The Small Business Advantage

Yep,small business has a huge advantage over larger organizations when it comes to social engagement. Truly. You can actually ENGAGE. If you attended one of my workshops you probably heard this story. It's an important one that truly illuminates my very point.

Last December 1st I looked at the calendar and realized it was the day of the first night of Hanukkah. Now as many of my Jewish friends can tell you, it was very early this year. I was not prepared, at all! I ran straight out to a very large and very well-known toy store, situated in the heart of Metro New York. A Metro with a multitude of ethnicities and religions. I digress. After filling up my shopping cart with eight lovely gifts for a very lovely child, I made my way over to the gift wrap department. I looked carefully through the Santa wrap, the Mistletoe wrap, the red and green tree wrap(you know what I'm talking about) and could not find one roll left of Hanukah wrap. I find the Manager and ask
"Where is the Hannukah wrap?"
His reply, "We don't have any."
"Excuse me, " I say "You are sold out already?"
"No, we never carried it." He shrugged his shoulders as if to say "Yeah I know that is crazy". O'k, something doesn't feel right about this.

I head home and hop on Facebook and find this particular very large toy retailer. I "Like" their page and then write "Hey "very larger toy retailer" what's up. No Hanuakah wrap in one of your stores. Just purchased eight nights worth of gifts. Hope you can help." I wait and wait. Oh, someone else comments, "yeah me too." I continue to wait. Checking in from time to time to see if I got some feedback, an email, maybe an I'm sorry, we understand. Not a thing. I go on my own Facebook account and tell my o friends what's going on. They tweeted about it, commented on aforementioned toy store's wall and still hours later absolutely nothing. At 9p that night..."Happy Hannukah from all of us at XYZ." That was it. Not a word about this oversight.

I realized something that probably happened. Their Social Media Manager had to go to the Marketing Director who directed them to the Diversity department, then to HR, then to Legal, then to PR, then back to Marketing for a final sign-off. All those folks had to get involved to make sure they defused a possible sensitive situation. You small business owner do not have to do that. You can engage situations like this right away. You are flexible. You know your own brand and how to protect it. You also know how to make your customers happy and feel satisfied they are being heard.

So what to do:
-Remember the customer is always right
-Don't defend
-You can comment online, but also take it offline, and email, a phone-call
-React as quickly as you can
-Don't be afraid to share with your other customers what happened and how it was resolved.

Bottom line, folks are going to be talking about us. More good then not so good. Just in case a situation arises that might not be so positive, don't resist. Embrace it to show your customers that you do care. Thats what matters most. Plus, their honest feedback can help your businesses and brands grow stronger by fixing things that actually may have been broken!