If you own a business or are responsible for the well-being of a business – Say this sentence, repeat and then repeat again.
Your business is not about you.
There has been much press these past two weeks or so, both locally here in Scottsdale and nationally, about companies who forgot this notion or just don’t understand it to be true. Google Amy’s Baking Company in Scottsdale, AZ and Abercrombie & Fitch and it will take no longer than a couple of seconds to see how much they do not remember that their own businesses are NOT about them.
If your business is NOT about you, then who is it about? After all, YOU work tirelessly at making your business a success…working long hours, putting time and money into your business.
Simply speaking, your business exists 100% because of:
- Your customers
- Your potential customers and
- The people these 2 groups speak to and influence
These are some things that I consider to be “no-brainer” items on the DO list:
- Respect your current customers.
- Respect your potential customers.
- Be genuine and authentic in your communications with all customers and potential customers.
- Be 100% concerned with producing a great product or great customer experience.
- Listen to what your customers are saying.
- Embrace feedback and constructive criticism.
- Accept feedback and constructive criticism with grace.
- Understand that the customer is always right.
- Make appropriate changes as a result of listening and accepting feedback and criticism.
- Make your customers your top priority.
- Make every interaction with your customers a win-win occurrence.
- Be 100% concerned with producing a great product or great customer experience.
- Deliver on your promises.
- Be special and unique and deliver special and unique products and customer experiences.
- Say thank you to your customers…often.
- Treat your staff with respect.
- Say thank you to your staff…often.
- Be 100% concerned with producing a great product or great customer experience.
I am sure there are more but these are the things that come quickly to mind.
The 2 companies I mentioned above were pure cases of everything you should NOT do when owning a business. In the case of Amy’s Baking Company, everything you should NOT do is contained completely on one Facebook Page and is simply shocking at how many grave errors were committed over and over again. I am sure we will see these 2 case studies in future marketing classes.
This article captures many key points about how you should be thinking about your business and, more importantly, your customers.
10 Ways to Make Customers Fall in Love with Your Business
http://blog.kissmetrics.com/true-love-with-customers/
In closing, repeat that sentence one more time, for good measure.
Your business is not about you.
Please contact Anna Brice at Pinnacle Peak Marketing, Scottsdale AZ about Marketing for Small/Medium Business.
Email: anna@pinnaclepeakmarketing.com
Phone: 480-661-0292
Website: http://pinnaclepeakmarketing.com
Marketing Evolution 
Nice post Anna! I’m not sure if you’ve ever read “Delivering Happiness” or “The Thank You Economy” before, but this post was very close to both of those books! Keep it coming!
Thank you for reading Josh. We had Tony Hsieh speak at one of our American Marketing Association events on his Delivering Happiness Tour and I love the way Zappos is doing things and putting the customer up front and the number one priority. It just feels like businesses (and the people who run them) are forgetting how to treat their customers (and potential customers).
With havin so much content do you ever run into any issues of plagorism
or copyright violation? My site has a lot of exclusive content I’ve either authored myself or outsourced but it looks like a lot of it is popping it up all over the internet without my authorization. Do you know any methods to help reduce content from being stolen? I’d definitely appreciate it.
I have not run into that problem. I don’t know a solution other than contacting the person using your content and asking them to give you credit mention in their piece. Thanks for reading. I do appreciate it.
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you write once more soon!
Thank you for reading and hopefully these topics are timely and helpful to you.
I get this subject since we are in Orange County|an Orange County properties.
Thank you for reading Yvette.