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How to Get and Keep Customers - The 7 Rules Behind Success in Business

Whatever business you are in, if you rely on a customer base for your income, the rules are nearly always the same - attract customers and you attract business. So how do you get customers to come calling and become a regular contributor to your livelihood? The following 7 rules are some of the most important keys to creating a successful long term business. Follow them and in time you will see how clients flock to your door.

Trust

Without the trust of your client, you don’t have a client. Developing a good, solid business takes patience and time. It takes time to get to know a person and recurring customers are those whose trust you have earned. When dealing with clients:

• Never promise the impossible.

• Deliver what you promise.

• Make each customer feel special.

Product/Service Quality

When you offer a product or service to customers, it better have the flavor of quality or else your out.

News of poorly manufactured goods or inept and unprofessional services spread like wildfire. Go the extra mile with your clients. Tell the truth about your product and they still may buy it anyway. It is up to you to provide a service or product which stands up well and is worth the money clients pay. Bottom line, if you don’t trust it, don’t sell it.

Good Service

You may employ staff that do the actual transacting with clients, but as boss you should get involved. Customers love to deal with the boss. It makes them feel special. The sale should never end at the cash register. Offer to carry goods to the car, or to re-visit a work site and re-check your work. All these little extra, free of charge services are of enormous value to a growing business.

Affordable Price

A little industrial espionage never hurt anybody. Check your competition from top to bottom. Service, product, price and quality. Are you at least equal or can you better your rivals? If not at least have a good reason why, because customers will want to know.

Reliability

If you are selling physical products in a retail or wholesale aspect, then reliability is important. A customer has traveled to your door or site for a reason and that is to make a purchase. “Sorry, we don’t have any left,” is a lame excuse. Chances are you have lost a customer. Same goes with service providers. If you have a 3.30 appointment, be there on time. Always ensure you can reliably supply the service or product you advertise.

Consistency

The most successful companies in the world are the most consistent. Take food franchisees for example. If you eat a hamburger in New Jersey, USA from your favorite burger provider then follow up with one from a sister burger provider in Melbourne, Australia, you appreciate the familiarity factor. It looks, smells, feels, tastes, and perhaps is the same. Your business is no different. People who return to you for service are returning because of previous satisfaction. Don’t let them down with a lesser quality product or service.

Freebies And Discounts

Incentives are a great treat for your customers and an even better treat for the health of a long term business relationship. You want to keep customers returning again and again the occasional discount or freebie is the best tool of all. Use it.

There are obviously many more tactical aspects to running a business, but the above 7 rules are crucial part of sustaining a business through good times and bad. These tips are not taught in any school of business. They are learned the hard way through years of practice.

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