Several weeks ago, I dropped off several pairs of shoes at a local shoe repair shop. On Monday, I drove to the shop at 2:15 p.m. to pick up my newly repaired shoes. There was a note scribbled on the shop's front door that said, "Be Back at 3:30". I found this to be frustrating - the shoe repair shop is a twenty minute drive from my office. Therefore, I wasted about forty minutes of my time attempting to pick up my shoes. I returned at 4:00 when I picked up (and paid for) my shoes.
"Big deal," you might say. "You had to wait to get your shoes. Stuff happens."
But I haven't told you that this was the third time I had attempted to pick up my shoes but was unsuccessful, because the shoe repair shop wasn't open during their posted hours of business.
Additionally, when I had dropped off my shoes, I had to wait fifteen minutes for the shop to open, even though--according to the posted hours of operation--they should have been open when I arrived. Another customer waiting with me told me that the shop was often not open when they were supposed to be.
How can a business stay in business when it doesn't meet the most basic customer commitment of being open when it says it's going to be open? I don't know the answer to that question, but I know that most companies would not survive in today's competitive environment with such a low level of commitment to its customers.
So let me offer an idea in hopes that some hungry entrepreneur out there will be intrigued.
Move to Eagan, Minnesota, and open a shoe repair shop (Eagan is a nice suburb of Minneapolis-St.Paul. It was listed as the 12th best place to live in Money magazine's 2006 "Best Places to Live" feature. You can check it out at http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/bplive/2006/snapshots/PL2717288.html.).
There are 67,448 people in Eagan (that means there are 134,896 feet in Eagan - if each foot owns, say, eight, that's 1,079,168 shoes that reside within Eagan's city limits). Make sure your shop is open when your "Hours of Operation" sign says you're going to be open, and I'm sure you'll do very well.
After you're up and running, create a mail-in cardboard box with your logo and your address on it. Hand out and mail out these boxes to your customers so they can mail their shoes to you when they need your services (by doing so you can expand your market beyond the local Eagan area). When you're done repairing your customer's shoes, mail them back to the customer within a week, a la Netflix, so customers can use the same box to mail their next pair of shoes to you when they're in need of repair. Set up your website so your customers can track the progress of their shoe repairs. Make it easy for your customer and they will reward you with ongoing business.
After your business is open, contact me via my website so I can become a customer!
Skip Anderson is the Founder and President of Selling to Consumers, a B2C sales training and consulting firm. Subscribe to the free Selling to Consumers Sales Tips newsletter at www.SellingToConsumers.com
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