Loyal customers have to be created. This can take some time and effort but the ROI can be immense. "Not only do loyal customers provide incredibly valuable referrals, they also generate word of mouth that simply can't be bought through advertising," says Roger Hallowell, assistant professor at Harvard Business School.

When a customer buys from you it’s a signal that you have something they want. They’ve responded to the value proposition you offer and there’s immediate potential to create a relationship with lasting value for both of you. How can you do this with the greatest possible number of customers?

Review your value proposition

Your value proposition must appeal to your customers to create and retain their loyalty. Their perceptions of value change, depending on factors such as the economy, fashion trends and even seasonal variations. Regularly review the value proposition you’re offering your customers and relate every element of it to enhancing the relationships you have. An ability and willingness to change is essential to having a marketable value proposition.

Study your customers

Every customer is unique; each will respond to a different set of approaches and satisfactions. You should study your customers closely. Talk to them and get to know them so you can deliver what it is they want.  Learn to identify and cater for the customers with long term prospects and then work hard to satisfy their needs. You may find that you could serve them better by modifying your trading hours or by making payment of invoices possible over the Internet. If you really get to know them you’ll find out these things and be able to capitalize on the knowledge.

Create team loyalty

When the team members of a business feel genuine loyalty towards their employer they’re much more inclined to provide customers with personalized service that gets them back. It’s a feeling of familiarity that transmits itself from your people to the people they serve.  

Don’t depend on ‘salesmanship’

Today’s customers recognize most sales techniques for what they are and are likely to be put off by them. They want to formulate their own opinions and not be told what they like or don’t like. Adopt a service approach; be ready to assist the customer in making decisions and provide answers to their questions. Treat them as individuals and make it easy for them to buy from you.

Anticipate and overcome problems

Work with your team to eliminate potential sources of customer dissatisfaction, and if you notice any signs that someone’s unhappy be proactive and leap in first with a solution. Make it really easy for them to tell you what’s wrong, and then resolve the issue as quickly as possible.  When customers aren't happy with your business they usually don't complain to you – instead, they'll complain to just about everyone else they know. Its better that they tell you first.

Whether you sell to businesses or consumers you can increase your level of success by becoming an industry expert – someone who’s well known and acknowledged as an authority on matters concerning your industry. It takes work to achieve this kind of commercial stardom but once you’re at the top it’s almost self perpetuating.

Get ready for recognition

Prepare a clear definition of the industry you want to represent, whether it’s a broad one such as ‘retailing’, or very specific, such as ‘manufacturing food colorings’. Now imagine that you are being interviewed and have to answer some probing and analytical questions about your industry. You’re the spokesperson and your answers will be very important to the audience:

• What qualifies you as an expert in the industry?  (This will probably be your education and experience.)
• What have you accomplished within the industry? (Perhaps you have developed new products or been elected President of an industry association.)
• What are you now doing that’s worthy of recognition? (Your business could be well ahead of industry benchmarks, or you might be on a committee developing new industry standards.)

Make notes of your answers to these questions for future reference in preparing publicity materials and website content.

Build on strengths and remove weaknesses

For some people it’s natural to be on camera and face up to a journalist’s questions. For others it’s best to just write articles, and still others might enjoy public speaking in front of a crowd. Most of us are good at one or maybe two of these but not up to speed on all three. This doesn’t mean giving up on what you’re not good at, but it does mean that to get a ‘quick start’ on becoming an industry spokesperson you have to build on your strengths and find ways to overcome any weaknesses.

Media training courses are available that will give you the skills to stand up to an interview, whether it’s on TV, radio or even over the telephone. If you have basic writing skills they can be polished up with a correspondence course or by attending a workshop at your local college. And joining Toastmasters, or a similar organization, is a great way to become better at public speaking.

Update your industry knowledge

As an expert you’re expected to know about developments in your industry. This means keeping up with what’s going on both at home and overseas. You’ll need to join at least one industry association, and subscribe to all relevant industry newsletters and magazines.  The Internet will be a good source of knowledge and should be searched regularly for the latest news and advances in your industry. Attending trade shows and exhibitions are good ways of staying informed.

Make your website a source of information

Your business should already have a website, but just in case it doesn’t you’ll need to create one. This is no time to be shy so place your photo and biography on the home page. Give lots of advice from the site and make your business look as impressive, and successful, as possible.  

The challenge will be to anticipate what questions people may have that drives them to visit your site in hopes of finding answers.  If you can become their source of answers and make it unnecessary for them to look any further you will have fulfilled their need for an expert and be seen as one. You might also want to create an enewsletter that will reinforce your position as being in touch with industry events and developments and can give people who don’t know you an introduction to who you are and what you do.

Market yourself to the world!

Just as if you were launching a new product, you need to prepare a marketing plan to promote yourself and your expertise. Identify speaking opportunities, publications that might accept articles from you, and industry activities like trade shows and seminars where you can network with others that are interested in your industry. You should consider holding your own seminar or trade event, acting as both host and guest speaker for the activity. If your products or services have appeal to a significant number of consumers you can offer to provide a regular column or series of articles to any number of local or ‘free’ newspapers as a way of becoming better known. Your geographic location is irrelevant as long as you have a website where interested persons can obtain further information about you and about what you do. And if you can put together an interesting presentation that suits a wide audience you can offer your speaking services to colleges, libraries, not-for-profit groups, your local chamber of commerce and any other community associations that have regular meetings.

The follow up is important

Always follow up an appearance, event or interview with a media release to all publications and websites that might be interested. Your media list will gradually build up so that you can use it for sending out releases with your comments on industry issues or details of your next appearance. It’s important to keep your contacts, your industry knowledge and your website up-to-date so you’re always at the forefront of your industry. The publicity you receive from being an expert will be invaluable to your business.

Being small in business isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, small businesses have a lot of advantages over their larger competitors. Small business collectively is the world’s biggest business. Small businesses have perfected the arts of traveling light, living frugally and being able to quickly change direction. Recognizing the specialized nature of small business can help you appreciate and use some of the advantages you enjoy.

The CEO is multifunctional

The decision making powers of a small business owner permit a great degree of flexibility. You’re in charge and don’t have to let opportunities slip by. If you need specialist advice you don’t have to create a new position; you can simply hire it in on an hourly basis.

Owners win by networking

Through trade associations, chambers of commerce and other business related organizations small business owners can become highly effective networkers. Think of the sources you can tap for knowledge and assistance to help grow your business:

• Your competitors – exchange ideas, share market knowledge, perhaps even find reasons for a joint venture
• Your clients – discover better ways to serve them, find out what your competitors are doing to attract them away from you
•  Your suppliers – another source of knowledge about your competitors and a way to find out about new developments in the marketplace
• Your team – small businesses can become the basis for close social relationships, especially if families are involved

You’re one of the team

Small business owners can harness the power of their entire team to analyze situations and come up with the best course of action to follow; their knowledge can be tapped into quickly and effectively. This makes small businesses more efficient. Time isn’t wasted in communicating background information. More importantly, it allows team members to work together to identify and eliminate bottlenecks and to respond to unexpected changes in the marketplace.

You can change quickly

Small businesses can be as flexible as they like when it comes to new product offerings and capitalizing on market trends. This is a facility that needs to be given lots of attention; study the market, see what’s ‘hot’ and put it into your offering.  Admittedly there will always be a risk with being the first to offer something new, but you could also wind up in the position of market leader, well ahead of any of your competitors. And even if something doesn’t work you can change it quickly.  Get rid of it and move on.

Generate a feeling of trust

Consumers no longer blindly trust big business chain stores with outlets on every street corner. They’re beginning to reject them and to seek out more individualistic offerings with a personalized aspect and less formulaic service systems.  The brands and products of a small business can become the ‘big finds’ of customers looking for something new, special and different. If you’re unforgettable and even a bit hard-to-get you can become a cult favorite.

You can do more with less

Small businesses have learned to live with less while targeting growth. They can quickly adapt to both good times and bad. They can benefit from having low cost promotions that appear sincere because they’re done on tight budgets. Small business marketing creates consumer appeal even if it’s imperfect. Simple advertising - if it’s done well - can be incredibly successful with consumers who are sated with big company hype. Consumers respect reality; they have to live with it.

Success comes from meeting customers’ expectations and satisfying their needs. Both expectations and needs change over time and keeping abreast of these changes is essential. The owner of a small business usually knows their customers personally. This is an excellent beginning for the development of a relationship that can help you with your marketing and in the acquisition of new customers.

A customer advisory board

A customer advisory board is a representative group of your own customers that have agreed to share their experiences and evaluate new options and opportunities. You can gain a strategic advantage by gathering knowledge about your competitors from your customers. You’ll find out how they feel about your competitor’s offerings, identify any gaps in their (or your) products and services, uncover unmet customer needs and discover new offerings that will keep your customers loyal.

The goals of your customer advisory board need to be established before anything can proceed. Do you want it to determine better ways of providing customer service? Do you want it to test new products? Do you want it to evaluate your advertising before it goes into print?

The selection process

Once the goals have been determined the next task is to select the customers that will make up your advisory board. B2B marketers may want a particular size of business customer for their board. B2C retailers may want only those customers with a particular set of demographic or purchasing characteristics.

Personalities also have to be considered. Board members must be able to articulate their perceptions and feelings. They need to be positive and willing to make a contribution. They also have to commit to regular meetings and to whatever follow up work might be required.  Customer advisory boards can be sourced for input in many ways. They can meet at the business premises or in another location if it’s more convenient. They can participate in a teleconference, they can be surveyed by mail or telephone, or even meet online.

Use a trained moderator

Each meeting of the board needs to be moderated. Concepts must be clearly presented and questions answered objectively to optimize the value of the board’s contributions.  Good management of the board is essential and shouldn’t be delegated to someone who does not possess good customer relationship skills. Your customer advisory board will be a bridge to your customers that keeps you in touch with their opinions and their changing needs.

Reward them for their help

Naturally the board participants deserve to be rewarded for their assistance. It doesn’t have to be a financial reward, although this is often the case. Probably the best approach is to have a ‘basic’ reward that’s financial based on so much per participation, plus some sort of gift certificate or a useful consumer product at the end of the term. The feedback from the board will be an important element of your planning strategy. Because of this the program needs to be well managed so that events happen on schedule, participants’ amenities are provided, and meeting notes are accurately and completely recorded.