How do you reach out to a new customer base? What tactics have been most effective for you?

What a coincidence, we were on the deck talking about this very thing last night.  We stumbled into two untapped customer bases in our ladies consignment store.

1.  A woman, we later found out her name is Kathy, came in the store in a hover-round and of course could not reach many of the hanging clothes.  She asked if we had one of those poles with a hook stores use to hand clothing up high, we did so we loaned it to her, and offered to help if she needed it in the dressing room.  When the OL came home and told me what had happend, I called a friend telling him what I was looking for, and later he called back letting me know where to get aluminum rods, 1/2 inch in diameter (free as a favor in repayment for my QB help).  I fabricated some more of the hook poles and we put them by the front door.

Kathy came back again, saw the stand of poles and got on her phone.  Since then we have had a parade of hover-rounds and wheel chair bound ladies shopping in the store. 

Moral of the story - go out of your way for one customer, and their friends will hear about it.  We are now the go to clothing store for the hadicapped.

2.  During a slow time at the consignment store, a man came in, not unusual by itself, but it got strange when he asked if we would mind if he tried on a dress.  Kind of a surprising awkward moment, butr the OL said sure.

He bought two dresses.  And mentioned that he was a performer, a transvestite performer and appreciated that we did not get upset with his trying on dresses.  A week or so later another guy showed up asking the same thing, since then we are getting folks who do the same thing, from as far away as Austin (2 hours) and San Antonio (1 hour) - each and every one really apprecative of a non judgemental attitude on our part.

You just never know.

Thank you so much for sharing your experiences @Rustler! It's encouraging to hear other's experiences with word of mouth customers, especially when it comes from kindness and acceptance. Keep spreading the love! :smileyhappy:

Texas is a friendly state, but there is an old piece of Texas logic that says

Be quick to help and slow to ask for it.

I believe in that one.

Brings to mind, back in the 1800's when Texas was making a mistake and thinking about joining the US, Stephan Austin was back east and a congressman from Maine asked him to describe a Texan.  Austin said, " a Texan is your best friend or your worst enemy, your choice."

ROFL - so true

@Rustler I love this! I just got back from a trip to Texas and absolutely LOVED it. :heart: This I saw to be true: "A Texan is your best friend or your worst enemy, your choice." :smileylol: Such a special place. I hope you and your loved ones are safe during this time. 

Thanks, but we are fine, we were just outside the outer rain bands, and just got a pleasing gentle rain.

Like most towns in Texes, we loaded up a big rig with donations, our store sent over 500 pieces of clothing.  The freeways are filled with trucks and first responders headed for the houston area now that Harvey has moved north-east.  Its going to be an uphill road for those affected, but we can do it.

Every motel room is full, every RV park is full, many of the RV's in use were loaned out to evacuees by local residents.

Wow. What a great feeling as a small business owner to be give back to your community. Thank you so much for doing your part.

You can go to your county's office & get a list of all the new businesses that registered for the month. You call cold call them or send a letter describing your services.

@Raywhite28 That's a great idea! I am sure they appreciate the connection and introduction from you as well; a great networking opportunity.  

Well Said @Rustler. It makes a big difference if you go out of way to help customer.

We are a creative agency creating animated videos. One of our client wanted a video to present his product into one of the digital marketing event. We almost refused due to tight deadlines. But he kept pressing.

We worked almost 7 days in a row late night and gave the video to client just night before the event. He used the video for his product demo and won the best product award.

First thing after he came out of the event he sent me a text and thanked us to create it is such timelines and his audience were impressed with the video. His message was a delightment to me.

We have a life time customer and referrals.