A client advisory board was formed and met every month. It was a great forum for learning and sharing ideas from the client perspective. The clients told Bill and Janice that the “little things” meant the most to them — like being addressed by name when they entered the store. Many of the more expensive programs — like the extended store hours — weren’t valued. Identifying these things helped them create client treatment standards and allowed Janice to save money by eliminating the extended store hours and the other unwanted programs. Janice started meeting with vendors — not to beat them up but to form better relationships with them. The vendors were more than happy to share money-saving ideas as well as new products that they thought would set Bill’s apart from the competition. Bill’s top vendor, Joe’s Umbrellas, partnered with him and trained several of Bill’s salespeople to be Umbrella Specialists. These employees became the “go-to” people for customers with umbrella needs. Umbrella sales went sky-high. At the next company-wide meeting, Janice shared the value of loyalty with the employees. “We have to start realizing that the value of a client is much more than his or her last purchase. Each of our loyal clients will buy from us several times a year and will come back for service, too. In addition, the loyal client will recommend us to a half dozen or more people who could become loyal to us, and the cycle goes on and on. Each of these clients is an individual, so we can’t treat them all the same — the important thing is to make sure they’re happy with us and they come back!” As the employees, inspired by her enthusiasm, discussed customer loyalty ideas amongst themselves, Janice remembered her meeting with Boomerang and thought, We’ve come a long way, and it feels great — we’re having fun again! 23