Small Office, Home Office Information

Small Business Customers

What are they saying to you?

How do you see the customers or clients who use your small business? What is your perception of them?

Are they just passive blobs who move through the day occasionally interacting with you and your business?

Are they just a distraction that takes you away from your work?

Or are they something else?

Obviously the politically correct answer is that they a core part of your business. They are the reason for you being in business and without them you wouldn't have a business so you treat them like royalty.

Pfffft! Let's get real here. There are some days in the life of every small business person when we wish customers would go away and stay away. And even on good days our view of our customers isn't much better.

Even on those good days most of us tend not to think of customers as much more than money walking through the door. And I am sure that view has been current ever since the first cavemen.

The corresponding view that our customers have of us has also been around for ever. If they are nothing more than money walking through our doors then to them we are nothing more than a place where they can purchase what they want.

If it has been like that since time began is it always going to stay that way?

Perhaps not, perhaps things are beginning to change and small business needs to keep up with that change if it wants to survive.

Some time ago Christopher Carfi who has a blog called The Social Customer Manifesto suggested that this is what customers are now thinking and saying:

· I want to have a say.

· I don't want to do business with idiots.

· I want to know when something is wrong, and what you're going to do to fix it.

· I want to help shape things that I'll find useful.

· I want to connect with others who are working on similar problems.

· I don't want to be called by another salesperson. Ever. (Unless they have something useful. Then I want it yesterday.)

· I want to buy things on my schedule, not yours. I don't care if it's the end of your quarter.

· I want to know your selling process.

· I want to tell you when you're screwing up. Conversely, I'm happy to tell you the things that you are doing well. I may even tell you what your competitors are doing.

· I want to do business with companies that act in a transparent and ethical manner.

· I want to know what's next. We're in partnership…where should we go?

There are some interesting points there that are well worth thinking about. Perhaps as Carfi suggests, “There are no spectators anymore. Participate.”

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11 Sep 2005

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