Where customers come from...

First, for anyone who has been reading my old strategic planning blog, welcome back. I intend to post to this blog a bit more often, usually with insights from my work as a strategic planning speaker and consultant. I welcome any comments or questions, especially those which might inspire me to write useful responses that will help you get better results from your strategic planning.

This week, I'd like you to think about the results from a market data analysis I did for a local business that had a store on Main Street in Ann Arbor. I think the data shows a LOT about how consumers think, in many many markets. We simply asked customers how they decided to come into the store. Here is a breakdown of the answers:

wWord of Mouth! 46%

wRepeat! 28%

wEmployees! 18%

wLocation: 14%

wAdvertising: 10%

And where do most of us spend our time and money? This particular business, like many, spent the most time and money on the bottom three items. Now...I would say that spending time and money on GOOD employees ALWAYS pays off in the long run, so I'm not going to quibble with that. But...how much thought have you put into how you generate word of mouth and repeat business lately?

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