I got a call from a new client the other day. Now, that's not that unusual, except he sounded so excited -- almost like a kid at Christmas -- it really made my week - maybe my month! His business was struggling, to say the least. A small, one location coffee shop, he was barely making ends meet. He engaged us to find out ways to build customer loyalty, and in general, find out why customers weren't coming back. He had a great product, he had OK employees, he was open during what he thought was the right times. I'll go into detail of some of our findings in another article. What I wanted to share with you today was a change he made that cost him NOTHING! And, his revenues are the highest they have EVER BEEN! In 4 years of business, in THIS economy! What did he do? He started tweeting! For those you you who may not know, Twitter (www.twitter.com) is a service that allows you to chronicle brief text messages (called Tweets) to those people who follow you. He offered customers 50¢ off a cup of coffee if they signed up to follow his "tweets" on a regular basis. (They already had a computer for public use, so customers could do it on the spot) Next, he started USING the tool that he set up! (It never fails to amaze me at how many people set up a tool to help their business, many times costing hundreds of dollars, never to look at it again!) During his slowest times, he started running "special" offers. These were limited-time (e.g. one hour) specials specifically designed to drive traffic to his store during the slow times. He did it sparingly, and varied the offer to test what worked best. How could you use extra business to fill up your slow times? What are the opportunities to increase productivity? As an example, we use Twitter to notify our best secret shoppers when we add new assignments. (Check it out at: http://twitter.com/squs ) What difference could it make to your business, your bottom line, and your customer loyalty? For more ideas, check out our other blog postings here, or visit our web sites, ServiceQuality.US or The Service Quality Department.