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Archive for December, 2009

Lifetime Value of Customers

When I worked in the coffeehouse business as CMO, we came up with stunning lifetime values of a customer.  An average customer order was worth $4, a regular came into the shop once a day for 5 days out of the week, that equaled around $1000 a year.  Local demographics were that people moved about once every 4-5 years.  Those details let us realize that grabbing a new customer and providing an exceptional experience, if we did it right, was worth about $4500.  Likewise if we did it wrong it wasn’t $4, but $4500!

Do you know what the lifetime value of your customer is? How about yearly? Heck, do you track your average ticket? If not you must; it is one of the seven tools I feature in my new book, The Retail Doctor’s Guide To Growing Your Business and in the home study course I’m now creating based on that book.

To help employees realize how important first impressions are, calculate the lifetime value of a customer for your business.

Handling A Difficult Customer’s Complaint

From the Retail Doc’s Facebook Fan page:

Q.”I am in the automotive repair and I am very good at what I do. I had a customer come in for a convertible top replacement. To make a very long story short- They expected other work done for free. I explained to them what was entailed in the extra work and they went ballistic because I would not adjust the door glass and what ever parts they needed for free. Now they are bad mouthing me everywhere on reviews and the BBB. Not on the work performed,  but on my bad “customer service.”

Even though I kept my cool and calm over the whole 2 hours with them, I now have to answer to the BBB why I am a nasty, rude, foul mouth person and my business should be shut down.They even went as far to say that I was going to bust their 1973 corvette up! Which I never in a 1,000 years would think of. I have been in business for 21 years – and this is the first time I have ever encountered this kind of customer.

A. Wow that’s tough. Since I wasn’t there, it’s hard to know what to do. My short answer: nothing. There are jerks in the world, accept you did what you thought best, perhaps there is something you could change – make a note of it- and move on.

That said, if you want to go further, do a Google search for your name or the name of your business and find any and all reviews they might have posted.  Look at yahoo.com, yelp.com boorah.com and kudzu.com for starters. Answer any accusations in a fact-based manner.  I’ve seen this on TripAdvisor.com with a hotel that received a terrible review stating all kinds of things. The owner responded to their points, apologized but also corrected them in saying the property “bait and switched.”

There are millions of people just itching to get their hurt out into the world and vent that it is your fault. If it is, accept responsiblity for what is yours but don’t let them get away with trash-talk.

Let’s Make A Deal: Disturbing Trend In Retail Sales

When I grew up in the sixties, the holidays were magical and captured in the 1963 hit, “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.”higbees
Its the most wonderful time of the year
With the kids jingle belling and everyone telling you be of good cheer
Its the most wonderful time of the year

That sense of wonder was immortalized in the classic holiday movie, A Christmas Story as Ralphie and his brother window shop at Higbees department store in Cleveland, Ohio.

Where was the “big deal” then? Where was the rush to discount? Weren’t people struggling in the early 60′s?

According to www.recession.org, “The Early 1960s recession was yet another chapter in the modern economic cycle that has shown its ugly side so many times to the U.S. This recession was characterized by, once again, astronomically high unemployment rates, incredibly high inflation, and a bad Gross National Product rating.”

Yet wonder still lived at Christmas.  Childhood fantasies were embraced. It was about finding the Continue reading Let’s Make A Deal: Disturbing Trend In Retail Sales »

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