Business Day Thursday: Is Your Business Ready For Success?

Good Afternoon Everybody,

Ahhh!  Another beautiful day in Cabo. I can’t believe how quickly the time is flying by down here in the land of sea and sun. It’s been a great--- much needed break from a very busy year. 

Kent and I are going to try to put together another Technique Tuesday before we leave - maybe something “beachie.”  I’ll keep you posted as things develop.

Anyway, let get right to today’s post.

Is Your Business Ready For Success?

I’ve just started reading a book by Andy Sernovitz entitled, “Word Of Mouth Marketing.”  I have to tell you, it a nice read brimming with common sense ideas anyone can use in their business – large or small.

One sentence I picked up on was, “Success comes not from what you advertise, but from what you deliver.” He goes on to stress that a company’s worth is determined by the sales/service experience your customer has with you.  If they like you, they spread the word.  If they don’t, they still spread the word.

The word that is spread is super important to your business too.  In the old pre-internet days, the reality was that if a wedding photographer did a crummy job on a bride’s wedding, no big deal.  There was always a new crop of unsuspecting bride’s attending next year’s bridal shows he/she could book for the following year.

That isn’t to say that word of mouth was unimportant back then.  It was vitally important.  Heck, it’s how I built my business over the years.  Today, though, word of mouth remarks – good or bad – can really affect your business.

Why?  Because today those words live forever on the Internet, on forums, Facebook, and so many bridal sites.  That’s why it’s increasingly important to have your “word of mouth” advertising be the best and most positive it can be.

How do you ensure that the good word get’s out?  You strive deliberately and diligently to provide your client with the best product and service you can. 

How do you gage your success? One simple way is with a simple customer feedback – something as simple as a customer service questionnaire is a good place to start.  This feedback is important for you to know in order for you to enhance and maybe improve what you are doing well. Even negative feedback is important for you.   Now you know where to make any mid course corrections that need to be corrected in your weak customer service areas.

It’s amazing to me how many business people want to keep their heads in the sand about how well or poorly they serve their clients.  It’s almost as though they don’t want to know how they are doing.  Why, because in many cases, they are just doing enough to get by and they want to avoid the truth. Or maybe they just care.

That’s too bad – how you can ever improve your customer service with that kind of mentality?  In today’s digital age the stories of bad customer service live on forever, it could be disastrous if you chose to run your business without any kind of customer feedback.

So, suck it up and constantly strive to do the job right.  Always give it your best.  Institute any kind of customer feedback survey so you know where you stand.  And then stand tall knowing your client is getting the best you can deliver and is willing to tell the world about it!  Now your business is ready for success!!!

Hey gang, that’s it for me today.  We’ve got just a few more days to relax around here and are going to make the most of it.  Stop back tomorrow for another episode of “Inspiration Friday.”  See ya’ then.  Adios,  -David