As a smaller business, you know you must cultivate relationships with your clients in order to ensure their continued patronage. Studies have shown that it is much easier and cheaper to continue a customer relationship than to cultivate a new one. One way to retain customers is to keep your word. Do what you say you are going to do in order to make your business worthy of a customer’s repeat business. You should expect that clients will want to return. However many businesses look to the customer to prove they are good customers by returning on a regular basis instead the business setting out to cultivate a customer relationship from the very beginning. Once you establish a good relationship, make it a policy to go above and beyond. Your staff need to understand as well ‘I only work here’ is a complete turnoff to anyone. ‘My manager is away, ‘off sick’ ‘on holiday’’ in a meeting’ doesn’t help in building or maintaining customer relationships so be sure they know how to respond to customer needs when you are not there. A world survey asking why people changed their suppliers found that a staggering number 68% changed because of ‘a feeling of indifference by one or more involved in the sale’ Now with competition hotting up and the recession making keeping customers harder than ever don’t let them go. If you have a true relationship with your customer then it’s much less likely they’ll leave you.