| For a business to prosper, it is not enough to sell products of good
quality at a low price. Your customers need to feel an affinity with and like your business. Even if you are right in thinking that customers should come to your shop because you sell good products at cheap prices, customers are apt to act according to their feelings or moods. When competition becomes severe among shops, the quality of products and services the shops offer customers become almost the same. And, as an additional factor, the feeling customers have toward each shop becomes crucial. I believe that from now, it will be necessary for businesses to study the reasons why customers feel a shop is somehow friendly and like or dislike a shop. The requirements to get customers to feel a sense of familiarity with a shop are, I believe, such that you share common feelings with the customers and you make the customers feel something like adoration for the shop, or find peace of mind in the shop. And to be liked by customers you must have modesty and kindness. Modesty means self-effacement and obedience. Kindness means that you put yourself in others' shoes, and pay meticulous attention to others. Furthermore, there is one more important requirement in order to be liked by customers. It is for businesses to understand customers better. Shopkeepers must think something is as important as the customer thinks it is, and share the common values with the customer so that they share the pleasure or regret together. A person who has a better understanding of others is also an attentive listener and a provider of useful information. I believe that for a business to prosper one more important condition must be fulfilled, and that is how much you can understand the thoughts of the customer before they are voiced. |