I was at work this morning and a regular customer entered.
He comes in every few months and orders portions of biltong to be vacuum sealed. Afterwards we started talking about him calling ahead to cut down on his waiting time. He mentioned he already had one of our businesses cards.
The words personal touch came to mind. It is what sets apart a small business from a big corporation.
A big business launches a new feature: membership rewards. It personalizes the hell out of things. “Shop your regulars”. “Specialized deals for you”. I had a problem with one of my orders a while ago – they sent me an item I didn’t order.
“Hello, [mystery brand], how can we help?”
The person on the other side of the line doesn’t know my name despite it being on my app. The same business didn’t care to respond to previous complaints I had. This same retailer makes an estimated R20.38 million profit per day. It tries to solve problems with refunds. Instead of addressing issues causing the problems.
A small business who doesn’t make an estimated R20.38 million profit per day needs to approach clients differently. You stick with it and become an institution. My previous job was like this – I saw children grow up. I saw people date, get engaged and then get married. I spoke to people about good things, bad things, politics, sports, etc.
In a small business – you need to get to know your customer. You need to become one of the family. Apart from a great product this is how you survive against the R 20 million a day corporations. You’re customer service, the one to one interactions needs to be above exceptional.
Coming from a background of working for small businesses I look at customer service a lot different than the average person. Is the cashier friendly? Are they talking to other people while serving me? Is the waiter attentive to what I ordered the previous ten times I drank my regular cappuccino at the establishment?
In a tight economy and customer service these small differences often helps to sell. It helps you to retain customers when you know how they like their food prepared or you ask about how their vacation was.
Food for thought.
This is a bit different from my usual writing but I often sit and wonder about these business related ideas. How do you incorporate something like this into your small business? How do you use these types of things to sell? I don’t think pushing something down someone’s throat will do the trick. Believe me I’ve tried.
I’d like to hear your thoughts on this. And tell me what you think about these business type posts? Yay or nay?
Thanks for reading : )
