We're here to give you the most help, and a chance to be helpful, too.

free wine? wine not?

treats are not a trick

surprisng and favoring your customers

an interview with the owner of cloud mover spa

6 page action guide with step-by-step step suggestions to beat your newest competitor

this 5 page action guide provides proven techniques to successfully increase customer loyalty

it is easier to keep your customers than trying to get new ones. so, stop losing customers! this 7-page guide will help you learn ...and most importantly how to win them back.

it's wonderful to have so many customers in your location that they may have to wait. do you and your staff do "the right things" to keep them happy while they wait? this 4-page action guide contains over 25 tried-and-true "right things" to keep your customers waiting contentedly.

so, how do you, the small retailer, make sure your customers continue shopping at your store during tough economic times? here are 12 ideas to consider:

how "small" can beat the big boys

a difference-maker in true customer service

allbusiness.com published this helpful article

things to consider before creating a myspace page for your business

“we like to reward our customers by giving them recognition in our store. we have a list in our store where we put the names of any of our customers who recommend/refer another customer to us. we also print up a monthly newsletter and we give credit to our customers that make suggestions to our store by listing the suggestion of the month. our customers say they like being included and they look forward to see what someone new has contributed to our store.”todd h, cedar city, ut fitness center

i’m really focusing on referrals…i make a point to mail a postcard to former clients and ask for referrals, and send a gift certificate to a nice restaurant to every client who gives me a referral. patrick o. rapid city, sd- real estate

“we started offering each of our customers a chance to win $250 in pet supplies if they referred another pet owner. we call it “refer a pet pal”. we have had over 100 entries/most of which are new users since we started the promotion on september 1st.evan l, topeka, ks pet store

as far as comments on products or service we need to get better about getting out from behind the counter and interacting with our customers and creating a dialog. one of the things that helps is doing role plays with the staff on a regular basis and coaching them on how to converse with customers. most of the information we get from this is anecdotal, we don't capture it, but it can help to identify trends.” jackson t, miami, fl café owner

"word of mouth spread offline is more positive and more likely to be interpreted as credible than wom spread online, according to a recent research study from womma member company the keller fay group. fifty-nine percent of those surveyed indicted they found wom transmitted face-to-face and on the phone was "highly" credible, versus 49% for online wom. the study also found that 66% of face-to-face wom communication was "mostly positive" versus 57% of the impressions on blogs and chat rooms. offline wom was also found to be 7% more likely to lead to purchase intent, according to the research." marsha t., advertising agency, baton rouge. la.