Nov 16, 2014

Small-business Q&A: Personal Touch Can Draw Repeat CustomersBy Jacqueline TaylorChron.com

Q: I own a women’s clothing and accessories boutique. We’ll be participating in Small Business Saturday again this year. Last year my sales that day were higher than normal, but didn’t really translate into many repeat customers. How can I turn the one-day event into a busy holiday season?

A: Doug Baumann, the UH-Bauer College Small Business Development Center’s retail specialist, says it’s all about relationship building. As a boutique, your store can provide a personal touch that will keep customers coming back. Since Small Business Saturday is on Nov. 29, it may be cutting it close to send written invitations, but there’s still time to make calls and post social media invitations to let people know what will be going on that day.

If you’ve done a good job of capturing customer information, including their likes and dislikes, you can even suggest sale items that meet their interests to entice them to come in. If you haven’t, now is a good time to start keeping track of customer preferences so that you can personalize your outreach in the future.

Read complete article »