Why You Need to Be Involved with Social Media: The Small Business Perspective
Still wondering whether to jump on the social media bandwagon? Listen to this great advice from Trey Pitsenberg, The Blogging Nurseryman who suggests:
"The most important thing to remember as a small business owner is that your customers can now talk about you and rate your business, and there is nothing you can do to stop them. You can however give the customer an experience worth writing about, and that will be your best form of advertising, good or bad. Customers spreading
the word, and other potential customers deciding whether to visit you or not based on the reviews."
Bloglites
Retailer Stories
Kasey Carpenter Encourages Her Staff to Listen Up!
your staff has ears
Dealing with complaints: how one retailer does it
the importance of transparency
Engaging Customers with Social Media: Tips from Lisa Hartwick
positive and negative feedback via social media
Research at the Register: Waggin Train's Process
what to ask and what to share
How Vivendi's Restaurant Increased Profits In a Slow Economy
focusing on existing customers
Action Guides
How To Stop Losing Your Customers!
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.
How To Deal With A New Competitor In Your Area
6 page action guide with step-by-step step suggestions to beat your newest competitor
Building a Bank of Good Will
this 5 page action guide provides proven techniques to successfully increase customer loyalty
How to Handle the Wait and Keep Customers Happy
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.
How to get customers to visit your store when your business is slow!
mired in a slowdown and wondering how to get more customers back in your store?
Related Articles
You’re not Wal-Mart: And Why That’s a Good Thing
how "small" can beat the big boys
5 New Ways To Look At Shoppers
mri study identifies five buying style segments: * buyers of the best * swayable shopaholics * habitualized havers * conscientious consumers * penny-pinchers
A Tale of Two Requests
a difference-maker in true customer service
12 Tips to help small retailers thrive in a recession
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:
Providing Excellent Customer Care in a Service-Based Industry
allbusiness.com published this helpful article
Book Excerpts
Poor customer experience starts in store
Double up your customer contact in a recession. Member Comments
“we use newsletters to get information from our customers. have a poll or a survey. it can be short, and even fun: where are you going on vacation? what tv show are you enjoying this summer? then post results in a future newsletter. people love taking polls.of course, always best to use a poll topic that is of interest to your audience.our customers are into new bands, especially hip-hop. we like to poll about "who's hot" in order to let them chime in about their favorites, and it also let's us get a sense of trends.”anson l , natchez, miss clothing store
“newsletters can provide good information about the store: for example, give subscribers first notice of any in-store events, and they will have ‘first dibs’ on signing up to attend events. also you communicate changes to your store hours or policies, to make their shopping easier and more convenient.”larry n, dearborn, mi ice rink owner
“i get a lot of newsletters from craft shops with information about new products and services. the newsletter provides an opportunity to give the dates the products will arrive and some information about price, color, etc that will be of interest to consumers. the manufacturers often will provide you this information to put into your newsletter.also, i like it when email newsletters have special offers and discounts that are available for a limited time only, and only for customers who receive email. you don’t need to have an offer in every email, once every two months could work to keep people interested.mary jane, salt lake city, ut homemaker
“we use newsletters to get information from our customers. have a poll or a survey. it can be short, and even fun: where are you going on vacation? what tv show are you enjoying this summer? then post results in a future newsletter. people love taking polls.of course, always best to use a poll topic that is of interest to your audience.our customers are into new bands, especially hip-hop. we like to poll about "who's hot" in order to let them chime in about their favorites, and it also let's us get a sense of trends.”anson l , natchez, miss clothing 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
