Very often I am asked:  “What can i do to imporve my business?  The economy isn’t good.  I have lsot customers.  It’s more difficult to find new prospects, customers or clients.”

Interestingly, while this is a harsh reality for many businesses, it is not for many others.  How come?  There a many reasons.  Much of the time it has to do with being in the right market niche when the economy turns sour.  But, this is circumstantial. 

To learn how to have a good business in spite of a bad economy look at the businesses, regardless of market niche that demonstrate “positive deviance. ”

What is positive deviance?  It is those businesses that are doing something positive that enables them to stand out from the competition regardless of the economy.  What are those positive things?  There are many points but I will focus on two things.

1.  Exceptional Customer Service

2.  Turning customers into advocates

These businesses are successful because they treat their clients and customers like first class passengers on their airline.  There customers do experience exceptional customer service.

And, they turn customers into advocates because they take their relationship beyond the initial transaction.  Part of a good marketing business plan is to add value to the relationship.  This may be done with a regular newsletter, cards or a follow up phone call. 

Small business growth and growing small business are not done by accident.  They are done by design.  In this design with exceptional customer service and deepening the relationship the business is able to generate referrals and do it consistently. 

How do you get referrals?  By turning your database of customers and clients into your sales force with exceptional customer service and adding value to the relationship.  This takes time and a consistent approach. 

Regardless of where your business is now you can start on this success process.  It is a winning performance strategy.  After all, you did start your small business to win.

When owning your own business one focus is more small business growth. In an earlier post I talked about the first rule of exceptional customer service, which is to have a good attitude.  A good attitude means having your customer service set up to provide for the needs of your customers, not your needs.  For many that would seem to be obvious.

Rule #2 has to do with your employees or independent contractors if they are to be involved in customer service.  One of the biggest mistakes I see in small business coaching is not giving the very people who can help you with the process of providing exceptional customer service, ownership of how to provide good customer service.

As a result, the customer service department or area bumps along and becomes your negative marketing department. Of course this doesn’t help any one’s attitude or morale.  To get others and you, the small busines owner,  truly involved in providing exceptional customer service you can start practicing with your employees or contractors.

When you do you will have a small business running well and a successful small business for you, your employees and your customers.  And, the satisfaction you will feel from a growing small business will be great.

Instruct them that when they bring you a problem that you also want them to bring three solutions.  If they have two or one, that is okay.  But, ask for three.  Listen to these solutions.  And, more importantly, look for ways to incorporate anything good you hear into the customer service process.  Not only do you start building a sense of ownership but also a sense of team.  Your employees know and feel that we are all in this together.

If you practice having them offer solutions to problems and giving them ownership in the outcome you will start building a customer service department that is on the way to being exceptional and part of your positive marketing department.  When you sow these seeds you will reap small business success and small business growth.

In owning your own business one of the most important things to help you grow is to provide exceptional customer service.  Yet, we get engrossed in delivering the product or service and do a poor job of handling problems and questions. 

Ultimately, this will kill most small businesses.  Small business growth and running small business successfully is not something you do by chance but by design.

How often have we heard about or had direct experience with a company where we paid our money and then there was a problem.  I am sure all of you have had this happen to you at one time or another.  And, when we have a problem the worst part is not be able to reach someone who can give us some immediate direction to resolve our problem. 

Too often, companies today and many small businesses look at customer service as an expense.  When done right, customer service can become a profit center.  There are many components to having successful customer service.  More than we can discuss here.  In fact there are small business books, small business ebooks and small business courses that address customer service.

Let’s take a look at one component.  Successful small business is in larger part about having a good attitude.  A good attitude in this instance means validating the customers thoughts and feelings.  Rule number one to exceptional customer service and having a successful small business is that it is all about them and their perception.  That is a good attitude.  It is not about you. 

In working with small business and small business coaching some of the deadly phrases I hear go along these lines….”I’m sorry but I got busy or I would have called you back.”  Another is: ” I had a crisis or the employee was sick and that’s why no one got back to you.”  I could go on and on but you get the point. 

All of these responses are deadly because it becomes all about you and not about them.  What you are saying to them is that you don’t run your business well enough to take care of them.  In essence when they are calling you with a problem and you don’t respond properly or in a reasonable amount of time you are subconsciously telling them that they now have to run this part of your business since you aren’t capable of it. 

Think about it.  When you have to call someone more than once to get a response then you are having to solve the problem you have but now you are having to solve another problem which is poor customer service. Now you are asking or telling the customer by your actions to manage this part of your business since you can’t.  This will kill a small business if the customers start having to manage your customer service department. 

Rule number one is to have a good attitude where you put yourself in your customer’s position.  Then, and this is the key, design your customer service to meet the customer’s needs.  When you do, you will be amazed at the growth your business will experience when you handle problems well.