Small Businesses And Informal Processes
The Wonder Years of Business
If you are a small business owner yourself, you might recall nostalgically the initial years of starting up. You remember a time when you knew many of your customers personally; when customers just had to call you up if they ever had a problem. Well, you are not an exception.
The beginnings of Customer Support
In the initial years after starting up a business, owners often get to know their customers intimately, especially if they cater to a small geographical area. Customers simply call up whenever they have a problem and the owner is happy to help.
While this is great and the level of customer intimacy is something large companies would kill for, it creates problems as the business grows.
Moving to a Process
Having dealt with customer problems using an ad-hoc approach, some small business owners are reluctant to invest in a process-driven solution. They fear that their relationships with customers will be lost. However, the scale of business means that they can no longer attend to individual customers personally, leading to angry customers. Soon, more agile competitors enter the space that this company is vacating.
To avoid this, invest in a sound process and you’ll keep your customers happy, irrespective of whether or not they can reach you personally!
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