Customers Today Need Special Care

Business strategies have to literally "go with the flow." What worked yesterday in a great economy needs to be adjusted to work in today's. The first thing that will bring you the desired results is to analyze your client base. If your customers range in the senior, baby-boomer, or retired range, then these are people on fixed incomes. While their activities may be curtailed a bit because of high prices, unemployment is not a problem for them, and most likely their homes are almost paid for.
If your customers are young families or individuals in the pre retirement range, then job security, as well as closed factories and foreclosures will bring buying power to lower levels, as more important bills will take any extra cash they may have.
Understanding your most precious commodity - namely, your customers, is your number one priority during these times. Of course, they should always be maintained with the highest regard, but especially now. Whatever the product or service you are providing, whether in street establishments or on the internet, this is the time to re-think strategies.
Advertising is a big ticket item in any business. With newspaper readerships dropping, the internet is an upward moving media. There is, and always will be, direct mail as well. When you place something in a person's mailbox, this is more individualized and a more personal approach. Offering a "club" membership to your regular customers as well as to any new customers that might be joining you, is not only a great incentive to shop at your place of business, but this is a direct way to track customer activity and to make adjustments as well as improvements in what you offer. If you see a certain product or service being used by more than half of those in your exclusive "club", then that is the motivator and the starting point to increase sales and consider it a "draw-in." The products or services that are not moving need to be removed or revamped. This managing tool is a very vital means of knowing what your customers like about your business and what they would like to see changed. You could offer "club" membership with their very first order, or you could offer it with coupons or rebates on certain products, to join or not, if they so desire.
The current "wave" of interest as well as statistics pointing to the fact that it will continue on into the future is organic, pure, and as basic as possible. People want to feel soil between their fingers and know where their food comes from, they want crafting possibilities so that they can be creative and they appreciate innovative ways to keep the earth green. If any of your products fall into these categories then your attention to these areas will be well worth your effort. Also, it doesn't hurt to offer something for "every" age group. There could be "senior" discounts as well as "children" offers. You could even suggest ways to entertain at home, or to make the most of their shopping dollars. Samples work very well in this environment because people can actually try and see if they like what you are offering. This doesn't necessarily have to be food items, it can be gardening, or paper products, as well as car repair or house repair items.
The economy can be your motivation to get to really know your customer base and work with them and for them. It can bring your business to become a "friend of the family" and really mean it. Today's savvy customers can tell a phony deal a mile away and once they get the scent of dishonesty, then it is almost impossible to regain what you have lost.
In today's business world, you too must use your creativity and look to your employees to provide even more inspiration and ideas. From top manager to store room clerk, everyone has different interests and different contacts. Make the most of these diversities by offering incentives to employees who come up with great ideas or whose plan to have an open house to free movie tickets for a family size purchase, will bring you the best of all worlds. You will have customers who will sense that you do care about them as individuals and not as just seeing the cash register ring and you will have employees stretching their imaginations and output so that with your success, they too gain not only monetarily with job security but with respect and being treated as truly "part of the business." A perfect way to go down the highway of today's business world.
Something to think about ©Arleen M. Kaptur April, 2009

The Power of Profanity

Everyone has heard it and probably a very large number of individuals have used profanity to make a point in a conversation. Does profanity in the business community have an impact or is it a barometer to just how intelligent a client, manager, or CEO is?
Charles Osgood once made a comment on "words." He said "Compared to the spoken word, a picture is a very pitiful thing." Words can be so powerful that they change the course of history and they can and have brought powerful nations down to their knees. It is the choice of words, whether in social or business situations, that tracks the course of the meeting, the evening, or even just a walk through the park. Have you ever gone to eat with your family to an upscale restaurant and the table next to you - an after business meeting get-together of men/women, or other group of adults, that used language that more than emphasized their laughter and their gestures. Did you leave that restaurant refreshed and grateful that you were privvy to such language? Could you honestly say that the conversation at the next table made your night out memorable? It may have if your vocabulary was built around the premise that the harsher the words, the more authority the speaker commands.
Most individuals who have reached the point of being managers or in places of authority in their chosen fields did not get there because they were well-versed in foul language. They moved up the ladder of success because they had a command of the English language that motivated and moved their staff to productivity and to results. At performance meetings between employers and employees, do you actually think that when the subject of how you would advance the company or bring better workmanship to your department that the use of profanity gave you a better score? Why do colleges and higher institutes of learning have English/ grammar, and even public speaking classes but none have Profanity 101 - a class that will better your chances for success in the business world? Point in case, the more advanced your vocabulary, the better handle you have on expressing your needs with words, the use and need for profanity decreases tremendously because you are in control, you have nothing to hide with vulgarity, and it is more important to you to get your point across in a way that motivates and inspires those you are in charge of, whether that be an assembly line, a sales department, or even a branch office.
Profanity does have its place - in the mouths and on the minds of those whose limits of language is to be pitied not copied. In any business setting, vulgar language is a marker of someone who does not have the capacity to lead, but only to the immature level of not being able to control his/her own temper or outbursts and can only use tactics that are not business worthy. Something to think about
©Arleen M. Kaptur March, 2009