Saturday, July 22, 2006

Satisfied Customers

I've found that being an entrepreneur means that you affect people in different ways. If you do a good job or provide a good service for your clients/customers, they are happy. They walk away feeling satisfied. They feel glad about the fact that they made a good decision in using your services or buying products from you. They tell everyone about how wonderful you are.

But treat a customer bad – and you can forget it most times. They leave feeling cheated, unsatisfied and as though they are not worthy to get your business. They bad mouth you to everyone. (Now I do feel that Blacks are harder on Black business owners than others, but that’s whole different blog!)

Now, it can be hard to please everyone and at times you may forget to call or follow-up with people, you may even sell them a defective product or take longer on a job than expected. You will have an unsatisfied client (or 2) during your time as an entrepreneur, but you have to know how to make it up to that client. Offer them a discount, an apology, a card – something. They may seem like they will just go away, but you never know how much business they are causing you to lose by sharing their experience they had dealing with you to another potential client. But don’t beat yourself up over it, because there are those people who just like to be difficult and so demanding that you can’t possibly please them – no matter what you do. That’s when it’s time to pass them on to someone else. Yes, even if it’s a competitor of yours!