5 Questions Retailers Must Tackle to Attract and Retain Customers

Out of this plain talk, of connecting with customers as humans, as parents, as family members, Zappos.com has achieved over $1 billion in gross merchandise sales and over 2 million Twitter followers.

5. What pushes your "yes" button? Is everyone in your organization clear on that? Do you really have clarity around what you're trying to accomplish? About how you intersect and improve your customers’ day? For example, do you have complete clarity as people are making decisions across your organization about when something is ready to send to market so they can optimally serve customers? About what conditions must exist before a product or service is ready to go?

Ikea sells products for people who have less money in their pocket and more energy. It knows its customers are willing to save a bit of money by putting their own furniture together. Its clarity of purpose is to serve the budget conscious. What Ikea knows is if you're just out of college or one of those people who don't spend a lot of money on furniture, you might want to spend, let's say, $199 on a chair. It knows that if your mom is coming to visit for the first time, you rush out to buy a chair.

That's why Ikea designs the price tag first, then the product. That's why, for example, its Lillberg chair has the arms the way that it does — so that it can fold into a flat pack. And that's why the cushions are a certain depth, so that chair can fit into a box of a certain dimension and be stacked in a warehouse. Because Ikea has such laser focus, it's managed to grow in an economic downturn to become a worldwide presence.

Jeanne Bliss is the founder of CustomerBliss, a consulting firm to help executive teams unite their actions to drive customer growth.