Skip to content
  • Survey of Rural Challenges
  • Small Town Speaker Becky McCray
  • SaveYour.Town
Small Biz Survival

Small Biz Survival

The small town and rural business resource

Small town main street
  • Front Page
  • Latest stories
  • About
  • Guided Tour
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • RSS
Small Biz Survival

The small town and rural business resource
  • customer service | entrepreneurship | marketing

    Set your business apart

    ByBecky McCray August 29, 2009August 27, 2014

    [Cody Heitschmidt posted this on Twitter, and I had to ask him to let me use it as a guest post. Thanks, Cody!] Something just as simple as a Mariachi Band to roam around a restaurant will make your customers talk and remember. It’s not reinventing the wheel. It’s not rocket science, but in small…

    Read More Set your business apartContinue

  • customer service | economic development | entrepreneurship | shop local

    Shopping local as a partnership

    ByBecky McCray July 1, 2009August 27, 2014

    Lois Loucks, Director of the Tri-Cities Economic Development (Wheaton-Onaga-Havensville, KS), shared some of her innovative thoughts with me in an email about shopping local. “Shopping Local” as a two way street, with responsibility placed on the business owners to earn “their share of business”. Just because someone decides to be in business, does not automatically…

    Read More Shopping local as a partnershipContinue

  • customer service

    It is about stories and smiles

    ByBecky McCray June 10, 2009August 27, 2014

    It’s about experience. Creating the experience with your customers that makes them smile; the experience that makes them tell a story about you. It’s about the stories you tell about your customers. It’s about smiling while you do it, finding joy in your business. DQ gets it. They are featuring customer stories on their food…

    Read More It is about stories and smilesContinue

  • customer service | POV

    the power of playdoh

    ByJNSwanson June 4, 2009August 27, 2014

    He smiled when I walked in. “You brought me Play-doh?”“As a matter of fact, I did,” I said as I stood by the counter and opened the small yellow plastic container. He just watched. He could have started laughing at me. After all, he was the counter guy at a tire store. They sell tires…

    Read More the power of playdohContinue

  • customer service

    Like he owned the place

    ByJNSwanson May 28, 2009August 27, 2014

    I seldom rent cars. Seldom means twice in my life. However, because a couple of us needed to take a trip for work, we rented a car. It was half the price of paying mileage. I picked up the car at the airport on Sunday afternoon. That location was further than others, but it was…

    Read More Like he owned the placeContinue

  • customer service | mistakes

    two small stories of what not to do

    ByJNSwanson May 14, 2009August 27, 2014

    Two examples of customer service opportunities. The other day I walked into a donut place for a cup of coffee. I was pretty focused on my next task as I ordered a small decaf. I got my coffee, paid my $1.39 plus tax. As I turned to walk out, I saw the sign. “Large coffee…

    Read More two small stories of what not to doContinue

  • customer service

    Make customer service easy

    ByBecky McCray May 9, 2009August 27, 2014

    Make it easy for your people to serve customers. They shouldn’t have to say, “Don’t tell anyone I did this for you.” Instead, be the Ritz-Carlton. Each employee is given an individual, daily budget to create a wow experience for a customer, or for “service recovery.” (That’s to fix, or even over-fix, an error or…

    Read More Make customer service easyContinue

  • customer service | entrepreneurship | planning

    Competition Sports Getting Started

    ByJeanne Cole May 5, 2009August 27, 2014

    Kenny and Dayna Wederski live in Woodward Oklahoma and opened Competition Sports, LLC, their new sporting goods store in January. They spent about four months in the planning stages before the doors opened. Some of the important steps they took to get to that successful opening included Writing the plan for the business Developing the…

    Read More Competition Sports Getting StartedContinue

Page navigation

Previous PagePrevious 1 … 9 10 11 12 13 … 17 Next PageNext

Howdy!

Glad you dropped in to the rural and small town business blog, established in 2006.

We want you to feel at home, so please take our guided tour.

Meet our authors on the About page.

Have something to say? You can give us a holler on the contact form.

Want to search our past articles? Catch up with the latest stories? Browse through the categories? All the good stuff is on the Front Page.

The Best of Small Biz Survival

TREND 2025: Retail’s Big Split: what small town retailers can do now

99% of the best things you can do for your town don’t require anyone’s permission

Get started as an outdoor outfitter without breaking the bank

How to get customers in the door of small town and rural retail stores

Read more of the Best of Small Biz Survival

Partners

We partner with campaigns and organizations that we think best benefit rural small businesses.

Logo with "Shop Indie Local"
Graphic of US currency with the text Move Your Money, bank local, invest local
Multicolor logo with text that says "Global Entrepreneurship Week"
Save Your Town logotype

Copyright © 2006–2026 Becky McCray • Site by Webdancers

  • Front Page
  • Latest stories
  • About
  • Guided Tour
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • RSS
  • Survey of Rural Challenges
  • Small Town Speaker Becky McCray
  • SaveYour.Town