Audio: The other side of the counter
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The work of their hands
They were giving us furniture. For our church. Beautiful furniture. The kind of furniture you find in hospitals or coffee stores or waiting areas in malls. It wasn’t because we are a church, really, but because five days out of seven they use part of our parking lot. And they have meetings in our building…
Discussion: How to offer help and gain a customer
Our friend Bob Sawyer, Pixels and Code, has a great question for discussion. How do you offer to help without offending? I came across a web site last night that is in dire need of help. This is a landscape supply company. The site was built in 2002. Aside from being poorly coded (the owner…
Free upgrade
By Jon Swanson I rented a car on Hotwire. They gave me Avis as the best price. We got to the airport and the counter person said, “would you like a free upgrade to a convertible?” I was still flying and so I hesitated. “The weather will be much nicer this weekend,” she said. I…
To understand your customers look in the mirror
By Jon Swanson You wonder about your customers, whey they don’t come back, why they choose others. But look at how you function… as a customer. Not for your business, but for your personal life (and I know, small business owners have no personal life. But just pretend with me for a moment). When you…
How to convert freebies into paying clients
Every small service business gets them: people fishing for free help, or asking twenty questions so they can go off and do it on their own. If you don’t have an established way to help them easily and convert them into paying clients, you are missing out on business and going crazy, I’ll bet. Cody…
The right way to deal with a complaint
We talk enough about small business mistakes and customer service problems, that I’m always happy to share successes, too. Our friend Mike Gunderloy was kind enough to share this story, after mentioning it on Twitter. We’re having our entire yard redone this year – from sprinklers to new patio to replacing every growing thing on…
Delegating without freaking out your clients
Getting past the point of being a one-person, do-it-all, no-rest-for-the-weary business means helping customers to work with your employees or subcontractors, as well as you. But if every client thinks you need to do every thing, how do you keep them from freaking out when you delegate their work? This problem is common in reputation…
