The Best Way To Fail During A Recession By: Ricardo Donovan

You've got a great business, so when times get bad you hunker down and do what you've been doing, confidant that your customers will return when they have more money available. This is a fantastic way to fail. While you are preserving your ground there is someone else who is charging forward.

A recession is a great time to do something different from your competition. Even better, it is time to do something that hasn't been done in your type of business before.

Begin with a basic concept, such as focusing on customer service. In any business, you have to build up a level of happiness within the customer he or she will continue to buy from you. Even a commodity business can fail by sending out late deliveries or having a confusing website.

Begin with the accepted advice, such as retraining your staff and making sure they understand that this is the only way for your business to survive. Believe it or not, these people who you hire are the front line and if they don't do well, the customer will just go in and walk out without buying anything.

You can train them by hiring someone from the outside to teach a seminar or workshop. If this is not within your budget, do it yourself and also give them a refresher course on the products or services that you are offering.

Make it real for them by revealing the impact their behavior has on your books. Show how healthy, or not, your business is and how little it could take to fall in this environment.

Since you are the boss, you must also lead by example. Work longer hours because your staff will see the amount of effort you put in and with that, nobody will have the right to complain.

But this is not enough. These are the same things that everyone who chooses to focus on customer service will be doing. You need to look at what businesses do in completely different industries to keep their customers happy.

Can you implement a loyalty program like an airline, even if you run an advertising firm? Can you give each employee the authority to spend a certain amount of money to make a customer happy without needing any further authorization like some hotel chains do? As a tax preparer, can you take an idea from a manufacturer and adapt it to your business and put your own spin on it?

Things that are different in a good and pleasant way will stand out in your customers' minds and inspire them to talk about your business and not only return, but refer your friends. They become the characteristics that will lead you to success instead of failing the very best way there is - by not changing.

If this sounds like good advice, but you can't think of any good ideas, then you should also read these four tips to enhance your everyday creativity skills.

Total Views : 4    Word Count: 459   See All Articles By Ricardo Donovan