Simple To Do Is Not As Easy As You Think.



Choosing A Remote Location Is Not A Good Idea.

Almost every business has the ability to do well.  With some drastic exceptions, most business models have a fair chance to perform well in this day and age.  The exceptions for doing well are simple.  If you are trying to deliver a product that is completely out of touch with the marketplace you may fail.  Another bad choice would be opening your business in a location out of sync with necessary traffic demands.  You may fail.  A few bad choices will contribute to some poor levels of business performance.

The business basics that are required to help your business perform well are often times very clear.  In fact, we can see the value in most business basics when we frequent other businesses.

When we are consumers in another business we know when that business is doing something wrong.  We also know when a business does not pay attention to our needs.  We have no problem identifying how a business could improve its chances for success.  The mistakes we see when we are consumers are simple to identify.  Sometimes we point them out, too!  We are not afraid to let someone know when the front door was locked at 9:04 and the sign said they opened at 9:00.  We let them know.  Of course, we are never guilty of simple mistakes like that in our own business practices.               

When it is our own business, what seems simple to employ in some other business becomes not so easy to do in your own.  Our business will make many mistakes.  Many of those mistakes will happen right under our nose and we will not be aware of them occurring.  Our customers will be dissatisfied with the results we delivered and we may never know.

Many unhappy customers never reveal how they feel about the performance we put them through.  Many unhappy customers will come back to use our business again, but some do not.  You need to be as interested in the ones who do not come back as you are for the ones who did.  Both are tremendously valuable for helping you increase your stock of knowledge about how well you are doing in your business.
 

Do not become attracted to only the comments from customers that will tickle your ears.  Hearing good stuff about your business is very important.  But hearing what is wrong will do more for your growth potential if you learn how to use the negative news wisely.  Bad news is not such a bad thing.  Often times bad news is very good news.  You would want to know about poor service sooner than later.  The sooner you get this bad news, the sooner you will be able to correct it.  You are trying to attract and keep more customers...not send them away once they have arrived.  It sounds simple, but getting this information quickly and often is very hard to do.

If you believe placing a suggestion box out on the sales counter for collecting this valuable information is a good idea...you are dead wrong.  Customers do not want to waste their time helping you out.  You need to learn how to 'draw' this information out from every source available.  Be creative in your efforts.  You may have employees who are in dialogue with your customers and they often hear much of what your customers complain about.  Be careful, you may have trouble getting the right bad news out of anybody.

I once worked with an owner of a furniture business who tried to tell me he had no customer complaints.  He actually believed this position seriously.  If you are like that business owner, you cannot be helped to grow your business.  You will eventually fail.  It may take a long time, but you will fail.  He did after 13 years.  He also re-opened the same kind of business in another market area, only to fail in 5 years.  Having things go wrong is normal.  Making some customers mad is not unusual.  What's more, the bigger your business the more this kind of stuff happens.  Get in tune with what is happening that makes your customers mad.  You need this information.  Learn how to run to this kind of bad news.  Treat bad news as good news.  It is a lot harder to do than you think.

Collect News About
Your Business

You may need to develop some kind of mechanism that offers your unhappy customers a chance to speak to you personally.  Maybe you could develop a "Meet The Manager" routine session at a local eatery.  A place where you provide a short tray of munchies with some water and pitcher of tea.  Every time a customer expresses a challenge, have your employees or yourself invite them to the next lunch session.  "Let The Manager Know."  Maybe you have a business card specifically designed to write down a time and place for the next free lunch as you invite them to join you next month at the "Meet The Manager" session.  Be creative as you reach out to gather this bad news.

You will discover many important components like this in your business that are simple to see but hard to do.  One of the secret tricks to making your business special is how well you manage these hard to do things.  You can sit down during your new quiet time and begin thinking about all of the ways simple stuff like this example have become so hard to do.  List one or two of them and begin your plan to provide those problems with a simple but "easy-to-do" solution.  Find out what simple tasks are in your way that have become hard to perform.  You have a few of them, I am sure of it.  Be the opposite of the furniture store owner and be open to accepting the things in your business that have gone wrong.  Treat bad news as good news.

Find The Right Tools And Learn How To Use Them

If you fix one of these hard to do things in your business, you are well ahead of your competition.  They will likely avoid the effort.  Read the earlier blog on "Respect The Quiet Hours" to help you establish a time slot for making this project work well.

See you next time.  And remember this, just because it is simple does not mean you can skip doing it.  You may begin to sound like your competition.  I hate to do hard things.