December Readers’ Survey: How much e-commerce does your business do?
A. 100% B. 51-99% C. 26-50% D. 1-25% E. None
Please visit www.kcsmallbiz.com and let us know how you weigh in on this issue. We will print the results—along with a new survey question—next month.
November Survey Results: Last month we asked about how the higher gasoline prices affected your business? Here’s what you told us:
Biz Beams
“When you see people jogging downtown, you know it’s becoming a community.—Chris Accardo, Accardo Arts & Design
One-Minute Idea
Break your annual budget into quarters and monitor your progress every three months to detect problems and make corrections.—Source: SCORE "Counselors to America's Small Business."
Challenge? Solution!
Challenge: I started my business about two years ago, and I’m finding it more difficult to keep my poise with difficult customers. Some of my customers drive me crazy. They are unreasonably demanding, requesting involved changes at the last minute and expecting immediate turnaround time. I try to remember that the customer is always right and to be nice, but I have lost at least one customer because I lost my temper. Any suggestions?
Solution: It’s true that customers can be unreasonably demanding, however, it’s not always true that the customer is always right. Like business owners, they are human. They get stressed out and ask for the impossible, many times because they don’t understand what is involved in the services we provide.
One way to reduce these requests is to make sure there is a clear understanding on the issues that are causing you to lose your poise before you accept the work. Take the hotel industry, for example. Hotels had problems getting guests to check out in time to get the room cleaned for the next guest. Finally, they started announcing the check-out times when guests checked in. They trained us. Now, when we need extra time, we call and politely ask if they could extend our checkout time.
Try listing your customers’ unreasonable demands. Then consider how you might “train” your customers on what’s necessary to provide outstanding service. It may be as simple as pointing it out in your contract and getting their agreement.
Are you working long hours and neglecting yourself? You may just need to take some time off and treat yourself to a day at a spa or a ball game. Finally, there are some customers we just shouldn’t accept. That’s hard when cash flow is an issue… but successful business owners can recognize customers who are going to be more trouble than they’re worth. The customers who are driving you crazy may fall into this category.
Barbara Zeigler has helped owners of smaller, privately owned business shorten their next learning curve on issues of balance, profit, growth and control since 1996. She can be reached at (913) 381-6800 or on the Web at
Small Business: Number Portraits
$227.8 billion The number that General merchandise, Apparel, Furniture and Furnishings and Other (GAFO) sales totaled in November and December 2004
9.2 The percentage of annual sales that November GAFO sales accounted for in 2004
13.3 The percentage of annual sales that December GAFO sales accounted for in 2004
$8 billion The amount of sales the busiest shopping day accounted for in 2004
26.3 The percentage of GAFO sales that the top ten shopping days accounted for in 2004 Source: International Council of Shopping Centers
If you would like to contribute to the Grab Bag page, please email Ellen Jensen at
.
