Following up on Heidi’s post about Service as a differentiator for small (local) businesses, I noticed a post by marketing blogger John Jantsch.

He lays out 10 Natural Marketing Advantages of Small Business:

Focus
Reach
Nurture
Surprise
Transform
Partner
Automate
Educate
Meaning
Play

Many of these rest on fundamental strategic decisions. For example, “Focus” is a basic decision about the direction of your company.

But [...]

Diana Figueroa argues in the t.i.p.s newsletter that as long as they’re providing real service to their customers, small businesses will always have the loyalty advantage over big conglomerates.

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Service First
By Diana Figueroa

Why service first?

The movie You’ve Got Mail keeps coming to mind.

You have a local bookstore (A) which might be put out [...]