The big E

Efficient or Easy to move on?

Lately, we have noticed numerous situations between a salesperson and customer, in person, on the phone and by email, in which the salesperson has pointed the customer to the Internet for additional information.

One business sent a customer to the Internet because they had failed to order enough sales flyers from the vendor so the customer was told to go look at the manufacturer’s website.

A second, responding to a request for a price, was sent an email with a PDF describing the products and a link to a page online with way too many prices and not enough explanation.

The extreme situation we observed was the business that sent a customer to the manufacturer’s website to pick out colors. Apparently, the business believes that all monitors show colors in identical spectrums.

It is the same with companies that mail you a monthly bill. The statement says, “Paperless billing – it’s easier and more convenient. Sign up online today”. The reality is they save time and money in invoicing but share none of that with you. They also miss the opportunity to communicate with you; to tell about their business and what is new.

The Internet; isn’t that where Amazon lives? So, while a customer is going online to look at the paperless billing statement or to look for additional information about a product or colors, they could just as easily go looking for other places to do business.

Our concern is for this business, and any business that is sending existing and potential customers to the Internet for further information. Our thought is they are inadvertently teaching the customer to do more business on the Internet. These businesses are taking the easy way out. Perhaps they are looking to play the numbers of getting in front of more customers.

We see it also in forms of automation. There is a local pharmacy that has a wonderful technician named Debbie. Even when you have signed up for auto-refill of your prescriptions you can count on a monthly phone call from Debbie who asks if there is anything that needs to be changed.

You aren’t going to get that kind of service from any chain store pharmacy or online pharmacy. That is the kind of personal touch that makes a big difference in making a business unique.

However, the pharmacy decided they wanted to save time and installed a fancy phone system.

“Thanks for calling (name) pharmacy. If you want to…” and so on through all the options. One of which is pressing “4” to order a refill and instead of getting to speak to Debbie and one of her awesome counterparts, you are prompted to enter the digits of the prescription as shown on the current bottle or container. A few more prompts to respond to and your prescription is being filled. Then there are the prompts about pickup or delivery.

With the exception of the delivery service, this fancy phone system is just like the chain store pharmacies. It is very efficient for the business, but the advantage of Debbie is lost.

Too often in our small businesses we forget what our advantages are. We forget what has sustained us over the years and why people choose to do business with us.

“E” does stand for efficient, but it can also represent, “easy to move onto some other business” when we fail to use our advantages.

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