Welcome to the Momentum Business Coaching Newsletter for Small Business
February 2005

Pay attention to the small things
and the big things will look after themselves.

You've heard of this phrase many times before. However, it's a solid piece of advice every business, big or small, should build into its daily operations. Customers like consistency and consistency begins with paying attention to the little things.

For example, consistency can be down to how you and your employee's answer the phone. It is the ''how may I help you'' and the ''thank you'' that make a customer feel like you are there to serve them. Attention to detail will keep you moving closer to your ideal business. The act of documenting the details will set the stage for a systems-dependent business and not a people-dependent business e.g. depending on the mood of your employee on the day.

With a systems-dependent business the systems run the business, the people run the systems. By setting up and implementing a systems-dependent business into action, you will have a business that works not because of you but without you.

The following example is a good one which I experienced when myself and my wife bought a car recently. We looked at a number of cars, within a similar price range and features, any one of them would have been a good choice. But we bought our car from a particular dealer for one reason. We liked the way we were treated from the moment we entered their premises and on through the buying process.

We had a good experience.This experience was reinforced with every person in the dealership. The receptionist was clearly visible to us when we walked in; she greeted us with 'welcome' and 'how may I help you?'. When a salesperson was called to help us, they introduced themselves, asked what we were interested in and listened to our answer. He then showed us a car, talked about options and then asked if we had questions. When we said we'd like some time to talk between ourselves, he again repeated his name and stepped away, telling us to let him know when we were ready for a test drive. And then he let us alone! The same courtesy and 'make the customer feel important' attitude came from everybody who worked there.

Does this mean only perfection will win customers? No! As it happens when we went to pick up the car, it was not ready at the time we expected it to be. So what did they do? They first apologised and explained the delay. It was coming towards lunch time and they needed another hour. We were told to buy lunch wherever we wanted and to bring back the receipt and we would be refunded.

Were we inconvenienced? Yes, we were. But by having a system in place to handle such a situation, made all the difference to how we reacted to the delay.

Their 'system' didn't end just there:
• We received a follow up call about a week after we picked up the car to see how it was performing.
• We were asked to fill out a customer satisfaction form. If the dealership received anything less than an excellent rating, steps were taken to remedy the problem.
• When I took the car in for a service, the computer was able to show a record of what had been done in the last visit and what was needed for this visit.
• When I called into the service garage, the attendant knew my name and told me how long it would take.
• Again, a few days later, someone rang me to ask if we had been treated well on our last visit and was everything fine with the car.

Since then, we purchased another car from this garage and told many friends and family members how well we were treated.

The above is a great story in customer service. It does not take up a huge cash outlay, however, it does take a bit of innovative thinking and energy. It has to be consistent to make any bottom-line difference to your business.

My point is, just having a system in place does not mean all things will go smoothly. You must train your staff and yourself to use the systems. Repeatable performance will only happen if everybody follows the system. Consistent results will only occur with repeatable performance. The systems set up the business to succeed. The people who run the systems carry the action through to achieve the end result. Any breakdown in using the system will jeopardise the consistent performance your customers want.

By paying attention to the details and determining what employees must do to make things go right - and what employees must do when things go wrong - will have dramatic impact on your business for the long haul.

For a more complete description on this particular area of your business or for a free consultation,
simply contact John Buckley of Momentum Business Coaching at 045-881888 or e-mail jbuckley@momentumcoach.ie or visit www.momentumcoach.ie