Beyond products and infrastructure, an organization does not exist outside of its customers. They drive revenue, guide innovation and when they are unhappy, they can destroy real progress. Hundreds of billions of dollars are spent annually to develop processes to ensure that customers get exactly what they want. Demographics say that customers with disabilities should be a major part of any retailer’s Customer Relationship Management strategy, yet aside from a few token ad placements, retailers have yet to uncover this opportunity.

The question of ‘How?’ keeps rising again and again. How do we include this massive customer base in our CRM plans? Most firms first gravitate to physical access for wheelchair users as their first step. While many may see this as laudable, it is wrong as a first step. Going back to our numbers, we know that 74% of PWD have an invisible disability where physical access is not a barrier. The first step to inclusion in CRM activities is the realization that this segment is crucial to your business, and each of these customers represent an initial sale, followed by potential repeat business. This should sound familiar; it is how you look at all of your customers, every day. The day this stops, is the day you go bankrupt.

How? How do I help a blind woman find a dress? A deaf guy find a cell phone? A tween in a wheelchair buy running shoes? A woman with dyslexia buy the new best-selling fiction novel? The same damn way you do it with anyone else, follow proven CRM practice. These people are not in your establishment for counseling, they are there to part with some of their hard earned income. They know their deal, and will guide your staff in assisting them, if needed. Otherwise, just relax and SELL.

This author experiences this daily, having a disability that is readily apparent. Travelling a fair bit, I cannot tell you how endearing it is to be spoken to as if I were three years old, despite my education and receding hairline, having earned both. The TSA(airport security) is especially good at this. One would think that walking through a metal detector was tantamount to running a marathon by these reactions. Is this the fault of the front line employees? No. They just don’t have a process to follow to ensure that each customer is treated with the same approach. Without this process, they allow their own notions of care to enter their work craft, and quality CRM breaks down. Yes, they are there to stop terrorism, but also to ensure that passengers are respected. This is equivalent to ensuring a positive customer experience.

Private enterprise is very good at customer service yet too often are people with disabilities greeted with indifferent service, especially those with visible disabilities. Reputation is key to any organization that relies on customer service. By having two standards for those with and those without disabilities, the risk of angering 50% of your client base is real and close. Numbers say that 18.9% of your market has a disability; a further 33% has a direct connection to a person with a disability. Do the math.

There are many tools available to mitigate this risk. The first of these is an honest, market-based intent. Your firm recognizes the potential in this market, and is investigating ways to serve these consumers. Nobody expects immediate expertise, and if they do, they are irrational. Get your feet wet and start learning what you, as a firm, need to know.

Second, new infrastructure. When you add to or replace physical/web footprints, design for everyone. Retrofitting legacies is costly, and an unfair burden given the maturity of this market. In 10 years, retrofitting will make economic sense, but for now, keep costs manageable by utilizing Universal Design in new and economically viable construction. Don’t expect to throw a switch and get a level field, but you had better start adding to capacity and prepare for a medium term build-out if you want to stay with your competition.

Finally, and most importantly, train your staff to see lifetime customers, instead of a body taking up floor space. This does not only apply to disability, but all customers. The global nature of the world today means that the only abnormal customer trait is uniformity. The front line needs to be flexible in their interactions while understanding that increased sales come in all sorts of packages.

Retailers deal with razor-thin margin, where a shift in taste and style can crush or propel the bottom line. By changing the way retailers manage their customer relationships to explicitly include people with disabilities, these firms can dramatically increase traffic and turns, giving them a distinct advantage over their competition.