Really listen to your clients and empathise with their needs? This used to be the province of only some professions and businesses. While times were good, most retailers were not into counselling or coaching. 

But that’s all changed. Consumers are struggling with harsh economic realities. They have changed an unquestioning mindset to one of prudence. In this situation your business strategy needs to be paying close attention to your customers’ needs and attempting to meet them. 

Many customers are going to face the same problems in this recession: less income, greater costs and products that don’t meet all of their immediate needs. Business theories tell us that that consumer demand has three parts:

• income
• personal preference
• price.

You can’t do much about your customers’ falling income. You may be able to do something about price. However, falling prices can risk your business profitability. So that leaves personal preference as the key way to influence consumer demand.

For some big retailers it will be sensible to cater for the mass tastes and to phase out choices that are not in wide demand. This is because they need to carry the stock that their customers will eventually (and hopefully) buy.

That is where the online business may have an edge. It can offer customers choices without necessarily having to have them in stock beforehand. If you listen to customers who are having problems, and if the solution could be purchased online, then you may be able to offer this solution. This is an approach that will raise demand for your services.

Just because consumers have less to spend, and are more careful in spending it, does not mean that they will always go to the cheapest option. We do not know for how long the recession will bite. Hence value has become more important. A product that lasts longer is of more value than one that breaks or looks worn out after only a few months. So is one that suits our particular requirements closely rather than one with which we ‘make do’.

Consumers are becoming more careful to purchase products and services that meet particular needs and preferences. They also want their purchases to last, to stand the test of time. If you can meet all of these things, you will have clients for life, long after this recession is just a memory.