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More and more companies of all sizes have a lot of focus on branding themselves.  Now I don’t mean with a hot branding iron.  I mean that they have created something that makes them stand out from their competitors.

Be it a specific type of product, a logo, specific colors denoting their business or a reputation of how they treat their customers.  Any one or all of those things can signify branding.

What is it for your business?  Does your logo never change and is it incorporated into everything you use for advertising and promotions, kind of like McDonald’s Golden Arches?

Do you have a specific and unique color scheme for your company that lets people know at a glance that it’s you, like Century 21′s yellow and black?

Perhaps you have a reputation of always taking the time to remember, thank and appreciate your customers for giving you their hard earned money and right now we do know that it is HARD EARNED.

Whatever your branding is be sure to keep it up until it becomes a part of who your company is.  You want people to know that when they see that color, when they hear that jingle or when they hear your name that they think of you right away and that it is in a positive light.
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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.
Contact Mike

As we exit one year and enter another it is important that we look back at how our business has grown and evolved over these past 12 months.

If your business has grown and expanded as planned that is fantastic, I congratulate you.  If you failed to see the growth you had anticipated, don’t give up, simply reset those goals.  Take a hard look at what worked and what didn’t and make those course corrections.

It doesn’t matter if you are resetting goals or reaching for new ones, one thing that never changes is the fact that your customers want to be acknowledged and appreciated.  So what ever plan you are implementing be sure to incorporate a plan of appreciation.

Throughout the year take time and make plans to send thank you gifts to your customers.  A small gift, personal letter or email can make all the difference between a casual shopper and a loyal engaged customer.

Take the time to recognize your customers and show them appreciation for their business and they will be loyal and will be the best form of advertising you could ever ask for.

Make it a great year!
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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.
Contact Mike

Often times we feel like we are begging our customers to do business with us.  And with companies who perform the same or similar  service as you  do being just a Google search away it’s easy to see why we feel we have to beg.

Well put your begging cup away because there are other options.  When you are desperately trying to keep your customers coming back you look exactly that way, desperate, and your customers can see that.

Instead of begging them just appreciate them.  Thank them when they enter and exit your business or, if your don’t have a physical location, whenever you speak to or meet with them.    Gather as much of their personal information as possible, name, address, email, phone number, birthday, etc.

When you have that information you can send them thank you emails or notes.  You can send special offers to them for their birthdays or anniversaries.  You can even send them  “Just thinking about you” emails and notes.

By simply showing your customers that you appreciate them through acknowledgment both verbally and physically, with gifts and notes you will create not only customers that come back to you but customers that send their friends and relatives to you.

After all everybody likes to get an attaboy sometimes.

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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.
Contact Mike

In order to keep new customers coming in and, more importantly, keeping the customers that you already have coming back, there are some simple  steps you can follow:

1.Always give maximum product quality.

Getting to know what your customers expect and being able to constantly change to meet those needs will keep your customers coming back.  Your customers are satisfied when what they receive in both service and product quality  surpass their expectations.

This is basic stuff.  Many companies try all kinds of gimmicks to keep customers yet they ignore this simple “rule”.  When your customers pay for something, they expect, and deserve, great service and quality products.  That’s what you expect when you shop isn’t it?

2. Under Promise and Over Deliver.

It used to be that it was easy to keep a customer.  Either you were the only store of it’s kind in town or the only one that carried that particular product.  Today with all the competition, both neighboring stores and online customers can be quick to go from one store to another with no regard to loyalty. Today you have to work hard at keeping your customers and that means staying one step ahead of your competition.

Things you can do include offering more value for less cost handle your customers questions and complaints quickly and fairly, get your customers engaged with your company by asking them what they want in a company and how you can better serve them.

3.Communication with your Customers is Key.

Keeping open communication with your customers gives them a feeling of belonging.  They feel more like it is their company.  They will be more loyal and refer more family and friends because they know that you care about them.

Loyal customers means more initial sales and more repeat business.  It also means that they will talk about your company more and that creates more business without the extra expense of advertising. Word of mouth is the most powerful form of advertising and a customer who feels a part of your business will tell his friends.

“Executives are finding that the
winning differentiators is no longer
product or price, but the level of
customer engagement relative to
the competition.”
– Rama Ramaswami, Senior Editor,
Economist Intelligence Unit

Keep your customer involved with your business and make them feel like family and you will have a customer for life.
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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.
Contact Mike

Almost every business owner or manager will tell you that having loyal customers is the key to a successful business.  If that’s true then what are they doing to keep those customers coming back?

Most will tell you that they send emails or newsletters on a regular basis to keep in touch.  Others will say that they use a discount program to show their appreciation.

It’s not to say that these are bad things but they are not enough.  To create loyalty and get your customer engaged with you takes effort and planning.  Creating strong relationships is one of the most critical ways to retain more of your customers and grow your business faster because happy customers` will use you more and refer friends which will give you a tremendous competitive edge over your competitions.

Here are some statistics showing that challenges that businesses face today:

• Each year the average company loses 10-15% of its customer base
– Bain & Company
• “84% of customers who leave, do so because of poor service”
– Forum Corp
• “A typical business only hears from 4% of its dissatisfied customers—the other 96% leave, 91% for good”
– Jim Barnes, “Secrets of CRM”

By understanding why your customers are leaving you and how you can retain them is priceless information.  The best way to find out what they want is to ask them, read the article ” You Just Need To Ask ” 11/19/2010

The sooner you know what makes your customers tick, the sooner you can begin to cultivate a strong and long lasting relationship to keep your business alive in any economy.

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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.
Contact Mike

When it comes time to get a gift for a family member or friend how do you decide what to get.  Well you take into consideration their likes and dislikes, hobbies or interests.

You choose something that, based on your intimate knowledge of them, you know they will enjoy.

But what about when it comes to business gifts?  How do you make a good choice when you may not know that much personal information about your recipient?  One way is to guess.  Get a gift and hope for the best.  However, you may not get them a memorable gift or a gift they can use.  It might just be something they will toss away or give to somebody else.

The best  choice for a gift is one that the recipient makes for themselves.  But how do you do that?

Easy!  Our Gift Collections make giving business gifts and incentives easy by offering the Gift of Choice. With these collections, recipients choose their own gift from a wide selection of top-quality, brand-name merchandise by redeeming them online. It’s the perfect solution for small to mid-size businesses – and virtually every budget, occasion, and event!

How do they work?

It’s simple and convenient for your business. You just:

1. CHOOSE the budget range you want to stay within.
2. BUY a Gift Collection on line or from your sales associate.
3. GIVE the gift to the recipient to redeem for their perfect gift!

Then, the recipient:

1. DISCOVERS and browses their Gift Collection online.
2. SELECTS the perfect gift from the many name-brand items.
3. RECEIVES the gift shipped right to their door, free of charge.

Here are some occasions when these Gift Collections work amazingly well:

• Sales incentives
• Holidays
• Employee weddings/new baby
• Customer thank you
• New customer welcome
• Corporate events
• Promotions
• Service awards
• Employee acknowledgment
• Safety awards

Here is what these Gift Collections can do for your business?

They can be given to employees, co-workers, supervisors, managers, customers, business associates, and service providers to help:

• Increase productivity
• Generate sales increases
• Improve morale
• Strengthen employee performance
• Create a safer workplace
• Inspire great ideas and suggestions
• Develop loyalty and dedication
• Enhance work environment

Why give these Gift Collections?

Well they have been rewarding, motivating, and inspiring employees and customers for nearly 40 years, and they are trusted by businesses because they offer:

• 180-day Satisfaction Guarantee
• Easy online redemption
• Popular brand-name gifts
• No minimum order required
• Monetary value not displayed to recipient
• Saves the time and expense of shopping for gifts

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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.
Contact Mike