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Net Watch Article - A Small Business's Most Important Assets

This last buying season gave Sue and I an interesting vantage point to watch how businesses operate. If you were to ask a small business owner to identify their business' most important asset, what do you think the answer would be: their location, their suppliers, or maybe their employees? The truth is, the most important asset to the success of any small business is their customers. It was very clear to us that the understanding of this truth is sorely lacking in the majority of businesses we came in contact with.

In the last couple of months we have been observing businesses from a personal buying perspective. We have had mixed experiences throughout the entire process. What always perplexed us was the attitude of the staff at some of the places we visited. We will be writing detailed articles on each of these experiences in the following months. We want to say that we are relaying OUR experiences. It is unfair to make a judgment against an entire operation based on an isolated incident. We are sharing our experiences to spotlight good customer service or the lack thereof.

I’ll start with the good experiences. They all had a common thread. They listened to our needs and concerns, were never pushy, and took as much time as necessary to help us with our purchases. A few vendors stood out here: Saturn of North Charleston, Sports Authority located on Rivers Ave in North Charleston and Alltel, our cell phone provider. At the other end of the spectrum were: Hoover Dodge on Old Trolley Road in Summerville, Kia of North Charleston on Rivers Ave, and Home Depot’s Home Services Division in Summerville. Their major downfalls: they did not listen, they did not value us as customers, and in the case of Home Depot, they were totally unresponsive.

Having now run a service based business for 3 years, Sue and I continue to remind ourselves that our most important assets are our clients. It is very easy to lose focus on this fact when you are trying to run a small business. At the most basic level, our job as business owners is to service a need. Whether it be the need of a product or a service, the root word to remember is SERVICE. The concept of truly serving the customer, without thought of personal gain, needs to be rediscovered in the US marketplace.

Now more than ever, building customer loyalty is critical. There are so many options for consumers, not only brick and mortar options, but the web offers hundreds of places for them to spend their dollars. The only advantage you have is the added value of customer service.

Maybe Sue and I are unique in the fact that we maintain loyalty to a particular store, but we do. When we are treated well, we remember it and not only do we return but we spread the word of how well we were treated to everyone we know. When we are treated poorly, we remember that too and are less likely to ever go back. Over the next few months we will be relaying our various experiences. Our goal is not to sling mud but rather to provide positive feedback of how a vendor can improve their most critical function, servicing the customer.