Understand Your Strengths, Customers, and Competitors in a Business
Goliath chain shops are inescapable. In this poor economy, folk are increasingly flocking to these giant faceless retailers in an attempt to save more of their hard earned cash. Unfortunately, the consequence of Americans tightening their belts means the end of some small businesses. The businesses that fall by the wayside make three conventional mistakes that effectively drive the nail into their own coffins. Businesses that neglect to understand their strengths, their customers, and their competition will almost certainly fail themselves. Using the example of a flooring store, we will consider how to ensure survival in tough times by avoiding these mistakes.
Our store offers a nice collection of quality carpet, hardwood floors, area rugs, and laminate floors. This is logical as it is a flooring store. If our store owner, Bill, decides that he wants to start offering double hung windows, then the focus has moved away from the company niche, flooring. It is necessary to understand what your business does well and remain committed to that. Do what you do well, and clients will consider the quality of service.
A single mother of two small children drives up to the store in an aged station wagon. She is inquiring about some new living room flooring as her son lit her carpet on fire. Armed with this information, attempting to steer her toward fine Brazilian cherry hardwood floors would not be reasonable. It is always good to understand what a client wants and be able to meet their requirements. This happy customer may leave with her carpet, but return later and be ready for the Brazilian Cherry. Treating customers with respect and being able to anticipate their needs is an invaluable resource often not offered by competitors.
The hardware store chain down the street is offering free financing for 6 months plus low priced, but second-rate installation. However, their sales staff is inexperienced with the flooring and their customer service is below par. Armed with this valuable information, a small flooring store can use this to their advantage by offering excellent service, detailed information about the products offered, and quality installation in a timely manner. following a decent experience at our store, a happy customer will report to his or her friends that they were pleased, thus, achieving the goal of word of mouth marketing.
hard times come upon us all, however it is crucial to hold fast to quality in all things. Establishments devoted to excellence will achieve great things and keep their doors open when the others fail.
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