Not the right things to say

Are you resigning to what has happened?

In this past week I attended a couple of trade shows and at each had the opportunity to visit a store owner I have know for several years. With each of these owners, there had been a couple of years we did not get to visit because of the pandemic.

During each conversation, as I asked how business has been since our last visit, the owner responded with something to the effect of, “Things are starting to get back to normal”.

The second owner made a comment to the effect of, “We are just riding the wave”.
While we understood the comment of the first owner to mean that the stress of the pandemic had subsided, each of their responses warranted follow up questions.

These were not rhetorical questions, but given with the intent to cause each owner to rethink how they are currently operating their business.

“How do you define ‘normal’? Are there things in your life that have changed since the pandemic?”

And as the answer was an expected, “yes”, our follow up question was regarding their business.

“If your life has been changed, and we can expect your customers have had similar experiences, why then are you looking to your business to return to the way you operated in 2019?”

Perhaps with a recession it would be reasonable to expect that a business would operate in post-recession much like it did pre-recession.

The pandemic has been much different. A visit to a chain fast food business had us finding a sign detailing the 13 ways that the business could take payment. Yes, one of the payment methods was cash.

There are plenty of businesses, primarily chain, that are taking away the conveniences provided to customers. They have done so under the guise of ease and health, along with changes stating the reasons are staffing challenges.

Here’s our question to you; Are you making the after-effects of the pandemic, and the changes made by the retailers just mentioned, work to your advantage?

With the second owner, the comment of, “just riding the wave” is perhaps indicative of recognizing what has happened since March 2020 but not seeing the opportunity and/or challenge.

With the exception of dry cleaners, restaurants, and a few other small business categories, there was a lot of extra business to be had because of the restrictions placed on each of our lives. With so many things we could not do; so many ways we could not do things; we found other ways to consume our time and money. It was as this owner stated, “a wave”.

Your business experienced an uptick. Your business experienced new and more frequent customers. But as things change that give people the opportunity to consider other things for their time and money, what are you doing to see that it is your business that retains their focus?

Definitely, there are many who visualize the wave in the same way as someone who is surfing and riding a wave. Eventually the wave dies down as it approaches the shore. It does not have to be that way for your business. Instead, let’s use the experience of a cruise ship that has a wave maker machine.

Move the example to your business. Your creativeness; marketing skills; and drive can be the wave making machine in your business.

Want your business to continue to be strong? “Just riding the wave”, or “Things are getting back to normal” are two expressions that do not belong in your vocabulary.

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This article is copyrighted by Tom Shay and Profits Plus Solutions, who can be reached at: PO Box 128, Dardanelle, AR. 72834. Phone 727-823-7205. It may be printed for an individual to read, but not duplicated or distributed without expressed written consent of the copyright owner.