E. Sue Huff & Associates

Why Small Businesses Fail - Saturday, February 18, 2012

I love The New York Times Small Business Blog “You’re the Boss.” One blogger is Jay Goltz, owner of five small businesses in Chicago. His top ten reasons why small businesses fail in his January 5, 2011 post are worth noting, especially Reason #2, which is: “Owners who cannot get out of their own way.”

Mr. Goltz suggests these owners may have qualities that make it difficult for them to notice mistakes that need fixing, qualities such as stubbornness, fear of conflict, perfectionism, greed, self-righteousness, paranoia, or insecurity. I call this owner blindness.

Some examples, which I’ve come across recently, point to owner blindness when it comes to their customer service staff. And, this is especially true if they are family or friends. My favorite small cafe has a front door that hangs open because it doesn’t have an automatic closer. This wasn’t a problem for patrons when the weather was warmer. Now it has become an unpleasant dining experience and no one seems to step up to fix it. Our florist hired a delivery person who smokes in the van. After a full day of riding in the van, my Valentine’s Day roses smelled like -- you guessed it -- cigarette smoke. And finally, a new bistro near my house offers morning rush hour coffee and pastry take-out. But they don’t have heat sleeves for their coffee cups. The counter person seems confused that customers balk at this inconvenience. Simple problems with simple solutions, if only the blinders were removed.

I imagine small business owners are often overwhelmed with the “big picture” and don’t appreciate what they see as customer complaints about insignificant things. If a customer is willing to give feedback, it pays to investigate the cause of their dissatisfaction. This is where having conscientious and alert support staff can make or break the business plan for success.

Deb Davidson
Associate, E. Sue Huff & Associates

Labels: customer service, FL, Marketing consulting Naples, Motivational speaking nationwide, Public Relations Naples FL, Small business advice, Small Business management consulting Naples FL

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Create a Good Memory - Monday, July 26, 2010

Ease and convenience are two major things that customers report as being important to them. That’s what makes internet ordering so popular. But if you sell face-to-face with your customers, you need to focus on the “ease” part I mentioned, and ask yourself “how much at ease” are my customers when they buy from me?

As a case in point, a friend of mine stopped shopping at a very convenient grocery store. She passed this store every day on her way home from work and often stopped to pick something up for dinner. But she usually left feeling like she’d been an inconvenience to the people who worked there. The cashiers were often sullen. Their greetings to customers came across as automated, yet they joked around with each other. Sometimes they walked slowly off to find a price code and came back five minutes later . . . while she waited in line. She started calling it the Bad Attitude Grocery Store, or “BAGS” for short. Finally, the bad experiences made her dread stopping at that grocery store, so she drove three miles out of her way to a different store. Turns out the selection is better (who knew?) and she doesn’t have to put up with grumpy people at the end of each work day.

Don’t create bad shopping memories for your customers. Its not enough to teach your employees to parrot customer service lines such as “did you find everything you need?” or “hello, how are you?” especially if its obvious that they don’t mean it. Put your customers at ease with genuine friendliness. Treat others the way you would like to be treated and drop the phony baloney.

If you serve up a good customer experience, you will create a favorable memory that can be the basis of a long-term relationship. A positive experience increases the likelihood of re-purchase and positive word of mouth, the two things that directly impact your bottom line.

Labels: customer service, Generating Word of Mouth Advertising (WOMAD), marketing strategy

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