It is important to realize that when a new potential customer finds you online, they can't immediately compare the size of your store to the jewelry store down the street. At first, they really will not care if you have a shoe box sized store or a grand palace.
A consumer is only interested in knowing that their needs will be met, that customer service will happily surprise them, and that they will have your complete attention when they visit your store or call you on the telephone.
Some people still price shop, but in truth everyone shops for service. You can create very fancy sales gimmicks to get people into your store, or you can win them over with amazing customer service and then entice them to bring in a friend.
Hopefully, a happy customer will post a raving review about your store online. The popular review sites include Google Places, Insider Pages, Merchant Circle and Yelp. There are many others, but those 4 might be the most popular as of today.
When a customer has a positive experience in your store, you should ask them to write a review for you online. According to the terms of service for all of these review sites, you are not supposed to solicit someone to write a review for you. Google specifically says you should not compensate someone for writing a positive review.
However, we feel that the general public is not completely aware of online reviews and you should tell them about it, and ask them to write a review.
You should also keep an eye on your BBB ratings. You might not be a member, but if someone complains about your store, you need to take care of that issue.
An A+ rating on BBB and 5-star reviews online attract customers like magnets.
