| By :
Jeff Schuman
As a local business if you lose touch with your customers and with what's going on within the marketplace it's a recipe for disaster. You must sufficiently meet customer's needs and provide the goods and services that are currently in demand, or you won't be in business for long. It's kind of like evolution in the animal kingdom, which is all about surviving and eventually thriving. The animals that adapt best to changing climates and find ways to overcome obstacles are the ones that advance and prosper. It's no different in the business world. A successful local business must be very aware of what's going on within its industry as much as what's going on in their neighborhood. Your most loyal customers will have to make a decision about whether to stay with you or go to your competitor if you don't keep up with the changes. A business survey taken a few years ago sought to determine the reasons why customers discontinue giving its business to companies. The reasons ranged from them dying (3%) to being displeased with how employees treated them (68%). And in the middle this reason stands out: 14% of customers leave because they're dissatisfied with a company's goods or services. To be clear, if your products or services don't meet the needs of your customer's your competitor will take care of them. This doesn't mean that you have to abandon everything that got you to where you are but that you must offer alternatives to keep up with the times. You must also be very aware of what you're competitors are doing. I recently visited a unique candle store in a tourist town in the mountains. It was a cold winter day and the town was more like a ghost town. I asked the store owner how business was doing for him and he surprisingly answered that he was very busy. He noticed my somewhat startled reaction and explained that store sales are just a small percentage of his overall sales during the winter. His biggest business comes from online sales. He makes sure that every store customer has his website information and collects customer data from online visitors. By doing this he keeps in touch with his customers via email- giving them information on new products and about upcoming sales and discounts. So instead of having to close his shop during the winter he now stays very busy with his mail order business. He went on to say that he transformed his business when he realized a few years ago that his customers were beginning to shop online and that his competition was also selling via the internet. Even though he was "old school" he knew that he could either adapt and join this new movement or possibly go the way of the dinosaur. Summary: A local business can stay very busy and relative if they adapt to changes and strive to meet their customer's needs. By doing so, they may find opportunities that they didn't realize were available to them.
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