Biz Crusader

Being Busy Does Not Excuse Poor Service

John Park — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:10:45 +0000

Why do businesses want you to excuse them for poor service when they are busy? Is this okay for the customers?

Restaurants are notorious for this business practice. When they get busy, they ask you to wait longer for just about everything including a table, a server, food, the check, water, drinks, etc. The terrible part of this business approach is that they know when they will be busy. In certain industry segments in the retail consumer arena, the businesses know when they will be more busier than usual–down to the exact shift. The expected busy day may include a special holiday like “Mother’s Day” or a self-imposed busy day like “Black Friday.”

Are they conditioning consumers to stay away on busy days because of an expectation of poor service and an overall unpleasant experience? How many people do you know who will stay away at any cost when they expect a place of business to be busy? With the prevalence of review sites like Yelp and retailers losing to online e-commerce web sites, business owners can’t expect consumers to just “deal with it” anymore.

What if on your busiest day, you gave all who’ve come an amazing and pleasant experience? How many unpaid ambassadors would you create?

Being busy does not excuse poor service.

This is just another area where “business as usual” is no longer accepted. Just ask AOL what happened when they didn’t take care of their customers when they were busy.

Until Next Time…

You only get out of something what you put in to it.

John Park — Sat, 15 May 2010 18:11:11 +0000

It has been a few months since my last post. To my loyal subscribers, my sincerest apologies. Like many business owners, I have been deeply entrenched in the fight against current economic conditions. The good news is I believe we are winning. I hope this is the case for you as well.

Today, I wanted to write about a saying I’ve lived by most of my adult life. Strangely enough, the first place I ever came across this statement was when I was pledging a fraternity during college.

This statement that has become a lifestyle for me is “You only get out of something what you put in to it”.

It’s a simple theory but I often find myself at an advantage over others because I am able and wiling to embrace this saying as a way to take on any task or situation. The saying can be applied anywhere including in business, parenting, physical well being and yes even in love or relationships.

In this economy, business owners and employees are being tested like never before on this very important and somewhat philosophical approach.

As business owners, what are you willing to put in to save and grow your company? Are you willing to make cold calls? Are you wiling to go door to door? Are you willing to spend money to make money? Are you willing to sacrifice your weekends? Are you willing to work late? Are you willing to come down from your ivory tower and take on any task necessary to get the job done?

Where are your limits during these times?

Whether you are an owner, manager or just starting your business career, what you “WANT” ultimately is not a natural right as some might have you believe. What you “OBTAIN” is a direct result of what you put in to it.

A “Failure to Commit” To Business Strategies

John Park — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 18:07:47 +0000

After working with both large corporations and small businesses, there are a number of distinct differences I have noted when it comes to executing marketing strategies.

One glaring example is what I call the “Failure to Commit.” Smaller companies have a very difficult time coming up with a marketing plan and sticking to it. And as a result, each plan which sounded brilliant in the conference room when conceived, never gets an opportunity to come to fruition. When a plan doesn’t deliver almost immediate sales results, it is put to death and a new plan is put in place at the next marketing meeting. It’s the ultimate in stopping short of the goal in a business environment.

Why does this happen in small business?

It’s the owner. Because finances at a smaller company are tied closely to the owner’s personal finances, it makes him or her react emotionally rather than logically. To put it simply, when they see money going out the door and they don’t see short term sales returns, they get scared. And when they are scared, they start questioning themselves as well as everything or everyone around them. When this perfect storm occurs, they also place very little value on mid-to-long term goals and the step-by-step building which is required for marketing value is brought to a screeching halt.

Over time, marketing strategies tend to look like a zigzag of failed attempts instead of any tangible or measurable business trends. The irony in all of this is that small businesses will probably spend more money over time because every new attempt requires an infusion of cash.

In a corporate environment, this emotional factor is absent because the decision makers in marketing are focusing on the plan only and have no personal finances attached to their decisions. And as a result, they are able to objectively see a strategy through and commit to the value it has promised to deliver. This of course doesn’t mean that each plan is wildly successful. It just means that they stick to it long enough to get an answer–one way or the other.

As you plan your marketing strategies and budgets for 2010, think about your level of commitment. Do you have a problem with commitment? You might have a “Failure to Commit” issue.

I hear often “I’ve built this company over 20 years and we’re successful as a small business. We just need your help getting to the “Next Level.”

Commitment to your plans and avoiding the zigzag is at the CORE of getting to that NEXT LEVEL.

Until Next Time…

Choose Your Customers, Choose Your Future

John Park — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:42:33 +0000

This is a great post by Seth Godin. His advice may be one of the hardest approaches to actually act upon but he is right. After you read his post, you’ll agree. The problem is… can we ALL do this in this economy?

Marketers rarely think about choosing customers… like a sailor on shore leave, we’re not so picky. Huge mistake.

Your customers define what you make, how you make it, where you sell it, what you charge, who you hire and even how you fund your business. If your customer base changes over time but you fail to make changes in the rest of your organization, stress and failure will follow.

Sell to angry cheapskates and your business will reflect that. On the other hand, when you find great customers, they will eagerly co-create with you. They will engage and invent and spread the word.

It takes vision and guts to turn someone down and focus on a different segment, on people who might be more difficult to sell at first, but will lead you where you want to go over time.

Until Next Time…

Why Evil Corporate Deeds Will Not Go Unpunished

John Park — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:26:10 +0000

IT NEVER FAILS.

Bad economic conditions always lead to poor customer service.

Don’t ask me why this happens but it always does. Whenever companies (mostly large ones) are faced with tighter budgets, the group that inevitably pays the price are their customers. It can be an onerous return policy, a hike in fees or maybe headcount sacrifices in customer service departments. Instead of a phone tree, you are faced with a “phone forest”.

CAUTION:

This… I’ll screw them over now and deal with it later approach is not what it used to be. It’s true that in the past consumers did forget eventually once the economy got humming again but it might be harder in this technological age to rely on this business practice.

Due to the prevalence of social media interaction on the web, it will be much harder for corporations to erase their evil deeds during this recession. Blog posts, facebook groups, peer online reviews, tweets and archived online news articles are in essence… FOREVER.

The bottom line is that it always costs more to acquire new customers when compared to keeping and growing the customers you already have. The next time you find yourself in a conference room discussing budget cuts and going through the line items, don’t reduce your customer service and don’t look to your existing customers for more fees. After all, we are still living in a free economy where Capitalism prevails. Your customers always have the option to leave you in an “Internet Minute”.

Until Next Time…

Obama Goes Toe-To-Toe With Stephanopoulos On “Tax Increases”

John Park — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 20:31:31 +0000

Is this a TAX Increase or not???

If the Government forces me to purchase something via a MANDATE, how is this not a tax increase? How will this effect small businesses everywhere?

Chime In. Let me know what you think.

Until Next Time…

A Marketing Lesson From The Vegas Water Guy

John Park — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 19:50:28 +0000

I see dead people… I mean marketing opportunities everywhere and what I noticed on a Vegas walkway in the middle of August was no exception.

It was an “Africa Hot” day and making money from everyone’s discomfort were entrepreneurially minded individuals selling chilled bottled waters to passersby tourists. They were poorly dressed, disheveled looking and not exactly professional in their approach or presentation. Nevertheless, they were selling these waters just by waving them around standing in front of their coolers, which were filled with all generic brands.

During the 3 minutes it took for us to walk completely by, I observed two guys—one at each corner.

The guy on the left was just standing there holding a bottled water in each hand. He had a handwritten cardboard sign propped up against his cooler with a “$1″ written on it. He looked bitter and he clearly didn’t want to be there.

The guy on the right had the same setup except he was engaged in the “selling.” Every few seconds, he would yell out “cold water here, $1″. He would just repeat that statement over and over again. Not surprisingly, I witnessed him sell about 3 times more water than the guy on the left.

Don’t worry. I didn’t stop to give the guy on the left marketing advice (I was with the family).

However, I did start thinking about how we could probably all define our level of business success by how ENGAGED we are in the selling of our products and services.

So, which guy or gal are you?

Are you the guy on the left waiting for the business to miraculously come to you, otherwise known as playing the numbers game or are you the guy on the right dictating your own outcome by being engaged in the success of your business?

In this economy, you know which guy you have to be. Dictate your own outcome or success. Don’t be a recession victim. If the water guy has it figured out, it should be easy for you. (no offense to water guys everywhere)

Until Next Time…

Suddenly They’re Blind.

John Park — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 01:28:24 +0000

As my readers know very well, I am often writing about the good things happening in business. However, in some cases, I have to bring to everyone’s attention a very bad thing happening in the business community.

So… as of today, I’ve decided to start a SHAME ON YOU BUSINESS category.

All of the businesses listed or mentioned in these postings are doing or have done something really STUPID to damage their brand and customer loyalty. And more importantly, their acts are damaging small businesses and their owners—the people I fight for. Sometimes these acts are illegal but most of the time, they are just unethical. In most cases, it is just downright shameful.

Today’s winner is CHASE BANK.

There is a lot of negative consumer buzz on the Internet about what this bank has done lately. After the 25 Billion bailout (our hard-earned tax money) and after they got a chance to buy WAMU for cheap from the FDIC when that bank went belly-up, this not so fine institution has decided to launch a series of tactics to increase their profits by levying new and unreasonable terms on their customers.

For the past several years, they have been one of the biggest marketers of low rate balance transfers. These programs would promise you a low rate for the life of the loan as long as you transferred to them. And as a result, millions of consumers did just that.

( The Shameful Act )

They recently adopted a policy to raise the minimum payment percentage from 2% to 5% of the balance on many of these same customers. As you can imagine, balance transfer accounts have a higher balance because consumers and business owners were using these accounts to pay off or manage their debts during this recession. And as a result, minimum payments will more than double for these people. If a business owner carries a 15K balance, his or her minimum payment will go from $300 to $750 a month. This is not easy to swallow for any small business owner during these hard times.

And when consumers complain, they say “sure you can keep the 2% minimum payment but we just have to raise your interest rate to a much higher rate.”

Wasn’t this once known as the “bait and switch?”

This just exemplifies again that in business… Just because you can do it legally doesn’t mean that you should.

( Some negative Internet BUZZ about Chase )

CNN Picks up on the story on 10/6/2009

Class Action Filed Over Chase Credit Card Fees

Chase to Refund $4.4 Million in Credit Card Fees

Chase Raises Minimum Payments On Credit Cards

Latest Chase Controversy Part of a Pattern

It’s kind of ironic their new ad campaign is based on the song “Suddenly I see“. Clearly… they don’t SEE.

Shame on you CHASE!

Facebook added 100 million users in 9 months!

John Park — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 06:34:08 +0000

It took Radio 38 years and TV 13 years to reach an audience of 50 million. Facebook added 100 million users in 9 months! This is a very important video for all business owners. Social Media Marketing is here to stay. As the video states… It is not a fad.

Until Next Time… By the way, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter.

The T-Mobile Dance… Just Really Fun to Watch!

John Park — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 04:57:01 +0000

One of my clients passed this along to me and I just love it. It’s another successfully produced viral business video. The importance of this particular video is that T-Mobile has successfully connected their brand to the video. It isn’t just funny or shocking, it actually supports the brand in a magical way–right down to the slogan. See if you can count how many times they’ve managed to connect the brand to the actual video. HINT: How many people are holding a cell phone to their face?

Until Next Time…