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.

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More on this topic:

1. Business Referrals: It’s Better When They Tell Them
2. A Customer Loyalty Program Can Be A Recession Buster
3. Carefully Plan Your Customer Service So It Doesn’t Backfire
4. I’m A Bose QC3 Lover Again! A Great Customer Service Story…
5. Tap Into Your “Old Customer” Gold