{"id":560778,"date":"2014-10-08T09:37:11","date_gmt":"2014-10-08T13:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vrbbd.wpengine.com\/vrbbmadison\/do-you-know-your-customers\/"},"modified":"2022-01-31T12:43:57","modified_gmt":"2022-01-31T17:43:57","slug":"do-you-know-your-customers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrbusinessbrokers.com\/vrbbmadison\/do-you-know-your-customers\/","title":{"rendered":"Do You Know Your Customers?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>It\u2019s always nice, when eating at a nice restaurant, for the owner to come up and ask how everything was.\u00a0 That personal contact goes a long way in keeping customers happy \u2013 and returning.\u00a0 It seems that customer service is now handled by making a potential customer or client wait on a telephone for what seems like forever, often forcing them to repeatedly listen to a recording saying that the call will be handled in 10 minutes.\u00a0 Small businesses are usually built around personal customer service. \u00a0If you are a business owner, when is the last time you \u201cworked the floor\u201d or handled the phone, or had lunch with a good customer?\u00a0 Customers and clients like to do business with the owner.\u00a0 Even a friendly \u201chello\u201d or \u201cnice to see you again\u201d goes a long way in customer relations and service.<\/p>\n<p>The importance of knowing your customers and\/or clients could actually be extended to suppliers, vendors, and others connected with your business.\u00a0 When is the last time you visited with your banker, accountant, or legal advisor?\u00a0 A friendly call to your biggest supplier(s) can go a long way in building relationships.\u00a0 A call to one of these people thanking them for prompt delivery can pay big dividends if and when a problem really develops. With most communication now done online, a handwritten thank you to a long-standing customer, someone whose recommendation resulted in a new customer, or a vendor you appreciate stands out among the bills and junk mail.<\/p>\n<p>Owning and operating your own business is not a \u201cbackroom\u201d or \u201chide behind the business plan\u201d business.\u00a0 It is a \u201cfront-room\u201d business. Go out and meet the customers \u2013 and anyone else who has an interest in your business.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s always nice, when eating at a nice restaurant, for the owner to come up and ask how everything was.\u00a0 That personal contact goes a long way in keeping customers happy \u2013 and returning.\u00a0 It seems that customer service is now handled by making a potential customer or client wait on a telephone for what [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-560778","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-seller-articles"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrbusinessbrokers.com\/vrbbmadison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560778","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrbusinessbrokers.com\/vrbbmadison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrbusinessbrokers.com\/vrbbmadison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrbusinessbrokers.com\/vrbbmadison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrbusinessbrokers.com\/vrbbmadison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560778"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrbusinessbrokers.com\/vrbbmadison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560778\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrbusinessbrokers.com\/vrbbmadison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560778"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrbusinessbrokers.com\/vrbbmadison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560778"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrbusinessbrokers.com\/vrbbmadison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560778"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}