What's The Customer Service Buzz About Your Business?

Written by Tim Knox


Small Business Q&A with Tim Knox

If you're a regular reader of this column you know that my number one pet peeve is bad customer service. Nothing chaps my backside more than paying hard-earned money for a product or service only to haverepparttar provider of said product or service become apathetic, obnoxious or just downright rude afterrepparttar 104685 transactional smoke has cleared.

The bottomline, my entrepreneurial friend, is this: it doesn't matter if your product is fast food, slow food, retail goods, computers, lawn mowers, books, real estate or automobiles, if a customer is willing to pay you good money in exchange for your product or service that customers deserves to be treated with gratitude and respect, before and afterrepparttar 104686 sale. Period.

I'm constantly amazed at how many business owners andrepparttar 104687 frontline employees who represent them seem to forget this simple fact.

It's likerepparttar 104688 old saying about getting a little respect inrepparttar 104689 morning. If you court me beforerepparttar 104690 sale, you damn well better respect me afterward. Just because you have my money in your pocket and I have your product in my hand, that does not mean that my needs have been fully satisfied or that my expectations have ceased to exist. Torepparttar 104691 contrary, our relationship is just getting started. It's up to you how well we will get along and how long our relationship will last.

Here'srepparttar 104692 point: customer service should not stop afterrepparttar 104693 sale. In fact, customer support AFTERrepparttar 104694 sale can have greater impact onrepparttar 104695 success of your business than customer support beforerepparttar 104696 sale.

Nothing generates negative buzz about a business like bad customer service, and nothing will drive nails in a business' coffin faster. News of bad customer service travels like lightning and spreads like wildfire. Think back torepparttar 104697 last time you were onrepparttar 104698 receiving end of bad customer service. I'd be willing to bet that you immediately went out intorepparttar 104699 world and told everyone you met aboutrepparttar 104700 experience. You probably also warned them to "never do business with those &^%$ or you'll get treatedrepparttar 104701 same!" As a business person, it should be your mission to make every customer a repeat customer, and one ofrepparttar 104702 best ways to do that is by delivering superior customer service every time that customer comes through your door. Superior customer service leads to increased customer satisfaction, which leads to repeat business, which leads to customer loyalty. It is also much cheaper to keep a customer than to obtain a new one.

The fast food industry is especially prone to customer service problems. This is due in large part torepparttar 104703 fact that every transaction is a face-to-face sale andrepparttar 104704 average fast food worker is a disgruntled teenager who would rather be lying on a bed of nails than standing behind a fast food counter schlepping fries.

However, that doesn't always have to berepparttar 104705 case. This is not meant as an ad for Chic Filet or as a slam at Taco Bell, but repparttar 104706 difference in customer service between these two fast food titans is astounding.

I used to frequent both establishments (fast food is my crack), so this isrepparttar 104707 voice of experience speaking. Behindrepparttar 104708 counter atrepparttar 104709 local Chic Filet are young people who seem genuinely happy to be of service. They are clean cut and polite. They don't wear their baseball caps sideways or have anything visibly pierced. They look me inrepparttar 104710 eye, they smile like there is no place on earth they would rather be, and they ask for my order in clear, concise English. They thank me profusely and invite me to come again. Excellent customer service afterrepparttar 104711 sale.

The Business Autopsy: A Fact Of Life

Written by Tim Knox


Last week we discussedrepparttar importance of performing an autopsy on a dead business. No, I haven't been watching too many of those wonderfully graphic, TV forensic investigation shows. The reason I recommend you do a business autopsy is to uncoverrepparttar 104684 exact reasons whyrepparttar 104685 business died. This is valuable information that can not only heal feelings of personal failure, but also better prepare you forrepparttar 104686 pitfalls of business should you ever takerepparttar 104687 plunge again.

Starting a business is never easy andrepparttar 104688 odds of your success or failure are about even money. The fact is, approximately half of all small businesses fail withinrepparttar 104689 first four years. And a large percentage of those failures occur withinrepparttar 104690 first year. These arerepparttar 104691 statistics that keep many entrepreneurs awake at night. Like Sisyphus, always pushing that boulder to repparttar 104692 top ofrepparttar 104693 hill only to have it tumble back torepparttar 104694 bottom each time, you never know when you're going to lose your grip on your business and have it tumble back over you.

OK, so far in this column I have managed to squeeze in references to modern American television and ancient Greek mythology. Enough highbrow beating aroundrepparttar 104695 bush. Performrepparttar 104696 autopsy and learn from it. Only by knowingrepparttar 104697 real reasons your business died can you identify and hopefully stave off those maladies before they take you down next time, if there is a next time. And if you're a true entrepreneur there will be a next time, trust me on this.

There are many reasons why businesses fail, but according to a recent survey by U.S. Bank,repparttar 104698 majority of business failures can be attributed to three reasons: bad management, bad financial planning, and bad marketing.

Bad management comes in many forms. The survey showed that seventy-eight percent ofrepparttar 104699 business failures examined were due in part torepparttar 104700 lack of a well-developed business plan and a business owner who had no business being inrepparttar 104701 business he was in. In other words,repparttar 104702 business owner did not have an adequate knowledge or a thorough understanding ofrepparttar 104703 business he had chosen to start. This is why software entrepreneurs like me don't start shoe stores. I have feet, I wear shoes. That's not enough to qualify me to go intorepparttar 104704 shoe business.

Next, seventy-three percent ofrepparttar 104705 business failures inrepparttar 104706 survey were also manned by owners with rose colored calculators. These business owners over-estimated revenue projections (the number of expected sales) and under-estimatedrepparttar 104707 burn rate (the amount of money required to sustainrepparttar 104708 business per month).

It gets better. Seventy percent ofrepparttar 104709 failed businesses inrepparttar 104710 study were led by entrepreneurs who were in denial regarding their own competence, or more torepparttar 104711 point, their own incompetence. These business owners either didn't recognize or chose to ignore their own entrepreneurial shortcomings. These entrepreneurs also did not seek assistance from others who might have made up for their inadequacies. It's sometimes hard to ask for help when you are supposed to berepparttar 104712 one with allrepparttar 104713 answers.

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