subject: How To Increase Any Businesses Profits by:John Harriyott [print this page] This bulletin is not about choosing a name for your new business, its not even about developing business plans and it certainly is not about choosing to be incorporated, a partnership or a sole trader. There are dozens of resources about that.
This is all about that giant step
from surviving in business
to success in your chosen niche.
It is one thing getting a business up and running but doing it right or even finding out what is right, is easier to say than do. Starting and running a small business is great I've been doing it since 1993 but we all have the same problems, we know there is a better way of doing it but we can't always afford a consultant.
So what I've been doing is putting together all the useful information I've collected over the years and compiling it into easy read sections that can be used by almost any business in the land.
So lets have a look at customer satisfaction (or more correctly dissatisfaction)
Complaints
Complaints are good as it allows you to improve on the areas your customers want you to improve.
It is still as true as ever that 'the customer is always right' and in dealing with them, they do at the end of any discussion, need to feel that their grievance has been fully understood.
Most of the time, if you are doing something wrong you will never know about it, as most people do not like to complain, they just try another supplier.
Handling complaints
Give all complaints top priority, the quicker they are dealt with the easier it will be to solve. Talk to them don't avoid them, they are your friends and want to stay as customers (although at times it may not seem that way).
If a customer says they have received 3 inch long screws instead of 4 inch screws accept it and send by first class post the replacements with a sincere apology. If the complaint is more subjective listen carefully and find out just what the customer is expecting you to do. If their suggestion seems too expensive or time consuming, firstly agree that their suggestion is sound and then offer other solutions that may be acceptable.
Be considerate and understanding, if you cannot resolve it there and then promise to get back to them by a specific time or date and keep to it, even if only to say you are still working on it.
As I said I have put together these tools (for want of a better phrase). I've broken them down into 12 sections that roughly match the way most small businesses run themselves.
The idea being you can tackle whichever area you think is giving you the most problems at the moment, then you can move onto the next one or you could read the whole lot through then work on the easiest, that way as soon as you see the improvements, it gives you and your staff encouragement to tackle the more difficult ones.
There are umpteen books about starting businesses but all seemed to concentrate on naming the business whether you should be a limited company, the sole trader, or whatever. They leave out the hard bit and that's a bit I'm covering with these programmes.
There is more like this on our web site, so to start getting the returns that your effort expects, just collect a free detailed report from our web site.
About the author
John Harriyott runs Quality Solutions (UK), developing business tools and quality improvements for small businesses. To find out more on profit improvement and other business tools visit http://www.quality-solutions.co.uk/profit.htm
