Page 129 - 100 Great Business Ideas: From Leading Companies Around the World (100 Great Ideas)

151 Quick Ideas to Get New Customers

101
Don’t Give Them a Reason

Have you ever met someone who wouldn’t change their
mind or wouldn’t change the subject? That is the exact prin-
ciple one highly successful entrepreneur used in building a num-
ber of profitable businesses. His philosophy was, “Never give
a customer a reason to go somewhere else.”

It was just a few minutes after 6 a.m. as customers began

to enter a local bakery and espresso bar. To their great dismay,

they were greeted with an announcement that the coffee and

bread store had no coffee. They had run out, and therefore,

customers had to drink soda

Assignment or water, or go somewhere
else. Many of them went out

The goal is to become the the door and down the street

competition, and never send to a nearby shop that had

your customers elsewhere for coffee. Unbelievably, there

the things you should have. was a 24-hour supermarket

just a few blocks away

where the store employees

could have gotten a variety of coffees and met their custom-

ers’ needs. They literally forced their regular customers to go

elsewhere for that first cup of coffee. This is industrial strength

stupidity.

Epilogue

If your customer goes somewhere else three times, they’re
probably going to like them better.

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