By Jerome Williams

Common Sense Management Consulting, LLC

No matter how good your product and your service, it is difficult to succeed without effective marketing. This begins with careful, systematic research. It is dangerous to assume that you already know about your intended market. To make sure you’re on track, do market research.

There are a number of ways to conduct market research. You can gather your own data about your market and your industry, or you can buy research data from professional sources. There are advantages and challenges to both. Here are some cost effective ways to conduct your own market research.

If you’re opening a store front business, a retail establishment or a restaurant, you can do your own traffic count at your intended location. The Florida State Department of Transportation also has traffic and population data available for urbanized areas in Florida. You can access this information free of charge. To identify competitors in the area, take a walking or riding tour through the surrounding neighborhoods.

Use the internet to do a business search by zip codes. The zip code search will reveal most business listings in a given zip code area.

Create your own survey or focus-group interview. This is an excellent way to learn about consumer preferences. Survey Monkey – www.surveymonkey.com – allows you to create your own surveys for free, with a nominal charge for additional services.

Search published information such as industry profiles, trade journals, newspapers, magazines, census data, and demographic profiles. You can access some of this material at your public library. Try using White Papers and social media sites such as Facebook and Linkedin to gather information about your market.

Identify your targeted customers, their characteristics, and their geographic locations. You may have more than one customer group. Identify the most important groups. Then, for each customer group, construct a demographic profile. The profile should include factors such as age group, gender, income level or spending habits. Even if you are selling products or services to everyone, it is important to determine, as best you can, who is most likely to use your products (or services).

Check with the Better Business Bureau to get an idea of how customers see your competitors. Don’t forget to include at least one on line vendor, if one exists in your industry. Some may offer better pricing, but lack the personal and expedient customer service (How many buttons do you have to push before getting a live person, or one who isn’t reading from a script?).

Lastly, review all the information you have collected, and decide a plan of action. Establish priorities. Write a summary of what you’ve discovered and how you plan to address it.

Use Market Research as a tool to develop a Marketing Plan for your business. Keep the plan handy. You may want to go back and make changes as you gradually implement (or not) some of its elements. Market Research, along with a Marketing Plan, will help you maintain and grow your business.

1.Be an Educated Buyer!  There are so many ways to learn about computers and point of sale.  You can go to a library, browse the Internet, visit a local computer store or even another business that has a POS system.

2. Know what you want from your POS software before you buy anything.   Make a list of functions you would like the point of sale system to handle.   Prioritize the list.

3. Buy only time tested products.   Make sure that the POS software has been used in many businesses similar to yours and get references. Call the references.

4. Don’t underspend.   Search for value, not price.   The price is important, but a good system is going to pay for itself many times over anyway. 

5. Find a consultant that you trust and have confidence in.  Having a Value Added Reseller (VAR) or advisor to assist you with the implementation of a POS system will be well worth the investment.    The VAR should be familiar with the system and will be able to get you up and running quickly.

6. Don’t try to automate your whole business in just one day, or even one month.  Take your time to get all the staff trained, and allow time to work out the kinks.  It can take a year or more to fully utilize the software.

7. Start fresh from the day you install the system.   Don’t try to enter past history into the computer.  And generally, we don’t recommend trying to put in accurate inventory counts on the very first day.  If your VAR recommends it, after analyzing your particular company, then we would defer to his expertise. 

8. Back up your data daily.  Test the back up occasionally.   Keep a back up copy off site. 

9. Buy a support contract from the POS vendor/VAR.  Keep current with upgrades. 

10. Install a battery backup and dedicated electric line for your computer.  Power surges, summer outages due to heavy a/c use and other similar events occur regularly.  Clean, filtered electricity is as important a component of a successful point of sale system as anything else. 

Craig Aberle is the President of Ebiz Corp, the publisher of http://www.barcode.com and http://www.pointofsale.com both online magazines dedicated to their respective industries. He was the founder and CEO of MicroBiz Corp from 1986 to 2000, a leading developer of software for small business. He has an undergraduate degree from SUNY Buffalo and an MBA from The Wharton School.   He serves as a volunteer for SCORE mentoring small business owners and is an author of - “How To Computerize Your Small Business.” (Wiley and Sons NY), and has given over 100 seminars across the country on “The Benefits of Automation.”

Interesting and relevant links:

How to choose a Value Added Reseller (VAR)

How to Increase Sales with a Point of Sale system

The BarCodeNews

 Copyright (c) 2010 Ebiz Corp All Rights Reserved.    TheBarCodeNews    ThePointofSaleNews

While I waited patiently for my turkey club sandwich, the owner commented that he was surprised by the response to the newspaper article about his . I told him that now that the secret was out, he might want to consider getting extra help, at least temporarily, to deal with the influx of new customers.

I raved about this little cafe to a colleague when I returned to my office. It was neat and clean, the owner kept the food covered and refrigerated, and he also had specials available. The very next day, three of us went to this spot, based upon my recommendation.  And that’s when it hit…  There were five people ahead of us and one sitting down eating.

I immediately asked about the specials.  He told me that he didn’t have time to prepare any because he had been too busy. So we put in our orders (of the five customers ahead of us three were not ready to order).

The owner had one assistant helping. However, neither had protective covering on their hands or head. We noticed that there was uncovered raw meat in a container on the back counter.  We also observed that the that the fryer was not turned on for french fries (the fries were part of our order, and I guess we were the first ones to order fries that afternoon).

While the assistant started preparing our orders, two of the three who had not ordered left.  The other customer still hadn’t placed his order (he was on his cell phone).  Meanwhile, the customer who was seated had finished his meal and was waiting patiently to pay.  He waited…and waited.  Realizing that there was a problem, I told the assistant that the customer had been waiting to pay, and she relayed the information to the owner.  The owner apologized to the customer as he collected payment.

While our orders were being prepared, five more customers came in.  After five minutes, they left, but not before expressing their displeasure about the service.  The owner never acknowledged their presence until they spoke up when they were leaving.  Three more customers walked in before our order was completed, and left also.  I don’t even think the owner knew that they were there.

While some of you business owners think that this can’t happen to you, it is important to plan for increased activity.  Why wait until something happens? Think about the potential losses to your credibility if you aren’t proactive.  Your business may stay afloat for a while, but it will not grow.  If you don’t prepare yourself for increased activity, eventually your business may disappear.

I left my business card on the owner’s counter, and I hope he calls me for professional assistance before it’s too late.

Recently I read a review about a new “cafe” in my neighborhood. The service was friendly, the food tasty, and the location easily accessible. On the first day that the article appeared, I decided to try this establishment and, while the service was a little slow, I didn’t mind because the owner was friendly and the seven customers that I counted didn’t seem to mind the wait for a freshly made sandwich or a steak sandwich cooked to order.

While I waited patiently for my turkey club sandwich, the owner commented that he was surprised by the response to the newspaper article about his business. I told him that now that the secret was out, he might want to consider getting extra help, at least temporarily, to deal with the influx of new customers.

I raved about this little cafe to a colleague when I returned to my office. It was neat and clean, the owner kept the food covered and refrigerated, and he also had specials available. The very next day, three of us went to this spot, based upon my recommendation. And that’s when it hit… There were five people ahead of us and one sitting down eating.

I immediately asked about the specials. He told me that he didn’t have time to prepare any because he had been too busy. So we put in our orders (of the five customers ahead of us three were not ready to order).

The owner had one assistant helping. However, neither had protective covering on their hands or head. We noticed that there was uncovered raw meat in a container on the back counter. We also observed that the that the fryer was not turned on for french fries (the fries were part of our order, and I guess we were the first ones to order fries that afternoon).

While the assistant started preparing our orders, two of the three who had not ordered left. The other customer still hadn’t placed his order (he was on his cell phone). Meanwhile, the customer who was seated had finished his meal and was waiting patiently to pay. He waited…and waited. Realizing that there was a problem, I told the assistant that the customer had been waiting to pay, and she relayed the information to the owner. The owner apologized to the customer as he collected payment.

While our orders were being prepared, five more customers came in. After five minutes, they left, but not before expressing their displeasure about the service. The owner never acknowledged their presence until they spoke up when they were leaving. Three more customers walked in before our order was completed, and left also. I don’t even think the owner knew that they were there.

While some of you business owners think that this can’t happen to you, it is important to plan for increased activity. Why wait until something happens? Think about the potential losses to your credibility if you aren’t proactive. Your business may stay afloat for a while, but it will not grow. If you don’t prepare yourself for increased activity, eventually your business may disappear.

I left my business card on the owner’s counter, and I hope he calls me for professional assistance before it’s too late.

Posted under

Strategic Planning

February 2, 2009

Before embarking on a new journey of starting my own consulting business, I worked for an organization that grew from six hundred to over thirteen hundred employees in a three-year period. For a number of years, I managed the second largest department, and I was the “front man”, dealing with visitors/customers on a daily basis. As we grew, so did the need for better customer service. We were told that the customer was always right, and I had the responsibility of ensuring the policies and procedures were followed, even if the customers or visitors did not agree with them.

As we increased in our in attendance and in the customers we served in our retail shops, parking garage, checkroom and theaters, so did the number of complaints. We received complaints about our policies and procedures, our strict enforcement of the policies and procedures, our service, and ultimately our employees. The customer was always right, even if I didn’t always agree.

If I made exceptions to some of the procedures, i.e. no refund without a receipt, no admittance after a show had begun, no discount because a coupon had expired, I had to justify to higher ups why I made the exception. If I followed the policies and procedures to the letter, I had to explain why the customer went “over my head” to someone else in authority. It was a no win situation.

Upon reflection, I now realize that as an employee, I reacted to a customer’s complaint. I stonewalled the customer rather than listen objectively to what the customer was saying. As a manager, I got frustrated when employees didn’t handle a situation. The interactions with the customer and with the employee were confrontational. But it really had nothing to do with the customer.

It is all about perception. It does not matter who you believe is right. What matters is how a situation is handled. And that is the responsibility of the employees And the Management! It is also about respect. Employees should be taught to respect the concerns of the customer. Also, they need self-respect so that they do not get baited into a confrontation. Neither employees nor management should personalize a situation, or perceive himself/herself to be under attack. Employees and Managers must learn to listen objectively and to read between the lines.

Once, a customer (an adult, I was sure) asked for the time schedule for shows in our theater. I replied, “The film is shown from 10:30 to 4:30 p.m. daily, every hour on the half hour.” The customer then asked, “What is daily?” This wasn’t the first time I was asked this same question. Exasperated, I replied, “Seven days a week is daily.” Of course, the customer was not pleased. I came across as being snide. What I could have said, and probably should have said was: “From Sunday through Thursday, shows are at 10:30, 11:30, 12:30, 1:30, 2:30, 3:30 and 4:30. On Friday and Saturday the schedule is the same, with additional shows at 6:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. May I help you with anything else?”

I knew what the customer was asking, even though I thought that I had explained it by saying, “daily.” I never said that we weren’t open, and I assumed that by saying “daily”, the customer would know that I meant seven days a week. If I didn’t want to give the complete breakdown, I could have just answered that we were open every day, and that the 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. schedule was in effect every day of the week.

Another confrontational situation can occur when deciding to give a customer a refund. We would tell our employees not to give refunds without a receipt and to call a supervisor if the customer objected. The customer doesn’t want to hear, “I can’t give you a refund; that’s our policy!” And then the supervisor would get frustrated because the employee called. Sometimes, the supervisor would chew out the employee because of the call.

An employee may be able to say, “I am not authorized to give a refund without approval of my supervisor. I will gladly contact him/her for you.” The supervisor should accept that these situations will occur. Management should allow for employees to feel comfortable talking to customers, and Management should be objective in dealing with the employees.

Using an experienced consultant to conduct your company’s customer service training is beneficial in many ways. It has been my experience that employees and management voice their concerns better when using an outside source. The use of a consultant can be a positive factor in getting customer service back on track.