Surprise Your Customers: Get and Keep Customers


© Bert Markgraf

There's a fool-proof way to get and keep customers in today's market. You have to surprise your customers three times:
  1. with a low price;
  2. with a high level of service;
  3. with the quality of the product.
It's difficult to get all three but it's easier for the small business than for the large corporation.

Let's look at the low price. As a small business your costs should be lower than for large corporations. But even with this advantage, "low price" doesn't mean you have to under-bid everyone. It means that your customer perceives the price to be low. It means that he is getting a product or service that is very valuable to him for a comparatively low price. It means giving the customer those features of your product or service that are especially valuable to the him and aren't costly for you, at a good price.

Your low perceived price has caught your potential customer's attention. Now you have to surprise him with your level of service. Acquiring your product should be easy, convenient and, ideally, fun. If your potential customers has to make an effort to buy your product — fill in forms, make several trips etc. — you're going to lose some of them. Again, you have to balance the cost to you. Anything you can do which increases customer convenience at comparatively low cost must be done.

The customer you attracted with your low perceived price has made the purchase because it was so easy. To keep him as a future customer, you have to surprise him with the quality of the product. Again, you have to analyze what aspects of the product's quality are valuable to your customers. The product has to be as ideally suited to meet the customer's needs as possible. It will be too expensive to satisfy some of the customer's needs within the cost framework of your product but overall, the customer has to be surprised at how well the product meets his needs.

Some of the same topics are discussed at the Idea Cafe in a fun, light-hearted way. Get ready to surprise your customers.

Go To Page: 1


The copyright of the article Surprise Your Customers: Get and Keep Customers in Small Business is owned by . Permission to republish Surprise Your Customers: Get and Keep Customers in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Post this Article to facebook Add this Article to del.icio.us! Digg this Article furl this Article Add this Article to Reddit Add this Article to Technorati Add this Article to Newsvine Add this Article to Windows Live Add this Article to Yahoo Add this Article to StumbleUpon Add this Article to BlinkLists Add this Article to Spurl Add this Article to Google Add this Article to Ask Add this Article to Squidoo