The lesson of the marketing campaign for Kenneth's Haircutting Inc., celebrating its 25th year in 2001, is simple — though multifaceted — and has elements that almost every business can adopt:

        • Build your business one customer at a time with face-to-face interactions, direct marketing or e-mail marketing that produces immediate action.

        • Get more purchases from your best customers by developing promotions to encourage additional sales based on transaction histories — how, what and when they buy.

        • Encourage current customers to refer potential customers, as personal referrals are much stronger than any other way to obtain new customers. Reward current customers every time they send you a new client.

        • Say “thank you” to customers and employees.

        • Retrieve lost customers with mailings.

        • Lower customer churn by finding out why customers went elsewhere and, if there is a trend, address the issue with a new policy.

        • Give employees the power to correct client complaints without input from management. The quicker a complaint is resolved, the less likely you will lose the customer.

        • Build client loyalty programs with strategies such as electronic stored-value gift cards, which also generate upfront sales.

        • Buy lists of potential customers based on the demographics of best customers and cater marketing programs to those potential customers.

        • Raise prices when demand outpaces supply because that is how the market tells you that your products and services are worth more than what customers are currently paying.

        • Recruit employees by speaking at schools and maintaining relationships with instructors to get students with the most potential.

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