Mine Your Own Business

Tough Customers

No matter how your employees and your business in general focuses on customer service, every small business owner has faced a less then contented customer (sometimes that is putting it mildly). Maybe the problem is they think they found a better deal at a big box store, or they had a problem with your product after only six years of extensive use, or they can't purchase bags for the vacuum cleaner you sold them at Wally World, etc. The question is how do you deal with such a customer? The natural urge is to fight back, but a recent article at Bloomberg Business Week presents some different approaches.

• Listen up.
• Pace yourself.
• Take the lead.

Try the techniques mentioned in the article the next time you face a difficult or combative customer (sadly to say you'll probably get a chance far too soon), or do you have some suggestions you've had success with in the past?

Is the Customer Always Right?

First some history on the famous phrase the customer is always right. In the USA it seems to have more or less originated with Marshall Field's department store in Chicago. If you have time you can read more about the the history of this famous phrase here. But is the customer really always right? An article by a small business owner makes the case that the customer isn't always right and some ask too much from your business.

The article gives three instances of their business trying to satisfy customers. In the first exampe they went the extra mile to the mutual benefit of both the business and the customer. In the second example they communicated to the customer some of the problems they were experiencing with satifying the customer and eventually everything again worked out for both the business and the customer.

The third example is similar to the first in that they went the extra mile to satisfy the customer and then the customer gave the business to someone else. Think of the situation where the customer comes in to your store for some information on your product or service and then goes elsewhere to buy it, either at another local store or even worse, online. Do you have any  examples from your business where the customer wasn't right?

Business and Customer Service

Small business owners understand the importance of good customer service (if not they are probably not small business owners for very long). We understand how important it is at Mine Your Own business since we have done around twenty posts on it in 2009 and 2010. Maybe even more telling is that many of the posts are some of our better posts (at least in our opinion). Bloomberg Businessweek reported on a recent survey that found that consumers also feel that good customer service is very important. It describes how 60 percent of respondents to the survey felt great customer service was important, but only one-third felt they are getting it.

The article then provides some of the reasons business owners are letting their customers down, such as maybe being short staffed due to the current economic times or focusing on other things such as pricing. The posting then gives some possible ideas for improving customer service, such as using SuggestionBox or IdeaScale to get online feedback. I know that even when I plan to purchase something locally, I'll go to Amazon or use some other Internet resource to get the opinions of actual purchasers of the product I'm interested in.

There are a lot more good suggestions in the article for improving customer service so the whole arricle is worh a visit. One of the last points the article makes is that if you use a tool like SuggestionBox or see some negative comments about your business somewhere else on the Internet, it  is very important to post how you've corrected the situation. This might turn an unhappy customer into a happy customer and show to other consumers that you really are concerned with good customer service.

 

Employees and Customers

We recently ran across an article in USA Today about the owner of a travel company who advised her employees to deal with clients the way they would like to be dealt with (think the golden rule sales philosophy). In general the concept had worked very well in that particular business and in fact would be applicable to most businesses. Then a problem arose with one of their best customers due to the fact that problems can arise when your employees can't imagine the mindset of your customers. An example might be a salesperson selling something they could never possibly afford or wouldn't buy even if they could afford it.

In this instance, the owner worked with the employee on the best way to handle their particular type of client and the problem was solved. This example shows that one sales philosophy may not work for all your employees. It also brings up the point of what should a small business owner do if there are still problems with a particular employee. For some tips on handling problem employees you can visit our posting from April 30th, titled cleverly enough Problem Employees.

For the Birds

Feeding wild birds is very popular in the United States, according to Wikipedia over 55 million Americans are active bird feeders out of a U.S. population of 309,257,847 (I got that figure from the U.S. Census Bureau Web site). I did the math and that is almost 18 per cent of the American population. So how does this relate to small business? We'll get to that a little later in the posting, but an article in the New York Times, How Do you Keep Them Coming Back, presented some great ideas on getting customers to return that will relate to the bird statistics above. The whole article is worth reading but the examples of how two coffee shops get repeat business made me think of a local business that I frequent. One coffee shop has a frequent sippers reward card that they keep on file at the store and the second provides very personal customer service.

Now for the link to feeding wild birds and repeat customers, but first a little background. I have two bird feeders that I keep filled year round and a bird bath. Winters can be nasty here in the Midwest, so I even have a heater so the birds (and squirrels) have water even in the dead of winter. I buy most of my birdseed from a local, privately owned garden shop for the same reasons mentioned above about the coffee shops. They have a card for me at the store and when I buy 10 bags of seed I get the next one free (an $18 value). I also get excellent customer service, they even carry the bag out and load it in my car.

There is actually a third reason as well, it is simply better quality than I can get at my local grocery store. It has a more expensive blend of seed that appeals to more birds. It could be my imagination, but when I get busy and sometimes fill my feeders with grocery store feed, I don't seem to have near as many birds and I think they get excited when I put the "good stuff" in.

Now for something to see if we can get you coming back to our blog. We'll give a free prize to the first 10 people who post a comment to this article, any takers? By the way, a comment of simply what is the prize does not count.

Customers as Lifetime Investments

While it finally appears that the economy is improving for many of us, last year was extremely difficult for most small businesses. We ran across this article Treat Your Customers Like Lifetime Investments that describes how one bicycle retailer increased their revenues by 20 percent. It was probably not due to the fact that people couldn't afford gas, instead the article makes the point that the following four customer service tips were actually responsible.

1. Focus on customer relationships, not one-time transactions.
2. Give your employees permission to do whatever it takes to keep customers satisfied.
3. Make every customer interaction fun, informative, and positive.
4. Stand by your product with service and price guarantees.

You can read the entire article on how these tips were put into practice and some of them might not work for your business, but a 20 percent increase in revenues is pretty impressive. The comments after the article are informative as well and one in particular commented on something we've posted about before, the importance of Customer Referrals.

Customer Referrals

How would you like some inexpensive and uncomplicated ideas to increase sales and profits in our present difficult economy? It sounds attractive and here is an article that gives 7 tips to do this by increasing customer referrals to your business. The 7 tips from the article are:

1. Talk to your customers.
2. Serve their needs.
3. Engage your customers.
4. Get your employees involved.
5. Hire customer friendly.
6. Post reminders.
7. Celebrate good news.

Some of these are pretty obvious without reading the whole article, but it is worth reading because it does provide further details and examples that will help any small business implement at least some of these ideas. After all what could be better than using satisfied customers to get more satisfied customers?

Communication With Your Customers

There was a recent article from USA Today that provides some insight on how any small business might increase their business. The article begins by describing the scenario of a struggling new small business and first suggested that the new owner contact SCORE. If you've never heard of SCORE, the article describes it as a kind of Peace Corps of entrepreneurs that give free counseling and advice to small business owners. If you visit their site you can also sign up for SCORE eNews and SCORE Expert Answers.

So what advice did SCORE give this struggling new business? The advice was simply ask your customers or prospective customers what they want and give it to them (within reason of course). You can read the whole article for the specific ways they suggest to find out what they want and you can probably come up with a few more of your own. One other excellent idea suggested is to find out why you've lost customers. This will not only provide useful information so you don't lose customers in the future but also might entice some of these customers back since you've shown an interest in their thoughts.

 

Customer Service Tips

It has been some time since we did a posting on customer service and since good customer service is so important to any small business we thought it was time to revisit this important topic again. Here's an article that provides four tips for dealing with angry customers. Much of the article is aimed at small businesses who actually have customer service call-centers, but the four tips would work for any small business.

Who knows, if you follow the tips in the article it might save you from losing some customers in the future (there's a pun in there, but you'll only get it if you read the article).

FANatics

Did I mention the other day that Missouri University's football team is number one in the country?  Oh, yeah.  I guess I did.

That was just gratuitous bragging.  I'm mentioning it today to make a point.  MU plays Oklahoma for the Big XII Conference Championship this Saturday in San Antonio.  When Missouri's allotment of 8,500 tickets went on sale Monday they sold out in two hours.  Scalpers art now asking as much as $300 for tickets that originally cost $39-$99, and they're getting it.

It's a little over 900 miles from Columbia, MO to San Antonio. According to Google Maps, that's a fourteen hour drive.  Round trip air fare is about $500.00.  I'd say that anyone who's willing to take the time and spend the money to make the trip is more than a customer.  They're a FAN, possibly even a FANATIC.

So why do they do it when they could watch the game on television?  The answer is loyalty.  Some are students.  Some are alumni.  Some are parents. Some are season ticket holders.   But they all have a connection to the school.  They're not just casual fans.  They're not just customers.

So what about your customers?  Are they casual fans or are they loyal fans?  There's a big difference.  Your fans probably aren't going to drive fourteen hours to get to your store.  More than likely, they're not going to buy a $500 plane ticket. 

• But will they drive past your competitor, even if it means driving a little further, to get to you? 
• Will they go out of their way to do business with you? 
• Will they tell their friends about you?
• Will they pay a little bit more to do business with you?
• Are they connected to your business?

If you can answer all these questions "yes" then you don't just have a customer, you have a loyal fan.  And she's worth her weight in gold.