3. Your Buyer’s Shopping Experience If your customers and market have changed, how do these changes affect your customer’s buying experience? Customers today have many buying options. Does presence of chain stores affect your operations? Do internet buying options affect your business operations? Customers today are looking for specific types of shopping experiences. Some want to buy simple and fast. Others want to make purchases slow and leisurely. What changes could you make in your customer’s shopping experience that would set you apart form your competitors? Think of difference in getting your oil changed at a Jiffy Lube business with plastic chairs and left over coffee. Compare this to getting same oil changed at a Lexus dealer with a plush waiting room and high speed internet access.

4. Your Customer Follow Up Activities Having customers buy more from you and buying more often is triggered by relationships you establish with them and your follow up efforts. Once upon a time, sending postcards was enough. Today, option of email notices, electronic newsletters and other fast, quick and inexpensive communication options change customer follow up’s. Have you looked at your follow up activities to see if you can update these functions to make them faster, easier and more efficient for both you and customer? Today’s customers expect you to use contemporary forms of communications. Are you taking advantage of these forms?

Conclusion These are several key areas you can use to update your business operations. Just as your software is updated on a regular basis, you need to make fixes and enhancements to your business on a regular basis. The next time you see question on your computer, “Do you want to update now?” remind yourself to update your business operations.

If you want to learn more about how you can use niche building strategies to increase your profits, email me at al@hanzal.com. For more articles on small business issues click www.innovativesellingskillsforsmallbusiness.com.