I had a conversation today with a friend of mine about another friend we have in common. This mutual friend of ours has a business that is very reliant on customer service – namely answering a phone call and email inquiries to set up appointments. You know, just things that bring in revenue, nothing special (insert eye roll here).
My friend and I have lent our direction and, at times, our services to assist this mutual friend of ours (we’ll call him Joe from this point) on more than one occasion. Now, Joe is really a great guy, good at what he does and is very passionate about his customers. However, Joe is also perhaps a bit too compassionate when it comes to his employees and the level of customer service they provide – or lack thereof. For instance, I received an email from his place of business about 6 weeks ago, reminding me that it may be time for their services. Within that email is a link to fill out a form and a day and time that I would like to come in. I filled that out and emailed it back and a message appeared that I will receive either a call or email to confirm my next appointment. Six weeks later, I meet with Joe for lunch (at so he can pick my brain about Facebook Ads). Joe now wants to pump in money towards Facebook Ads because he “needs the business”.
After he said that, I told him how I was still waiting on a call from his staff so I can come in. Silence. After a moment, he asked me how long it had been. I replied it had been about 6 weeks ago. Head down, hand on forehead. I then ask him if he really needs to invest in Facebook Ads or simply begin to take care of his business, starting from the inside out. (Oh, and due to time restrictions, I’m not mentioning how my friend had set up a very successful Google Ad Word campaign that Joe’s staff completely squandered away as well. In fact, I also know that there were SEVERAL unopened, unanswered emails his staff hadn’t addressed for months).
Moral of the story, before you go out and invest time and money into attracting customers, is your business effective enough to handle what it currently has and can it handle more? Sometimes it may simply take training your staff, or hire better employees, to have a positive effect on your bottom line. My guess is that this is the case with my buddy Joe.