They have seen big picture, and have taken necessary steps to get existing clients to KEEP ON BUYING their products -- and even encourage inactive customers to come out of woodwork buy from them AGAIN.

THEY have adapted to customer growth phenomenon -- and there's no reason why you shouldn't do same, too.

Rise To The Challenge --------------------- The simplest way to meet changing client needs usually involves just 3 adjustments to your product/service:

1) Add new features. Listen for what their new needs are, then study your product closely. Most of time, you'll find that you only really need one or two new features to improve what's already there, and make it enough to satisfy most clients.

2) Create an enhanced design. Sometimes it's not so much how a product works, but how a product LOOKS that makes clients decide they want something "new."

Whether you're talking about computer casing, or food packaging, or how cute icons are in your program's taskbar, remember that:

- different age groups have different design preferences - changing trends & lifestyles require properly-designed products - and people will always have a basic need to express their individuality & stand out -- and they often do so through products they use most often.

3) Increase range of selection & availability. Add new flavors. Create different-sized packages. Make your products available as downloads AND as deliverable CDs. Or enlist your business partners' help so they'll make your services available on their sites, too.

Although decision to change or grow seems intimidating at first, breaking them down into smaller steps of adjustment makes them more manageable -- and more affordable -- to execute and control.

Decide to GROW -------------- The moment clients increase or change their expectations of your product, it often means 2 good things:

1) They (or their business) have recently grown because of you, and 2) Their increased expectations often signal an increase in purchasing power, making them more financially able to do MORE business with you.

So don't be afraid to change, and dare to go where no entrepreneur in your position has ever gone before.

Whether you end up creating a new product or just retaining a valuable client, it can only mean BETTER things for you & your business, too.

© Tatiana Velitchkov

Often, your own members' posts will be enough to keep you updated about major issues that affect your business, saving you time and money on reading and research.

2. Allow members to mention your COMPETITION'S products & services; let them even make personal comparisons.

These posts will give you valuable insights for improving YOUR OWN products & services... and how you can convince even your competition's clients to change their minds and trust YOU.

3. Finally, remain VISIBLE in your own message board or discussion list.

Give helpful comments, offer positive feedback, and praise every real effort made by members to share what they know. This is your chance to establish a real, ongoing relationship with people who frequent your website... and turn most of them into friends, or clients or (if you're lucky) both.

4) Chat Event

If you're just starting your own business, however, you probably won't have time to manage a message board or mailing list just yet.

What you CAN do is promote & hold a regular chat event on your site each month, inviting both regular and potential clients alike.

To make each chat event worthwhile, remember to:

- Focus on a specific topic, preferably something your surfers will be very interested in.

- Set a definite schedule and time limit. Be aware of time differences among your surfers, and try to set a schedule that is convenient for everyone.

- Promote event well in advance. Tell as many people about it as you can (just make sure your servers can handle them). And finally -

- Give everyone clear & concise directions on how they can participate.

Minimize their chances for getting errors or getting lost during event, so they can focus on what they want to say -- which is exactly kind of feedback you need.

5) Feedback Forms

Of course, feedback collection process won't be complete without familiar online form.

Although these forms are common, not all of them work as well most business owners need them to.

To set up kind of form that's easy to send & easy to reply to, observe following DOs & DON'Ts:

- DON'T just invite them to send all queries & requests to same email address.

- DO create a drop-down menu for "Recipient" field listing different departments in your company, so each email will be instantly routed to right person or mailbox.

- DON'T just use a generic form mailer for your "contact us" page.

- DO use a drop-down menu for "Subject" field, listing most common reasons people have for wanting to email you.

Aside from helping your client/surfer focus his reason for contacting you, it also helps you categorize each request quickly so you can deal with each batch of email more promptly.

The truth is, feedback is important not only in business, but also in our dreams, and our everyday lives.

Some feedback will be good, and some of it will be bad. Some will encourage us, some might crush us, and some might even have chance to totally disillusion us.

But important thing to look forward to is that feedback will always CHANGE us... and WE decide if we're going to be better because of it.

© Tatiana Velitchkov