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If you are like most business professionals, you are pulled in many directions on a daily basis. Sometimes even more often. It is easy to get bogged down in the mundane tasks necessary to keep your business moving forward. BEWARE!

Although business must get done, be careful to not get so busy that you lose focus on what’s important – and in case you didn’t know, it’s people and relationships. I attended a luncheon/conference and heard Sharon Lechter, co-author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, say “Focus on your people more than your profits”.

While profits are critical in business, you will never have them without people. It’s the people factor that will multiply the profit factor exponentially at the rate you nurture and build mutually beneficial relationships. Ask yourself this question, “Are you selling or are you serving?”. Be honest with yourself on this one -if you’re not, you are only fooling yourself. People don’t want to be sold, but they are willing to buy from those that put others needs before their own.

I learned through a business networking association for women that I once belonged to that you should “give first, share always”. This phrase really struck a cord with me. If you have ever heard me present for a group, you undoubtedly have heard this phrase too – I find myself repeating it often. When you are willing to give of yourself and share with others you will attract people with the same mindset and it will come back to you ten fold.

We’ve all heard the saying “what goes around comes around”. Often it was from our parents when we did something wrong… It works to our benefit also. The fun part is you never know where it will come back around from. You may have helped someone with an idea to overcome a business challenge and then you unexpectedly got a new client. It happens all the time. Just be sure that what you put out is something you eventually want to get back. Take care of and help others, the rest will take care of itself.
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About The Author:

Sally Liddicoat is a Wife, Mother, Speaker and the Founder & CEO of AttaBoy! Solutions. Her goal is to help businesses increase sales, generate ongoing referrals, strengthen relationships and create loyal customers and employees through appreciation marketing. Throughout this blog you can sign up for updates, news, special offers, discounts and more. So take a look around, leave a comment or two and enjoy.

Contact Sally

One of the biggest mistakes a company can make when dealing with their customers is to only look at the immediate effects of a decision and not take the long term effects into consideration. We all know that it can be very costly to earn the business of a single new customer. Once we have them, we need to keep them -almost at any cost.

Here’s what happened to my husband… About two years ago he purchased a hand sprayer for the yard. When he went to use it the other day, it was cracked and no longer working properly. He was about to throw it out when he noticed on the label “Lifetime Guarantee”. So… he called the company and the young lady on the phone told him that their return policy had changed and he needed his receipt. As you can imagine, he didn’t have it. After all it had been two years and it had only cost about $4 or $5 anyway. When he told her that he didn’t have the receipt she advised him to return the item to them and they would check it out -if it fit the criteria, they would send him out a new one.

Well, he needed a sprayer now -not a month or more from now. After the call he was a little frustrated and sent an email to the company explaining the situation. He also let them know that he was just going to go purchase another one, however it probably would not be their brand.

My husband, who is quite the handyman, is also pretty frugal so he tried to repair the broken sprayer and he was able to fix it. After about 4 days went by, he received an email from the company asking him to describe the damage to the sprayer. He sent a reply to their email with the information. About 2 days later he was notified that a new sprayer was being sent out.

Now that’s customer service! He has only ever bought one thing from this company and that was 2 years ago. But this company knows the value of a customer. It is far less expensive to send a new sprayer than to stick to their return policy. Why? Because now when my husband needs yard equipment, he will look for that brand. He has already told several people what the company has done for him and will continue to tell even more. The company also knows that for every person he tells his story to, he would have told twice as many had they enforced their policy and not satisfied their customer.

As difficult as it is to get new customers, it’s twice as hard to undo bad press. If people are going to talk about your company you want them telling good stories rather than bad. Your customers are what keeps you in business. Do what you need to do to keep them happy. Bend the rules sometimes, they are really more like guidelines anyway. By doing so, you will earn a customer for life.
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About The Author:

Sally Liddicoat is a Wife, Mother, Speaker and the Founder & CEO of AttaBoy! Solutions. Her goal is to help businesses increase sales, generate ongoing referrals, strengthen relationships and create loyal customers and employees through appreciation marketing. Throughout this blog you can sign up for updates, news, special offers, discounts and more. So take a look around, leave a comment or two and enjoy.

Contact Sally

It doesn’t have to be a special occasion to show appreciation for your loyal customers.  Loyalty programs can be used year round for clients and business partners as well.  A properly implemented customer loyalty program can work well for all kinds of businesses, from retail stores to personal trainers.

There are several reasons you want to implement a loyalty program in your business:

• To thank existing customers
• To reward for referrals
• To acknowledge a large or significant purchase

The list could go on.  The most effective programs offer graduated rewards – the more a customer spends, the more they earn.  This rewards your best, most profitable clients or customers for their continued patronage.

Receiving a gift makes your customer feel good about your company, especially if they see the gift as something of value or something that is useful to them.  Thanking people with a gift for being your customer gives them a sense of loyalty to you and every time they use that gift it will help to solidify that relationship.
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About The Author:

Sally Liddicoat is a Wife, Mother, Speaker and the Founder & CEO of AttaBoy! Solutions. Her goal is to help businesses increase sales, generate ongoing referrals, strengthen relationships and create loyal customers and employees through appreciation marketing. Throughout this blog you can sign up for updates, news, special offers, discounts and more. So take a look around, leave a comment or two and enjoy.

Contact Sally

Everyone loves to be appreciated for a job well done or just a “thank you for your business”. Gifts have a way of saying what words can’t. With the giving of gifts becoming more and more popular in business, utilizing the many different occasions available is a great way to build quality relationships that will last a lifetime.

There are many reasons for gift giving in business:

To get the attention of a potential client or prospect
The completion of an important job or project
The opening of a new office
Holidays (Christmas, Anniversary, etc.)
Thank you to a client
To market or promote your products or service
Business milestone
A birth, wedding or retirement
To improve employee moral
An apology to a colleague
New mom or dad returning to work after a birth or an adoption
A gesture of goodwill
For the boss on Boss’s Day
Oops! We goofed
For an employee or client who is ill
To a client or employee who has had a death in their family
and many more…

All business gifts should be given with sincerity. That doesn’t mean you can’t be creative. Make your company stand out by giving gifts throughout the year. Celebrate your successes, that of your employees and of your clients.

Everyone knows that Christmas time is the biggest time of year for companies to give gifts, however, why not stand apart from your competitors and give gifts years round. The list above shows that there are many many opportunities to give business gifts! Take the time to let people know that they are appreciated and they will appreciate you for it.
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About The Author:

	Mike Liddicoat is a Husband, Father, Speaker and the Sales & Marketing Director of AttaBoy! Solutions. His goal is to help businesses maintain relationships, ensure future business and acquire new referrals through appreciation marketing. Throughout this blog you can sign up for updates, news, special offers, discounts and more. So take a look around, leave a comment or two and enjoy.
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