The Anti-Customer

Walk down Main Street of your town, and you’ll see a story that is played out in almost any town or city anywhere in the world. You’ll see that, while there are many businesses lining the streets, only a few of them are actually doing it well. Dig a little deeper, and you’ll see that the ones who are doing poorly have done nothing to distinguish themselves from the competition, except maybe be worse than them.

In fact, it’s like they are the “Anti-Customer”, and they are doing whatever they can to discourage the customers from entering or even buying.

You know the places. These are the ones who hire the wrong people: The people who don’t care about that piece of paper on the floor, or the garbage on the street just outside the door or even the person standing in front of them. These are the places where no effort is given to please the customer or to solve their problems or to look inviting and clean. It’s strictly a “by the book” process where the employee stands there with a look of either disdain or helplessness on their face and shrug when you ask how they are going to fix whatever problem you have. They say “That’s our policy” and leave it at that.

What a shame.

I’ll bet that when they (The business owner) had the idea of starting the business they thought a little differently than they do now. Back then their imagination was full of “What ifs”.

· What if I start this business?

· What if I become successful?

· What if I take a risk?

· What if I hire great people?

· What if I give my customer better than expected service?

They were driven by possibilities, and blinded by the light of potential.

What happened to all of that?

Chances are they listened to the wrong people, or lost focus on what they were actually in business for in the first place.

They lost their why.

They started out trying to be unique in the marketplace, and instead became just like everyone else and lost their way.

But there is hope.

I’m not being negative here, I’m speaking in the hope that if something is blocking your way on your road to success that you won’t quit or park in the service lane waiting for a tow-truck to come get you, but that you will do whatever you have to do to get to your destination. Hitchhike on someone else’s idea if you must to get you started, but you’ve got to fuel your own vehicle if you want to arrive where you should be.

You may own a business, or wish to own one in the future. You may be an employee or a manager trying to give your all to where you have chosen to work or you may be just starting out on the journey of finding a career. Whatever the situation you may find yourself in, there is one thing I would say to you if you want to be successful in any business: Remember that the business exists so you can solve problems for your customer.

It’s really that simple.

The really unique businesses are created by people who have seen a problem people have and thought: “There has to be a better way.” Then they went out and went to work on solving the problem. Along the way, they hired people who actually liked people and who could contribute their imagination to solving the problem even better, and then they told that story over and over to anyone who’d listen. Then, when the story was consistent and the customers saw that they actually cared, they started telling that story to their friends and associates.

That’s how you build a business.

It’s a sad statement about our marketplace when a business is unique because they provide great customer service. It should be the norm when they all do.

My hope is that we get together as a business community and create the kind of “Main Streets” that are vibrant, colourful and brimming with energy and that we generate an abundance of pride in both ourselves and our companies to create the kind of places where the customer, that person we are in business to please and solve problems for, walks away saying “Wow”, I’m so glad I stopped by.