'Can-Do’ Attitudes Go a Long Way in Business

You’ve probably heard the catch-cry of the modern day household a thousand times - “this year is even busier than the last”.

No doubt theories abound on why the modern family feels more and more burdened, but whatever the reason, ‘busyness’ and stressfulness do seem to hit us a little bit harder every year.

And every year people are looking for more convenient ways of running their lives.

Here’s where the small business comes in. If you’ve got a ‘can-do’ attitude to business, you’ll be more likely to attract the attention of ‘convenience-seeking’ customers.

The customer wants to hear you say: “Yes, we can do that”.

 Can you deliver this afternoon?
 Can you locate the part for my car and have it fixed by tomorrow?
 I like the colour but the size is wrong, can you make me a new one?
 My drains are blocked, can you come this morning?

“Yes, we can do that.” You can probably hear the relief in the customer’s voice. You have just solved a big problem for them. They love you already. Just make sure youdeliver what you’ve promised.

Obviously, you simply may not be able to stretch to the customer’s demands and deliver that afternoon, especially if you’re relying on other companies along the way.

But don’t simply say ‘no’ because that’s not the way you usually do things, or because it’s going to take too long to organise. Instead, carry with you the positive attitude that anything is possible.

Plan to improve your business
When you set aside time for business planning, these are the issues you need to be addressing. How can I make life easier and more convenient for my customers? What changes can be made here, time-savings made there?

Try to be on the front foot by offering an improved service to your customers before they’ve even thought of it themselves.

For example, you might consider sourcing a new product for a particular customer just so they can have their total order supplied by you. This would be far more convenient to the customer than having to order the same products from several different suppliers.

Or, if a small component of an overall sale deal is not readily available, could you go out of your way to purchase that component from another retailer or wholesaler? Ideally you don’t want to let the customer walk away just because you can’t supply a small component of their overall purchase.

This ‘can-do’ business attitude is likely to become very important in the future as more and more big businesses look to reduce the number of suppliers with whom they deal.

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