The answer to that question is pretty simple. Without the customer there is no money, right. When the economy is tough and money is tight though, it can be easy to forget that. We tend to let ourselves get stressed about the money and forget that it is our customers that keep us in business. It’s important we remind ourselves from time to time that if we take care of our customers, the money will come. Our customers always need to come first.

Let me give you an example of this working extremely well. In the small town I live in, there is a small hardware store. Other than carrying a few unusual, hard to find products, there is really nothing special about the store itself. It’s a hardware store. There are other stores in town where most of these products could be purchased and major chain stores within 20 miles where everything could be purchased much cheaper. Truthfully, most of the products could probably be purchased at other stores in town cheaper. Despite all of this, their customers continue to shop with them. Why? What incentive do they have to spend more money for the same products, especially in this economy?

Well, it’s because they make it very clear that they are there to help their customers in any way they can. From greeting them as they come in the door (when possible) and offering help, to ordering items that they do not have in stock or do not normally carry. They demonstrate to their customers every day that they are important to them and that they appreciate them. It doesn’t matter if the customer is spending $1 or $100, they are all treated the same. Their customers come first.

Do your customers come first? Do your customers know that they are important to you and that you appreciate them?

Share your thoughts with us by leaving a comment below. We appreciate you stopping by to spend a little time with us.

Photo credit: rabbits on chairs

It has been said that small offline businesses have been reluctant to get involved with social media. In many ways, I can understand that. There are so many social media platforms out there that simply making the decision of where to be can be a daunting task. Then there are issues of time. How much time is it going to take to learn and how much time is it going to take on a daily basis to do a good job with it? Small business owners are already pressed for time.

We could go on with all kinds of questions, concerns and potential reasons not to do this. But, what we really need to look at are the reasons why getting involved with social media is necessary. Let’s look at a few statistics.

• Newspapers estimate a loss of 31% of readership over the past 70 years. On average, newspapers have lost 10.6% of their paying readers in the last year according to the Washington Post

• Across all age groups, 45-60% of Americans spend more than 8 hours per week online including 33% of 65+ year olds. The highest percentage is the 25-29 age group at 59% followed by 56% of 30-39 year olds logging over 8 hours per week online. Source: Harris Poll

• Facebook has 400 million users, although not all in the US (this is larger than the population of the US), it does have 130 million unique US visitors each month.

• Google.com says Twitter has 75 million users with 21 million unique US visitors per month. The age groups with the highest percentage of users for these two platforms may be surprising; 25% 45-54 year olds and 28% 35-44 year olds.

• YouTube, the video sharing site, claims to have over one billion views per day worldwide. Source: Wikipedia.com

These statistics are staggering. There is no denying, however, that there is a big shift happening from newspapers to social media platforms and that trend is going to continue. While advertising in newspapers may still be effective, there is no doubt that a larger percentage of prospective customers are online.

With numbers like these, now is definitely the time for brick and mortar businesses to become social media savvy. The alternative could be detrimental to their business as their competitors develop relationships with their customers.

Photo Credit: Whalt