When it comes to growing your business, people often overlook their current customer base. Usually you hear businesses talking about how to generate new sales or how to market to new customers. Not to say that either of these two items should be neglected, but focusing on your current customers can often be a better long-term investment.

If a customer feels they are receiving service that makes them feel they are appreciated, they will be more likely to return. If you have a business that is more client-based, perhaps they will be more likely to seek you out for future projects. Perhaps the best factor here (particularly for a small business) is that current customers are much easier to market and sell to as opposed to trying to reach out to new potential clients. This effectively means that providing great customer service is your most efficient means to generating business.

This article from Entrepreneur lists several ways to show your current customers how much of a value they are to you. I particularly like some of the following tips:

• “Keep it personal. Voice mail and email make it easy to communicate, but the personal touch is lost. Don’t count these as legitimate follow-up. If you’re having trouble getting through, leave a voice mail message that you want to talk to the person directly or will stop by their office at a designated time.”
• “Establish support systems that give employees clear instructions for gaining and maintaining service superiority.”
• “Act on the knowledge that customers value attention, competence, promptness and dependability.”
• Ask for feedback. Survey your customers regularly to find out how you’re doing. Send postage-pad questionnaire cards or letters, call them by phone, and set up focus groups. Ask for suggestions, then fix the trouble areas revealed.

While all of the items in the Entrepreneur article might not apply to your particular business, it is definitely worth looking over. Maybe these are things already being enacted by your organization. Although, maybe there is an item or two in there to help push your business over the top. Read the full article here.

The long-lived Microsoft Internet Explorer is beginning its swan song. Beginning with Windows 10, Internet Explorer will be phased out. Of course, Microsoft will be still in the browser market. As of right now, the new browser project is currently named Project Spartan (cue a web-comic with IE being “Sparta-kicked” into a hole), but that name will likely change as the project develops. Also, Spartan will come with a Web assistant named Cortana (see: Halo), as well as some other added functionality.

There are several versions of this information around the Web. However, this NPR article is among the most informative pieces I have seen on the topic. It also includes a memorable line from AdWeek’s Kristina Monllos regarding the need for noticeable change from IE to Spartan: “They don’t want people to see it as if they’re just putting lipstick on the Internet Explorer pig.” While this is true (and is definitely a challenge for Microsoft to overcome), I am sure current IE users might not mind that lipstick-covered pig. So, the challenge becomes retaining current users and attracting back some of its former market share. I am curious to see what Microsoft brings to the table to try to achieve this end.

Pricing pages are often the most important aspect of a company’s website. Due to this, it is important to make this page as effective as possible. Once again, if we look to how people process information and emotions, we can find little ways to steer customers to the optimally-desired result. This Entrepreneur article provides several tips along these lines.

The most important of these – and one we have seen before in other website suggestions – is to provide less information, not more. Giving people too much information can lead to the customer thinking too much about a purchasing decision instead of acting on emotional triggers. This does not mean, “do not provide any information at all”, but to only provide the most important information. However, if customers want more information, this can be handled either through a “See More Features” link option or some similar means.

The full article lists a few more helpful tips regarding pricing pages and psychological triggers. To read the article, click here.

It is said that New Year’s resolutions have a success rate of around 12%. So, does this mean that you should not set goals for improvement for the New Year? I would say that it is more important to set achievable goals and build from those once you have comfortably established these goals as habits. A couple of items from this FastCompany.com article I find very important for myself – and they do not require much work. The important thing is to not make excuses to avoid or ignore the task related to your goal.

Exercising for 20 minutes a day is something everyone can do with little difficulty. Once again, it is important to set your initial 20-minute routine as achievable. As soon as this routine is established as habit, look to either increase the difficulty of your routine or the length as you see fit.

Another important item is waking up an hour or two early each day. It is a lot easier to cope with the day and the tasks ahead of you, if you have had some extra time to adjust each morning. Most people just rush into their day without this additional focus (and often without enough sleep) which would likely improve their overall productivity and happiness.

While these two items are the achievable habits that I find beneficial, read the full article to see which ones might be right for you.