Real Business magazine has published ‘27 ways to retain your customers', it hardly poses a challenge to Paul Simon's 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover but it offers a few fun suggestions to keeping customers in these straitened times. Here we pick some of our favourites:

“Re-gruntle” your customers: this basically translates to not kicking people when they're down. James Minter, the founder of Adam Street, the private members' club says: “If one of our members is upset because we're fully booked for the second time in a row, we'll give them a voucher for a meal for eight. It's an unexpected and magnanimous gesture that ultimately costs you far less than it would to have a single disgruntled mumber.”

Pimp your office: a swanky office apparently goes a long way towards impressing punters. But don't worry if you can't afford a palace: one of Dragons' Den star, James Caan's first offices was in Pall Mall but the tiny windowless room was less impressive than the postcode, so he'd cunningly tell clients “All my meeting rooms are busy, so shall we go down the road for a coffee?”

Let them off payments: controversial given the economic climate but Kevin McSpadden, the co-founder of More2, a marketing agency, says letting customers skip a payment is worthwhile. “They appreciate having one less payment to worry about in a month: Ultimately, your empathy will boost their loyalty.”

Spy on them: find out what your customers are saying about your company by monitoring message boards, blogs and websites - then try to meet their demands.

Give presents to their mates: Simon Claver, LoveFilm.com chief executive, hopes that the 800,000 three-month subscription vouchers he sent to members to hand out to their friends will bring him a 10percent rise in membership this year.

Work with them: Spending time in your clients' offices not only gives you ideas but credibility too. Real Business (January) commentators also recommend popping in for a coffee when passing client offices.

Let them work with you: Invite them to your offices. “We're not afraid to invite them to hot-desk from our offices. If that means having to introduce them to dishevelled colleagues who are taking part in a charity moustache-growing contest, we really don't mind,” says Oliver BIshop, the founder of Steak Media, a digital marketing agency.

Give them special treatment: Some organisations estimate that the top 20 per cent of customers generate about 80 per cent of business, so it makes sense to treat that one in five specially with personal attention, dedicated phone lines, priority delivery and gold cards.

Put up or shut up: if you have great customer service prove it - give money-back guarantees and make it easy for them to leave you if they aren't satisfied.

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