<font color=red>QUICK TIPS:</font> Get Personal to Gain Customers Back

Q: While my small business is growing overall, my repeat business is not growing nearly as fast. Is that expected, or should I be doing something differently?

A: The businesses that personalize service gain customers who come back, says Ron Consolino, a management counselor for SCORE. Your competition may have a product or service that is similar to yours, but with personalized customer service, you can distinguish your company. Here are some suggestions.

• Never let your clients forget who you are. Use every method possible to keep yourself in the front of their minds.
• Write thank-you notes once a job is done. Handwritten notes stand out from the crowd. Just letting customers know you appreciate their business is good etiquette that can pay off. Make it your business to find out your customers' special occasions and send cards or flowers.
• Send customers news clips that you think might be of interest to them, even if you don't have a contract with that customer. The next time the customer needs some work, you might get the call.
• To get your customers back in the door, try giving them more than they paid for or that little extra that they didn't expect. Customers should perceive that your product or service has greater value than those offered by your nearest competitor.
• It's not enough to meet your customer's needs — you have to anticipate them. Look atyour business as a customer would. How can you improve? What is your competition doing better? Think about what the market will demand next year and determine what you can do.
• Be sure to ask your customers as well. Send them postage-paid response cards or make a questionnaire available in your place of business.
• When a customer stops doing business with you, consider it unacceptable. Find out why it happened and then work to prevent it from happening again.
• Finally, avoid the top two mistakes business people often make in customer service: not delivering and not listening.

First, deliver what you promise. Too many people offer hype and then don't deliver. Delivering a product or service that disappoints is the fastest way to lose your customers.

Second, remember to listen. Too many businesses advertise the next big thing without considering whether their customers want a next big thing. Your customers will tell you what they really want.

Customer service should be as routine as paying your bills or ordering office supplies. And it doesn't have to be elaborate to make an impression. Customers will remember the small things.

Ron Consolino is a management counselor for SCORE, Counselors to America's Small Business, a volunteer, nonprofit association and a partner of the U.S. Small Business Association.