Being Too Busy for Customers
Volume 12, Number 37
Issue 584
I always worry about businesses that are too busy to remember what it was like not being busy enough. Too often I try to spend my money at a business only to be shunned away by either rudeness or an implied “we’re too busy.” These types of businesses forget what the opposite of being “too busy” is.
Very often Cynthia and I will visit Richmond restaurants only to be told that the wait is 30-40 minutes--sometimes we wait and it turns out to be about 5-10 minutes; at other times, it’s obvious that we will be the full 30-40 minutes. I’m confused; was telling us it was only going to be 5-10 minutes only a ploy to get us to leave? When it really is 30-40 minutes, was this on purpose? Is making patrons uncomfortably wait long periods of time a marketing strategy to underscore a perception of the value of the restaurant, in general, and reservations, in particular?
When we’re in New York or Washington and arrive at a packed restaurant, we are rarely shunned. Often, we are invited to the bar to enjoy free or half-priced drinks until a table frees-up. I’ve got to believe that this is a winning strategy, because our staying—even at half-priced drinks—still makes the restaurant more money than allowing us to turn our backs and leave. The “winningest” restaurants do everything to keep us in the door to wait—and be happy about doing so—rather than simply being told “we’re too busy.”
All businesses should remember that waiting customers must be kept entertained and feeling appreciated while they wait—just like restaurants should do for waiting guests. Keep all waiting clients informed, happy and knowing that their business is valued.
I wonder a lot about tree-trimming, plumbing and electrical contractors that spend lots of money advertising in the local coupon packages. I’ll respond to the advertisement only to be told to leave my name and phone number. Often--when I do--no one ever calls me back. What really did happen to my phone message? Often—when I say, “No, I don’t want to leave my number; I’ll call someone else”—I’m simply told “Okay.”
How can businesses that spend real dollars advertising for business not be ready to serve new customers with immense passion and enthusiasm?
I think that the best businesses never, ever, let callers be told—overtly or by implication—“We’re too busy.” Restaurants are famous for this by turning people away. So are blue collar contractors and service-providers. Copy places are, too, as well as tax preparation firms, attorneys, doctors and veterinarians.
The best businesses find a way to hold onto potential business if they are too busy at the moment. Asking people to wait in very creative ways by, offering a discount or entertaining them or, especially, displaying sincere remorse when combined with passion and enthusiasm are all strategies for success. If the decision-maker is too busy to return telephone calls, have a staff member call and say, “Where will you be tonight?” Then, the decision-maker should call from the car, call from their home or simply work late. Never, ever, ever leave without making sure all telephone calls have been returned.
Being too busy to serve the public is the sign of something else—something more serious: either too broad a target market (trying to be everything to everybody) or lack of organizational planning (too few staff, misaligned job duties, or too little behind the scenes administrative time).
Often, I will go into retail stores and walk around for long periods of time looking for what I need while, at the same time, employees are gathered off in the distance engaging in personal conversations or working hard on some administrative matter. Things like this make me—as a customer—feel inferior. The big box retailers are famous for this. The feeling that I get when I am there, wandering aimlessly looking for either what I need or for someone who will help me find it, is one that I want to take back to my own company’s operations to make sure that I never make any customer feel like they aren’t appreciated.
The single most important thing at-hand in any business—and I can never say enough that EVERY business is retail—is to welcome each and every customer with passion and enthusiasm and never, ever, ever let that customer leave thinking that you are too busy.
David B. Robinson, CPA
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