Budget-Wise Marketing VII Embroidery Project

Your best bet at building a customer base is to simply be involved. If you are seen and become well-known, other companies will soon be sending business your way. On the other hand, if you are relatively obscure, you will have a hard time bringing in new accounts. So immerse yourself in local activities. Join the Chamber of Commerce and local civic groups. Volunteer when you can. Make sure the other members of the business community know who you are and what you do. You can spend hundreds of dollars on advertising, but nothing is as effective as “word of mouth.”

Building a customer base is initially done through your promotional and marketing efforts. But long term, it takes more than just exposure to the masses. You must center your business on customer service and quality. There are plenty of people who care more about price than anything else, but price rarely builds loyalty. If they come to you looking for the best price, you can rest assured that they will always be shopping for the best price and will probably go elsewhere if they can get it cheaper. The number one reason for lost customers in the embroidery industry is poor service, not higher prices. So, concentrate on top quality and excellent service first. You may not get every account, but you should be able to keep the ones you do. If you live and work by these premises you should be able to develop and maintain a profitable customer base.

Periodically, you will have more work than you can handle. Rather than losing the customer because they can’t handle the turnaround time, you need to be able to source or contract out the work as needed. This applies to orders that are larger than your shops capabilities as well. In order to do this effectively, you must develop relationships with other embroiderers. However, this is not a one-way street. The other embroiderers will have situations where they need to contract out some work. By having the proper relationship, you can put yourself in a position to handle someone else’s overflow.

Screen printers always have a need for embroidery and vice-versa. By developing a working relationship, both of you will benefit. You will have a place to send customers for printing and they will have a place to send customers who need embroidery.