Deborah Meehan and Perry Gates say, "Treat customers like family and they will stick with you like family."

This is a gift business and the core product, Maine Gold, wins awards! The owners have a mystical connection to maple syrup, and they want to bring their customers to a similar place.

Topic for Discussion: What does it mean to treat customers like family? Does it mean you can take them for granted and ignore them and be rude or inconsiderate?

Answer: No, not at all. It is true that many families don't treat each other with unconditional love but that is what we intend to say. Treat customers with unconditional love and treat them as if they are all you have. Yes, treat customers as if you'll never find another one. You only have one Mom and one Dad and maybe one or two brothers and sisters. Treat customers as if you only have a small handful and you know their likes and dislikes. You remember the time when their dog died. You were there when they graduated from high school and when they got married.

Feel the feeling? Family is special. Treat your customers like the special people they are and you could have 13,000 of them soon.

Maine Gold's list of 13,000 was built one at a time. It is the list of people who have bought their precious maple syrup or they received it as a gift. If you send the gift of Maine Gold to a friend, that friend is now on Maine Gold's list and you receive a thank you from Deb. We wonder how long it will take for this list to have 130,000 names. Not long!

You think about it: Do you ask your customers to refer you to their friends? If not, why not? Should you put a referral program in place?