Bakers' Hours

When we go into business for ourselves, it’s easy to think that we get to call all the shots. We get to hire who we want, sell what we want, advertise where we want, and basically do whatever we want, right? Wrong. We forget that our customers play an important role in how our business is run. We’re ultimately in business to connect with customers. If we didn’t have them, our doors wouldn’t be open in the first place.

Speaking of doors, when it comes to setting your “open” hours, you do need to think about your customers. This week, I needed to meet with an influential friend in the restaurant business and we agreed to meet at a little bakery in her neighborhood. Tuesday morning, I flew out of bed, excited to try the new bakery and get my pastry fix! I drove across town to meet her there, only to find out they were closed. On a Tuesday. At 9:30 a.m. You can imagine my disappointment. Not only was I not going to get to try one of their baked goodies, we now had to try to come up with another place to go for our meeting at the last minute.

Don’t get me wrong, I know how hard it is to run a bakery business. I recently wrote an article about the business of bakeries for a newspaper called Eastside Business: www.eastsidebusiness.com. I know bakers put in long hours full of hard, physical work and often are closed on Mondays. But Tuesdays, too. At 9:30 a.m.? With a Starbucks right across the street?

We didn’t end up going to the Starbucks. But we did end up at a quaint little European bakery in a different neighborhood where I had a deliciously moist, plumb coffee cake. Whatever business you’re in, keep your customers in mind when you set your hours. If you decide to set non-traditional hours, here are some ideas:

1. Leave business cards or fliers outside on your door.

2. Consider a “Sorry we missed you – your next donut is on us” sign. If a customer comes back in and tells you they were frustrated when they stopped by and you were closed, the free goodie is worth their feedback. You can track the actual number of people you’re missing due to your odd hours that care enough about your business to return and tell you.

3. Be sure your hours are posted clearly on your store, business cards, other marketing materials, and especially your website.

Maybe I should have called the bakery to double-check the hours, but I don’t call every other restaurant or bakery before I go. I can safely assume that a retail store will be open between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., that a restaurant will be open for lunch and dinner, and that a bakery is open on a Tuesday morning. Remember, you’re in business for your customers, too.

Opening More Doors

I get so much junk mail that I usually sort through my letters and envelopes right over the garbage can so the unwanted paper goes straight into the bin. I can spot a piece of bad marketing a mile away so not much mail ever makes it onto my desk. But the other day, something unique caught my eye. A postcard from a realtor duo specializing in condominiums.

I checked out their website and saw that they actually don’t just sell condos, they also have some homes listed for sale. But for this post card marketing campaign, they decided to target a select group of home owners - those living in condos.

Choosing a niche or specialty area for your business can feel scary. In the beginning, is common to feel like you’re narrowing your chances of reaching people or making a sale, whatever your goal may be. It often seems like you’re limiting your options, potentially cutting off huge groups of potential customers by targeting just a few.

If you trust the ability of that laser beam focus to work for your business, often what happens is the opposite. By speaking to a specific target audience, you are forced to more clearly define what you do and the value it brings to that group of people.

The result? You make it easy for people to find you. You also help people refer business to you because they know exactly what you do. You’ve presented your business as being uniquely qualified to know that niche market inside and out. In this case, instead of being one of many thousands of generic realtors, these two have uniquely positioned themselves as the top condo realtors in the area. Every condo door in the city is now open to them as a potential sale.

Try talking to a specific group of your customers now and then and see if more than one door for new opportunities opens for your business.

-Whitney Keyes

Beyond the Bag

The other day I zipped into my local big-chain grocery store to grab a few things for lunch. The store was fairly empty so I breezed through the checkout line and on my way out the door, the Courtesy Clerk (those are the people that bag your groceries - my first job in high school at Safeway!) handed me my bags and off I went. At home, I started unpacking the food and realized the clerk had mistakenly given me someone else's grocery bag, in addition to my own.

I decided to call the store to let them know about the mistake, but the problem was that I had pitched the receipt. No store information was printed on the flimsy plastic bag, so I had to look up the store's number on my computer. Once I got a hold of someone at the store, I was transferred back and forth between two people and finally ended up talking to a manager who thanked me for letting him know about the mistake and asked me to bring back the groceries.

Here's the problem: I am a good customer. I called the store to let them know about "their" error. Now I, as the good customer, have to take the groceries back? Why are they punishing a good customer? Does this make sense? No. Do I now have a good memory of my last shopping experience at that store? No. Is there anything the store can do differently in the future? Yes.

Fix it tip #1: Better train your staff to add more value to your service. A Courtesy Clerk can do more than just ask customer if he wants "paper or plastic". A clerk could actually look in the bag he or she packed before giving it to the customer to be sure it is the right purchase.

Fix it tip #2: Don't dump your work on your customer. Imagine how I would've felt if the store manager had said, "Thank you so much for calling and we're very sorry about the mix-up. What's your address? We'll send a Courtesy Clerk right over to piik up the groceries for you so we can get them back to the original customer who purchased them."

Fix it tip #3: Use every interaction with a customer as an opportunity to make a positive impression. By offering to pick up the groceries for me, that gives the store a second chance to connect with me, to fix the error impression I had in my head. The store could even give me a "reward" - something as little as a "10% off your next bag of groceries" coupon or even a free cookie from the bakery or a chocolate Hershey's kiss. It doesn't matter what the gift is, it is the thought that counts. Show some attempt to recognize me as a valuable customer. Leave me with a positive impression of the business.

Now all I can think about is what a pain it is to have to gather up the "guest" groceries, drive back over to the store, try to find parking, locate the right person in management and explain why I am returning groceries that a Courtesy Clerk willingly handed me. It makes me want to shop at the local Farmer's Market. Next time, forget the bag and focus on the service.