Small Business Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Recession’

I took a phone call at my office the other day from a pleasant sounding young man representing the national office supply store I have a reward card with. He spent a minute of my time reading from a script about the current deals the company had and then asked me if I would place an order and receive an additional 10% discount. I was very impressed at this point with the telemarketing campaign this company was undertaking to boost sales in this difficult financial period. As all small business people do several times a day, I wished I had thought of this marketing strategy and assisted my clients in implementing it.

Unfortunately, I didn’t need 3 cases of copy paper or a new desk chair so I told the young man that I could not take advantage of the program at this time. I expected to hear him say, “Thanks for your time and we look forward to serving you when you need future office supplies.” Unfortunately, the next words out of his mouth were – “I need you to place an order today because I have a quota and will be fired if I don’t meet my quota this week.” Very little in the business world shocks me anymore but this did. I immediately asked him if I could speak to his supervisor and he uttered some expletive as he quickly disconnected our phone call.

I wish I could say this is an anomaly in the business world but it has become more and more common place over the last year. As our sales slow and our profits turn to losses, all companies are reducing personnel and asking our remaining employees to do more until the recession ends. Many small and medium businesses are currently staffed with 50% to 75% of their normal employee level. We all recognize that while sales are down from last year, there is only so long that we can stretch our people until they become as frustrated as the telemarketer from the national office supply company.

Due to my work as a consultant, I am much more tolerant than most customers and will continue to use the national office supply company but how many individuals would simply tear up that rewards card and switch to a different office supply company? I have to believe that young man will run off many customers before he gets fired by the company and the company will have no idea why several of their customers are not returning. I suspect the young man was hired just over the past several months after he was fired from another firm and was hired because he was cheap and had experience. His training definitely was not very good and his supervision is not good at all.

Small and medium sized business must pay very close attention to their customer service attitude at all times since this is the primary element separating you from your competitors. The internet and our new global business environment insure that having a unique product is no longer the only acceptable piece of a company’s sales strategy. Better products are showing up in the marketplace daily so a good business uses great customer service to keep customers from trying different products and companies. It is ironic that your company must pay more attention to customer service when sales drop yet you cannot afford customer service employees. It is, however, a fact of business life.

Great companies make sure all their employees are involved in customer service. Are your employees trained and a part of your customer service strategy? The Accounts Payable clerk, the warehouseman, your delivery personnel, and even your janitor must all be trained and understand the company’s customer strategy and how they fit into it. If this has not been the case in the past, take the time right now to start. This cannot be a onetime all employee meeting. This must be several meetings every month and must continue forever !!

Customer Service must be in your Mission Statement. It must be a part of your interview process with potential employees. It must be in your training for all employees. It must be a part of your incentive package. It must be a chapter in your employee manual. It must be talked about daily in staff meetings, employee gatherings, etc. The bottom line is that it must be the primary attitude in your business and it must be communicated and discussed daily. You, as a business owner or senior manager, must embrace customer service and demonstrate good customer service at all times.

Most employees see customer service only as a way of treating individuals who buy your products or service. As a business owner or manager, you must help everyone understand that Customer Service is an attitude that governs how we deal with everyone including fellow employees and suppliers.

Now that you have established a great customer service attitude in your company, you must make sure the training and follow up with all employees is in place; even in a financial downturn.

There are many great resources on the internet and many good consultants who can get your company up and running quickly and assist you in making sure that training continues in a positive and efficient manner.

There are also numerous hardware and software products on the market that allow you to record and listen in on your employee’s phone conversation. This is a great training and follow up tool for every business. I personally like the various software products that record these conversations directly to your network computer server and can be reviewed directly on your PC in your office. Some of your employees may initially see this as an invasion of their privacy but you must explain this is your way to provide positive feedback and customer service training. Your employee manual should already have a statement outlining that all activity on company assets such as phones and computers can be reviewed by management at any time. Your outside legal advisor should assist you with your state requirements but this is not a major issue in any state.

If that young man from the office supply store was being reviewed with phone recording software, he would already be unemployed and I would have received a personal letter from the company’s president apologizing for that call and offering me an amazing deal to keep me as a customer. Since I have not received that letter, I have to assume his only review comes from a list of the purchase orders his calls have generated.

I have used this software in the past as an initial as well as a continuing training tool to ensure a company knows and controls the exact message it is sending to its customers and potential customers.

Another great and inexpensive customer feedback tool is your own company website. Make sure you have something listed on your home page that makes it easy and simple for a customer to get information to you. You can make this as sophisticated as you wish but do not burden your customer with having to know the serial number, date purchased, color of the cashier’s hair, etc. Start out simple and make it easy for your customer to give you whatever information he or she feels is necessary.

This also gives you the ability to lead your customer back to your website for additional information you want to provide. It’s truly a win-win situation. I would also recommend having your website programmer attach a simple “auto-responder” message for your customer. The message should be sent to their email address within 5 minutes of them hitting the submit button. It should be simple and just state something to the extent of “We appreciate you taking the time to contact us and someone will be back with you within 24 hours. If you do not hear from us, feel free to contact our President personally at 999-999-9999.”

Your problem is to have an employee review this information every few hours and you, as President, must be able to take those phone calls if your company doesn’t respond properly. Putting your phone number on the email will ensure your company listens to the customer feedback and replies timely.

Customer Service is a major responsibility and privilege for every company. Not paying enough attention to customer service will ensure the failure of every small and medium business. Take the time during this financial downturn to review your company’s customer service attitude and insure your customer has no need to buy from your competitors.

All economic indicators and financial pundits agree we’re in for a long and deep recession that could get uglier before it stabilizes.  However that doesn’t mean you can afford not to market or promote your book.  In fact, this may be a better time for you to do so since conventional wisdom says the first thing to cut is advertising, marketing, and PR.  What others fail to do shall provide you with less competition and more opportunity.

If you agree on the fundamental of business that the way to make a sound product or service profitable is to market it, then there’s no reason to shy away from that just because the economy is rocky.  But what you should do is spend wisely and get the most return on your investment.

True, the nation is in an economic war, meaning everyone is battling for the same dollar.  Money is scarce, credit tight.  But in order to make money you need to spend some.  If you still believe there’s a market for your book, then you must market to it.  If you were convinced people won’t be interested in reading it, don’t promote it.   But the economy didn’t change this – only your perception did.  If you have a book that appeals to 60 million dog owners or 160 million women or some other large group or targeted niche, you should market your book.  The only thing that’s changed with the recent economic tumble, is that you’ll need to market smarter and, more often than before.  It’s a numbers game, always has been.

Over the past few months, despite a Wall Street freefall…

·         The words in your book haven’t changed.

·         The ways to market your book haven’t changed.

·         The number of people who’d be interested in your book hasn’t changed.

What’s changed is fear rules reality, guessing trumps facts, uncertainty exceeds certainty.  If marketing a book was good idea six months ago, then it’s still a good idea today.

Okay, so fewer people will buy anything, and they will spend less money than before.  But what will they buy?  They will buy the book that helps them escape (a great novel, humor, photography), they will buy books for their kids, they will buy business books (to find a way to make money), and they will buy any book they would have bought previously unless that book covers a toxic topic.  Toxic books include books whose advice can’t be implemented:  how to travel (no one is spending money on trips), how to buy a car (no one is buying cars) or how to buy and sell real estate during a boom (don’t make me explain this one).

The rules to promoting a book during a recession are the same when the economy is solid: get out there and speak before groups, do radio and television  interviews, send your book to reviewers, blog and seek out online opportunities; and tie your message to what’s on people’s minds or in the news.

If you let the recession scare off your promotional efforts you might as well not publish your book either. But if you recognize that there is opportunity in the marketplace, rev up your PR efforts and put your best foot forward!

If you want to know more on how to promote your book during a recession, please send your queries to Brian Feinblum, Planned Television Arts, Chief Marketing Officer  feinblumb@plannedtvarts.com 212-583-2718