Troubleshooting Your Business E-Book

Suzann Dodd

• Herausgeber: BookRix
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

If you are running a business, or thinking of starting one, this book is required reading.    It is full of easy tips, ideas, advice, little things which usually go unnoticed until the business tanks.  Hopefully, this book will enable you to focus on what is important, avoid the distractions and mistakes, and keep your business earning.

Leseprobe

Suzann Dodd

Troubleshooting Your Business

seeing the problems before they manifest

BookRix GmbH & Co. KG80331 Munich

Opening

 No business can afford to become complacent.  There must be constant scrutiny.    Owners who can afford to hire  consultants usually do so when it is too late.   Those who act in a timely fashion often uncover issues which are evident to a fresh pair of eyes. that is, if those eyes are in the head of a person who has spent a few years 'troubleshooting' businesses.

If you can not afford to hire someone to monitor your business, to prevent issues from swallowing it, you might be able to find a friend who will be your 'spy'. 

This friend must be 'on the floor' to experience what is really happening.   

Every business owner needs to appreciate that problems which may seem trivial can become devastating.

The clerk who is babbling on the phone, ignoring the customer doesn't lose that one customer. Everyone who hears that customer report;

"Imagine, I walked in, came to the desk and the gal was on the phone, deaf dumb and blind to me..."

will not enter that business.   

This is because everyone has experienced this, whether at a Hotel, supermarket, lawyer's office, and the bad taste that it left is reborn when the report is heard, in relation to your business. 

 The worker who barks at the client or guest, doesn't insult one person.

Cast yourself into the position.   

You enter this restaurant, expecting service.  No one notices you.  You see a worker wiping a table.  You ask a question, get a sharp response.

What do you do?  You walk out. 

You go to another restaurant, and  mention; "I was at Other Place and...."  strangers at nearby tables hear, repeat.

That one worker, wiping that one table, snapping at one person, has now cost that restaurant dozens of customers.   Everyone who hears your report will recall it whenever they see or hear of that venue, and walk away.   And often, this causes others to walk away.

One minimum wage worker being rude to one customer could cost the business.

In this book I will list real life events that have cost commercial enterprises custom, and in some cases, the entire business.

Hopefully, if you have a business and I hit certain targets, you will not slap aside facts or try to explain them.

It is the attempt at explanation, justification, which those who troubleshoot businesses know by heart. And it the Epitaph. 

Realise that any business can plummet, any business can go out.

Chapter One

In the opening I mentioned a simple situation.   

A potential customer enters.  There is no one there to greet, however, someone is wiping down a table.  The customer  speaks to the cleaner who doesn't stop what she is doing,  rudely barks at the potential.

This event seemingly minor,  caused the closure of that restaurant.

The person barked at didn't need to be famous, write a column for a local paper or blog, or be associated with an agency.  The potential customer need only vocalise the experience to others.

The rudeness of one worker, no matter how trivial, is enough to destroy a business.  For if you were going out to lunch and saw that restaurant and recalled the report of the rudeness, would you enter?

Look at the simple errors;

1.  The door is not locked, nor is there a 'Closed' sign to alert the potential customer.   

How hard is it to keep the curtain drawn, the door locked, a Closed sign posted until the business is ready?

2.  There is no one to Greet the Customer.

If the door is opened, if the public can enter, there MUST be someone there to greet them.  They shouldn't have to wander around;  "Hello?" 

3.  A cleaner is wiping a table.

Does the cleaner stop, paste on a smile?  No.  The cleaner is focused on the table.  The table is important.  The customer is obviously not.

How does one hire any member of staff who doesn't comprehend the importance of the customer?

4.  The cleaner is rude to the potential customer.

How was this cleaner hired, and what has provoked this attitude?   Where is the sense of priority? Politeness?

This kind of error can bring down a previously lucrative business.   So you insure that nothing like this ever happens.

How?

Insuring yout staff is polite, helpful, and puts the potential customer above wiping a table should be the first instruction you give.  And should be tested by having a 'spy' enter, whether early or late, to investigate the friendliness of staff.

The strange fact is that it is often the lowest level employee who can inflict the greatest damage on the business. This is obvious in reflection. 

Consider; the lowest level employee doesn't care about the business.  The salary is all that gets attention.  Losing this job is a shrug. Getting another low level job is not impossible. People don't often fight over a cleaner job.  Employers don't often demand references or do real interviews.

Keep this in mind. 

Put real effort into insuring the lowest level employee is polite to the customers.    That the lowest level employee wants to keep the job.   Do what is necessary to make them feel wanted.