One of my best customers started with a five dollar order. If I was like most people, I’d have ignored her and gone on my merry way. But I’m not. I treat my five dollar customers just like my five thousand dollar customers — they’re all queens and kings in my book.
And because I do that, my five dollar customer has rewarded me with additional business and referrals over the lifetime of our business relationship.
Lois Geller talked about the same thing a while ago in her “Wow — What a Buzz” column. She specifically mentions a campaign her company did for Ford that offered free gasoline for taking a test drive. One of the respondents was a blind man who went to the dealership to collect. The dealer was a bit disappointed, but tooled the man around in a car and gave him the free gas certificate. The very next day, the blind man came back with his brother who bought a fully loaded Explorer from the dealership because they had been so nice to his brother.
You can bet that customer probably told a bunch of people about it too. Don’t just cast off your low revenue or infrequent purchase customers. They can add a lot to your bottom line. And they can send you a lot of business referrals too.
About Denise O'Berry
[...] His help didn’t stop there though. We exchanged no less than 10 emails with him guiding us through what we needed to do to get a replacement. This is fabulous customer service from a guy who was making less than five dollars on a sale! He recognizes the value of the five dollar customer. [...]