In Business, It's Differentiate, Differentiate, Differentiate

Glenn Ross is the Customer Experience business adviser over at AllBusiness.com. I read his blog regularly and absolutely never disagree with him, because I too am a believer in building your business by building a base of loyal customers. What makes customers loyal?  Specifically, that depends on you and your business, but it always has to do with giving customers more of what matters to them than they get somewhere else.

Glenn tells of doing a lot of business travel in the 90s, going to an area where he had essentially two hotels to choose from. One offered steam irons in every room and the other did not. He became a loyal customer of the one with the irons because they gave him something that mattered to him.

His advice:

"First one to exceed the need wins! Something like this may seem like a molehill to you, but it can be a mountain to customers. Get feedback from your customers. What are the little things, the tiny adjustments that might help separate your business from the pack of your competitors? If you can identify these, then the additional cost will most likely be offset by your increased sales."

That something extra may not even have to cost you anything.  These days in retail, even a smiling employee can be enough of a bonus to make a repeat customer of me.