Don’t Let Your Own Success Topple You

This happens most often the day afterThanksgiving and so I?ll use that as an example.

This comes from way back when I worked at a department store as a teenager, and I got my first look at one important thing to consider when it comes to how you handle your marketing and your business.

As with most stores they had a huge day after Thanksgiving sale. Sure enough people came out in massive numbers just like you would expect, and the store saw lots of business. The problem came when certain of the more popular items quickly went out of stock. This issue was made worse by the fact that the store didn?t have any method for compensating for it.

The advertisements didn?t even mention while supplies last on the sale, so people were understandably quite angry to see that they were gone. Even if they had mentioned that, the supplies ended up being so low we ran out in the span of an hour, leaving a solid eleven more hours for the day without any of the product to sell to people.

Guess what most people did? They marched right out of that store and went over to the competition. Did the competition have what they were looking for? I couldn?t really say, but I do know they weren?t pleased with our store. Was this just because we didn?t have the product? No, I don?t think it was. Rather, we had to back up plan should our stocks immediately run out, and they saw that.

The next year someone had learned there lesson. They decided to print special business cards that offered an apology for our stocks running low, and gave them a rain check to come back in when supplies were back up and get the same good deal for when they eventually bought their products.

Sure, people were still upset by the fact that we didn?t have what they wanted, but when they were handed the card you could easily tell that they were at least pleased their time hadn?t been wasted. By coming in early they were still going to get the same good deal. These people walked away much happier, and much more likely to come back, all because someone decided to print business cards offering them a rain check.

For any business this is something to be watchful of. Don?t let your own popularity turn against you because you just weren?t prepared for so many people to come to you. You need to plan for any scenario that you can, even ones that include you getting a whole lot of business.

You don?t want to lose potential customers just because you were too popular and too busy to give them your attention. If you do that too much you won?t find yourself having any problems with being popular again.

Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/ppc-advertising-articles/dont-let-your-own-success-topple-you-638690.html