Our van broke. More accurately, while taking our daughter to college, our van, loaded with her stuff, began overheating 90 minutes into the two hour drive. After stops for cooling, much fretting, some praying, and smoke coming out of the tailpipe, we got to the college, got her stuff unloaded, and parked it. After catching…
By Jon Swanson Being individually responsive can be challenging. We talk about the idea, but how do you specifically customize things that are not part of your core service but help create the environment? Let me give you a very concrete example. I drink coffee. Often. I like when businesses provide coffee, but shudder when…
Bob Phibbs is The Retail Doctor. (No, really, that’s his registered trademark.) And he has the credentials and experience to have a valid claim to the title. He’s helped many ailing retail businesses get healthy. He is the author of The Retail Doctor’s Guide to Growing Your Business, a practical and tough guide for retail…
By Jon Swanson Nancy and I went out for supper. Because we had a free birthday burger at Red Robin, that’s where we went. Ryan, our server, was great. He was friendly at a volume which didn’t include other tables. He answered food questions thoughtfully, even providing a caution about what often happens in cooking…
By Maesz I recently ordered a slow cooker from an individual merchant on Amazon. I know, I know, a crock pot is not a very high tech item. However, the interaction delivered by the merchant was, I thought, instructive from a “how-to-do-business” aspect. (All email addresses, street addresses and phone numbers have been removed by…
My friend Scott Townsend from United Linen took time out after the Get Social Conference in Oklahoma City to share some of the online techniques they use to stand out from other linen services. New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the Guided Tour. Like what you see? Get our updates.
Predictive questions are questions that can lead to better recommendations. By asking your customers the right question, you can more easily connect them with the right product or the right service. The two questions might not even seem to be related. The predictive question, “Do you like to dance?” correlates with, “should you switch to…
Suzy and Tracie make bread in a little strip mall in Mishawaka, Indiana. They have a franchise with Great Harvest Bread Company. They give you free slices to sample. (Apple Scrapple is very good.) They are like lots of bread stores in lots of towns.Their store/bakery is only a couple miles from our daughter’s college,…
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