Developing a Tasting Room Loyalty Program Part 2

By Dr Kathy Kelley--Professor of Horticultural Marketing and Business Management and Dana Ollendyke-- Extension Associate

In our previous post, we discussed what a loyalty program should do for your business--which, simply put, it should help increase your tasting room’s profits! In this post, we will discuss developing an outline for your loyalty program.

A loyalty program rewards program (photo credit: iQoncept/Dollar Photo Club).

The great thing about offering a loyalty program is that customers understand their basic function, as they most likely belong to other programs. Regardless of the type of program you offer, consider these key questions:

• Your overall goal – what do you hope to achieve?
• Will charge customers to join the program, limit the number of members, or will enrollment be free?
• How will customer purchases will be recorded?
• What questions will you ask members that will help enhance the program and their experience?
• What purchases will “count” towards loyalty program benefits, what can members redeem points on, and would a program co-developed with a complementary business be perceived as being even more attractive?
• How you will determine that loyalty has really been established?
• How and when might need to end the program (and steps for doing so)?

The next post in this series will focus on your overall loyalty program goal.

Is Customer Service on Social Media for You?

by Sarah Cornelisse, Sr. Extension Associate, Dept. of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education

I'm sure you've all seen them - the stories, comments, or other posts on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, or another social platform from people dissatisfied with some aspect of a product or a service from a business. More so than ever, consumers are turning to social media to share their annoyances and horror stories.  However, they also turn to social media to connect with brands and businesses - to seek information,  ask questions, and resolve problems or concerns.

A 2012 Nielsen report provides some insight to consumer views regarding customer service via social media, or "social care."  Their findings include:

• Almost half (47%) of social media users engage in customer service activities through these networks. And of that 47%,
• Seventy percent (70%), do so on a monthly basis.
• Thirty percent (30%) prefer social care over contacting a company by phone.
• Facebook, through both the company's page and the user's personal page (29% and 28% respectively), are where users are most likely to comment or ask a question.

If your business has an existing presence on social media and is looking for a competitive edge, or just to improve your relationship with your followers, taking on social care may be something to consider.  However, it does require commitment.  Here are some tips I've come across for using social media as a customer service channel.

• Be proactive. Listen and participate in conversations. You can learn so much from simply listening to what your customers, or the public, are saying on social media.  If a conversation is happening and you can add to it, do so.  Through active listening, you'll be ahead of the curve in knowing what's important or of concern to them.

• Focus on social interaction as a competitive differentiator. One reason the buy local movement is popular is because consumers like to know the person(s) from whom they're buying.  You can bring the same focus on relationships to your online interactions with consumers.  When you're separated from individuals by a computer screen it's easy to put off replying until a more convenient time or to send short, clipped responses. However, by being personal and personable, you can build trusting relationships with your customers and followers that they will appreciate and value. 
  

  "When executing social media customer care, canned responses are unacceptable. Responses must be personal, and it’s essential to strike the right tone." (Source)

  Additionally, if consumers see inconsistency in your social care, they'll know that you're not committed to them.  A study by Conversocial, found that 88% of respondents said that they would be less likely to do business with someone who didn't answer questions on their social media pages.  This leads us to the next tip...
  
  
• Define a process and framework for dealing with customers. How, and when, will you respond to requests?  What's your strategy for dealing with complaints? Creating a response map (see example below) may be useful, as you'll want to have a consistent response strategy for everything that comes your way, even praise.   With some aspects of your response strategy, such as response time, it may make sense to make this known upfront to your customers with short notices on your social media page, or through an automatic reply.
  

  

  Source: http://www.conversocial.com

  When complaints are involved, be sure these points are addressed in your response framework:

• Understand what's behind the complaint before responding.  Sometimes, the complaint made is just the tip of the iceberg, and the real issue lies deeper.  Ask the complainant clarifying questions as appropriate if you suspect this is the case.
• Follow through on all channels.  If a conversation moves from one channel to another, say from Facebook to email, make sure you indicate that this has taken place.  This will allow others who have seen the start of a conversation know that you are in contact with the original poster.  You may also want to post the final resolution, or answer, on the original channel for others to see and for the complainant to verify that they have been assisted.
• Follow up after problems have been solved.  Once you have provided a solution or rectified the situation, follow up after a reasonable length of time to ensure your customer's satisfaction.

It is possible to provide excellent customer service using social tools, just check out this customer's experience with Netflix. 

"If you’re not engaging customers during the entire product life cycle through social media, you’re missing out. Because someone else will."

                   - Dennis Stoutenburgh, co-founder of Stratus Contact Solutions

Note: Where businesses or trade-names are mentioned, no endorsement is intended.

Instagram and Small Businesses

Using photos in your social media efforts can provide amazing results. Recently, I heard Julie Flinchbaugh (@flinchsorchard) talk about her most successful Facebook posts (as measured by Facebook Insights) of 2012.  The top ones all had an image.  Photos capture a moment unlike words ever could (unless you use 1,000 words, or so says the proverb).  Is there any wonder why, then, two of the hottest social media tools are Pinterest and Instagram?  We've discussed Pinterest in this blog a few times.  (Check out Lots of Interest in Pinterest... and Pinterest Secret Boards - Make Use of Them for Your Business. That first one needs a bit of an update...)  Let's briefly talk about Instagram, though.

My Instagram page as viewed on a web browser. Your business's pics in this format could be very engaging!

Instagram is a photo-based social media tool designed primarily for mobile phones and tablets.  (The website is a relatively new feature.)  It allows the user to snap a new pic (or use one stored on the device), edit it (notice the various effects in the pics above) and add a caption.  The user can also share the photo to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and foursquare.  Users of Twitter and Facebook will also recognize the usefulness and power of @ mentions of other users as well as hashtags.  These act just like they do in the other tools.  Finally, all content is public by default.  Users follow each other similar to the Twitter model and, like Twitter, you can make your profile private.

I made this Granny Smith
tower. What if I had linked it
to my favorite orchard or grocery
store?  What if I had tagged a friend
to tell them how good the apples were?

According to its website, Instagram currently has over 30 million user accounts and over 5 million photos are uploaded each day.  Individual use of the tool continues to grow.  Here are 6 ideas how you might use it to connect with your customers and tell your business's story....

1. Post pics of cool stuff around your business; how you make your product, the view from your farm market, a customer enjoying your product.  Be sure to add appropriate hashtags to expand your reach.  Add a comment asking for people's thoughts or challenge them to identify what they see.
2. Add a personal touch if customer relationships are important. Pics from a family vacation, holidays, or weird things you see on any given day are all good stuff.  Show them whatever you are comfortable sharing.
3. Tie Instagram to your other social media accounts.  This will help you spread your word and hopefully attract people to connect with you in multiple ways.
4. Encourage users to post pics of themselves using your products.  Ask them to @ mention you.  You might even create a hashtag to group all those pics.  (This could be a photo contest opportunity if you can decide how to judge them. Random drawing, perhaps?)
5. If you have a retail location, encourage users to post photos and tie them to foursquare check-ins.  This builds your presence on foursquare and adds that powerful image to what might otherwise simply be a check-in notification.
6. As with other tools, be social with it.  Like things that those you follow post (if you really do like it).  Comment on it.  Respond to comments on your pics. Etc.

I've grown to enjoy Instagram for its simplicity and ability to engage another user (including a business) around a photo.  With just a bit of thought, I think there's a lot of potential to use it effectively in marketing a small business, especially food and agricultural businesses.  If you follow me (jeffhyde), I'll absolutely follow you back!

Pinterest Secret Boards - Make Use of Them for Your Business

Pinterest recently unveiled their newest feature - secret boards.  Here are a few pieces of information about secret boards and how you can make use of them in your business.

• You can have up to three of these secret boards (in addition to your public boards). 
• You can not make an existing board secret. 
• You can make a secret board public, but you cannot change it back to secret status.
• Only the creator of the secret board can make it public.
• Other people see your secret board through invitations you send allowing them to contribute to the board.
• There does not appear to be a limit on the number of invitations you can send to make people contributors to a secret board.

If you have a business where you deal with clients and need to show them pictures of things you are discussing (flowers, designs, packaging, labels, etc.) or even need a central place to archive links to articles and other online information (provided it's pin-able), these new secret boards may be a valuable tool to enhancing customer relationships and improving communication. 

A secret Pinterest board could also be handy as a tool for internal communication, idea sharing, and brainstorming.  Since original photos can be pinned, you, your family members, employees, or anyone you want to get involved, could pin photos of things they see away from the business to spark discussions or for future planning.

Since you can only have up to three secret boards at a time, managing your use of them will be important.  You can delete boards as you complete projects, allowing you to create a new secret board.  Your other option is to simply add and remove contributors.


For more information about Pinterest's secret boards, click here.  We invite you to visit our Pinterest boards here.  Do you think secret Pinterest boards will help you in your business?

The Value of Social Media as a Market Research Tool

You've got a Facebook page and/or Twitter account for your business.  You're letting followers (hopefully also your customers!) know when you're market is open, what's happening on the farm, what events you've got planned for them, specials you're offering, and so forth.

Source: http://www.homegauge.com

This article, that appeared on Mashable, reminds business owners of the value that you can pull from social media engagement with your followers. So, how can the messages and information on social media help you and your business?  Here are the author's five points:

1. Shed light on perceptions of your brand.  While you may not think you have a brand, you do.  You have a reputation and the public and customers have perceptions of you, the business, the products you produce and/or sell, your employees, your customer service, etc.  So take advantage of social media and take note of comments and questions that followers make. 

2. Peek into your customers' heads. By keeping tabs on what your customers are saying, you learn what is important to them.  This knowledge can help you frame questions that you may have, determine what you can provide that they will value, or if you should make changes to keep up with new trends.

3. Understand which products resonate the best.  When you post something to Facebook or Twitter, which items are generating the most buzz?  How many comments are followers making and what are they saying?  Are your posts being shared? This information is there, use it.

4. Learn from major customer issues.  Sometimes a follower/customer will post a complaint or question(s) that you thought was clearly communicated.  These things happen. Rather than becoming defensive, take these occurrences as opportunities to learn and make necessary changes.  Remember to respond to these complaints and questions, on- or off-line as appropriate.  Kathy Kelley provided tips on responding to negative reviews in this past blog post.

5. Construct a social media customer conversation plan. Similar to developing a social media strategy (for content sharing), consider developing a plan on how you and your team will interact and converse with followers/customers on social media.  How will you categorize social media feedback?  What conversations do you want to have?  If you have more than one person involved in your business's social media presence, who will be responsible for different actions?

Source: www.buzzom.com

Make sure that you're taking advantage of the information your followers and connections are sharing via social media.  You could be missing out if you're not "listening" as much or more than the amount of sharing you do.

Social Media for Market Research: An Example

Social media tools (Facebook, Twitter) you use for your business marketing can also be leveraged as valuable tools for collecting feedback from your followers or customers (i.e. market research).  I have seen one really good example (though I'm sure others exist!) of an ag business using social media to generate and collect feedback.  I asked Julie Finchbaugh from Flinchbaugh's Orchard some questions about her experience in gathering feedback from her business's Facebook followers.

Ag Entrepreneurship: What made you decide to gather feedback from your Facebook followers?

Julie Flinchbaugh: All throughout the year, people suggest ideas or share comments with us.  But, I wanted to find out just how many thought the same thing.  So I comprised a list of feedback I felt I had received in the past, and composed questions based on those!  My goal is to not only entice new customers, but make our Market the best shopping experience while they're here, and if satisfying one more of their needs is the way to do it - then that is what I will do!

AE: How did you decide upon "Survey Saturday?"

JF: "Survey Saturday" was just one of those ideas that randomly popped into my head on a Saturday, that I though about posting a random question, and the whole plan seemed to work!  I didn't want to make it an excessive questioning period, and it seemed that Saturday might be the day, giving individuals something to look forward to throughout the week.  I wanted them to have to check back each week to keep them involved.

AE:What was your goal with the surveys?

JF: It was kind of three fold.  First, I wanted to see how many people out of our total following would respond (we had 93 out of I believe 850-ish followers responds at some point) - to determine if our Facebook marketing was working.  Second, I wanted answers to the questions I posed! Third, I wanted to be sure I created a bit of buzz during the winter months gearing up for our season opening!

AE: Were the responses what you expected?

JF: I really did not know what to expect, but I was so very shocked by the participation.  I found that most questions that revolved around them selecting an 'a, b, c, d, or e' answer garnered the most feedback.  It seemed the open-ended questions were "too tough" or something for them.  Some of the specific answers they provided shocked me some...I was really surprised how many people just wanted "fair" prices vs. having to use coupons or loyalty cards.

Post showing a change made as a result of Survey Saturday.
Notice the number of likes, comments & shares.

AE: What changes did you implement as a result?

JF: Well, we have found a local supplier for all-natural freezer beef, a larger selection of veggies, have implemented a "Little Sprouts" summer class for children, and are considering offering surprise discounts for Facebook followers for specific days or weeks.  Our e-newsletters have been redesigned to offer more "how-to" information and are spotlighting on more of our local items.

AE:What impact has doing the surveys had on the business?

JF: I feel as if I/we know more of what our customers are thinking each day they pop into the Market.  In understanding what they are "thinking" I don't doubt my decisions nearly as much - which is refreshing.  I feel as if I am not taking a gamble half as much when I select new products or develop new ideas.  I believe it has also opened up a channel for even better conversation with our customers too...they are more willing to share ideas or concerns with us!

If you have a Facebook or Twitter presence for your ag business, consider leveraging it to do some market research.  With just a little effort you can gather valuable information and feedback to help with the business decisions you may be faced with.

The right way to respond to positive and negative reviews

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about online reputation management (http://tinyurl.com/czot8m9) and provide a few ideas on how to develop a monitoring strategy.  I hope that you found the resources valuable and have checked to learn what others may be saying online about your business. 

Don’t forget that there are a number of different websites, including a business’s actual website, where consumers post reviews – good and bad.  An example of where you may find reviews, based on research conducted by Penn State, is below.  

To learn more about where consumers post and read reviews, you can view a series of podcasts on the following YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/PSUFoodandFarmBiz?feature=watch

What reviews should you respond to?  

You may have only considered responding to unfavorable reviews, but responding to favorable reviews demonstrates to your fans that you care about what they have to say.  Having any positive conversation with your customers (online, on the telephone, or in your store) is such a great opportunity to learn why they purchase from you and what else you could do to serve their needs.  

Example of a business acknowledging a positive Twitter posting 

http://www.e-cbd.com/blog/facebook/responding-to-sentiment/

As far as replying to negative reviews, there is a good chance that if you reply and correct the situation your customer may delete the initial negative review or post a new positive one indicating that they are satisfied with how they have been appeased (http://tinyurl.com/83zowgl).   

Responding to negative reviews

What are some steps you need to consider when responding to negative review?

•      Post a reply to the negative comment as soon as you read the post or receive an alert that something has been posted about your business

•      Post a reply and acknowledge that there was a problem and it will be corrected

•      Provide an explanation for the problem

•      Apologize for the problem

•      Thank the customer for informing you about the issue

(To learn more: http://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4037310.html)

What about responding to negative reviews on Twitter when you only have 140 characters to do so?

•      Respond quickly in one to two tweets

•      Continue the conversation offline

•      If the situation becomes worse, you are harassed, or feel the tweet was purposely published to interrupt your business contact Twitter for assistance

(To learn more: http://tinyurl.com/cj8nzfr)

Final words

Responding to reviews is not only a factor of what you say in your reply but also how you handle the situation.  Remember to respond in a positive manner no matter how hurtful the comments may be.  Negative reviews can actually help identify issues that you may not have been aware were occurring.   Take the opportunity to respond and correct the situation.  It is your chance to turn disgruntled customers back into fans and make the shopping experience that much greater for all your customers.   

Developing Relationships on Social Media: It Ain't Rocket Science!

In my last blog (Developing & Monitoring a Social Media Strategy), I made a note to myself to follow that up with a post about using social media (SM) tools for relationship development.  In order to prove that some things do, in fact, get accomplished when I have a TDL....

Step One: Embrace the Social-ness
As I learn more about social media, it's clear to me that the adjective "social" is much more important than the noun, "media."  The media are, in general, more similar to a telephone or email than they are to websites.  Where websites used to be made for one-way messaging, like a radio ad might be, social media are, by definition, made for two-way communication.  Social media tools allow a user to put something (which is commonly called "content") out there for feedback.  Alternatively, they allow a user to respond to something that's been put out there.  Since the dawn of humanity, people have interacted based on this basic notion.  Each of us knows how to do this, we just need to understand that what we know about interaction applies to these tools.  When this happens, the how-to question becomes easier to address. (UPDATE 4/10/12: Just ran across a nice post that delves into this notion a bit deeper with respect to Twitter.)

Step Two: Choose Your Target(s)
With whom do you want to interact?  Why did you choose that person?  What's in it for you?  What do you have to offer them in exchange for their time?  You may want to interact with customers, policymakers, others like you, consultants, etc.  Many of these have a presence on social media.  Develop and follow a priority list to decide who you will approach.

Step Three: Interact
Max Spiegel once told me that engaging through social media is like going to a dinner party. While we may use different tools to interact, the same rules of engagement apply.

1. Approach someone you wish to engage. Armed with the list developed in Step Two, send them requests to connect on Facebook or LinkedIn; follow them on Twitter; add them to your Google+ circles, etc. 
2. Strike up a conversation. If you are able to get their attention, start the conversation you want to have.  Respond thoughtfully to their content.  Ask them a question. Just be sure to get to the point relatively quickly.  Some people on SM are in greater demand than others and some people just don't give it as much time as others might.  One of the places where the analogy may break down is related to small talk. While fine, and expected, at a dinner party, it may get lost in the noise on SM.
3. Be respectful. In few cases would you be rude or inconsiderate to someone at a dinner party so don't do it on SM.  If someone talks to you, talk back.  Listen more than you talk.
4. Repetition can be a good thing.  You won't be able to talk to every dinner party attendee at the same time.  You'll probably need to introduce yourself several times and repeat a lot of stuff.  In SM, the odds of someone not seeing a single post can be very high.  Don't be afraid to put your content out there several times over the course of days or weeks.  Most people expect this to happen and won't hold it against you.
5. Don't oversell. We're talking about developing relationships here, not closing deals. Closed deals will come over time if you're successful in relationship development.

You may be thinking of lots of other appropriate aspects to this analogy, but I hope you get the point: the rules of interaction are basically the same.  Let common sense lead you. (To learn more about the type of info that consumers are requesting, watch this short video.)

Step Four: Don't Be Afraid to Move the Conversation "Offline"

Relationships that move past the SM-only stage are usually a good thing.  This may mean that the conversation needs to happen more efficiently or that it needs to be private.  It's the equivalent of setting a follow up meeting at the dinner party. 

Conclusion

This may all seem much too simple.  If so, then I may have hit my target.  Social media are simply tools, like the telephone or email, to communicate with people.  The key, really, is knowing how to use them.  Learn Twitter's language.  Learn how to use a Facebook page for your business.  Once you know that, you'll be able to develop and maintain relationships as you would in any other setting.

Have you checked your online reputation lately?

As business owners you have a good deal of control over how you advertise, what stock to order, and your store layout and design.  However, you can’t control your customers – especially what they say about your business.  If a dissatisfied customer complains in your store or on the phone you can try to appease them and prove that you will do your best to correct the situation.  But, what if they don’t complain directly to you, or what if they post their complaint on their Facebook page, to Twitter, or on online review sites?  You may never know what customers, former employees, or others are saying about your or your business unless you take an active role.

Even if you don’t actively participate in social networking or don’t have a website, there is no excuse not to check what is being post about your business.  Recently, Jeff Hyde, Dana Ollendyke, and I released a series of podcasts with the goal of informing food businesses about social networking tools consumers use, what types of information (exclusive sales, recipes, etc.) they expect food businesses of post online, and how online reviews influence them and their purchasing decisions (the 19 Social Media and Food Retailer podcasts are available for viewing at: http://www.youtube.com/user/PSUFoodandFarmBiz).

Based on our research, and explained in more detail in podcast 18 and 19, 82% of our survey respondents read consumer reviews on the Internet.  Aside from the website where a product is purchased, at least a third of consumers rely on reviews posted on sites such as Yelp.com, Yahoo! Reviews, and Facebook.  Additional data, such as likelihood to post negative reviews based on age (see graph below), is also discussed in podcast 19.

So, the question is, are you aware of what is being said about your business online?  There are a number of strategies you could use to learn about potential chatter, good or bad:

1) Read what might be posted about your business on www.Yelp.com, www.local.yahoo.com, and similar review sites.  Be aware that consumers can add a business to the listings on some of these sites without the business owner’s permission, and then post at will.

2) Sign up for an alert service such as Google Alerts (www.google.com/alerts) or Yahoo! Alerts and create an alert for when your business name is mentioned online.  An email with links to articles, websites, blog postings, etc. that match the alert term (your business name) is then sent to your email “as-it-happens,” daily, or weekly.

3)  Run frequent searchers for your business’ name on sites like www.whostalkin.com, www.samepoint.com, www.spy.appspot.com, or similar.  These sites search for mentions on a variety of social networking sites such as Twitter, Flickr, and blogs.

Certainly, once you begin monitoring your online presence you’ll get a feel for what tools work best for you and what additional tools help you keep tabs on what is posted online.  The key is to incorporate frequent online monitoring into your scheduled operation tasks.  In a future blog posting I’ll describe some strategies that you can use to correctly respond to unfavorable and, yes, favorable reviews (you’ll want to do this!).  

Cross Promotion: Partnering With Other Business to Better Serve Your Customers, Part II

       This posting, the second in the cross promoting series, focuses on how to join efforts with complementary businesses to communicate with your customers and theirs.

Newsletters and Blogs

How do you currently communicate with your customers?  Whatever methods you use to inform and remind customers about your business or persuade them to buy your products, there is at least one way to cross promote each others’ products and expertise.

With the number of garden centers who have a blog, newsletter, or other publication that they publish on regular basis it is highly likely that the person writing these pieces often has to find items to write about.   Short pieces can alert readers about the complementary business or a new product they are offering.  Feature articles can describe how products from both businesses could be incorporated into new gardening trends or an upcoming event that the two businesses are co-sponsoring.  Do not forget to include the complementary business’s logo, URLs or hyperlinks to their website, and contact information.

Also, invite the other business to write a newsletter item or be a guest blogger.  Suggest a topic so the guest writer has some direction as to what your readers might be interested in learning and that would meld well with other items you are including in the newsletter or blog.  

Your Website, Facebook, and Twitter

Your website is an ideal outlet for cross promotion activities.  Use space on your website to inform readers about complementary businesses you cross promote with and provide space for their advertisements.  If customers sign-up for your newsletter online provide an option that would allow them to sign up for other businesses’ newsletters or add a link that will take them to the other businesses’ online form.

When it comes to Facebook, make sure that you “like” business you cross promote with, post images of events and activities both businesses implement, include links to articles, and mention each other in postings.  Tweets you publish on Twitter should also mention your cross promotion partners.  Include these businesses in your #followfriday (#ff) tweets (a strategy used on Fridays to suggests to your Twitter followers who they should also follow) retweet (forwarding another Twitter user’s tweets to your followers) appropriate messages, publish tweets when you add their products to your displays, and similar.   Inform your customers about joint activities while reminding them about your business.

Until next time when I’ll present ideas on how to cross promote with other businesses to host events and some of the costs to consider when entering into this type of relationship.

Foursquare: What's in it for businesses???

I started playing around with Foursquare (http://foursquare.com) today. It's the latest in a line of social networking applications that I've toyed with. If you know me, you know I love Facebook and Twitter for their business applications. But this one's pretty different. For details, see their website, but here's a quick overview.

The core functionality of Foursquare allows you to "check in" (all quoted terms indicate Foursquare jargon) at various "venues" (which you can add if none exists) all around the world. As you check in, you earn points (which don't lead to tangible rewards at this point) and badges as recognition for your travels. At each venue, you can add a public note indicating either something "to do" or some sort of "tip." If you're the lucky person who has visited a venue more than anyone else, then Foursquare declares you to be the mayor of that venue. Within Foursquare, you can also generate lists of friends, similar to those on Facebook.

Business Applications
So, what's in it for you as a business owner? On their website, Foursquare provides you the opportunity to list "Mayor Specials," deals you might give to your most loyal customers, inclduing your "mayor." They also provide other suggestions such as a free drink to every 10th person. Foursquare provides a new way to gauge customer loyalty as indicated by the number of times they check in to your venue.

It also provides a way to assess who is checking in at your venue. I added my office building as a venue (see http://foursquare.com/venue/2471432). If you find that venue online, you will see all who have visited it, the number of unique visitors, etc. (A better example might be the Statue of Liberty; see http://foursquare.com/venue/19273.) As an owner you can get to know your customers in this way. Keep in mind, of course, the demographics of who might be using Foursquare and whether or not it's consistent with your overall demographics. It may not be the best tool for true market research.

An owner might also have a lot to learn from the "tips" or "to dos" left on Foursquare. Some might provide insights into how to serve the customer better. Because it's so early, it won't take a lot of time to catch up on comments and respond to them.

With some ingenuity, Foursquare might allow a group of cheese makers to offer artisan cheese tours and to provide a reward for all who have checked in at the participating stops. The same concept could apply to other types of farm or food markets. Like every other type of social networking tool, the true power lies in the applications generated by its users.

Your Chance to Respond
What do you see as the business benefits of Foursquare?
How might businesses use this tool to connect with customers?

Learn More
I found a couple interesting blog posts...
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/mobile/ignore-foursquare-at-your-peril/
http://www.joemanna.com/blog/foursquare-marketing/

The customer is NOT always right

Being a business owner has many ups and downs. A "down" may be a difficult customer that requires more attention than others. But is it OK to "fire" a customer?

John Chisholm, a writer for a customer relationship management website (CustomerThink.com), has some guidelines as to when a customer should be "let go". You should "fire" a customer when "the tangible and intangible costs of serving the customer outweigh the cash and any good will received from the customer.”

How do you, the business owner, "fire" a customer? Tracy Fredrychowski, a writer for a search engine optimization website (www.searchengineacademysc.com), has developed a how-to guide on axing a customer.

1. Be professional. “Customers should always be spoken to personally, not by letter or phone. Only when the customer is at a distance, is it appropriate to speak with them about the matter on the telephone. But in no circumstances should the contact be other than verbal. E-mails simply will not do in this case.”

2. Keep emotions out of it. Odds are the customer made you extremely frustrated or angry, but now is not the time to vent. Customers often will take being fired personally, “so it is important that you explain your reasons rationally and clearly.”

3. Offer suggestions. Remember after you have fired them, customers will still need someone to provide the product or perform the service you did. Help them if you can.

4. “Stay polite but firm. It is time to move on.”

Firing a customer article

As a business owner, how have you dealt with difficult customers? Have you ever given a customer "the boot"? Do you have any other suggestions on ending the relationship amicably?

"I Hope We're Slow Today": Back to Basics on Customer Relations

This morning, my wife asked me to run an errand to get milk. I was already a little late for the office so wasn't thrilled to be doing this, but the kids need milk as part of a balanced breakfast, so I did it. I went to a nice convenience store near my house, where I normally have great (or at least mediocre) experiences in shopping. On this particular occasion, though, I went to the counter where 'my' cashier doesn't greet me, but instead remains engaged in the discussion with her colleague about the weather, which was cold and rainy. The next thing she says is, "I hope we're slow today." Although not exactly what she said, what I heard was "I hope we don't get many people like this guy in here today."

Maybe it was because I was running late and wasn't in the best of moods, but this really bothered me. Not only did it bother me, it offended me. It really irritates me as a customer not to be greeted and thanked, but I've learned to live with that. But to be told, even in an indirect way, that I was bothering the cashier by giving her company my business, was a little more than I expected. While I'm not prepared to take my last-minute milk purchases elsewhere, it negatively affected my view of the store.

I responded in EXACTLY the way we teach clients that customers will respond if they have a similar experience at the client's store. It pays to spend time with cashiers and everyone else who will represent your operation to the customer. A pleasant smile, a helpful attitude, and a thank you provide a positive impression immediately. We teach a lot of advanced marketing topics, but the basics form the foundation for lasting customer relationships. Don't let your business suffer because of an employee's misstep. Train them, evaluate them, and positively reinforce exemplary behavior. On the flip-side, correct problems immediately. Your customer might not let it slide. You've heard it before; It's much cheaper to retain customers than it is to recruit new ones!