What,When,You,amp,#39,Blown,bo business, insurance What To Do When You've Blown It
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Its bound to happen sooner or later yes, even to you and your business. Sometime or other, you will make a blunder that upsets a customer. It may be an employee mistake (honest or intentional), it could be a defective product, it could even be an unreasonable expectation on the part of your customer. The cause really isnt important.What is important is that you have an angry customer on your hands.What, you ask, does this have to do with marketing advice? Everything. Because it costs you eight times as much to get a new customer as it does to keep an old one. Because your angry customer isnt going to stop at avoiding your business shes going to tell everyone she knows just how sorry you are. Because if you have been getting a steady stream of new customers (at eight times the cost, remember) but your overall numbers arent growing as fast, you are losing money. Bigtime.Heres an example: Jane is a regular customer of Joes Bargain Dry Cleaning. Once a week she brings her entire business wardrobe in for cleaning. Since her entire business wardrobe isnt that big, she spends about fifty bucks every time. This week, a stain on her favorite blouse isnt removed, and Jane calls in to complain when she gets home. The employee Jane speaks to claims to be sorry (though she doesnt sound like it) and says that not all stains can be removed by the dry cleaning process. She will, however, give Jane a coupon for a free one-item dry clean.Well, Jane wanted to wear her favorite blouse tonight for her big date with Jim. Now she cant. Since she lives right around the corner, she asks if she can bring the blouse back now and have the stain treated. She is told that Joes does not accept same-day orders after 10 a.m.Jane hangs up totally disappointed. Forced to wear a less-flattering blouse on her date, she is somewhat lacking in self-confidence (its hard to feel good about yourself when you think you look bad) and her date does not go well. She vows never to darken the door of Joes again. And she doesnt. Now, lets crunch the numbers: Jane was spending $50 a week at Joes. Subtracting two weeks for Janes vacation time, that means she was spending $2,500 a year at Joes. Ten Janes in a year (if Joe is really lucky) and that is Twenty-five thousand dollars Joe will not be putting in his back pocket this year. Ten more next year and Joe is losing $50,000. But if Joe had handled the situation correctly, Jane could have turned into one of his most loyal customers. Heres what he (and you, when it happens) should do next time:1.Own up to the mistake. The sooner the better. Its hard for people, and businesses, to admit mistakes but do it anyway. In the story above, the employee passed the mistake off to the dry cleaning process. Never do that. Even if the problem is something completely out of your control, stand up and take responsibility. Yes, it may be hard on your ego. But whats more important: your ego, or your wallet?2.Make it right. Immediately. Dont make them jump through hoops to get a refund or a replacement (or better yet, both.). Jane should have been allowed to come down right then and have her blouse treated while she waited. If the stain still wouldnt come out, she would know Joes had done their best.3.Make it better. Your customer hasnt just been irritated. Shes been inconvenienced. Give her something extra for her trouble. After treating Janes blouse while she waited, she should have been given an entire weeks dry cleaning for free. Joe would have been out $50 in the short term, but his $25k for the year would have been saved. And Jane would never even consider another dry cleaner as long as she lived.Following these steps will give you rabidly loyal customers. And when you combine that with steady new ones, your business will grow exponentially.
What,When,You,amp,#39,Blown,bo