6 Things That Should Strike Fear Into Every Business Owner ’ s Heart
Fears are odd things . I met a guy once who makes a living wiggling into tiny , dark crawl spaces under houses , where mold , feces , poisonous spiders , snakes , rats , and other unsavory things abound . He was impressed at my fearlessness in speaking in front of thousands of people . He said he could NEVER do that , yet he woke up every day and went to work in places that would give me a claustrophobic heart attack .
Running a business can also be really scary at times , but people are often scared of the wrong things . Here ’ s my short list of things that actually SHOULD terrify you to the point of taking swift action on getting them fixed .
1 . Not Knowing What Your Employees Are Saying To Clients And Prospects
Like the thrill of scary movies ? Then allow me to suggest a totally free way to leave you unable to sleep at night : Eavesdrop on what your employees are saying to clients and prospects . A chill will run up your spine , guaranteed . Consider this recent interaction I had at the airport checkout when buying a little snack for the plane . The salesperson says , “ You know , this is $ 8 ,” with an incredulous look on her face and emphasis on the EIGHT DOLLARS . I reply , “ Yes , I know .” ( I actually didn ’ t but didn ’ t care .) She persisted , “ Are you sure you want to get it ?” At that , I replied , “ No ,” and walked out to buy it somewhere else . Oh , but that doesn ’ t happen in YOUR company , right ? A friend of mine with a dental practice was told by a patient that she heard the receptionist telling a potential new patient that the doc was MUCH more expensive than other dentists in the area because he had three kids in private school . I have personally required clients to let me listen to inbound call recordings from Google AdWords and was utterly floored by what was said and how the call was handled . On MULTIPLE occasions , I ’ ve heard techs say to a prospective client calling to inquire about whether or not the company could assist with an IT project , “ We can ’ t help you . We ONLY do managed services ,” then proceed to give out the phone number and website of a competitor . For starters , you need a playbook , process , rules , and scripting for how the phone is answered , how a client is taken care of , how an upset customer is talked
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