Little things matter in business and they matter a lot.
On Saturday some friends and I decided to go out for dinner. There was 6 of us and we thought we’d try a local restaurant that had recently changed hands (the Boatshed at Currumbin).
It was 5.20 pm when I called to book a table.
The phone rang and rang and I eventually got an answering machine. I didn’t want to leave a message re the booking as I needed to confirm right then and let my mates know for sure where we were going.
So we found another restaurant in the area (Little Asia at the Tallebudgera Golf Course), booked in and we were done.
We had a great meal with friendly service. The final bill came to $210.
Missed Out On $210
So that’s $210 the Boatshed business missed out on.
Then you have the kicker. All 6 of us who went to dinner eat out very regularly. We all have strong social networks within the suburb.
We’re much more likely to frequent Little Asia again than try the Boatshed.
Without question the Little Asia restaurant will generate in an extra $1,000 revenue in the next few months from the 6 people who went – whether we go back or through referrals to friends.
Not Diverted The Phone Cost Big $$$
That’s $1,000 the Boatshed owner could have had – if only he’d diverted his phone so it got answered.
Importantly, he’s missed an opportunity to build his business, build his brand and connect with the right people in the local community.
Sure, we all miss opportunities. It’s about minimising the impact of those misses that’s important.
Like I always say, business is bloody hard. Give yourself the best possible chance of success by doing the little things.
Cheers
Brendon
P.S And yes, there is a way to increase your chances the customer will leave a booking message. I’ll post that trick up shortly.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I wonder what would happen if the guy uses Google Alerts, found this post, and realised his mistake. Then he comments here apologising for the inconvenience, offers you a small discount if you choose to try him again, and says he’s now sorted call forwarding on his phone.
A response like that would likely get ANOTHER blog post from you, he’d stick in your mind, and you’d tell more than 6 friends about it. I would think that’d be a pretty good recovery really!
Shame it’s unlikely to happen though… people need to wake up to new media!
Oh, while I’m here, in the interests of fostering conversation rather than hit & run comments, could you please get some email notification of subsequent comments that I can subscribe to? That way I get alerted if someone else comments on this post and I can contribute further if I want to
Very interesting example. When I had a ‘brick and mortar’ business a few years ago I had a simple ‘brochure’ web site so that people could easily find me. A freind happened upon that site and called me, with a worried tone, “Dave, you have both your business number and your cell pone number there on your site … aren’t you worried about your privacy”?
Well no, becuase if I were worried about privacy, why would I have started a business dealing face to face with the public?
Second, during the three years that site was up I probably got less than one obnoxious call per year to my cell phone … but I got a ton of business-related ones that often made me some money. Recently I was reading a research paper that indicated a large car dealer had done the research that showed every single phone call that came to their main switchboard was worth a minimum of $14 USD profit.
So how many $14 dollar opportunities a day are you willing to give away each day? By the way, there are a number of ‘follow me’ style solutions out there that forward calls to another backup number automatically … no need to remember to divert … unless you just happen to be anti-profit.