Business - Contingency Plans for Horticultural Businesses I - Customer Contingency Planning

With the bad economy, all horticultural businesses should develop contingency plans for their business. The following is the first post in a series on the subject. It is on customer contingency planning.

• Identify who are your most profitable customers
• Identify who are the most loyal.
• Identify who must you keep long-term at all costs.
• Find out how the downturn is affecting each of your customers
• Find out how can you get closer to your key customers
• Find out which customers have pressures of their own that will force them to ask you to cut prices, reduce purchases, or limit services. Have a plan for how should you respond. You may have to consider extending credit, putting them on an agreed-upon payment plant, renegotiating contracts, or reducing services temporarily until the economy picks up.

Information from Ed Hess, Professor of Business Administration, Darden School of Business, University of Virginia.