If your business relies on selling an item only once to each customer, you might not be concerned about the concept of relationship marketing. If you're hoping, however, that each customer becomes a repeat customer, you should be. Relationship marketing recognizes that the customer is more than a number or a commodity for your business; she's in fact a person with needs and wants.

Relationship marketing, then, is just what it sounds like: establishing an ongoing relationship between you and your customers so that customers see you as more than just a business. Customers should see you as someone they trust and value, even if they're just stopping by once a month to pick up pet supplies. You can achieve this by adding value to their purchase of your goods or services. This might mean staying in contact with them perhaps by a monthly newsletter containing pet care tips. Or it could mean ensuring that you're always available to them by phone or in the store to answer their pet care questions. However you approach this, you're offering them more than just pet supplies: You're becoming someone on whom they rely.

However you let your customers know about your products or services, make sure that your communications and your sales pitches foster your image as a person or business that they'll feel comfortable dealing with. If there's ever a problem with an order or a job, a good relationship will make it easier to solve.