exactly the same model. Their respective model numbers differ only by the hyphenated final digit.

While researching this article, I found the Minolta story. Since then, the page has been removed, and yet, you’re reading about it here anyway. That’s another example of applied word-of-mouth. Another example of the persistance of word-of-mouth.

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A buyer checking out Netmarket’s 200 percent price match guarantee, would have found Netmarket also uses this strategy, (“Exactly the same means an item with the same model number, manufacturer’s U.S. warranty and accessories, as the one you bought from Netmarket.”)

But just to make absolutely sure they’ll never pay off, Netmarket has added a couple of extra steps.

First, they require you to contact the manufacturer and prove to Netmarket that the company you bought the item from was indeed authorized by the manufacturer to sell that model number at that particular price.

Second, the competitors ad can’t state a “no return” policy, can’t limit the number you’re allowed to purchase, or can’t have an expiration date.

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CampusTech’s price match guarantee states that once you’ve actually placed an order with them, the item no longer qualifies for the guarantee.

Huh?

They’ll price match right up until you actually purchase, then the deal’s off.

Of course, CampusTech maintains a $50 limit on their match and says they won’t sell below cost, no matter what the price guarantee.

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Best Buy’s web site offers to let you purchase on-line, and pick up the merchandise at the store, where the price is higher. The Best Buy folks will tell you that their on-line sales happen through a separate entity, who sets prices independantly.

Will upset buyers tell people about this if they felt cheated?

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We could go on discussing individual examples of companies who dishonor their advertising in their fine print, but I’m sure by now you get the idea (and I also hope you start reading that fine print much more closely).

Years ago if a customer was outraged to find himself a victim of this weasel clause strategy, the only people who might hear of his experience were close friends or co-workers. If one of them was in the market for a vaccuum or a camera, he might have affected their purchase decision. Chances are, few of them were in the market at that time.

But now? Now, your customers, although total strangers, are telling each other exactly how you treated them.

My original point was that you control the word-of-mouth related to your business, and you do.

All you have to do is treat your customers honorably.

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In 1993 I watched from behind the glass as a focus group of young women unanimously agreed about the most useful thing to their morning routine. It was a morning radio disc jockey’s “Color of the Day” feature.

All they had to do was to listen for the color of the day, then choose an outfit of that color. One less decision to be made by busy wives and mothers during the most hectic part of their day.

The ladies perceived local traffic to be a major issue, too, even though none of the men we interviewed shared their opinion (or for that matter found any value in the Color of the Day). Those features would be useless clutter to a radio station trying to attract as listeners the men we interviewed.

But a station attempting to gain the ladies in my story as listeners would be well advised to add morning traffic reports to their Color of the Day.

What’s meaningful to one group of people is frequently meaningless to another.

As marketers we need to understand the people we’re targeting. We need to appreciate the topics they believe to be important, and craft messages which talk about those issues at an emotional level appropriate to the strength of their belief.

We don’t care what non-prospects think of our message.

In the focus group example the things the women found valuable, the men thought silly. (Tuck that away for the next time someone wants an ad to reach “everybody”). But when it came to the Color of the Day or a morning traffic report, it didn’t matter whether those men reacted at all. They were not the target.

I direct your attention to Roche Pharmaceuticals and GlaxoSmithKline’s current television ad for Boniva.

Boniva is the trade name for ibandronatef. It’s prescribed as a treatment for osteoporosis in postmenopausal women. Sally Field is their celebrity spokesperson. Since her osteoporosis diagnosis in 2005 she has taken Boniva to build bone mass.

The ad opens on a close-up of Ms. Field.

My girlfriend and I were talking about osteoporosis and she told me she has to set aside time one morning every week to take her osteoporosis pill. I said, “I take once monthly Boniva. It fits my routine.” And she said “That I can do.” Boniva helps build strong, healthy bones to prevent fractures with just one pill a month. With all I do for bone health Boniva fits right in.

Now, despite the derogetory comments of two gentlemen friends of mine, I’m betting that the research indicates post menopausal women find setting aside time to swallow a pill to be a real issue.

My friends opined that worrying about the time required to swallow one pill a week is ridiculous. But then, they still don’t really believe the surveys which show women prefer chocolate to sex. And frankly, we don’t CARE what they think. Neither of these gentlemen will ever purchase Boniva, or recommend it. To Boniva’s marketers, my friends don’t even exist.

The ad ends with,

Sally Field: Ask your doctor if Boniva is right for you. My girlfriend is so glad she did.

Announcer: Don’t wait another week. Ask your doctor for a free trial offer or call one eight hundred four Boniva.

In your experience, is pill swallowing, (or more accurately the setting aside of time to swallow pills), an issue for post menopausal women?

Please post your thoughts while I’m gone. I’m stepping out to buy some chocolate stock.

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I was recently having lunch with an old friend for the first time in years, catching up on mutual friends, and jobs, and families, when he mentioned how much he and his elder daughter enjoyed a particular cellular phone ad.

He was able to recite a substantial portion of the dialog. He emphatically told me this was the best ad on television.

Out of curiosity, I asked the name of the advertiser.

He couldn’t remember.

Pause with me for just a moment, and let this admission soak in.

He remembered the ad, and couldn’t remember the advertiser.

Ouch.

How many millions of dollars has that advertiser spent to entertain my friend, his daughter, and hundreds of thousands of other people?

And they can’t even recall whom to thank.

I submit this is not the best ad on television.

In fact, would not a great ad accomplish exactly the opposite? You’d remember the advertiser, or his product or service, and not have any recollection of where your impressions of that advertiser came from?

Too many times advertisers seem to get it backwards. They want ads that look and sound like… ads. In fact, the more those advertisments look and sound like other ads, the more comfortable the advertiser is with the presentation.

The downside? The more they look and sound like other ads, the easier they are to ignore.

Think back with me a few days into our mutual past. Do you remember any ads catching your attention? Assuming you said, “yes,” did they catch your attention because of the sameness of those ads? Do you remember saying “My goodness… this ad appears to be more like all other ads than any I’ve seen this week. It stands out in my mind because of its ability to blend in with all of the others?”

Or, did it stand out as different, and because of that difference become worthy of attention, and remembrance?

Be careful with that quality of memorability.

Are you remembering the advertiser, or the ad?

Making ads memorable is easy. Insert a gorilla in a jockstrap into your next ad. It will be noticed, and remembered. It may even be talked about. And much like the cellular telephone ad, it won’t sell a dime’s worth of your product.

Can we agree that the purpose of your ads is to communicate to a prospective customer that you have goods and services for sale? Can we agree that our objective is to persuade that prospective customer to come shop with you?

I submit that good ads, persuasive ads, communicate an idea which will be remembered. Once the idea is shared, the vehicle which carried it to the prospective customer is quickly forgotten.

When people are saying, “Hey, that’s a great ad,” chances are it’s not.

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The nice young man from the television station has patiently presented his ratings, shown you the qualitative studies on his viewers, and presented the package pricing. You’ve decided to run a television ad. .

Whazzat? He needs to know what you want your ad to say? Let him decide. He’s the advertising expert. You’ve got a business to run.

Oh, look. He’s back with the finished ad. Humm. Interesting idea. Maybe you should get another opinion. Let’s ask the salespeople who have to deal with our customers what they think of this ad.

Stop it.

Either accept the ad, or don’t. But stop gathering opinions of people who flat out don’t know. There’s never been a conclusive study to indicate why, but there are three things everyone believes they can do better than their fellow citizens: drive a car, make love, and create advertising.

We’ve all seen their driving, and seen entirely too many bad ads to believe that a substantial portion of the population can be good at either.

You can trust your spouse.

Yes, you can, but the issue isn’t trust. It’s difficult for any spouse to get past the “I don’t like it, and I can’t imagine anyone else liking it ether,” stage.

And your staff? Yes, they’re available. But an odd thing happens when you ask people for their opinion. They always have one.

Even when they don’t have one, they will have one. But take the spousal response, multiply it by the number of staff people being consulted, and recognize that as soon as you ask for an opinion EACH OF THEM WILL BE COMPELLED TO CREATE ONE… on the spot… with no training, no knowledge, no preparation.

You’re going to get bad advice.

So, you shouldn’t get staff input?

Well, that would be a mistake. Your salesfolk are probably pretty good at dealing with customers one-on-one. They will have some good suggestions of things to include, when you ask them in advance.

And that’s the key.

Ask for key points to include before the copy is written. Once it’s done, you decide whether the ad leaves the correct impression in the minds of those watching it. Then, based on that impression only, either accept the ad as it is, or reject it outright.

But don’t ask anyone’s opinion after the fact.

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Have you ever seen a poster from across the room that has the word “SEX” at the top in 72 point type? You walk across the room to read the smaller print, which says “Now that I have your attention, let me tell you about the advantages of….“

The first time this happens you probably feel foolish that you were drawn to this poster. The second time, you don’t bother walking close enough to read. Why is that?

Is it because you don’t want to be noticed reading the poster? You don’t want people laughing when they see that you’ve fallen for it, too?

Or is it because the information on this poster holds nothing of interest to you?

As an advertising tactic, this one is flawed. It tries to capture attention without ever qualifying the reader as a potential customer. It wastes the reader’s time and the advertiser’s resources.

What Value Is Attention?

Some advertisers believe that getting the reader / viewer / listener to notice their message is such an important step that they apply no common sense to their messaging. They attempt to piggyback their communication on to some other device, some other attention grabbing message.

Is Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader? the hot television program this season? You can safely predict a slew of local advertisers (and probably a couple of national advertisers as well) will create ads playing off of the show.

These are the same people who jumped on the Where’s the Beef? bandwagon. They fell in line to ask Got Milk? Got Insurance? Got Teeth? Got Real Estate? They keep trying to catch the “next big thing” because they aren’t saying anything of significance.

Less obviously, but equally as badly planned, are those that have no tie in at all.

Borrowed Interest

I spoke to a plumber a few years ago who wanted to incorporate the Superman character into his ads. Why? Because he thought it would be “cool.” Aside from the obvious copyright violations, what does Superman have to do with plumbing?

Don’t try to associate your business with things that aren’t relevant to your business.

Don’t show your kids, your grandkids, or your pets in your ads. They won’t help you sell anything.

Don’t talk about which church you attend, where you went to school, or which organizations you support. There are no significant numbers of customers who will choose you for those reasons. (I almost wrote none, but I toned it down to avoid the e-mails telling me that half of someone’s business comes from their support of the Chamber. It doesn’t).

Then There’s The Superbowl

No, not the ads which run during the broadcast, but the “Superbowl of Savings” theme that the local car dealer will inevitably use in the days leading up to the game.

It’s the furniture store employees in football jerseys telling you not to “go long” without the new sofa, to “huddle up” with a furniture store employee. That you’ll get an immediate “signing bonus” if you take delivery this week.

Blech.

Isn’t the objective to make your message stand out from the crowd? Then stop being non-memorable by looking like everyone else who’s borrowing a theme.

How Do You Get Shoppers Interest?

You get the genuine interest of qualified buyers by being relevant to those buyers. By talking to them about their needs, their concerns, their problems. By helping those people to solve the very real issues in their lives as they perceive them.

Are you a plumber? Don’t talk about the Jaycees. Talk about cleaning up to leave the bathroom spotless after your service call. Talk about your commitment to being on time. Talk about how you’ll affect the lives of your customers.

Good ads appeal to the people who want what you sell. It’s not necessary to get the attention of any non-buyers.

Good ads are not about what you sell, they’re about the people you sell to.

You won’t need to borrow any interest if you communicate the things that buyers are interested in hearing.

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In Sperry, Hutchinson, and the Hotel Part I and Part II we looked at the history and common pitfalls of customer loyalty programs.

So far, I’ve been less than enthusiastic. Not about the concept, you understand, but about most of the programs in use as we commonly see them implemented. There are two customer loyalty programs, however, that I believe work well.

One is transactional in nature, and one is relational. They each take a major commitment to massive amounts of work. They each must be customized for your company, and once done will never fit any other company.

As you design your loyalty program. . .

The most important metric you need to track is customer retention. How many customers are defecting? How many keep coming back?

The second most important metric is profitability. Your program should never allow unprofitable customers to become eligible for rewards.

Remember the advice of Michael Leboeuf in The Greatest Management Principle in the World: behavior that gets rewarded, gets repeated.

If you want to retain customers, let them feel rewarded for doing business with you. If you want to retain customers, don’t merely talk retention while rewarding your salespeople for “prospecting.”

The Club Card – The Transactional Solution

Points systems worked well when one company had them and the others didn’t. When everyone has them, they’re just an expensive cost of doing business. But let’s take a second look at those magnetic club cards offered by many of the nation’s grocery chains.

The club member swipes the card through the stores’ credit card reader. This simple act not only identifies the bearer of the card, but also gives the store valuable information about the member’s purchase choices.

Consider the possibilities. The MegaLoMart discovers through data mining that Chuck has no particular preferences when choosing paper towels, or charcoal briquettes, or soft drinks, but he always buys Campbell’s Cream of Chicken soup. Do you suppose that a customized offer of Campbell’s Cream of Chicken at a savings of 30 cents a can might get Chuck back into the store? If I bought six cans under this offer, the store would have given up the profit on six cans of soup in order to get me to spend another $150 on other grocery items.

Would the soup offer work for everyone? No. Only those people who were brand loyal to this specific company are likely to respond. But a well programmed computer system, looking for such predictable choices could find, and customize, different offers for each of the store’s best customers.

And since a program such as this is fully customized, no competitor could offer it – at least, not in the same way.

How much would it cost to individualize offers to your best customers? Perhaps more importantly, how much will it cost to let your competitor do this if you don’t?

The Small Business Model – the Relational Solution.

True customer loyalty is to a differentiated brand. To inspire loyalty, you must stand out from the pack.

True customer loyalty is relational in nature. As relationships grow, we’re more comfortable, and less likely to do business with strangers.

Small businesses will always have an advantage in relationship building. The natural one-on-one help that entrepreneurs automatically offer their customers is difficult for large companies to duplicate.

Relational loyalty isn’t ensured by a rewards program. What ensures relational loyalty is everyday operational excellence.

Don’t stop at learning your customers’ preferences. Learn their names. Learn their children’s names. Learn their birthdays. Learn their sizes, their color preferences, and how often they purchase.

Then, treat them like the valuable people they are. Send them birthday cards. Ask their opinions. Yes, these things cost money. What will they spend with you over the next several years? Most customers not only tend to buy more over the years, they buy more expensive products. The longer they stay with you, the more profitable they become.

As markets mature, the smartest operators will shift their focus from new customer acquisition to building relationships with the good customers whose business we’ve already earned.

And one more thought.

The simplest and most direct way to earn customer loyalty is to recruit loyal customers. If you find the right customers to begin with, your retention rate will increase without spending any more money.

Some customers prefer you to your competitors. Some customers want long term relationships. Some customers are more profitable than others. Some customers spend more and require less service.

Look for customers that have one or more of these characteristics, then earn their business with superior service.

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