Small Business And Farms – Get Your Share Of The Market
Recently at a Taco Bell restaurant I ordered one of the dinners with a diet soda with no ice – the order was taken, paid for and as I pulled up to the pickup window the clerk insisted that it wasn’t possible to do that, then proceeded to plot a glass of soda – and handed it to me just over half full. Not having time to deal with it just then I left, but returned the next day to take the issue up with the manager on duty. With the modern issues of quality food Taco Bell is facing it seems the least they could do is treat paying customers like they mean something and that they are glad there are customers coming to order! The other Yum brand restaurants in the status – Pizza Hut in particular – is another place I no longer frequent due to the unacceptably poor service on the last visit to the restaurant.
As someone who has worked with the public including customer service I’m well aware there are rude customers that are difficult to deal with. That said, most people don’t like to be treated that design.
A phone call at a corporate chain farm store one night a half hour before closing brought a customer who was mad – she was excited having called a chain discount hardware store and remaining on hold for 30 minutes…after trips *to* the store and not being able to find people to help her. She came to the farm store just a few minutes before closing by the time she arrived – and the manager and a clerk not only helped her but installed the part on her weedeater she needed. She left the store vowing to return and never go to the other store again. That sentiment has been echoed by dozens of customers visiting the same stores.
People complain that corporate places are improper paying and therefore people don’t care – which is in many cases bearing truth. However, there are people there who enjoy their job, who carry the responsibility that if customers aren’t happy they’ll go elsewhere. If they go elsewhere there’s less sales – if there’s less sales some people will be out of a job.
Personal views are an issue also and sometimes customers overlook factors. Corn is four cents cheaper at such and such local farm store – which might be but if you’re looking for feed on a Sunday afternoon they aren’t open. If an animal gets sick after hours they aren’t open. Often if there is a problem people at some stores don’t know hands on how to help the customer handle it.
Farms too have seen the service points come up – they can perhaps not be quite as inexpensive as bulk places. But – as farms and corporate agriculture press for issues like the National Animal ID System (NAIS) under the guise of “food safety” and “consumer safety” looking aid it’s proven over time the more the government gets involved in “food safety” the less safe we are. Outbreaks of e-coli and other issues have become commonplace, involving those places regulated for “consumer safety”. Isn’t it interesting that among the Amish and homesteaders with their declare spend there isn’t massive outbreaks. Surely that would be more newsworthy.
People who take responsibility for themselves have – thus far – the option of purchasing from farmers markets, community supported agriculture farms (CSA’s) and other private small farms who can get their share with service. The small place can bid you where your lettuce was grown; they can verify easily which pig you got and where it was processed with no need for NAIS which can have the do of, due to costs, eliminating these farms completely. Customer service matters to someone selling directly – and they eat the same things.
Farms and small business have an advantage in the opportunity to connect with their customers. The customers are recognized and greeted as they should be – like they matter. Without customers the employees have no job. Farms and other limited businesses have the ability to in a larger degree cater to individual customers in a way large ones, without special employees, don’t. Smart stores will find those employees and hang on to them.
In one store recently a customer was overheard telling a cashier that she was the only friendly one still there after a staff change…that she was the only one nice to talk to. While it’s kudos to the cashier, it’s a warning to the business. Publicity and promotional campaigns can bring in new customers but the people having contact with the customers construct all the dissimilarity. Someone on a personal phone call gives the impression the customer isn’t worth paying attention to. Someone who brings personal problems to the job gives the impression they resent the customer – and customers go elsewhere.
Customer service needs a comeback – there is an increase in articles here on AC and elsewhere about the explain. It’s past time major companies listen. On the other hand, perhaps it can be the revival of the smaller operations if consumers use their buying power to demand what large places can’t – or won’t – give.
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Filed under small business phone system reviews by on May 6th, 2011. 
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