Business Opportunities Weblog

October 28, 2008 by Angela Shupe | 10 Comments

No matter what area of business you are in, if you don’t have customers than your business will eventually fail. That’s why it is so important to present yourself and your product in a way which will not only attract the demographic you seek, but inspire them to come back again.

Here are 6 examples of things you can do to ensure you will not only attract new customers, but create a regular customer base.

1. Location, Location, Location.

Everywhere you go everyone and anyone will tell you that one of the most important thing’s to making a successful business and to keep customers coming back is the location! And I’m not just talking about the correct demographic area, I also mean the exact location whether it’s on the right side of the street or by other store’s and so on. I can’t tell you how many time’s I have passed up going to a store because the side of the busy road it was on would be a pain to make a left turn out of when leaving the store, or making a left turn into the store. I’ve heard many people throughout the year’s complain about loving a certain store or place but they barely ever go there due to the traffic around the location and it being too much of a pain when entering and/or leaving the business.

2. Appearance.

It is very true what everyone say’s in terms of the first impression is a lasting impression! This is not just true in personal aspects but in business situations as well. If someone walk’s into a department store that has great prices but garbage on the floor, a bad smell in the air and items thrown all over the shelves and on the floor, what are the chances that they will return just based on the low prices? Very slim to none unless the prices are almost 100 % discounted which is highly unlikely.

3. Prices.

This is obviously one of the more important aspects of the business world. While you want to make a profit to stay a float in the business world, you also need to make sure you are still fairly competitive with other business of the same kind and maybe a little lower with more product to offer which will offset the lower prices. Nothing is more appealing then knowing if you drive down the road a mile you’ll find the same product for two dollars cheaper. Now this can be accomplished many way’s with specials, sales, coupons, buy one get one at half off or free and so on. And as I mentioned above, you can have lower prices but offer more product and more brands which should off set the lower prices and still bring in the amount of revenue your looking for.

4. Knowledge of the product you are selling.

It is very crucial that all employees have complete knowledge in the product or services being offered in a business. There is nothing worse then when you are asking questions regarding a product or service and the worker has to call someone, run and get someone else from the back, tells you wrong information or ask’s you to return on another day when someone with more knowledge will be there. Now yes there are certain extenuating circumstances such as employees going through training, but all too often in hopes of putting employees on their own quickly so there’s only one employee to pay a day, they are put on their own too early and don’t have full knowledge of what they are talking about. This will create room for people especially perfectionist’s and one’s in a hurry to leave and not want to return thinking that everyone just has poor knowledge of the business.

5. Friendliness.

All to often we hear complaints by word of mouth stating that an employee at a certain business was short, rude, callous, or uptight while servicing a customer. This creates a huge problem for the business. Word of mouth travels extremely fast and we all know that when we hear something, we take it to heart and usually stay clear of the business without even trying it out for ourselves. Talk to your customers, smile, make suggestion’s but don’t be overbearing at the same time. People like to chat, especially stay at home moms who don’t get out often. I recently went to a store to get one thing in particular, I left two hour’s later with something completely different from what I planned on getting. The owner of the store pointed me in a better direction, explained why it would be better and actually chatted with me about everything and anything, it gave me a sense of feeling that she got me, knew what I was about and was truly caring of my needs.

6. Advertising.

It is extremely important to get your business advertised in all the right places. This can be accomplished in so many different way’s, newspapers; magazines; internet; coupons; signs out of front; word of mouth and more. Choose something like a coupon or a two day sale, this will get the customers rolling in the door specifically for the sale but then once they see all the products offered and the prices that are available everyday and the excellent customer service that they will receive, it is almost a sure bet that everyone will be coming back over and over wether there is a sale or not.

Image by aNantaB.

In Ideas | 10 Comments
Tags: Advice