Bite by Bite

Bite by Bite

Ellen Rohr
Contributing Writer
Bare Bones Biz

“How do you eat an elephant?”  The elephant is, of course, a huge, overwhelming project.  You know the answer:  A bite at a time.  The next question may be, “But where do I start?”  The answer:  it doesn’t matter.  If you keep biting and chewing and swallowing you are going to finish that elephant.

Consider looking at your business from your customer’s perspective.  Ultimately, no matter what you charge, no matter who works for you, no matter how many booties you put on, if you don’t serve the needs and wants of your customer you are going to lose the business game.

Let’s pretend your customer, Mrs. Fernwicky, has a drippy faucet.  From her perspective, consider what it is like to go through the process of finding and hiring a good service Plumber to solve the problem.  Let’s imagine what happens next.  On the left side of the page is everything that could go wrong from Mrs. F’s perspective.  Look through each item.  Could that happen with your company?  If so, what few things could you do to fix that and keep it from happening…at least 95{938cd9e8dae860e800efc538277d4f7684e6f6981618ba70d1c34357a53c2e1f} of the time?

Mrs. F can’t remember or find your name. Consider crafting a new name, logo and message for your company.
Initiate a “where’s the shut off?” emergency valve identification program with your service Plumbers.
She calls your shop and gets a recorded message. Update your budget and plug in the costs of hiring a real live person to answer the phone.  Raise your prices accordingly.
Do like Jet Blue do.  Hire a mom with school age kids to answer your phone at her house…while her noisy kids are at school.
Until you employ a real live person to answer the phone, record a snappy, attention getting message:  Do you just hate answering machines?  Me too!  Please don’t hang up.  I will call you back within the hour.  I promise.  Then, I will come to your house and make your Plumbing problems go away. 
She calls your shop and a real live person answers the phone and is rude. Send your Customer Service Reps (CSRs) to a formal sales and communication training class.
Don’t let your mom answer the phone anymore.
Call your shop every day and Role Play with the CSR who takes your call.  Have fun with different scenarios.  Help!  My husband’s wedding ring is in the disposer…and he is still wearing it.
The Plumber is scary dirty. Implement a grooming policy at your shop.  Have everyone promise to shower daily, use deodorant, brush teeth and scrub hands and nails.  Write people up for being dirty.  Send them home to clean up.
Provide protective floor covering and shoe covers and require that the Plumbers use them.
Be willing to write up and let someone go who won’t comply with the policy.
Arrange to have a carpet cleaner follow up on larger service and installation projects.
Ask for the best route into and out of the house.
And so on…

Get the idea?  Bite by bite, go through Mrs. F’s possible experiences.

Consider how to solve each mini-problem.  You’ll create a useful Master List of Projects and To Dos.  Bite by bite, you can energize the mini-projects on the right hand side of the list.  Bite by bite, you will build a better business.

Ellen’s UN-conventional approach to business makes it easy to be more successful and profitable. Download free biz tips at www.ellenrohr.com, find her blog at HuffPost Small Business and connect @ellenrohr on twitter