Small Business Perceptions
Just recently a Rib Shack opened up in our town. Neither Toni nor I are all that interesting in ribs as a gourmet delicacy so we haven’t tried it.
But a regular customer at the computer shop has and the last time he was in the computer he was complaining bitterly about the small serves that you get at the Rib Shack. When our friend questioned him a little more it seems that he had never been near a Rib Shack before he tried the new one in our town and had no real idea what constituted a good serve of ribs.
Even though he had no prior experience he felt that the local Rib Shack was selling people short because he believed that a serving of ribs would be huge because that’s what he had seen on the Flinstones.
I kid you not … he was basing his idea of what a good serving of ribs should be like simply on a cartoon and nothing would change his mind.
Now remember that one dissatisfied customer tells 10 others and the people he told probably didn’t ask him what he had compared the local store to so the local Rib Shack is off to a bad start just because of an old cartoon.
I wonder how a small business can counter misconceptions like that?
