I have been struggling with my company for 6 years. I have survived the worst economic recession since the Great Depression, a failed partnership, new business growing pains, defaulted loans and debts, employees steeling from me, and general bad luck. Having said that, I have also experienced some wonderful blessings and I have had the pleasure to meet and work with extraordinary people.
In the beginning, I did what I did best...SELL! I did not focus on bookkeeping or employee retention, or customer satisfaction. I just sold to anyone that would sign a check. This is important for starting a business. Most businesses fail because they don't have the cashflow to sustain life.
Afer six years, I now realize that I have been missing some very key elements. While I have a great ability to connect with people and develop long-term relationships with my customers, my lack of attention to detail has been a real liability.
Last night I was going down my list of customers to ask them to post a review on Google for my company. As I passed each name, I recalled my experience with them. With a vast majority of them, I recalled a negative experience. They weren't the kind of experiences that caused them to fire me, but they were enough to make me question whether or not they would give me a great review. This brought to light a very important principle to live by. The negative experiences I have with customers reflects on my business for a very long time. The positive experiences reflect for a short time. So, in order to keep a customer happy, I have to produce positive experiences over and over again, and eliminate the negative ones.
Bad things happen, that is a fact of life in business. How we handle those events can make the difference between a negative customer experience and a positive one. Just because something bad happens, doesn't necessarily mean that the customer will automatically be upset or negative about the company. If we attack the issue quickly and resolve their complaints, it can have a very positive affect on the customer's perception of the company.
In the beginning, I did what I did best...SELL! I did not focus on bookkeeping or employee retention, or customer satisfaction. I just sold to anyone that would sign a check. This is important for starting a business. Most businesses fail because they don't have the cashflow to sustain life.
Afer six years, I now realize that I have been missing some very key elements. While I have a great ability to connect with people and develop long-term relationships with my customers, my lack of attention to detail has been a real liability.
Last night I was going down my list of customers to ask them to post a review on Google for my company. As I passed each name, I recalled my experience with them. With a vast majority of them, I recalled a negative experience. They weren't the kind of experiences that caused them to fire me, but they were enough to make me question whether or not they would give me a great review. This brought to light a very important principle to live by. The negative experiences I have with customers reflects on my business for a very long time. The positive experiences reflect for a short time. So, in order to keep a customer happy, I have to produce positive experiences over and over again, and eliminate the negative ones.
Bad things happen, that is a fact of life in business. How we handle those events can make the difference between a negative customer experience and a positive one. Just because something bad happens, doesn't necessarily mean that the customer will automatically be upset or negative about the company. If we attack the issue quickly and resolve their complaints, it can have a very positive affect on the customer's perception of the company.
