Owners are sharing business tips and discussing ways to get paid faster.
Coddle and Keep Customers Even in a Cold Economy
May 05, 2009 -
Poggio opens onto the main street of my village-by-the-bay, Sausalito. It doesn’t serve breakfast. Recently this upscale restaurant started offering fresh-baked Italian pastries and coffee as a drive-by service for the morning commuters heading into S.F. With famously great food, a prominent location and just one new, part-time “running waiter” the restaurant has gained a new profit stream. Plus the activity has drawn more stay-at-homes to drop by for a take-out breakfast.
Yet Poggio might leverage more profit with a few additional steps. They could adopt:
-Adopt “no change needed”, easy-to-remember flat pricing (coffee + two pastries: $10),
-Add a lunch-in-a-box daily special (”solo” $12 or “share-with-a-friend” for $20)
-Offer a “More Great Meals Special”: buy cards for 20 breakfasts or 20 lunches and get a free card.
In launching this drive-by service the owner understood that his customers valued high-quality cuisine and convenience - and that no other local business was courting this flood of morning commuter during a notoriously slow time for restaurants. Ask yourself:
These two small business owners know that keeping customers means coddling them in the ways they most value. Yet many owners haven’t asked their customers (or observed them closely enough) to recognize what part of their business their customers most appreciate. Finding new ways to offer your service or product can:
1. Increase customer loyalty.
2. Inspire more per-customer spending.
3. Attract customers you wouldn’t otherwise get.
Why are those three benefits especially vital to you now? Because the economy is flitting up and down like a nervous bird. Next it will fall way down before it slowly crawls back to a near normal level. Whether or not you agree with my amateur prediction you must, like me, be seeking ways to stay lean and still attract customers. Here are five tips for remaining a “must have” part of customers’ lives.
1. Reduce the number of steps it takes for them to buy from you. Especially if certain tasks are boring (getting the car washed) find ways your customers can multi-task (through you) to get more done in a more enjoyable way.
2. Make an irresistible offer for customers to buy a quantity of your product or service, paying up front in exchange for a reduced per-item price. Upfront cash is king and stabilizing cash flow will help you sleep at night.
3. Think Situational Sell. Nearby businesses may have complementary products or service you can bundle with yours to make your mutual market of customers have a more enjoyable experience, and/or save time or money.
4. Provide customers with an online way to schedule appointments, buy extras and pay online, if those features are attractive to your kind customer - and to you. While dentists and doctors are slow to offer online options, for example, for making appointments or filling out forms in advance, many busy professionals would prefer to do those tasks at their convenience, to shorten their in-person appointment time.
5. Take advantage of your under-used business attributes such a good drive-by location or times that your equipment or facilities are not open or in use. An office complex owner rents his open parking lot to a farmers market on Sundays. A nursery rents store space to master gardeners who teach evening classes, using his products. How can you remain open at certain times to provide a variation in service or serve a niche market? Can you rent, share or trade resources to lower your overhead? Even if I am wrong about the economy (and I hope I am) it always pays to find fresh ways to keep customers happy, motivate them to buy more, attract new niche markets and cut overhead without cutting value.
* * * * *
About the Author: Kare Anderson is an Emmy-winning former Wall Street Journal reporter and the author of LikeABILITY, Make Yourself Memorable and SmartPartnering. A popular speaker on SmartPartnering and on how to be more frequently-quoted to become your kind of customers’ top- of-mind choice, she also publishes the SayitBetter newsletter, with 32,000 subscribers in 28 countries.
Yet Poggio might leverage more profit with a few additional steps. They could adopt:
-Adopt “no change needed”, easy-to-remember flat pricing (coffee + two pastries: $10),
-Add a lunch-in-a-box daily special (”solo” $12 or “share-with-a-friend” for $20)
-Offer a “More Great Meals Special”: buy cards for 20 breakfasts or 20 lunches and get a free card.
In launching this drive-by service the owner understood that his customers valued high-quality cuisine and convenience - and that no other local business was courting this flood of morning commuter during a notoriously slow time for restaurants. Ask yourself:
- How can you serve a niche market during one of your slow times?
- What new profit center and/or extra service could you offer that doesn’t cost much extra to provide - or to try offering?
- How can you reduce the number of motions it takes: 1.) for you to provide the extra service? 2.) for a consumer to buy it?
These two small business owners know that keeping customers means coddling them in the ways they most value. Yet many owners haven’t asked their customers (or observed them closely enough) to recognize what part of their business their customers most appreciate. Finding new ways to offer your service or product can:
1. Increase customer loyalty.
2. Inspire more per-customer spending.
3. Attract customers you wouldn’t otherwise get.
Why are those three benefits especially vital to you now? Because the economy is flitting up and down like a nervous bird. Next it will fall way down before it slowly crawls back to a near normal level. Whether or not you agree with my amateur prediction you must, like me, be seeking ways to stay lean and still attract customers. Here are five tips for remaining a “must have” part of customers’ lives.
1. Reduce the number of steps it takes for them to buy from you. Especially if certain tasks are boring (getting the car washed) find ways your customers can multi-task (through you) to get more done in a more enjoyable way.
2. Make an irresistible offer for customers to buy a quantity of your product or service, paying up front in exchange for a reduced per-item price. Upfront cash is king and stabilizing cash flow will help you sleep at night.
3. Think Situational Sell. Nearby businesses may have complementary products or service you can bundle with yours to make your mutual market of customers have a more enjoyable experience, and/or save time or money.
4. Provide customers with an online way to schedule appointments, buy extras and pay online, if those features are attractive to your kind customer - and to you. While dentists and doctors are slow to offer online options, for example, for making appointments or filling out forms in advance, many busy professionals would prefer to do those tasks at their convenience, to shorten their in-person appointment time.
5. Take advantage of your under-used business attributes such a good drive-by location or times that your equipment or facilities are not open or in use. An office complex owner rents his open parking lot to a farmers market on Sundays. A nursery rents store space to master gardeners who teach evening classes, using his products. How can you remain open at certain times to provide a variation in service or serve a niche market? Can you rent, share or trade resources to lower your overhead? Even if I am wrong about the economy (and I hope I am) it always pays to find fresh ways to keep customers happy, motivate them to buy more, attract new niche markets and cut overhead without cutting value.
* * * * *
About the Author: Kare Anderson is an Emmy-winning former Wall Street Journal reporter and the author of LikeABILITY, Make Yourself Memorable and SmartPartnering. A popular speaker on SmartPartnering and on how to be more frequently-quoted to become your kind of customers’ top- of-mind choice, she also publishes the SayitBetter newsletter, with 32,000 subscribers in 28 countries.
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