Thank you i just lodged in to cancel my membership here I was thinking no point if every thing i do and say here gets twisted after reading your post going to hold off doing that .problem is i have no clue how to take advantage of said phenomena going to have to learn
Here is what I would specifically impart...
Continue making solid products. I've heard nothing but good things about them. Quote times you can deliver on consistently. Meet your deadlines. Whatever you say you will do be prepared to deliver on. If that means dialing it back a notch and being more conservative that is not a bad thing. Have a good system for tracking orders and commitments and keep profuse notes. Manage and drive customer expectation. Follow up is vital. Good or bad you should drive communication.
As a consumer, communication is at the very top of my list. For each order consider communicating with a client 5 times. 1. When you accept an order. 2. A thank you for the order and a confirmation of what was discussed or quoted. 3. An update (sanity check) as it nears the shipping phase confirming that it is on schedule (example; at 5 weeks into a 6 week quoted order). 4. Notification of shipment. 5. follow up after shipping the product 7-14 days after sale. That is where you measure your success.
If at the sanity check the shipment is behind schedule, update the time to something realistic. Whatever you quote (e.g. 2 more weeks) hit your target even if it means a few late nights to get caught up. Client disappointment begins at this stage but when you hit your required target the good feeling comes back again and the client forgets all about it so long as the delivered product is good... The "it was worth the wait" feeling.
Long wait times are inherent with custom orders. The longer the period the more uneasy a customer will become. It's just human nature. Managing the customer expectation goes a long way to improving the overall experience.
Excellent experiences are something that people like to brag about in general. We live in a social age with lots of social tools. I don't think anyone has ever grown out of the grade school show and tell. Spend a little time reading through reviews and New Bass Day (NBD) posts. People want to talk about their experiences. Give them something to brag about and let word of mouth spread. Buisiness, like trust, is earned. Once earned hold on to it like a valuable friendship.
If you're at a stage where you are wanting to really grow your business you will need to measure and track everything; build times, supply lead times, expenses, profitability, product reliability, advertising, customer satisfaction, everything. Good metrics are paramount. Use them as predictors for adjusting your business as you move along.
Local colleges often have business assistance programs which will help with various areas of development which can be free or low cost. Alternatively there are a lot of good books and online resources as well. Business communication, time management, managing customer experience, just in time inventory management, there is tons of great stuff. Heck if Google and YouTube suddenly went offline I think I'd be in trouble some days.
Now strictly as a potential client, I am slow and deliberate. I am not an early adopter. I read, watch and wait for others to experience and chime in. I gauge my experience based on theirs. I promise you there are tons like me here. If you're turning around your business people will notice.
