You might want to treat your best customers like royalty.
When my Dad owned a jewelry manufacturing company in New York City, buyers would come into the showroom and look at his current season’s merchandise.
That showroom was really beautiful, a lot prettier than our own living room at home. There were plush couches and ottomans, and sparkling showcases with
figurines in them. Black velvet showed off his costume jewelry.
One time I asked him why he had such a fancy place, when we needed a new couch (so I could show off to my friends too).
He said that “you have to make your best customers feel special”. When you stop doing that, they start buying elsewhere. Actually, the relationship regresses and when you see the person again, there is an awkwardness. This happens when companies start changing who they think their target market really is.
I think that happened with Chico’s. They sell women’s clothes, and had lycra kinds of outfits in black and other colors that were easy to coordinate. I bought them all the time, because they don’t crease in my suitcase, and I can put them in the washing machine.
Then Chico’s started going after a younger demographic. They added linen clothes to their racks, and the Southwestern look that might attract new customers. What happened? They lost me, for sure, and lots of women like me who travel all the time.
Who wants a Southwestern look in New York City?
So, consider who your best customers are, treat them very well, and don’t go in some weird direction…hoping to find more customers, and then alienating me (a power shopper)!
May 20, 2009 3 Comments
The Joy of Marketing With Positive People
Every day the news blasts are about the economy and job losses get me down. Then I watch my brokerage account plummet. Topping that off, new business is not as active as usual and everyone is talking about cutting their budgets. So how do you keep your spirits up, and the enthusiasm going?
Well, one of my friends said “just fake it until you make it”. Another friend said that you need to think of the alternative, and figure ” … well I’m alive.”
When I was very young my Mom took me to the Marble Collegiate Church in New York City and we heard Norman Vincent Peale talk about the Power of Positive Thinking. We knew that it worked, even before Rhonda Byrne The Secret.
Then this week I read in the New York Post about the fact that happiness is contagious. When you interact with a happy person, it increases the likelihood that you are happy by 15% (according to The British Medical Journal).
So the more happy people you know, the higher the likelihood that you’ll be happy too. The study from Harvard Medical School used 4700 people and the findings said that happiness is more contagious than unhappiness.
I have to be happy each day because I have a great guy who works with me, and he’s always upbeat and has a smile on his face. His name is Pepper Huff, and even if our business should get slow he’ll always put a smile on my face. He adds energy to our office.
So, get rid of the sourpusses in your life, and get together with positive folks. The economy? It will take care of itself, either way.
January 12, 2009 No Comments
