Since that first impression is often the lasting impression, it is crucial for businesses to make sure that the customer's first experience is a positive one. Study after study has shown that businesses lose customers primarily because of poor service, discourteous treatment, or indifference, not because of price or more aggressive marketing by competitors. It is what business owners and their employees do that has the greatest impact on customer loyalty, not what competitors do.
Customers are obviously critical to all businesses, but especially so to small businesses.
Since small businesses typically have smaller marketing budgets, limited locations, and smaller available markets, they cannot afford to lose the customers that they are able to attract. They must do everything they can to provide those customers with a good experience so that they will return . Reliability describes a firm's ability to deliver an acceptable product or perform a service dependably, accurately, and in a timely fashion. This is the core dimension of customer service for all businesses, the single most important aspect. It doesn't matter whether we are talking about a hot dog at the ballpark , a hotel room in Times Square, a shirt from the local dry cleaners, or a new car, the product must come as advertised and expected by the customer.