Do you really know your customers? The closer you get to satisfying their greatest needs, the closer you are to creating "customer dependency," says Sam Geist, president of Geist & Associates, Markham, Ontario. He suggests calling your top five customers and asking what they most expect from you and then seeing if that matches what you would have said.

Many companies' beliefs about why customers leave are different than why customers actually leave, Geist says. A study by Crmguru.com in 2005 showed that more than 70% of consumers stopped doing business with a company because of a customer service issue, whereas just a little more than 20% of the companies perceived that was the reason.

Conversely, nearly 50% of businesses perceived that customers left because of price when only about half of those customers had an issue with the cost of a product or service.

About 35% of the companies perceived that their customers left because their needs changed, whereas actually less than 10% of the customers stated that as the reason they left a business relationship.

For information about strategies to get and keep customers, contact Sam Geist at 800/567-1861 or visit www.samgeist.com to subscribe to a free business e-newsletter called "Quick Bites."

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