Summer has arrived! And, with its arrival comes what is often a heart-stopping, bring-you-to-your-knees, please-don’t-make-me experience for many women—swimsuit shopping. (cue dreading music)

Despite my best efforts to schedule a root canal without anaesthesia (as a more appealing option to bikini shopping), I finally bit the bullet and ventured into a cute boutique in downtown Edmonton called Offshores. With hands sweating, heart pounding, and as many skinny thoughts as I could muster, I went in expecting the worst. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised.

Now, guys—you are probably tuning out right about now—pay attention. There are some important lessons here for any business that deals with people.

Here is Offshores’ approach:

Know Your Client’s Fears

Offshores recognizes that many women are self-critical, so they take extra steps to make customers feel more comfortable and attractive by dimming the lights.

This made a big difference in my comfort level and my perception of their products; If a certain product doesn’t work for me (i.e., I don’t think it looks good on me), I won’t buy it.

Be Honest, But Supportive

Upon arrival, the staff told me “Don’t worry, we will be honest.” This can be a double-edged sword for many service providers. Yes, be honest, but don’t be critical!

Offshores zoned in on my assets and helped me enhance them. They did not pick at my flaws; this made me feel like they were on my side.

The wonderful experience I had at Offshores (which I had heard of through word-of-mouth) has spurred me to tell others about the store. The effort Offshores makes to ensure that customers are supported—and that they leave not only with a swimsuit, but with a smile on their face—is invaluable advertising.

Anyone can sell a bikini. Helping someone feel better about herself in the process? Holy Cow!

In recent years, Edmonton was having an identity crisis. We are one of the fastest growing cities in Canada and the pulse of the country’s economy. The City of Edmonton realized that in order to keep up with this growth, we needed to attract and retain the best and brightest. They decided we needed a better way to tell our city’s story... we needed a new brand.

So what to do? .... How about a new slogan? Perhaps an ad campaign?

No... the communicators at City Hall realized that no slogan or tagline could accurately portray the essence of what Edmonton means to its citizens.

For example, while “Gateway to the North” or “City of Champions”, both of which are old slogans used by the City, may be appealing to the oil and gas sector or 80’s sports fans, they say little of how we are today. They ignore our multiculturalism, our arts community, our river valley and environmental stewardship, and our educational institutions. These are all things that make Edmonton such a great place to live—according to Edmontonians. It’s impossible to capture the true Edmonton in a few words.

The City also realized that while there was a lot of internal love for our city, others hadn’t heard the news. Edmontonians weren’t shouting our praises from the rooftops – we are too modest for that.

This posed a real opportunity. Our own citizens are our best ambassadors, but they weren’t telling their stories. We needed to collect these stories and share them with the world.

So the City of Edmonton turned to social media and launched www.edmontonstories.ca.

Not only is this fast becoming a tool for people from elsewhere to learn about Edmonton, it’s becoming a tool for Edmontonians to learn more about ourselves and our City – the more we know about the City that we love, the more we will share.

This is a great lesson to businesses about the importance of looking to your existing clients to be ambassadors before attempting to reach for new ones. Find out what your base likes about your service offerings and what could be improved – let them be heard and act on their recommendations.

Leverage their experiences to attract new clientele and not only will you attract new clients, you will solidify the relationships you have with your client base. Then use the tools that work best for both to get the word out.

Kudos to the City of Edmonton for this innovative marketing tool!