Our friend Maury Forman of Washington state, sent us this idea from Madras, Oregon: On February 16 the Madras Downtown Association and Petite Sweets hosted the first-ever Cookie Crawl. Participants paid $5 and received a box and map that listed all the locations where the beautifully decorated cookies were available. Petite Sweets decorated cookies […]
The secret to effective follow up: What NOT to say
You probably know better than to follow up with someone like this: “Just following up!” You realize that doesn’t really help either of you. But you still might be making this mistake: “Did you do that thing you said you were going to do?” That feels like it’s helping, but from the customer perspective, it’s […]
Ideas to fill empty display windows
Every small town has some empty windows downtown. Some are empty buildings, some are buildings being used for storage, and some are service businesses that just don’t have a lot to put in their windows. Here are three ideas I saw on my trip through Cowlitz County, Washington. Make a mini-museum. Work with the local […]
Know your customers: What do they want to be good at?
A few weeks ago, we talked about knowing your customers in order to help them answer questions they get asked. This week, get to know your customers better by thinking through what they want to be good at. What do your customers want to be good at? You help customers all the time. The […]