Small Business Tip Tuesday: Taking the Leave a Penny/Take a Penny Concept to New Levels

Image by Lottery Monkey via Flickr

When you walk into any sort of retail store, you’ll often see the a “Leave a penny, take a penny” cup by the cash register. It’s one little way of helping out customers so they don’t have to fumble through their purses or pockets for small change. And it also helps you because you won’t always have to hand out a bunch of small change. And it’s not just you helping your customers, its your customers helping each other out when they leave their small change behind.

But how can you kick it up a notch? Are there bigger ways of doing this, both online and off? It’s not a matter of just helping out with pennies and small change, it’s the overall concept of sharing. You sharing with your customers, and your customers sharing with each other.

For instance, I recently saw a local church post on their Facebook page that they were opening up their “sharing table” on Sundays. The idea is that church members bring any extra garden produce, or other things that they might have, and share them with others.

What are some ways that you can promote sharing?

My friend Marijean Jaggers opened up her Facebook business page awhile back (with an idea that I later stole borrowed) to allow anyone to post a link to their blog. This was her way of sharing. Perhaps you can use your Facebook business page to let others promote their businesses, or you can even promote them yourself by “liking” other businesses and tagging them in appropriate, non-spammy ways.

Another friend, Shawn Smucker, does something similar. On a monthly basis he opens up his blog and allows anyone to post their top blog post of the month. He then goes through the submissions and chooses his favorites from the list. This is his way of giving something back to his readers, by sharing.

If you’re using Twitter, perhaps you can use your business account and connections to RT the tweets and questions of your customers. You can help support them and their endeavors, as well as help them get answers to their questions, even if they aren’t related to your business.

What about in your office or store?

Is there any merchandise that just isn’t selling, even when you put it on sale? Could you offer it for free? Or donate it to a local homeless shelter or non-profit?

Another idea is to choose a customer or business of the month/week, and use your on- and off-line real estate to promote them or give them some sort of special privilege or discount. My friend Dave Warren of Dave’s Ace Hardware does this with his “Superfan” promotion. In fact, take a look at his Facebook page and notice all the different ways he promotes others: customers, non-profits, etc, as well as the cool information he provides to his customers free of charge.

Remember, by doing little things for your customers you’re giving them a reason to come back, and perhaps more importantly, a reason to tell others about you. And of course your Social Media presence gives them the tools to make that possible.

Additionally, my friends Marijean, Shawn, and Dave also got something in return. For each of them, the giving nature of what they do has paid dividends for them in a variety of ways. When you leave a penny, you often get something in return.

Now it’s your turn. Be creative.

In what ways can you open up your online social properties to help your customers? Are there any ways that you can take the sharing off-line into your office or brick and mortar location? I’d love to hear any examples you might have that kick the “leave a penny/take a penny” idea up a notch. Post them here!

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• Small Business Tip Tuesday: How to Connect with Your Customers on a More Personal Level (inklingmedia.net)
• Small Business Tip Tuesday: Getting Customers in the Door (inklingmedia.net)
• Small Business Tip Tuesday: Collaborate with Your Competitors (inklingmedia.net)
• Offline Tactics for Growing Your Facebook Fan Base (inklingmedia.net)

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