Today starts the twenty-second year of our sending the Small Business News on the first day of every month. As we started this in 1999, we are in our fourth decade of writing to you in an effort to share ideas, inspiration and information that we believe can help you in your business. Thank you for taking the time to join us for a few minutes each month.

Just like clock work, you can expect the news media will begin to run articles quoting various experts about how you should implement New Year resolutions for 2021.

We have one we want to share with you. We know it can make a big difference in your business.

It starts with a pair of questions to which the answers are both in excess of 80%. The first question asked what percentage of people shop online. The second question asked what percentage of people want to shop in a brick and mortar location.

So, if that many people want to shop in person, why are they shopping online? We see the possibility of multiple answers to this single question.

1 The store does not have what the customer wants. Definitely that can happen, however we are not seeing salespeople asking the customer why they selected a particular brand or item. Asking this question would allow a knowledgeable salesperson to make the suggestion of a substitute.

2 The customer can shop anytime they want. Another definite possibility, however we are reminded of the bike shop that told us they closed at 5pm because the other shops in their small town closed at 5pm. We aren't sure about the connection between the two. Our observation was that the bike shop sold expensive bikes that the target customer most likely was working until 5pm. We also see a lot of people riding bikes in early mornings and after the traditional workday. Why isn't the shop open at these times?

3 The price is higher in the store. Always a possibility, but we also see prices higher online and a difference in the quality of the product. Manufacturers frequently create a version of a product that is offered online and a different version that is for the local business. The product for the local business is a higher quality but there are two issues; the employees don't know there is a difference or they don't know how to explain it.

4 The Internet follows up. Granted it is all electronic but the online business frequently uses software that makes repeated contact with the customer. This is where we see the biggest downfall of the local business and the one item the Internet cannot match.

The situations where we see this with local businesses are countless. When we have been at trade shows, we frequently hear business owners expressing a concern over customer loyalty.

My experience has been that customer loyalty has to begin with our demonstrating loyalty toward the customer. Last week I used this story as an example; in a business where the owner has more square footage than they need, we frequently see some sloppiness as to how fixtures and merchandise is arranged. When space is tight, there is more attention paid to how things are displayed.

Perhaps the problem is that we look at it from the perspective of their being plenty of people who can become our customer. If we don't keep this customer we can get another with our next promotion.

Maybe it occurs with the person reading books about sales funnels. The problem with any scenario of a sales funnel is there is an opening at the bottom.

We don't need an opening at the bottom when it comes to our customers. We need there to be a stopper to keep all of them.

The New Year resolution? Develop your stopper. Adopt the mentality that once they become your customer, they are yours to keep and no other business can have that customer.

We have heard for too long the concern of all the advantages an online business has over a brick and mortar business. This is the one of the biggest advantages the brick and mortar business has over the online competition.