Small local businesses can compete with bigger high profile competition if they can give customer service that “wows” customers. It’s appreciated greatly by customers today and will encourage them to support local business when they’re made to feel special by those businesses.

The key in doing so is to stand out from the competition. There are hundreds of very specific things that local businesses can do to show their customers that they care about them and appreciate their business.

In this article, we’ll concentrate on one of those ways that really can make a difference, improving how your customers will perceive you and getting the all-important repeat business.

Have your customers ever received personalized cards from you? My insurance agent sends me a birthday card every year with a handwritten message. My financial adviser sends out a recipe card every 3 months (the recipe is one of his clients’), with a personalized handwritten note.

Even if I don’t especially care to get another birthday card the older I get, or need another recipe, I really do appreciate receiving these. Why? Because I know it took effort on their part and they actually gave me some thought instead of sending out a generic card (although that’s still better than nothing).

Here’s what it does. You’re building relationships with your customers. When you build relationships you get loyalty. And loyalty will give you repeat business AND referrals! There isn’t a business today that doesn’t want and need those.

In short- Customers will support local business if they feel the love.

Here are some tips in how to have a successful correspondence program with your customers:

1- Make sure you have their names and information, such as home address and email. You can do this by adding an opt-in subscription form to your website and provide postcards at your actual brick and mortar business.

2- When sending a card via the postal service, it’s important that it’s more than just a generic “thank you” card. It must give the “you’re special” feeling. Include a handwritten note with a personalized message.

3- Communication done via email lacks the personalization that a handwritten card gives. You’ll have to make sure you add as much of a personal touch as possible to overcome this.

4- Send cards or email of thanks for a variety of reasons: to new customers, for customers who make a big purchase, to customers who give referrals, for customer birthdays, to long-term loyal customers, customer’s marriages or childbirth’s, etc.

5- Send a note to those who may not have bought yet, but are considering it (they’re probably also considering your competition).

6- Follow up in a timely fashion. If you wait too long- more than a week- it loses some of its luster.

Don’t hesitate to get a program like this going very soon. Customers will most definitely support local business if they are made to feel special and receive extra attention.

If you enjoyed this article by Jeff Schuman on support local business, visit our local business website today to learn how you can use local business marketing to rank highly on search engines. Doing so can drive more traffic to your small business website.
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When you use surveys and quizzes you’re able to creatively market local business online and simultaneously improve customer service and satisfaction. These are a few tips to consider:

Develop an interesting survey to help improve your website. This gives you the opportunity to ask visitors to your site why they’re there. And to also receive feedback on a variety of subjects which can help you make your site better. You can also use surveys to make the visit to your site fun.

By getting interaction from visitors you have accomplished what an ad in the yellow pages or newspaper can’t do. It also allows you to get great feedback and suggestions and how they liked your site and what else they might like to see. Visitors often become customers when asked for input.

A survey allows you to conduct product research. Tap into the minds of your website visitors and customers by asking them about design, marketing ideas and pricing before launching a new product or service.

Being able to get this input in advance just might be the difference between a successful launch and one that fails.

Use a survey to aid you in improving your presentation and sales skills. Here’s another way to get feedback from your audience.

Do so after giving a presentation or a pitch. Invite them to evaluate your performance by using an anonymous survey on your website.

This will not only give you valuable feedback- things that people typically won’t say in person- but it also shows that you’re not only looking to improve yourself, but you also care about their experience.

Create and post a fun and educational quiz about your business. A quiz about your business is a fun way to educate people with facts about your company and products.

Information tends to stay with people longer when they’re involved in discovering it in this fashion.

Offering a product chooser helps customers make decisions. If your company offers a variety of products and services this can be an aid in assisting customers in deciding what’s right for them.

It can give them confidence about choosing the product or service that matches their needs. The customer has to answer a number of questions and will be guided towards different outcomes depending on the answers that he or she selects.

Posting a survey for recruiting employees can help you to find the best possible candidates for job openings. It will allow you to ask questions about their skills and experience. You can extract information and test the knowledge of candidates before inviting them to an interview.

As you can see, your website can be, and should be, used for much more than just featuring what your company does. To market local business using a few creative ideas like these is not only effective but also inexpensive.

If you enjoyed this article on creative ways to market local business please visit our local business website today. Read our free review on hands off local business marketing using local seo to rank highly on search engines and drive additional traffic to your small business website.
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