Grow Your Business: Don't be Late for a Very Important Date

Here's the latest entry in our Grow Your Business series, as always, from Carol Ritter of CarolTalks.  Enjoy!
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Vacation was coming to an end and I wanted the last day to do all my favorite things.  Go to the beach, eat seafood, take a bike ride, play with the grands and get my healthy drink, THE RED BARON.  This isn’t any old drink, it’s a drink packed full of beets, apples, pineapple, oranges, vitamins and minerals.  I arrived at the famous juice bar at 8am and they were not open.  People started to gather and by 8:15 we were are questioning  whether they would open at all.  The crowd began to protest, “I want my Energy Elvis, I came to get the Love Potion, I heard about the delicious Happy Monkey, a drink loaded with bananas and chocolate.”  As we all started looking out over the streets I recognized a young man dragging himself into work, as he sauntered by us, a woman asks angrily, “what time do you open?” He replied, “right now.” That was not the answer she wanted.  “I was told you opened at 8am.” “We do but I don’t have a chef, I have no money in the register and I’m waiting for staff to show up.”  He let us in, began to serve water to us all and then the fun began.  People were complaining, “I wanted your gourmet breakfast sandwich, what’s going on?”  Enough was enough and the people started to exit to find breakfast elsewhere.  All of a sudden the staff showed up, the chef, two waitresses and guess who was the latest of all, the owner showing up at 8:40am.  They scrambled, they hustled, they kicked into high gear to fill all the orders.

In your business, are you willing to loose clients due to tardiness?   Do you create an environment that makes your customers feel like they are the most important person in the room?  If you are the boss, do you set an example for your staff?  Can you expect to be successful if your staff and you show up 40 minutes late?  Do you make promises you can’t keep?  Are you late for the most important date a date with your customers?

The end of the story is the waiter gave me the delicious RED BARON for free, the breakfast sandwich was to die for and our waiter was feeling a bit embarrassed.  But, is this acceptable even if you have a fantastic menu and people line up to visit your establishment every day?  As a business owner our reputation is everything, there is always someone sitting around the corner waiting with a bigger and better menu than you.  Don’t be late for that very important date, it could cost you much more than a few customers.

Carol is an accomplished professional speaker, coach and educational consultant specializing in remarkable leadership, outrageous fundraising, million dollar marketing, and building organizational alliances throughout the country.  Carol’s innovative e leadership with bullet proof ideas for recruiting MORE MEMBERS, MORE MONEY AND BETTER LEADERS. www.caroltalks.com 610-442-4545

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