It is no secret in business the best customers come back time and time again. More often than not, 20% of your customers make up 80% of your sales. How do you get and retain those highly valuable customers who make up your bottom line?

1. Offer a great service or product

I know this sounds really simple, but if you are able to separate your business from the competition by going above and beyond to please your customers, they will come back. Having a reputation of being a high-quality mechanic in a car-fueled world is worth thousands. When you offer a product or service, make sure it is one that people will remark about.

2. Give them something extra

This is why you see coffee and magazines in the lobby of doctors’ offices and tire repair shops, not to mention having televisions to help pass the time. At our local grocery store, they always offer to carry out your items to the car. What if a pizza delivery place added $.50 to each pizza, but advertised free delivery instead of the other way around? People love anything free and would probably like that idea. In a time of high gas prices, people would love to save at the pump. And if the delivery is free, why not use it? It beats telling your customer you have to charge them more to deliver because of the high fuel costs.

3. Get them to come back

In the town I grew up in, there is a tire store franchise that is completely remarkable. Les Schwab tires is a western USA tire store that has really focused on delivering exceptional service. You will always see the employees running everywhere and with a smile. I am convinced they all love their jobs and wouldn’t rather be anywhere else. Some of the services they offer include free tire rotation (which they recommend every 3,000 miles). Whats the point of this? Well, on top of forming the habit of always visiting their store every oil change, they are able to point out preventable maintenance. I see your tires are getting worn mam… and much more. They also fix flat tires for free too, that is if you can get it to the store. This store is doing so much right in the way of getting people everything they need, want and didn’t know they needed. I can’t imagine them ever going out of business.

4. Focus on the customers who bring home the bacon

The Pareto principle (also known as the 80-20 rule, the law of the vital few and the principle of factor sparsity) states that, for many events, 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. Like I mentioned earlier, about 20% of the customers bringing in 80% of your business means that 80% of your time and energy should be focused on those 20%. Sometimes you have to ignore or cut loose some customers who are draining your resources. I occasionally get emails asking for my help with different projects or ideas and most the time I have to politely decline. I decline because the payoff in time spent and benefit received just is not there. Your time is valuable. Make sure you treat it the same as you would $1,000 in your hand. You wouldn’t just throw the money away on something wasteful or frivolous; the same should go for your time.

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