webgarden.ca

As a fairly new business person, I get pretty nervous when taking in networking events. Networking events are all about “schmoozing” with people and bragging about your self (and your company). What I find so difficult is it is my nature to be humble. I am uncomfortable with tooting my own horn, because as a designer, I don’t expect EVERYONE to love my work. Design (like art) is relative. Maybe you hate my style – that’s ok – as long as I am proud to put my name on it, and my client is happy and receives positive feedback from his peers – that is really all that matters. You can not possibly please everybody all the time.

When I am in networking events, I wish I could just bring samples of my web site designs and have potential clients look at my work to decide if they want to hire me. Unfortunately, the way networking events seem to work, is that if you can talk about yourself highly enough,  people will start to believe you, and you will get hired based on your confidence alone.

People who are modest (like myself) tend to have a hard time with this. I think it is especially difficult for women… at an early age we are taught to “fit in and make friends” – we are not taught to boast about our achievements because doing so is a quick way to lose friends (mostly due to jealousy, I suppose)  Men on the other hand, are taught to “achieve and show-off, and try to be the “leader of the pack” At an early age, men are given rights to brag about all their achievements.

Bragging Rights is a skill that I am learning. It is hard to do, when it goes against your genetic grain. I know it is possible because I meet many business women who are very successful, and not afraid to show it or talk about it – I really admire them, and hope that with a couple more years of business under my belt, I will have the same confidence.

Would you spend $25 to make a customer happy? Or would you spend $25 in order to make a thousand dollars? Most of us would answer yes to the second question but unfortunately not many of us would be willing to spend $25 to make a customer happy… I would.

The way I see it, is that both questions are the same. By spending $25 to ensure my customer’s happiness and satisfaction, I have just ensured that I am going to have this customer for a very long time – perhaps a lifetime, and it is very likely they will spend more than $1000 over their lifetime.

Let me tell you what happened to me yesterday. I had purchased some makeup – eyeshadow to be exact, three days ago. Along with the eyeshadow I purchased some lipstick, moisturizer ect. My bill was $120. I have made many purchases at this spa over the last 2 years, and the amount of money I have spent there is likely around two thousand dollars. That is $1000 per year. 

After trying the eyeshadow on the second day, I realized it’s not for me, and brought it back to EXCHANGE it for a different color. In fact, in the exchange that I hoped to make, I was going to spend MORE money for a better eyeshadow (money money = more profit for the company, doesn’t it?)

I was told that they would not let me do an exchange because I had used the shadow. (I used it once – remember I am trying to return it only 3 days later!) I was so angry! If it had been me, I would have weighed what a customer is likely to spend in a year ($1000 in  my case) and the cost of keeping that yearly sale coming in (approximately $25) and would have eaten the cost of the makeup. I’ll tell you, I will NEVER go back to this spa – because in my opinion, they are not willing to keep their customers happy. 

So what does this mean for the spa? Well I am 31 years old, so if I live until I am 81, that is a potential revenue of $50,000 (or more!) that the spa has missed out on. Wow-that’s a lot of dough!

Talk about short sited on their part! This is a detrimental business mistake. Business is about LONG TERM profits. Although the spa is up $25 in their sales for the month, they are down $1000 for the year, and $50,000 (or more) for the next 50 years.

Wouldn’t it have been a better investment to “eat” the $25 in order to earn $50,000?