Career Intensity by David V. Lorenzo, Business Coach and Advisor

July 25, 2006

Small Business Success - Service Orientation

Posted by Dave Lorenzo - Business Coach

This is one of the qualities that many would-be business owners overlook when they venture out on their own. It is not just enough to provide value to your customers, a small business owner must provide value in a way that makes those customers want to return. A focus on providing value in this fashion is called having a service orientation.

As a business owner, your customers must be your priority. You succeed by helping them succeed. If you are naturally good with people, and you enjoy what you do, you may personally be the best customer ambassador for your business. If you do not enjoy interacting with the often demanding public, then you will need to find someone (or several people) to work with you customers.

Many entrepreneurs are fantastic business tacticians but they find the customer interactions tiresome. Trouble occurs when these folks attempt to handle customer relationships in spite of their distaste for that aspect of the business. Putting the wrong person in front of your customers is bad for business. If that “wrong person” is a stubborn owner, the costs can be devastating.

If you hate taking orders from others (literally) and you cannot see yourself patiently interacting with people, hiring an outstanding “people person” is be a short term investment that will provide a long term return.

Here are five questions to ask yourself to determine if you have a service orientation:

Do you accept feedback from others in a constructive way?
Can you work to find win-win solutions when you interact with potentially difficult people?
Do you have the patients to explain things to others several times?
Can you separate your personal feelings from a business transaction?
Can you persist until you win a client over?

If you answered “no” to any of these questions you may want to consider hiring someone to work directly with your customers each day.

One way or another service will be a differentiating factor for your business. Good service will give you an advantage. Poor or marginal service gives an advantage to you competition.

Tomorrow we will be talking about Leadership Ability.

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