There's NO SUCH THING As A Recession! Pt. 2

Many people have read the previous "No Such Thing..." post and I've decided to put some information, ideas, tips, etc., here to spur business owners on to making themselves more successful (even if that just means staying afloat at the moment).

As I said in the first part, you need to look at ways to provide better customer service, add more value and lower your costs; you do not have to lower your prices; in fact this is bad practice. If you lower what you charge now, people who have used you in the past will think "Did they fleece us? How come they suddenly can charge a lower rate?" Unless you're able to give a viable reason, don't cut prices.

There are always things people can do in their own companies to make them more attractive, get customers returning to their stores and recommending them to others. Some of these I put in the first part, some are in other blog entries.

1/ Make sure you look after your customer.
Many people say that the customer is always right. What rot, of course they're not! If a customer goes into a car dealership and says "I will buy that Ferrari for £50," are they right? Should the dealership accept this? Yes, if they believe that the customer is always right and they don't mind going bankrupt.

However, treating a customer with respect, politeness and listen to what they have to say is more than a lot of places do (and those places wonder why they lose custom). You will go up in people's estimation and they are going to return to you and refer others as well.

Remember, you don't sell anything by being rude or abusive or proving the customer wrong. We had a call from a telephone directory firm, we told them we weren't interested in advertising, and the salesperson's response was "Well, if you don't to get any more customers!" How is that going to make me want to buy an advert?

Another salesman from a double glazing firm rang up, we told him several times we weren't interested because we had just got the house double-glazed. He said "I'm not going to take no for an answer." I hung up on him.

Why do people think that being rude will get the sale?

I can only assume that they only way these people can feel better about themselves if they haven't made a sale is to try and make the customer look foolish - but they're losing their commission, who's the foolish one?

2/ Give your business premises a makeover.
I'm not talking about getting a design guru in and spending lots of money, there are lots of things you can do to make your premises feel more friendly and look professional for very little money.

Get someone to come to your premises and cast a critical eye over all the areas your customers will see. You will be amazed at what you think looks fine, but customers don't like - even small things like the pictures on the walls or the mess on somebody's desk might give the wrong image.

At all times you want to project a professional, efficient image. If there are areas of your business that don't project that (and by doing so, would actually stop people working efficiently) then keep customers away from those areas. Try to have a separate area where you can meet people. Even if your place is open plan, why not have a little screened off area for seeing visitors?

3/ Cut costs then lower fees.
Now, before you post a message saying "But you said not to lower fees", look at what I've said here: cut costs then lower fees.

If you can make substantial savings on your overheads, outgoings, etc., then why not pass some of this onto your customers?

Our telephone answering service is a perfect example. Before we moved to our new premises we "piggy-backed" off the old place's telephone system. This meant they would charge us for everything we wanted to do. "Need a new number? That'll be a £100 connection fee". "Want it disconnected again? That's another £100, please."

Now we have moved we paid around £6000 in total for our new system, but already it has given us a lot more freedom. We can offer a free trial because we don't have any connection/disconnection costs (previously to offer the "free" trial would have costed £200 each time if they decided not to continue). All our costs (except the initial one) are much cheaper, so we've passed a lot of these savings onto our clients.

You can lower your charges without regular customers thinking you've fleeced them in the past, if you can show why the prices have come down.

4/ Put a positive spin on everything
Never lie to customers, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you should tell them all the gory details and certainly never be negative.

If business is not going very well, never tell a customer this. "The people go where the people go" and "Give work to a busy person" are two sayings that are appropriate here.

If you tell customer you are struggling then they will probably avoid you like the plague. Who wants to buy something from a firm that might be gone soon? Okay, if you're selling products for rock bottom prices that's different. But if you're in the service industry and people think there's something wrong your customers will stop using you instantly.

Look at Northern Rock. Why did it collapse? Because everyone got nervous and took their money out at the same time. Banks rely on this never happening and if it does no bank can withstand it. People didn't think "Oh, Northern Rock are in trouble, the best thing we can do for them is keep our money in." They thought "We want our money!"

The same will happen in any business, and if you owe money to banks or other financial institutions and they think you're struggling you may suddenly find your lines of credit are severed and people are wanting you to pay up.

So always, always project a confident image. Yes things might be going badly and you might be quiet, but why not use that time to work on the other points above to sort your business out and find out where it is failing and why customers aren't coming to you?

5/ Keep EVERYONE up to date.
Whenever something changes in your business that can have a direct affect on your customers then make sure everyone knows about it - not just your customers, but friends, family, associates, colleagues, everyone. All of these people may well be out there promoting you without you knowing it. They may have not got you much work in the past but you need to keep them up to date, because it could be the new information that swings the decision in your favour.

Our telephone answering free trial is, again, a perfect example. People who might have said "No, I don't think it's for us, we don't want to commit to that every month," are now hearing "Well, why not take up the free trial? You don't have any obligation to continue after that week." It's not many people that refuse something that's free.


So, there we are, follow these and the points in my other blog entries and you'll quickly find that actually your business is booming and it's your competitors who are wondering what's happened to all their customers.

As a footnote, within five days of advertising the free 1-week trial we had seven enquiries in 2 days, this week we've only had one day with no new enquiries! (Before this we were averaging one a month.) So I know the advice I give works.