How to survive this economic crisis.

Virtually all small businesses are going to suffer during this economic crisis. What can you do about it?

First, mine your data base. Don't be content with postcard one-time reminders. If you don't have enough clients, your staff has time to make phone calls to get overdue clients booked for appointments.

Second, treat every new client lead like the valuable pearl that it is. Competitors are going to be working hard to bring that potential client in the door. You have to work harder.

Third, improve your service. If you now have fewer daily clients, that means you can spend even more time with them delivering over the top service. The extra effort to make your clients feel good will help drive away the staff and owner blues that can follow a serious recession like this.

Checklist:

Write a mission statement that makes client happiness job one.

Have staff create and commit to list of ways to make clients feel good.

What can you do to make the client the most important person in the room?

Is the bathroom easily available and pleasantly appointed?

Are the magazines chosen to fit client tastes?

Is your seating comfortable?

Is music available? Was it chosen for the client or the receptionist?

Is the hospital obsessively clean?

Is the hospital obsessively well-ordered?

Do you religiously honor appointment times?

Do the doctors explain their examinations in detail?

Do the doctors look the clients in the eye?

Are telephone on-holds less than one minute?

Are all clients addressed by name?

Are all clients called after every procedure?

Client centered checklist.

How good is your client service? Here is a checklist you can use to measure the quality of your service and to use as a staff training tool to improve that service.

most powerful client service tool

The single most powerful tool for great client service is the smile. We are hard-wired by history and evolution to feel good when someone smiles at us. This is literally and scientifically true. When someone smiles at us, our limbic system responds by jolting us with a small shot of feel-good neurotransmitters that activate neurons in the amygdala, our brain's home for positive and negative feelings. How do we know this is hard-wired and not just conditioning? Because even babies born blind know how to smile.

The easiest way to make sure that your practice is a success is to make sure that every client is greeted with a smile.

What are you really selling?

As a small business, what are you really selling? Whether your company makes products or services, what you are really selling is an experience. "A product is no more than an artifact around which customers have experiences" Scott Bedbury, A New Brand World. Most business men and women now understand that a recognized and trusted brand is invaluable but many still don't understand that your brand is not your logo or company colors but is the sum total of all of the experiences a customer has with your products and services. The goal is to build a strong emotional bond between the customer and your product or service. If most of the experiences are positive and make the customer feel good, the bond will develop naturally.