{"id":31,"date":"2011-05-20T02:54:26","date_gmt":"2011-05-20T02:54:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/?p=31"},"modified":"2011-06-09T22:10:16","modified_gmt":"2011-06-10T02:10:16","slug":"how-not-to-handle-an-influx-of-new-customers-a-cautionary-tale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/?p=31","title":{"rendered":"Mishandling New Customers: A Cautionary Tale"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week I related how a chalet owner in France tried to break into a new market by providing excellent customer service.\u00a0 He did a great job.\u00a0 What I didn’t mention was one important detail\u00a0about courting a new customer base: \u00a0you have to be prepared to provide what you advertise.\u00a0<\/strong> A few years ago\u00a0Bottle Washer and I gained\u00a0a new market group and it ended disastrously because we did not anticipate and plan for\u00a0how such an influx would affect our business.\u00a0 Here is the play-by-play of our epic fail and what we learned:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our only competition had been a poorly-managed\u00a0operation\u00a0sinking toward insolvency for several years.\u00a0 We thought we gained several customers simply because they didn’t <\/em>want to go the other place.\u00a0 We enjoyed the luxury of being a default choice, which probably was a factor in\u00a0our complacency.\u00a0\u00a0But, theirs was a bigger operation,\u00a0could offer some services we didn’t, and had expanded hours.\u00a0 When it eventually went out of business, we saw an opportunity to pick up lots of new customers.\u00a0 We quickly beefed up our newspaper advertising and soon saw the effects.\u00a0 The people came pouring in!\u00a0\u00a0 We were headed for easy street!<\/p>\n

Well, you know the saying be careful what you wish for?\u00a0 We should have heeded that advice.\u00a0\u00a0 All we were thinking about was the cash flow we would experience from all these\u00a0additional customers, not how we were going to service them. <\/strong>\u00a0Big mistake.\u00a0 Not only did we leave\u00a0a bad impression\u00a0with\u00a0the new customers, but with many\u00a0of our original\u00a0ones as well.<\/p>\n

Before going after a new market, be sure to consider the following questions:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 Is your facility physically big enough to handle the extra traffic?\u00a0<\/strong>Ours wasn’t.\u00a0\u00a0The\u00a0building began to feel\u00a0congested.\u00a0 The restroom facilities were not adequate.\u00a0 Parking became a problem. \u00a0 There wasn’t enough space for people to put their personal belongings while they were here.\u00a0 Our waiting area wasn’t big enough.\u00a0 Plus, and worst, we didn’t have enough equipment to service all of our new customers, and they had to wait in line.\u00a0 This really ticked them off.\u00a0 Every physical space has a capacity\u00a0threshold where it crosses over\u00a0from seeming like a buzzing, happening spot to just plain crowded.\u00a0 We blew right through our threshold.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 Do you have the proper staffing in place?<\/strong>\u00a0 We bombed on\u00a0this one, too.\u00a0 We didn’t up our staffing to handle the additional customers, so our customer service, which is one of our hallmarks, began to noticeably slip.\u00a0 Our staff was working like mad, but they just couldn’t\u00a0help everyone at the same time.\u00a0\u00a0The new customers, who were used to our thinly-staffed former competitor,\u00a0didn’t notice, but it really got under the skin of our long-term clients.\u00a0 They let us know.\u00a0 Plus, close customer oversight is necessary for the safety of our clients, and our oversight wasn’t what it needed to be. \u00a0\u00a0Bottle Washer, who is all about customer service, was having conniption fits.\u00a0 I, who am all about risk analysis, was having my own conniption.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Can you maintain your zeitgeist?<\/strong>\u00a0 Every Small Business has its own personality.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That’s what makes us each unique from one another and different from the Big Boxes.\u00a0 As Owen Wilson’s character in You, Me, and Dupree <\/em>calls it, your “ness”.\u00a0\u00a0 Bottle Washer and I\u00a0worked hard to develop and maintain our intimate, “everybody knows your name”-ness.\u00a0 The crush of new customers completely destroyed this ambiance, and with it one of our main customer draws.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 Can you deliver your product?<\/strong>\u00a0 This seemed like a no-brainer.\u00a0 Providing a service to 100 people is the same as providing it to 10 people, except you make more money, right?\u00a0 Well, not really.\u00a0 In our excitement to capture these new customers, we failed to consider that a big part of our product is\u00a0the high level of service and supervision that accompanies it.\u00a0 Because we didn’t ask ourselves Question #2, above, we weren’t actually able to deliver the same product for our new customers.\u00a0 And yes, they noticed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0 Do the new customers want the product you offer?<\/strong>\u00a0 We thought so.\u00a0 But, as it turned out, one of the big draws of our former competitor was the services that they offered that we don’t.<\/em>\u00a0 So, many of the new patrons were dissatisfied from the giddy-up and immediately had an unfavorable impression of our place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

6.\u00a0 Is your new customer base compatible with your original customer base?\u00a0 <\/strong>This\u00a0last one completely blindsided Bottle Washer and I.\u00a0 I mean, really, we’ve all been out of seventh grade for some time now.\u00a0 But, we quickly discovered that, like at the tables in a middle school lunch room, people like to be\u00a0with\u00a0people like themselves.\u00a0 Even when patronizing a business.\u00a0 The new customers we brought in were noticeably different in age and lifestyle\u00a0than our original customer group.\u00a0 Obviously, we were\u00a0naive not to have seen this coming, but the two groups began to self-segregate, become hostile, and even be verbally combative<\/em> while they were in our establishment.\u00a0\u00a0On more than one occasion Bottle Washer had to assume the role of\u00a0lunchroom monitor, go out on the floor, and actually ask them to play nice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The end result was that because we were unprepared for an onslaught of new customers and did not carefully integrate them into our business,\u00a0the entire episode, although bringing in a lot of additional cash, actually hurt<\/em> our Small Business.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>The new clients were disappointed because we couldn’t offer their favorite services.\u00a0 (Perhaps if we had done more research, we would have realized that the services we didn’t<\/em> offer were the reason they chose the other place originally.)\u00a0 The original customers felt our business had gone downhill, with reduced attention from the staff, a loss of the former intimate atmosphere, and an influx of clientele that they were not comfortable with.\u00a0 Both groups quickly became frustrated with the increased wait time and crowded facilities.<\/p>\n

Of course, we tried to quickly correct these issues.\u00a0 <\/strong>We purchased additional equipment to service more people at a time.\u00a0 We secured more space and appropriate insurance to offer the services available from our former competitor.\u00a0 We adjusted our staffing schedules to add extra coverage during the busy times.\u00a0 But, it was too late, and the damage was done.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What became of the\u00a0competitor that ended in bankruptcy?\u00a0 A seasoned businessman with deep pockets rehabbed the building top to bottom and re-opened as a slick, new, state-of-the art facility.\u00a0 <\/strong>All of our new-found customers were gone in a matter of a few days, and even some of our\u00a0long-time patrons, who were disgusted with their recent experience, left and have never returned.\u00a0 We were left with now-unneeded expensive equipment,\u00a0pricey unnecessary insurance,\u00a0and a damaged reputation, while at the same time gaining a powerful competitor.\u00a0 It was a painful and expensive lesson.\u00a0<\/p>\n

How has your Small Business \u00a0successfully or unsuccessfully handled a rapid influx of new patrons?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week I related how a chalet owner in France tried to break into a new market by providing excellent customer service.\u00a0 He did a great job.\u00a0 What I didn’t mention was one important detail\u00a0about courting a new customer base: … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[14,39,8,20],"class_list":["post-31","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-customer-service","category-marketing","tag-customer-service-2","tag-gaining-new-customers","tag-small-business","tag-small-business-ownership"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63,"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions\/63"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiefcookandbottlewasher.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}