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Show 'Business owners; work to keep present customers 7 I I By KENNETH J. ROSE Editor's Note: Bottom Line author Kenneth Ken-neth J. Rose is the owner of Rose and Associates, a small business tax consulting, consult-ing, and financial planning firm in Bountiful. In our free enterprise society the dream of being self-employed is usually accompanied with the idea of being your own boss. To some extent that may be true, but when you really think about it, the self-employed self-employed really has a lot of bosses, sometimes hundreds or thousands. They are his customers. It is your customers that pay for everything you have in the business, busi-ness, and everything that you take out of the business. If the business is your sole means of livelihood, it means that your customers provide for your family. What that means is that you want to make sure that you treat your customers right. I'm reminded of the business owner that adopted a customer policy that hung in his place of business for all employees and customers to see. Rule number one: The Customer is always right. Rule number two: If the custom er is wrong, see Rule number 1 again. Service to the customer is one of the most vital parts of any business and the one key advantage that the small business owner can have over his big business competition. Customers like to do business with people who want their business and are willing to act like they want it. Larger businesses often become so impersonal that the customer is just one of the masses. Small businesses can focus on the individual indi-vidual service that all customers are seeking, but can rarely find. The greatest human need is the need to feel important, and that applies ap-plies to customers in your business as much or more than anyone. Treat the customer like a king or queen and they will come back. Many of you will set aside and budget money for advertising to get new customers over the course of any year. But what are you doing to keep the customers that you already have? How many will ever establish a solid plan or budget to keep those customers. It costs a lot less to keep customers that you already have than to get new ones. Then the new customers that you get will add to your business instead in-stead of replacing business from customers that left. Everybody wins. |