Perhaps you have seen the 2009 retail forecast estimating that approximately 200,000 stores would close this year. To put this into perspective, consider that this breaks down to an average number of closings of 4,000 per state or roughly 80 per week! Clearly the definition of customer satisfaction and the inherent benefits of repeat sales will ascend to an even higher prominence in the operating strategies of the survivors.

Entrepreneurial managers and the organizations they lead are in the best positions to take advantage of this dramatic shift but only if they aggressively pursue a number of initiatives.

The first is to remove any vestiges of the intelligence insulting, bumper sticker slogans regarding the priority of customers. At the very heart of most customers' complaints about bad service is this disconnect between what companies say (“Customers are Job 1”) versus what their organizations do. Customers experience the lack of credibility, employees feel the lack of credibility and the result is a marketplace where pricing is the sole differentiator in the buying decision.

If you assume that compensation programs are the single biggest influence on employee behavior, then ask yourself how many firms base at least a part of their programs on this factor? Walking the customer satisfaction talk will have to be implemented.

The second initiative, somewhat tangential to customer satisfaction, is the enhanced customer value approach. This is founded on the belief that repeat sales are driven by sustainable customer relationships. And sustainable customer relationships are founded on delivering consistent value. Value is itself a combination of price and utility.

While assuming a competitive price, the challenge is to always better understand the needs of the customer and thereby present the product or service as a more valuable solution. The key to this whole model is communications. The more adept that companies become at communicating this value, the better their opportunity to establish loyalty to their brand.

The interesting aspect of this communication requirement is the integration and time that such an approach requires. From program development to effectiveness measurement to revisions and enhancements, investment into an ongoing effort to stay ahead of this curve of customer expectations may well determine the future viability of the retail survivors.

Many of these same retail changes and trends with their dangers and opportunities will carry over into the nonretail segment. Business to business enterprises will have the same requirements and the same opportunities of their retail counterparts. The better and faster that entrepreneurially minded individuals can weave their products and services into the success of their customers, the greater the probability of their mutual successes.

This again implies a level of customer knowledge that reaches beyond the immediate to customers two or three levels out. This knowledge of current requirements and ability to discern changing requirements are distinct values that successful vendors will have to personify.

I think most of us are in agreement that it will not be “business as usual” in the foreseeable future. While finding and retaining customers has always been the purpose of a business, the retaining part is now taking on new prominence. And with it, new opportunities for entrepreneurial success.

John F. Riddell Jr., director of the Center for Entrepreneurial Growth-Hamilton County, writes each Tuesday about entrepreneurs and their impact on companies and the marketplace. Submit comments to his attention by writing to Business Editor John Vass Jr., Chattanooga Times Free Press, P.O. Box 1447, Chattanooga, TN 37401-1447, or by e-mailing him at business@timesfreepress.com