{"id":24374,"date":"2018-11-05T12:55:05","date_gmt":"2018-11-05T12:55:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/?p=24374"},"modified":"2018-11-05T12:55:05","modified_gmt":"2018-11-05T12:55:05","slug":"4-reasons-youre-losing-customers-or-soon-will-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2018\/11\/4-reasons-youre-losing-customers-or-soon-will-be\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Reasons You\u2019re Losing Customers (or soon will be)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you track the number of sales you make along with the revenue? Of course you do. How do your numbers look? Are you increasing or remaining the same? Hopefully you\u2019re not down this year but if you are, these may be some of the reasons why and what you can do to fix them:<\/p>\n

You Can\u2019t Compete on Price<\/h3>\n

I\u2019m making a broad generalization here, but as a small business you can\u2019t compete on price with the big chain stores just as I can\u2019t compete with writers who are overseas and on Fiverr.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want to. Neither should you.<\/p>\n

If you make price your differentiator there will always be someone who can underbid you. There are plenty of businesses looking to take a hit in one area in the hopes they will get additional business in the future. That\u2019s exactly how large retail and grocery stores work.<\/p>\n

Better differentiators for small business include customer service, a unique product, a unique way of doing something, or even a value ad.<\/p>\n

If you are a small business, find something other than price to differentiate your business. Your wallet will thank you.<\/p>\n

You Have no Differentiator<\/h3>\n

When kids open a lemonade stand, it\u2019s all about location and need. They need a good location to be successful and people will stop when they need a drink. That\u2019s fine until the kid next door opens a lemonade and<\/em> hot dog stand. Now they and their competitor share a similar location, both are just as easy to get to, and the first lemonade stand has a limitation on its business \u2013 nothing to eat. Assuming they don\u2019t get into a pricing war, the first stand better come up with a way to differentiate. If not, they\u2019ll likely lose business.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re Not Making Your Customers Feel Special<\/h3>\n

Customers will buy from you without that \u201cspecial\u201d feeling until someone comes along who competes with you AND makes them feel special. There are tons of ways to make your customers feel appreciated everything from providing the happiest, best, most attentive service to giving away special previous customer discounts. Find a way to appreciate them and they\u2019ll be more likely to return again and again.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re Unresponsive<\/h3>\n

When customers like your shop and enjoy your brand, they want to connect with you. If they try to do so on one of your social media profiles and you are unresponsive, they will read that as uninterested in them. Millennials especially want to be able to provide direct feedback to businesses on social media. If you\u2019re not active on there or not responsive, you\u2019re sending a message without ever writing one.<\/p>\n

2019 is right around the corner. It\u2019s time to review 2015 and decide what you want this upcoming year to look like. If you\u2019re worried about your sales numbers this year, or just want to see them improve next year, follow this simple advice and make 2019 The Year of Your<\/em> Customer. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Christina R. Green<\/a><\/u><\/strong><\/em> teaches small businesses, chambers and associations how to connect through content. Her articles have appeared in the Midwest Society of Association Executives\u2019 Magazine, NTEN.org, AssociationTech, and Socialfish. She is a regular blogger at Frankjkenny.com<\/a> and the<\/a> Event Manager Blog. <\/em><\/p>\n

She\u2019s a bookish writer on a quest to bring great storytelling to organizations everywhere.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you track the number of sales you make along with the revenue? Of course you do. How do your…
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1342],"tags":[1307],"class_list":["post-24374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-tips","tag-customer-service"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n4 Reasons You\u2019re Losing Customers (or soon will be) | Vail Valley Partnership<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2018\/11\/4-reasons-youre-losing-customers-or-soon-will-be\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"4 Reasons You\u2019re Losing Customers (or soon will be) | Vail Valley Partnership\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Do you track the number of sales you make along with the revenue? Of course you do. How do your...Read More\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2018\/11\/4-reasons-youre-losing-customers-or-soon-will-be\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Vail Valley Partnership\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/VailValleyPartnership\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-11-05T12:55:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cromer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cromer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2018\/11\/4-reasons-youre-losing-customers-or-soon-will-be\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2018\/11\/4-reasons-youre-losing-customers-or-soon-will-be\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cromer\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6f86a25e095eadcc8d42187244f23d2f\"},\"headline\":\"4 Reasons You\u2019re Losing Customers (or soon will be)\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-11-05T12:55:05+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2018\/11\/4-reasons-youre-losing-customers-or-soon-will-be\/\"},\"wordCount\":578,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"customer service\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Business Tips\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2018\/11\/4-reasons-youre-losing-customers-or-soon-will-be\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2018\/11\/4-reasons-youre-losing-customers-or-soon-will-be\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2018\/11\/4-reasons-youre-losing-customers-or-soon-will-be\/\",\"name\":\"4 Reasons You\u2019re Losing Customers (or soon will be) | Vail Valley Partnership\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-11-05T12:55:05+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2018\/11\/4-reasons-youre-losing-customers-or-soon-will-be\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2018\/11\/4-reasons-youre-losing-customers-or-soon-will-be\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2018\/11\/4-reasons-youre-losing-customers-or-soon-will-be\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"4 Reasons You\u2019re Losing Customers (or soon will be)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/\",\"name\":\"Vail Valley Partnership\",\"description\":\"Support. Unite. Lead.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Vail Valley Partnership\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/fa-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/06\/vvp-logo-login.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/fa-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/06\/vvp-logo-login.png\",\"width\":320,\"height\":157,\"caption\":\"Vail Valley Partnership\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/VailValleyPartnership\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/VVPartnership\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/vvpartnership1\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6f86a25e095eadcc8d42187244f23d2f\",\"name\":\"cromer\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/138a478ad792fc99e47232774514774078bbae93b7378c512d04f46913c59cfd?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/138a478ad792fc99e47232774514774078bbae93b7378c512d04f46913c59cfd?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cromer\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/author\/cromer\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"4 Reasons You\u2019re Losing Customers (or soon will be) | Vail Valley Partnership","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2018\/11\/4-reasons-youre-losing-customers-or-soon-will-be\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"4 Reasons You\u2019re Losing Customers (or soon will be) | Vail Valley Partnership","og_description":"Do you track the number of sales you make along with the revenue? Of course you do. How do your...Read More","og_url":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2018\/11\/4-reasons-youre-losing-customers-or-soon-will-be\/","og_site_name":"Vail Valley Partnership","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/VailValleyPartnership","article_published_time":"2018-11-05T12:55:05+00:00","author":"cromer","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cromer","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2018\/11\/4-reasons-youre-losing-customers-or-soon-will-be\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2018\/11\/4-reasons-youre-losing-customers-or-soon-will-be\/"},"author":{"name":"cromer","@id":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6f86a25e095eadcc8d42187244f23d2f"},"headline":"4 Reasons You\u2019re Losing Customers (or soon will be)","datePublished":"2018-11-05T12:55:05+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2018\/11\/4-reasons-youre-losing-customers-or-soon-will-be\/"},"wordCount":578,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#organization"},"keywords":["customer service"],"articleSection":["Business Tips"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2018\/11\/4-reasons-youre-losing-customers-or-soon-will-be\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2018\/11\/4-reasons-youre-losing-customers-or-soon-will-be\/","url":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2018\/11\/4-reasons-youre-losing-customers-or-soon-will-be\/","name":"4 Reasons You\u2019re Losing Customers (or soon will be) | Vail Valley Partnership","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-11-05T12:55:05+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2018\/11\/4-reasons-youre-losing-customers-or-soon-will-be\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2018\/11\/4-reasons-youre-losing-customers-or-soon-will-be\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/2018\/11\/4-reasons-youre-losing-customers-or-soon-will-be\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"4 Reasons You\u2019re Losing Customers (or soon will be)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/","name":"Vail Valley Partnership","description":"Support. Unite. Lead.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#organization","name":"Vail Valley Partnership","url":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/fa-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/06\/vvp-logo-login.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/fa-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2015\/06\/vvp-logo-login.png","width":320,"height":157,"caption":"Vail Valley Partnership"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/VailValleyPartnership","https:\/\/x.com\/VVPartnership","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/vvpartnership1"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6f86a25e095eadcc8d42187244f23d2f","name":"cromer","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/138a478ad792fc99e47232774514774078bbae93b7378c512d04f46913c59cfd?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/138a478ad792fc99e47232774514774078bbae93b7378c512d04f46913c59cfd?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cromer"},"url":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/author\/cromer\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24374"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24375,"href":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24374\/revisions\/24375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vailvalleypartnership.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}