Retaining Your Customer Base

As the owner of a small business, you need to keep your customers happy. How? Well, you have an enormous impact on your customers’ satisfaction through your company’s products and services and the way in which you present them. This section provides you with the keys to keeping your customers satisfied. Of course, not all customers will stay satisfied and loyal to your business. So we also explain how you can learn from customer defections to minimize their happening in the future.

Getting it right the first time

As a small-business owner, if you don’t get your product or service right the first time, you may not have a second chance with customers. Customers aren’t stupid, and if you sell them inferior merchandise — especially when better merchandise is available from other sources — they won’t come back the next time they’re in the market for the products and services you offer. What’s more, they’ll tell others of their lousy experience with your company. Large companies usually have enough cash reserves built up to weather a storm, but the typical small-business owner does not.