- Put your prices up so you can get rid of the unprofitable customers and only keep the ones who really appreciate you
- Negotiate over prices, extras, and time – an hour a week is a week per year saved, and 5% might be enough to double your profit
- Get your quality up to 7 or 8 / 10 (reaching 9 or 10 is too expensive, customers won’t want to pay for it). If you are lower than 5 you are paying more to produce a bad service or product, since your hidden failure costs will be really high. If you are between 5 and 7 then yes OK, you are producing your product or service cheaply – but you can’t sell it for as much as if you were producing it at 7 or 8.
- Find ways to delight your customers with unexpected levels of customer service. These often don’t cost much and lead to loyalty, repeats and recommendations.
- Make sure your customer service systems are spot on so that the basics always get done right 100% every time. This requires lists and training but it’s more important than most companies realise – it’s the way that most of your customers judge you, since it’s hard for them to judge the technical content of your product or service.
- Keep your promises – write everything down so you never forget anything. And then always do what you say you’ll do.
- Delegate as much as you can. Most managers don’t delegate enough. Delegation is hard but it’s the number one management skill. Every hour you delegate each week saves you a week per year, as well as making your employees more challenged and satisfied and you more able to think, take time off, or even sell the business and retire.
- Discover and control your personality drivers: you may have one or more of Be Perfect, Hurry Up, and Please Others.
- Learn to influence others, particularly how to adapt to and get the best from the four types of person: the Analytical, the Controller, the Enthusiast, and the Amiable.
- Reduce the queues in your business by making sure that you have between 20% and 80% of spare capacity. This costs money but makes customers much happier, and you can charge them more because of it. If you cut costs and reduce capacity you inevitably end up giving worse service to your customers, who will leave.
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