Business Insight

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Ch. 15 of the Comprehensive Checklist for Growing Your Business: Take time off

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You’ve gotten this far into your business - congrats! Let’s take a moment to reflect where it all began. Remember when you thought, “If I start a business, I could avoid the 9 to 5 typical job!” But then, you quickly realized that it was a 24-hour job and you had to stretch your expertise in areas you never thought you needed? During those *precious* moments of scarfing down food in the car, or putting on the same clothes as yesterday because you don’t have time to do laundry, did you ever feel a glimpse of hope that this madness would calm itself down? You can stop the hamster wheel and achieve the freedom you deserve.

Let go of control and put the systems, processes, and people in place that you can trust to run your business without you. Always consider upgrades you can do in your business’ operations that will save time and money. Is it automating your processes? Shifting responsibilities to people with strength in that particular area or perhaps utilizing technology that saves countless labor hours and dollars? These are critical questions and a state of mind that a skilled business owner would always consider. What if something happened to you? Would your business still survive?

Write down your goals for 2016. What do you want your business and more importantly, your life, to look like? Life is short. Do everything you can to make the most out of it now. It may not happen in one night, but take the necessary steps to put your business on autopilot so that you can take a vacation and get paid while you’re not working. You may be burned out, but keep dreaming big and keep taking the steps to move towards your ultimate goal.

By now, if you've read every chapter of the comprehensive checklist, your business should be in a place where you can sit back and watch it run itself. If you’ve signed up to use Handlr, you can have a bird’s eye view of your business in action from anywhere in the world. Book that plane ticket, and experience life that you’ve worked so hard for. And give yourself a pat on the back! It takes guts, will, and fierce determination to be an entrepreneur. Here's to a bigger, better business!

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5 Reasons Why Small Businesses Fail

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01. Not staying on top of consumer needs

In our previous blog post, “Don’t Fear the Feedback” we stress the importance of always keeping the dialogue open with your customers on how they’re feeling about your business. By always engaging with your audience, you get a direct response of areas of improvements that you may have never identified. This doesn’t necessarily mean taking every word literally and doing as they wish. But figuring out why they have these hiccups with your business, and implementing a strategy that best fits your business’ needs is the way to go. You can broaden the scope of how you collect your feedback by emailing a simple survey, leaving a quick form to fill, or if you’re using Handlr, your customers can automatically review/rate your business right after the service is performed, straight off their phone.

02. Burnout

Burnout is way too common of a problem with small business owners. It’s a double-edged sword to do what you love but it requires so much effort to see little growth sometimes. No one realizes that to be an entrepreneur, is to also sign-up for a 24 hour job. You live, breath, and sleep your business and that can throw you into a crazy, go-go-go mentally. Some tips to avoid the entrepreneurial burnout:

  1. Hire a team you can trust - find skilled, high-quality workers that want to be apart of your business’ growth. From our past experiences, our best employees come from referrals from family and friends, or using hiring platforms like Hireology to match up better candidates and hire smarter.

  2. Don’t be afraid to delegate the work - have trust in your team members to check off some of your tasks. It will challenge them in ways that help them grow, and make them feel like a true MVP on the team.

  3. Put automation in place - by utilizing business management platforms like Handlr, it can save you hours and hours per week on mundane tasks. Forget dealing with that stack of paperwork, and embrace freedom with automated scheduling, invoicing, and more.

  4. Take a vacation once in awhile and don’t feel guilty about it - we all know and need that friend that forces us to go on a weekend getaway. And once in a blue moon, you’ll half-heartedly say yes and go. But so does your laptop, your phone, your forms, and before you know it, you’re still working on your R&R time. Taking a step back and breaking your work state-of-mind is a great thing to do. Listen - it’s a great thing to give yourself a real break. Taking a vacation refreshes the mind and lets you come back to your Monday more focused with new perspectives.

03. Not staying on top of digital trends

Technology is an ever evolving industry, and it’s a challenge for business owners to stay current with already little spare time. This little investment of just keeping in-the-know with the tech industry can pay off big amounts for your business. Check in on the “technology” section of your news source, get ideas from your customers and other business owners, or discovering emerging platforms on your own that could potentially help launch your business is what this is all about. And don’t be afraid to learn new things! Being complacent with your software that was designed in 1999 is definitely holding your business’ potential back - exponentially. It’s time for that upgrade. This also ties in with point 1. of keeping up to date with your customers’ needs. If your customers are always using their phone to find information or buy products, it’s a clear indicator of perhaps you’d want to expand that way as well.

04. Profitable Business Model

At the end of the day, if your business isn’t showing profit, it’s in a state of decline. Identify where the money gets made and shift your focus. It’s a game of trial and error but there’s a tremendous amount of gains to be made. We all know of the beginning story of Zappos where they weren’t even sure consumers would be comfortable with buying shoes online. So what did they do? They threw up images of shoes and a couple of “Buy Now” buttons to gauge the response. Orders flooded in, and they had to scramble to buy shoes from retailers to fulfill orders. Now, they make over $2 Billion in gross merchandise sales per year. The lesson learned? They weren’t afraid to research and investigate where the money was. Identify your profitable strengths or else you’ll end up in the 80% business failure bracket.

05. Out-of-Control Growth

This is an unfortunate scenario of overnight success that we’ve seen too frequent in the past. Businesses nail a product and the demand is skyrocketing high. But the infrastructure is lacking - not enough hands on deck, manufacturers aren’t solidified, the business owner takes out a huge loan to make the ends meet, and things just go flying out of control. Sometimes, baby steps to scaling a business is the route to go where you can control and fine-tune details just the way is needed.

The take aways: Failure is expected in the entrepreneur world but it’s the reaction to it that matters. See failures as a learning opportunity and lesson for the future. A true entrepreneur will get back up from the failures, find a new venture, AND apply the lessons learned from past failures to come back stronger than ever. Be resilient, persistent, and dedicated to the work will pay off down the road.

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Ch. 14 of the Comprehensive Checklist for Growing Your Business: Preparing the Army

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Putting your business in the forefront of your network will give you the exposure your business needs to reach its potential. If you’re a mobile business ready to scale, Handlr will do that and more. However, some questions must be answered before you make the jump. Are you mentally ready for growth? Do you have enough team members to support all of these new customers? Here are some great starting points if you’re looking to bulk up the size of your company.

Hiring a Bigger Team

  • Ask for referrals. Sometimes, the best workers come from a friend of a friend that knows the person on a closer level. These referrals can vouch for a person’s character and give you more insight to what he/she is like versus sifting through a stack of applications.

  • Use your resources. If your referrals don’t seem promising, it’s okay to turn to Craigslist, Indeed, LinkedIn or ZipRecruiter to find new team members. Some best practices include asking specific questions relevant to the job responsibilities and requiring a cover letter to discover the perfect candidates.

  • Dig deeper. Once you weed out a majority of the candidates, ask for more detailed information in an email and then seal it in by scheduling a phone interview. Once they have passed the phone interview, meet in-person. Just remember, it’s good to have options so don’t be in a rush to hire the first good candidate you come across. Go through all the possible candidates, take your time in getting to know them and invest in a highly skilled team member who’s willing to stay long-term.

  • The nitty gritty. Run a background check on your new hire. It’s a necessity now these days with the job market. Too many candidates make false claims of themselves that could backfire against your business. Depending on your business type, if the team member is required to drive a car for their duties, it’s wise to get a driving record check to make sure that you are hiring someone with a clean record. We like using Checkr to perform all of these tasks.

Now, what?

Paperwork first! If they are an employee, make sure that they read and agree to your Employee Handbook and don’t forget to give them their W-4 form. If they are an independent contractor, be sure to give them their Independent Contractor Agreement and a W-9 Form to fill out.

Update your bookkeeper about your new hires and add them to payroll. You can also use platforms like Zenefits to keep hiring streamlined and easy.

“The most important thing you can do to make your new team member feel welcome is to have them build authentic, personal relationships with other members of your team.”
— Matt Stjernholm, ReWork Blog

When hiring a new person to join your team, invest a great amount of time to fully train them. Ride along with them for at least one week and then have them ride along with a few of your other team members. This ensures that they get a fully immersive training experience. Setting up a buddy system is setting up them up for success. New hires need resources to turn to when they don’t know what to do or if they have questions.

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Bigger Business Book Club: 02

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There's nothing quite like opening up an inspirational book to get your creative business minds cranking. Here's our second roundup of business management books we recommend taking a peak at that will benefit you and your business:

  • The Lean Start Up by Eric Ries - "Rather than wasting time creating elaborate business plans, The Lean Startup offers entrepreneurs - in companies of all sizes - a way to test their vision continuously, to adapt and adjust before it’s too late. Ries provides a scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in a age when companies need to innovate more than ever."
 
  • From Idea to Exit by Jeffrey Weber - "From Idea to Exit takes a more comprehensive approach, tackling the entire entrepreneurial journey from the initial seed idea through a well-planned exit strategy. Through a persuasive narrative, the author draws from his own success a practical call to action for those who dream of taking that first big step."
 
  • The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki - "Whether you're an aspiring entrepreneur, small-business owner, intrapreneur, or not-for-profit leader, there's no shortage of advice on topics such as innovating, recruiting, fund raising, and branding. In fact, there are so many books, articles, websites, blogs, webinars, and conferences that many startups get paralyzed, or they focus on the wrong priorities and go broke before they succeed. "
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Ch. 13 of the Comprehensive Checklist for Growing Your Business: Don’t Fear the Feedback

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Often times, we business owners cringe in fetal position with the thought of hearing criticism and feedback from our own customers. Sometimes, hearing those comments can be a little bit too raw and too personal to see the bigger picture it serves. When we talked with a local pet walking business owner, she shared, “I get anxiety attacks when I see an email from Yelp that I’ve had a new review!” I think we can all share that feeling. Let’s try and retrain our minds on how we handle and manage feedback for our business positively.

Criticism = Opportunity

No one likes to be criticized and we all like to believe that we’re Beyonce-level flawless. Unfortunately, no one is without flaw and we tend to discredit them and even ignore criticism altogether. However, most feedbacks that our customers provide presents a great opportunity for improvement. We should want it. If no one ever told us how to do things a better way, our businesses would be in a constant state of mediocrity. Don’t be afraid to ask your customers if they’re happy with your service!

Utilizing Yelp

As biased as Yelp can be, it is a necessary evil. Asking your customers to post their reviews to help you boost your presence on Yelp can benefit your business greatly.  After all, Yelp has 86 million monthly mobile visitors on their platform and most likely, your customers are going to it to seek information about your business.

Ask For It!

Asking for reviews means you also have to monitor it and follow up with them. Even though we’re quick to search for the ‘delete’ button when a 1-star appears for that stickler of a customer, it speaks greater volumes to deal with it. Go head first into the problem and reach out to that customer and make it right. With the latter approach, we often see 1-star reviews get bumped up to a terrific 5-star.

Even sparking the conversation in real-life (I know, what a thought) could open up trust with your customers. A question as simple as, “Are you happy with our service today?” Or following up next time with, “Were you pleased with XYZ last time?” Gives your customers an opportunity to share their thoughts and insights about your business.

How Do You Handle It?

Do you have an internal method of handling customer suggestions and opinions? Some opt in for the good ol’ paper form, some send a survey in an email afterwards, or some might find it conveniently on their smartphone. As the general consumer population is increasingly referring to their phones for everything, a lot of mobile apps are now offering follow-up strategies this way. Particularly with mobile and on-demand services, it’s quite a challenge to find an app that helps you run your business, yet alone manage customer feedback and reviews, until Handlr came along. With Handlr, every service your business completes prompts your customer to tap a star-rating and write a review if they want to. This way, you as the business owner get a precise evaluation for each employee and service. It also alleviates the middle man (Yelp) and directs those not so happy customers directly to you.

So what do you do with all of this information? It’s great to sit and assess what pain points you hear often, patternistic issues that keep recurring, and strategize how to apply changes to your business to minimize those concerns. Again, feedback and reviews don’t have to be hair-pulling and personal. It’s to benefit you as a business owner and your business itself.

 

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How I Started a Dog Walking Business Turned Tech Company

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Nobody understands what it’s like to have your hands so full of dogs, that you don’t even have time to change your pants after a dog lifted his leg on you at the dog park. Or what it’s like to spend time with so many happy dogs all day, but to come home exhausted and covered in dog hair and slobber. It’s a labor of love and it can be the hardest and the best job ever.

You might have fallen into dog walking like I did. I have always loved dogs and I’ve always loved people too. When I was at UCSD, I missed my dogs back home so much that I decided to help out my neighbors with their dogs. Before I knew it, I was walking dogs on almost every street in La Jolla. By the time I graduated, I was walking 30 dogs per day and that’s when I decided to turn DogZenergy into a professional business.

My goal:

To create the best and biggest dog walking agency in San Diego so that I could spread my love to hundreds of dogs.

My biggest hurdle:

Fear and burnout.

In the first few years of running my business, I was happy, but tired. After walking all day from 7am-8pm without any breaks, it was exhausting to come home and do the busy work. The last thing I wanted to do was work on the schedule, create invoices, and get back to customer requests. I felt like I was stuck on a hamster wheel of the daily grind.

One day, one of my favorite clients was extremely upset when I handed her a late invoice. She said to me, “Brittany, you are not a businesswoman, you are a dog walker.” These words really stung. I put my whole life into being the best dog walker that I could be, but it was true. I was not running a streamlined business. I was behind on invoicing, I had no systems in place, and I had no help. I felt like I was drowning. A friend of mine told me to read The E-Myth by Michael E. Gerber and this book really changed my life. In the book, Gerber explains that you have to work “on” your business and not just “in” it. You can’t just be a dog walker, you have to be a mindful business owner too. You need systems and processes so that you can hire a team and bring on more customers without compromising your quality of service.  

It sounded easy enough, I needed to build a team. But how do I trust them? How do I know that every dog got walked and no mistakes were made? How do I not get cut out? That’s when I started searching for the perfect software, but couldn’t find it. When Uber and other on-demand apps came out, I really wanted to get my hands on the same technology for my business. So I decided to pack the last ten years of trying to make my life easier into one easy, simple to use mobile business platform called Handlr.

With the Handlr business dashboard and connected team app and customer app, you can seamlessly handle the following:

  • Automate scheduling and dispatching of your dog walkers

  • Keep track of your client list. See revenue and satisfaction ratings per client.

  • Keep track of your dog walkers’ performance ratings

  • Receive check in and check out alerts and GPS track your walkers

  • Three-way chat between you, your dog walker and your client so that phone numbers are not shared.

  • You and your clients can see photos and updates about their dog’s day and share them on social media.

  • Easy client registration and safe, encrypted, credit card payment

  • No more invoicing. Get paid right away.

  • Always know how your business is performing with revenue reports.

  • See new customers magically drop themselves into your schedule.

Now my business is running completely on auto-pilot and we have 15 dog walkers and hundreds of clients using the Handlr app. Our clients are booking our services on the app 20% more than they did before and we are growing faster than we can hire. We’re on track to do a million dollars in sales this year. And now you can gain control over your business by using Handlr too.

If you’re interested in applying to join Handlr click here.

We look forward to handling business with you!

Handlr Automate Your Business

Britt Alwerud lives in Los Angeles, CA with her menagerie of animals - two goldens, Daisy and Taj, two cats, Tiger and Monkey, and two horses named Gracie and Moo. Britt owns DogZenergy in San Diego, CA. Now she is the full-time Founder and CEO of Handlr. Learn more at myhandlr.com/petprofessionals or email her at britt@myhandlr.com.

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Ch. 12 of the Comprehensive Checklist for Growing Your Business: Creating the Sizzle

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Creating content for your business’ social media channels is a fun way to get creative while engaging your customers. My colleagues: content is all around us. It is everything you do for your business. Every conversation you have with your clients, every email sent, in every customer complaint we take -  there’s a story and a lesson to be learned within all of those small details we tend to overlook.

There are a few key pointers to touch base on while we’re sourcing content.

Offer a variety of rich content for your audience.

  • Rich content is really the focus here. We want the information we share with others to be saturated with unique things that they may not have known before. Offering a variety of information, whether it’s a compilation of quotes, infographics, surveys or interviews, makes it a pot of gold for your customers to hit that, “share” button.

Make it look professional.

  • It’s pretty awkward visiting a business’ page only to find dark, grainy photos with harsh filters. Photography isn’t everyone’s forte and that’s quite okay. Just keep in mind to consider the composition, clarity, and color of the image. If those words already have you spinning, consider using an app to enhance your photos! Some of our favorite photo editing apps that make it easy to create beautiful images are VSCO, Photo Editor by Aviary, and the good old photo editing options on your iPhone.

  • If you’re looking for something more involved like making a video for your business, hiring a local videographer might just be the solution. A videographer can help wonders in terms of figuring out frames, angles, and a smooth storyboard to better tell your story.

  • Check out some of Handlr’s videos from our YouTube Channel:

 

Ballin’ on a Budget?

  • Get creative with your iPhone and capture moments yourself! If you need inspiration, see some of the greatest photography shot with the iPhone that Apple compiled here.

Be persistent!

It's easy to throw in the towel when your content isn't picking up traction - but that's expected. Marketing Ninja, Mike Linville of BlackDogMarketing assures us that it takes about 12-18 months before the traffic begins to pick up. He suggests a couple things to help speed up the process:

  • Strategize on how to share your content. (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, Stumbleupon)
  • The 5 Day Strategy - promoting your content for 5 days for maximum exposure on different channels.
  • Sell the sizzle, then the steak. Give your customers what they want, then reel in the traffic with the information they need.

Just remember to inform and/or inspire your audience and make it relevant to your them.  After all, if you’re spending all this time creating posts and writing articles that no one pays attention to, it’s absolutely a waste of time. Be genuine, and try not to overthink about the process. Social media is creative, fun and a great growing process for your business. Ready, Set, Create!

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A picture’s worth a thousand...dollars?

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Blake Warren, Director of Marketing at Handlr

Looking for a proven, sure-fire way to boost engagement and gain more attention to your business? Compelling visuals can be just as important as the content, using high-quality, attractive images can help tell your company's story, and engage your viewers.

 

Hubspot recently dropped some stats regarding the importance of quality images:

 

  • Facebook posts featuring images get 2.3 times more engagement than posts without images.

  • Articles featuring an image every 75-100 words pull double the number of social shares than articles with fewer images.

  • Infographics are liked and shared on social media three times more than any other type of content.

  • Buffer reported that for its user base, tweets with images were retweeted 150 percent more than text-only tweets.

 

Clearly, if photos aren’t a focus in your social media, email campaigns and other customer outlets, they should be. Now where do you find these images? Obviously if you have the means, taking photos or having your staff take them can provide real, genuine insight into your business. Unfortunately, many of us don’t have access to quality cameras and an iPhone can only take us so far. Or maybe your business doesn’t exactly offer the most exciting subjects to photograph. So, while Shutterstock and other paid services provide great quality photos, there are plenty of free options to consider as well. Here are a couple of our favorites:

 

Picjumbo, “totally free photos for your commercial and personal works,” Thousand of High-res photos with an easy to browse catalogue.

FreeImages has a huge library of images provided by the public. Most are free, however a few do ask you to pay.

Shutterstock - If you’re willing to budget in a small monthly payment, you simply can’t go wrong with Shutterstock. Boasting the most extensive library of images on the web, there’s a reason it’s number one.

 

Want to edit your new photos? Canva is a great option for a free editing tools to customize and get those images just right.

5 Morning Rituals for Increasing Productivity at Work

1. Workout

Does the sound of working out in the morning make you want to burrito wrap yourself up even tighter in your blanket? Don’t fear human burrito, hearing some facts about getting up and going in the morning might persuade you:

  • Gyms are much less crowded in the morning so when you’re wandering to find those dumbbells, you’ll actually get them.
  • Get your blood going and your mind stimulated in the morning means you’ll come into work (or your next activity) more focused.
  • If you find yourself in front of a computer screen all day, squeezing it a good workout in the morning will increase your metabolism and burn more calories.
  • Go into work in a better mood. There’s no mistake, working out kicks up your endorphin levels so when that angry customer comes right at you with a complaint, you’ll tackle it like a piece of cake.
  • It doesn’t even have to be a full-blown workout routine. If the gym isn’t your happy place, perhaps you’ll find it in a morning power walk, yoga session, or run around your neighborhood.

 

2. Create to-do Lists

  Here at Handlr Headquarters, we love using Asana. It’s a user-friendly way of organizing all the tasks at hand. Everyone knows what to do and when they’re due, no questions about it. Asana will even send you reminders of upcoming tasks just to make sure you don’t forget. When you check tasks off the list, you might even see a rainbow unicorn -- really.

 

3. Silence is Golden

Tackling a busy day at work is no easy task when your phone is dinging and emails are incoming. Refer to your Asana list, see your top priorities, focus, and tackle. When you have to turn on the, “heads down and work” mode, it’s not a bad idea to turn your phones and gadgets on “do not disturb” to help focus on the task at hand.

 

4. Declutter like your mother

Making sure your workspace is clean and organized will not only get you feeling motivated, but it will lessen the amount of distractions in your vision.

 

5. Don’t answer your phone/emails in the morning

Memory & Speed-Reading Expert, Jim Kwik suggests to not respond to emails first thing after waking up. It sets you in the mindset of tending to others rather than yourself. Don’t worry, those notifications aren’t going anywhere. They’ll still be there after you’ve dedicated some time to yourself.

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Ch. 10 of the Comprehensive Checklist for Growing Your Business: Community Outreach

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In the midst of your crazy day of managing a business, the thought of community outreach and social responsibility probably isn’t floating around at the front of your head. They all say, “It takes a village to raise a child,” and that applies to raising a business as well. Without the support of your neighbors and community, your business probably wouldn’t exist. Let’s take a minute to surface the real ROIs on doing a little something for your community.

There are different levels of involvement that you can choose from that best fits your availability. You can sponsor local events, organize meetings/networking gatherings, or participate in a meetup. The opportunities of helping your community can get really fun and creative while also being a cost-effective method of marketing. It’s also a great opportunity to rally up your employees for good old team building and morale boosting. Now, on top of all those positive things, let’s get to how it can help build your business.

  1. Get yourself publicly known by your locals.

    The more you put your name out there, the more your community will gain awareness of your business. Community outreach is heavily effective because it puts a real person in front of prospective customers. In contrast, with an ad, or website, it garners a one-way communication to your audience. Making real connections to people involves engagement, and a moment that you and your customer share - it’s hard to forget that.
     

  2. Build long-lasting relationships with them.

    By putting a face on your business and engaging in conversations with people in your community, it’s only natural that you start to build long-lasting relationships with them. You get to know first names of pivotal people in the neighborhood, their family, and story. Slowly, business owners can build their network and make important connections that are beneficial for the long run. However, these connection are symbiotic. The more resources and value you can provide for your customer, they more they depend and come to you.
     

  3. Increase company reputation and image.

    By staying active and involved in community events, it builds fantastic repertoire amongst your neighbors and customers. The driving force of purchasing decisions are made by emotion. If you can connect with your community on an emotional level, it’s a win-win for them and your business.

Community outreach can build your clientele and strengthen your presence in your community. By participating in these events, businesses can develop customer loyalty and top of the mind recall. It is also fantastic for building a positive reputation which can then lead to long-lasting, returning customers. Investing time into this method of marketing doesn’t have to be a complex process. Doing something as little as printing branded bookmarks for the library, or providing water for your local marathon can leave an unforgettable, lasting impression on your business.

 

 

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Let’s Take Customer Relationships Back to the Basics...

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Blake Warren

We recently talked about tips for successfully utilizing a CRM (Read it here), something you’re probably already using as a business owner. A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is typically a software that helps your business keep track of… what exactly? Well, obviously things like phone numbers, addresses, lead status, purchase history, etc. But what do these things embody? It’s in the name; a CRM is a Management tool for Customer Relationships. So let’s discuss Customer Relationships, that you can better understand how to foster and keep those very things you need a CRM for. Google the words “customer relationships” and you’ll be met with a dizzying amount of articles, books, DVD’s, Podcasts and videos promising the newest techniques, software and guides to CRM. It can be daunting to say the least. Let’s take a step back and look at the basics of customer relationships.

Stay Relatable

As a consumer, would you rather do business with a personable company than the corporate machine of a big business? Of course you would. Having personality disarms your customers, they will be more likely to trust your recommendations. Don’t try to deceive your customers, are you a small company trying to get your foot in the door? Show it. Working out of your moms garage? Show it. Customers will be further compelled to give you their business if they can see you as a peer.

Understand what makes your product or service desirable.

It’s impossible to be relatable if you don’t have a true understanding of what drives your customers. It’s easy to think about your business concept from the wrong shoes. As a business owner you may have no problem coming up with reasons for making your product or offering your service. But you need to spend a lot of time looking at it from the perspective of potential customers. What are the real reasons they might be purchasing your product? What real-life circumstances lead them to booking your service? This is an easy exercise to shrug off, “Of course I know why people want what i’m selling”. But the more you explore this practice, the more you discover about your customers and how to serve them.

Take a look at the customer experience from start to finish.

Even if you simply sell an online product, what is the experience of the purchasing process like for your customers? How do you handle inquiries, returns, confirmations, packaging? Everything, no matter how small adds to the customer experience. Obviously this entails much more for a service-based business and should be treated as such. Every aspect of the process should be scrutinized until the customer experience is perfected.

Be Honest

The biggest downside of the countless books, products and techniques that you’ll find when researching this subject is that through all the fluff, we’ve been taught to do anything but be honest with our customers. We’re told to follow a call sheet, distract our customers with special offers, or avoid gripes they may have with our product or service using fancy techniques. The reality is, your customers will appreciate your honesty more than you may know. Calling up a customer and asking for feedback, apologizing for a mistake or simply telling them how much you appreciate their business can take you farther than any call-sheet or internet technique.

 

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