Do You Have The Courage Of An Entrepreneur?
March 4, 2010
Years ago, I heard the statement “the fastest way to personal growth is to open your own business.” Thirteen years after opening my first business, I can promise that statement is true. Like many people who are self-employed, I came out of the corporate world, where I was used to having support staff, creative people around me to bounce ideas off of, and the big bosses over me to handle the heat. I also had janitorial staff to clean the office and technical support staff to handle an errant computer. When I left all that to open my own business, I soon discovered that my support staff, creative people, big bosses, janitorial staff and technical staff was the person I saw when I stared into my mirror.
My business was brand new and very small, one room in an office building. I had to handle everything, whether I was “trained” to handle it or not. I had to discover what I did well, what I enjoyed the most, what I hated to do, when I could afford to hire help, and what help I needed to hire first. I had to stretch and grow quickly. Fortunately, because I had solid experience in growing a business, the Touch Therapy Center (a massage clinic I own to this day) built itself quickly. Within the year, I could hire help for cleaning and laundry service. Next came a bookkeeper. Now, 13 years later, I manage the business while other staff do most of the therapeutic massage, I’m in a medical office building with multiple treatment rooms, and I have a practice manager to handle the front desk, errands, and most adminstrative tasks.
What I want to point out is the rocky path of personal growth it takes to get from year one to year thirteen, turning a profit the whole way. Here are some of the things I had to learn or consider:
- Watch my operating costs and bottom line – I had to remain profitable even if I was spending more money on getting help with cleaning, laundry service, and so forth. Watching my weekly financial statements was critical, or I could have worked myself crazy and not made a dime.
- Know myself well enough to figure out what I liked to do and was good at versus what I am not so good at and am not fond of doing. One of these in the massage business is laundry. I didn’t enjoy dragging home loads of sheets and spending my evenings sorting, washing, drying, and folding them. And I wasn’t particularly great at it, either. On the other hand, I’m very practiced and skillful at attracting clients. I didn’t need or want to pay anyone to handle marketing for me, other than getting help with a design for my business card. It was easy for me and saved me money to develop my own brochures and press releases.
- I had to find out about my willingness to take risk and how to handle the good and bad that came from that risk. Should I move into larger office space and increase my rent? If so, how much more business would I need to generate to remain at my same level of profit? Could I get larger space, spend more money, and at the same time make even more money? Could I negotiate new lease terms that were favorable to me?
Before long, I had a very busy practice and was ready to hire other staff. Now, I could draw on my past experience as an Executive Director and use my past hiring skills. This time, if I made a bad decision, it was mind and mine alone to deal with, for better or for worse.
And, after about 8 years, I had to make a decision about opening my second business, The Confident Marketer. Other entrepreneurs had been asking me for serveral years how I’d built my business, how I knew what to do when, how I got profitable. I found that I absolutely loved helping other self-employed people be successful. So, about 5 years ago, The Confident Marketer was born. And with it, a whole new level of personal growth and challenge was necessary. It’s one reason I keep myself always working with top coaches who can help me face up to the personal growth and new business skills I need to keep my business successful and innovative.
The point to my story is that it takes courage to be an entrepreneur. You have to be willing to find out what you don’t know, get help with those things you don’t do well, and become expert at a few things that are yours and yours alone. You have to be willing to step up to intimately knowing and watching your financials (something I find many new entrepreneurs don’t want to do). You have to make decisions using both the facts and figures AND your gut feelings — your intuitive skills. And when there is a problem, you have to be willing to meet it and work it through, taking time to consider whether and how much it affects your customer service and your bottom line.
All this takes a great deal of courage and a willingness to grow both personally and professionally. A great business takes three things – a solid biz plan, a creative and well-thought-out marketing plan, and a willingness to do engage in personal growth. And behind those three vital things is courage. Step right up, and see how quickly your business becomes unstoppable!
(c) Sue Painter
Could Your Business Withstand A Disaster?
January 18, 2010
The plight of the Haitian people and their country is on everyone’s mind. The images we see on the news are horrific, pulling at my heart. Literally, Haiti will have to rise from the ashes like a Phoenix. Even with massive aid from many countries, getting the country set up and the people well will take much time.
Disaster visits without warning and quickly. On a personal level, it could be unexpected illness or the death of someone dear. For your business, it might be flood, fire, or an employee who causes harm. Think about the small business owners in Haiti right now. If their business is in rubble they have no way to make money even if they could offer what their customers need most. If their business was left standing there is no security to protect it. Already, many shops have been looted for their goods. Some shop owners have simply opened their doors and emptied out their shop, giving away everything they have.
Your business will withstand disaster only to the extent that you have systems in place that you can lean on when something goes wrong without warning. While this isn’t a comprehensive list, here are your main concerns.
- Are your business’s assets insured? What would happen if a disaster caused you to lose your office or the equipment you need to carry out your business? You can either buy insurance or self insure, meaning that you have set aside money that could immediately be used to replace your lost equipment and get your doors open again.
- Do you have back-up systems in place, and do you use them regularly? Could you recreate your financial records easily? Are your customer records secure and backed up either physically or electronically?
- Have you thought about how to handle the sudden loss of a key employee? Do you have a comprehensive list of what that person does and how she does it? Do you have a way to get additional help quickly if you lose someone to illness or accident? The more you have your work systems documented in an operations manual, the quicker you can get up and running, back to making income.
- Have you planned how to handle your business if you become unable to work for a while? Is there someone who knows enough about what you do to step up and fill in until you can work again?
If you are a business owner who truly depends on the money you make, it is vital to have answers to these questions. What I see for many solo business owners is that even the slightest disaster shuts them down completely. These owners ARE their business. When they can’t work, there is no income at all. Even an illness like the flu effectively shuts them down. They’ve never thought about alternatives. Often, the loss of momentum creates a negative spiral that the solo business owner never recovers from. Their business just slowly winnows away.
One of my own businesses suffered a mini-disaster over the past few months, in fact. In early December I had major surgery that I knew would keep me away from the massage clinic I own. Plans were fully in place for my staff to take over my own work with clients. My practice manager was prepped and ready to take care of management and administrative work that I normally handle. My start date to come back to the clinic was set. My clients were all informed and taken care of. Well, while I was still in the hospital, the practice manager’s father was found to be terminally ill. She left town and even now has not returned to work. Four weeks after my surgery, I unexpectedly had to have a second surgery due to complications from the first, making it impossible for me to meet my return to work date. One staff member left unexpectedly. Suddenly, I was down to one hard-working staff member and what I could administratively handle by phone. The systems I’ve put in place for that business saved my bacon, and allowed us to continue to serve clients, make money, and handle at least the bare minimum of administrative work. While I used to chaff over the time it took to put operations manuals and back up plans in place, now I am very grateful that I had them.
Disaster don’t have to be as large as the Haitian earthquake to effectively shut your business down. If you want to recover quickly and continue to make money, get your plans and systems in place and review them at least once a year. Your bank account will show the results and your business will suffer far less than those with no planning at all.
(c) Sue Painter
Why Discounting Your Prices Doesn’t Build Your Business
November 8, 2009
One of the things I hear from solo professionals pretty often is that the way to make more money is to discount their prices. I’ve railed against this for years, and told stories about talented entrepreneurs who discounted themselves right out of business. If you are one to think that discounting does your biz good, think again and take these points to heart.
- Highly successful businesses don’t compete on price alone. They are smart enough to know that being the cheapest isn’t a strong USP (unique selling proposition). Instead, they want you to spend money with them because their service is better, their designers more creative, their merchandise higher quality, they are more convenient, or their knowledge and expertise gives you a value far and above what you pay.
- You don’t want your customers buying from you only because you are the cheapest deal around. Here is one big reason why – cheap customers are not loyal customers. They buy only on price, so as soon as Sally down the street offers a floral arrangement for even one dollar cheaper, off they go. You need repeat, loyal customers. Constantly having to find new customers AND having to find them only because you are the cheapest deal around will flat wear you out. You will “churn” customers rather than create a willing customer base for your business. You will work much harder for every dollar you earn, and you will earn less dollars (because your prices are cheaper).
- When you discount constantly, you get customers trained to never pay full price. I wrote a blog post about this some time back that illustrates this. Lately, Talbot’s has gotten into the bad habit of constantly offering sales. I never pay full price there and I never will – I know that I can always wait it out and get a nice discount and maybe even free shipping. Too bad for Talbot’s that they have trained me and a dozen other people I know to never pay full price. That also gets me to thinking that if they can discount THAT much, their prices might be highly inflated to begin with – not something Talbot’s needs me to be thinking!
- It is a strange phenomena but it’s true that people will hunt down the cheapest price, gleefully pay it, and then not much value what they bought. Now what you’ve got on your hands is a customer you discounted to, and the thanks you get in return is that they really don’t even value what they got from you. That doesn’t make them want to come back to you, does it?
- If you have set your prices fairly (that means, you are making a good profit but you’re not gouging, either) then discounting may mean you don’t cover your costs. Service business are especially bad about getting themselves into this trap, because they are not purchasing product to resale. Instead, they are selling their time and expertise. I’ve seen hair dressers and massage therapists deep discount 30% only to find they are working like dogs and can’t pay their rent and utilities at the end of the month. Have they gotten clients? Yep. Are they going to stay in business? Nope. They have, in essence, worked themselves right out of business.
If you want to offer a special deal in order to grow your business don’t do it by discounting. Instead, ADD a small product or service without charge. This does TWO things – it ADDS value rather than lessens values. And, it shows your customers a new product or service that they might not have known you have – something they may decide they can’t live without the next time they are in.
Bottom line – in most cases, discounting doesn’t serve you in building your business. Solo professionals and small business owners are not the same as super-big-box stores who can spend millions advertising and churn new customers constantly. You want to cherish your customers, treat them well, offer fair value, and give true benefits in your products and services. This will build a solid business with loyal, repeat customers who value you and what you offer.
(c) Sue Painter
How to Lose a Sell and Hack Me Off!
August 12, 2009
So here’s the story – I’d been looking around for someone to take an old, template-based website I’ve had for a while to an updated look with a slant toward the speaking side of my work. An acquaintance suggested a small solopreneur firm out of town, I e-mailed for some info, looked at some of their work, and decided to talk with the woman. We decided to speak on a Monday, at which time she wanted her team to be on the call to listen to what I wanted. She also mentioned that she’d be happy to chat informally over the weekend to get to know each other a bit. (Point 1 – over that weekend, I noticed, she didn’t call – no biggie, but still, lack of initiative there.)
Monday came, no call from her, so 10 minutes after the hour I called her. She answered, sounding surprised, with dog barking in background. Reporting a sore throat and a visit to the doctor earlier that day, she said she didn’t feel like talking and had e-mailed me a few hours before to reschedule the call. Hmmm….doctor in the morning, but no “let’s cancel” e-mail until 90 minutes before the call (point 2). Feeling sorry that she was ill, I agreed to a call the next day.
Next day, on Tuesday, she called. I quickly noticed that there was no team on the line, only her. We talked and I told her specfically that I wanted a site that I could go in and change easily, the type of links I wanted, and that I wanted a Wordpress blogsite. The website was to be only 4 pages, pretty small, but with a lot of links. The call was pleasant enough, she asked good questions, and mentioned that her company did develop in Wordpress often. She agreed to have a proposal to me by Thursday. I thought that was a little long, but given that her team was not on the call as planned (no explanation given for that), OK. (Point 3 – no team on the call and Point 4, solopreneurs usually can give quotes right then and there or at the latest in 24 hours).
Thursday came and went, no proposal arrived. Late Friday I got an email promising the proposal over the weekend. The weekend came and went, no proposal arrived. (Points 5 &6!) Monday came and went, Tuesday came and went, no proposal. Voila! On Wednesday a proposal came with a suggestion that to move ahead we NOW schedule the call with her team.
Let me tell you, she’d already lost me. Remember that know, like, and trust factor? I didn’t trust her word for beans by now. If it takes 10 days to get a 4 page proposal out of a solopreneur what the heck is it going to take to get a website out of her? I would not have agreed to work with her if the work had been free, truly. But, I opened the proposal and to my irritation, frustration, and total astonishment here’s what I saw:
- A $4900 price tag for a 4 page website.
- A statement that the site would be built in Joomla.
There was more, but I can stop right there. The price tag is, in my experience and opinion, ridiculously high. I have 7 sites and not a one of them cost anything NEAR that money. Secondly, the proposal was for something I didn’t ask for and didn’t want. Never did we discuss Joomla in our phone call.
This is exactly, exactly, exactly how NOT TO SELL. It is a classic case of “let me, the seller, tell you WHAT YOU NEED and HOW IT WILL BE DELIVERED no matter what you say you want or need, because I KNOW BETTER THAN YOU WHAT YOU NEED.” ARGHGHGH. Excuse me while I tear my hair out by the roots! I see people lose sales all the time using this “I know better than you know what you need” tactic. It won’t work! There are ways to educate a prospect and gently suggest considering something else, but to write it up with no prior discussion is horrible, terrible sales technique. It also tells me that SHE didn’t have the expertise to suggest this without talking to her technical help – a bad sign.
This woman could be the most capable, talented person on the planet to do this job, but as I have said a zillion times before, that does NOT matter. What matters is her marketing skills, which to be perfectly frank stink worse than a dead skunk in high heat.
I was already totally un-sold, but now I was both un-sold and hacked off. I’d just had 10 days of my time wasted on this project and been treated as if my wants mattered not one whit. So I wrote a short, polite, two-sentence email that said, “Thank you for the proposal, but it was not delivered to me in a timely manner, nor is it a proposal that matches what we discussed in our call. I don’t want to pursue this further. I appreciate your time in speaking with me.”
Will you even believe that I actually got an e-mail back (this time in less than an hour, not 10 days) that basically said “we know better than you what you need, you will never get what you want using WordPress, my develop is a genius, and I stand behind what he said.” Defensive posturing NEVER works in sales. Nor does telling the prospect that she doesn’t know what she is talking about. Even if this is true, the tactic won’t work!
Take a note – don’t attempt to sell this way. Marketing is about relationship building – and this woman missed her cues about 5 different times. Marketing is about being timely – and she was not. Marketing is about gentle leading – she did not. Marketing is about asking for a budget, she did not. Marketing is about not hacking off your prospect – she did. And when you are told there will be no deal, marketing is about taking the hit and moving on, not answering back defensively.
Ugh, what an icky feel. Makes me sad, though. I like to see solopreneurs succeed, but I doubt this one will.
(c) Sue Painter
Resolution: Increase Your Income in the New Year
December 28, 2008
Do yourself, your community, your family, and your business a big, fat favor. Resolve that in the New Year you will not once use the excuse of a bad economy for why your business is not making more money. Resolve that you will not waste time discussing with others what effect today’s economy might have on your business throughout the New Year. Resolve to turn the conversation away from “the economy sucks” when you are talking with other business owners. Resolve to analyze your business’s products and services, just as you should always be doing, and resolve to change what you need to change to meet the market. Resolve to ask your existing clients and customers what they most need from you now, and make it your business to provide exactly that, at the very highest quality and with a keen eye toward customer service. Resolve to discover at least three businesses with whom you can work collaboratively, in such a way that it builds both of you. Resolve to make 2009 a very, very good year.
Resolve to keep uppermost in your mind that energy follows thought. When you really get this concept you will understand that working in each moment to create your life as you want it is the highest and best use of your time. Resolve to keep on this track, and watch your business thrive!
How Many Times Should We Say Thanks?
November 29, 2008
Marketing research often points out that customers like and remember being thanked for their purchase. Now that we all know (I hope we all know!) that finding and keeping customers is all about building relationship, we might wonder how often we need to thank someone if they purchase from us over and over again.
Well, the answer is “you can’t say thank you enough,” and here are a few stories to underscore that fact. I spent Thanksgiving Day with a life-long friend (www.bobgifford.com) who is an A-list realtor. Were we talking business? Of course! He and I have been entrepreneurial since we rescued old, cast-off copy machines from schools, reworked them, and sold them to churches around Huntsville. But back to the point – his customer relationship program prompts him to thank or “touch” each and every client 33 times a year. That, along with his creativity and focus, makes Bob the successful businessman he is. Thirty-three times – even I was impressed with that number!
In my decade-old massage therapy business I’ve long made it a point to say thanks as every single client walks out the door – no matter that I see many of the same people week after week, month after month, year after year. (Some of my massage clients have had the same standing appointment time for nine years or longer now.) Last year just before Christmas a client called – someone I had not seen in several years. She wanted to come by and purchase ten hours of massage therapy as gift certificates for friends. At the end of our call she told me that she came to my business for the 10 gift certificates because she knew I would thank her for the purchase – something she didn’t think a nearby local spa would do. This woman remembered my simple “thank you” for several years and that alone drove a substantial purchase.
Along with simply being good manners, reaching out to touch someone with a word of thanks keeps us in the energy of gratefulness. And from a business perspective, those times we touch someone with a kind word helps drive our business to top-of-mind awareness (TOPA). TOPA most definitely helps your business thrive.
Oh, and thank you for reading this!
Your Business and the Web – Can You Grow Without It?
November 19, 2008
I was a little shocked today to hear that PC Magazine will cease print publication after the January 2009
issue. The magazine is going online only. Last month, I received my last print issue of Scrapbook Retailer magazine – even a magazine devoted to paper artists is taking itself online only. I myself quit snail-mailing newsletters for all three of my businesses well over a year ago, relying only on e-zines.
Last night we punched the button on our built-in microwave oven and it black out and died. This morning, rather than running all over Knoxville looking for a Jenn-Air microwave that would fit into the now-empty hole, I went online, did an online chat with Peter A. of Jenn-Air, talked to a very helpful Sherry, and ordered the replacement microwave and the trim kit. I didn’t even think about driving around in traffic hoping to find a local store with this particular model in inventory.
Seems to me that an online presence for nearly any business is an idea whose times has come. Even if it’s just a simple e-brochure, a website gives you the ability to reach and influence far more potential customers than you will ever be able to do face-to-face, or could afford to do via snail-mail. Internet – it’s here, it’s real, it’s now. if you don’t have a site at all, it’s time to embrace the web.
There are dozens of great web designers out there, here’s a link to someone I trust (you can click this link just to buy a website domain name, too!). The point, though, is to educate yourself about how to effectively use a site to increase the breath and depth of your business. I’ve learned dozens of useful tips from the best designers, here are two that I commonly do not see used on business sites:
- Have a “contact us” or “sign up for our news” block on every single page, not just on the “contact us” page at the back.
- Spread your customer testimonials throughout your site, onto every page. If you have a separate page called “testimonials” few people will take the time to click and read through it. And, match your testimonials with a picture of the person if you can. It adds instant warmth and credibility.
If you want to know more about building a decent website stay tuned, I’ll have more tips in upcoming blogs and will have a web designer talking to my Bet You Build Your Business Mastermind Group soon after the first of the year. Meanwhile, budget site development if you don’t have a site, and budget updating the site if you already have one you don’t visit very often. More about both, later. Web presence is definitely on the list of how to make your business thrive.
Sue P.
It’s Your Business – Today’s Economy
November 12, 2008
Consumer Reports (www.consumerreports.org) did a poll the other day, which tells us that 76% of Americans will cut spending over this holiday season. This means that purchases, travel, parties, gifts, cards and all the related ways we spend at this time of year will be down quite a bit. The poll also points out that about 6% of us (that’s roughly 12 million) still owe credit card debt from last Christmas!
Consumers get savvy in tight times – that’s a fact you can take to the bank. What else will you be taking to the bank over the holiday season, though? As an entrepreneur, you have several advantages over large, lumbering, inflexible businesses. Use these advantages wisely, and you can thrive in the upcoming holiday season that everyone says will be tough.
- Stay close to your customers and listen very carefully to what they need. In tight times, people shift their spending somewhat to things they really need rather than fulfilling wants. I guarantee you have the opportunity to listen better than 90% of large businesses. Listen and learn – and create a program or a product that answers the needs you hear.
- Offer unique, personalized service that no big-box store can hope to match. Deliver, wrap, offer a wish list sign-up, send e-mail messages with “hints” to friends and family. Have more than one special event which you publicize well, with door prizes that make it worth the customer’s time to come by. Offer a small gift if your customer brings a friend. Have live music to set an open and relaxed mood – which offers a gig to a local pianist or other musicians who might be hurting. If you don’t have a store-front, point out that you can help with gift lists via e-commerce, which helps your customer save time and gas money. Collaborate with other entrepreneurs to put together packages and cross-market to each other’s customers.
- Offer your products and services in new ways. If you’re a coach, pull together an hour-long session focused on the New Year and offer it on a gift card. Use your e-zine to point out that friends and family want VALUE in gifts, which your expertise can provide. Offer services to people outside your normal target – advice to kids or elders, for example.
Ask for the referral – ask customers to pass along your name and the unique things you have to offer. Word of mouth advertising is the best you can get, and the cheapest, too!
Use the mantra “listen, create, respond” with every customer and every potential customer. Your willingness to be unique and creative will show and will naturally attract people to you. These tips and your own attitude will create a holiday season in which your business thrives.
Sue P.
Giving Customers the Right Thing
November 2, 2008
I had an early Christmas gift given to me this week. A long-time client brought it, the stylish pink and beige wrapping reflecting the stylish person she is. It was, hands down, one of the most perfect gifts I’ve received for Christmas, ever. I felt this little rush of pure delight when I opened it, and I anticipate enjoying and using it for many years to come. It made me happy and it let me share a moment of pleasure and fun with the giver. The gift and the giving were satisfying to us both.
This early-Christmas event got me thinking about satisfying customers and clients. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that this holds the formula for perfectly serving our customers well, creating one of a series of satisfying moments that meet and even exceed our customer’s expectations. Here are the elements that lead to pleasing me (the ersatz customer):
- The giver knew my interests well, having paid close attention over time to what I talked about
- She was vested in giving me something she knew would be on target
- The gift was useful and allied with one of my interests and activities
- It was something new, just out, and not likely to be something I already had or knew of
- It met a need in me for more information on an activity I often do
- It was timely – she gave it to me before I went out and stumbled across it myself
- The gift gave me the feeling that she cared about me and wanted to please me
- I am left with a feeling of anticipation, looking forward to using it
- The giving built an increased sense of connection and pleasure between the two of us
Do you see how the gift giver did what savvy entrepreneurs do? Following her formula, we’d hit the nail on the head with our customers every single time, and do it in a way that proves to the customer that we are useful to him (or her). We would have a full stable of loyal customers who looked to us to know them and be able to meet their needs. What else could we ask for? We’d be happy, they’d be happy – just like my gift giver and I were.
Over the next month, try serving every customer as if you were seeking and giving them the perfect gift. The step back and evaluate. I’d bet you’ll find that this is another way to make your business thrive.
And to Anna, many thanks.
A Tale of Two Sales & Why Neither One Occurred
October 14, 2008
I often point out to my marketing clients that the link between sales and customer service is unavoidable and very close. An experience I had today reflects this point and shows how easy it is to leave a potential customer undecided and dissatisfied – and with money still in her pocket!
My 3-year-old Palm handheld died, I need something new. Time to consider one of the all-in-one telephone and PDA’s. I’m a free agent right now, my contract with Verizon is up and I can change carriers without penalty. So off I go to AT&T to play with the iPhone, something I’ve been curious about for a while.
As I walked into the AT&T store I’m greeted by a “sales concierge” who asks my name and a few questions, fills in a form, and personally walks me over to an eager-to-be-helpful saleswoman. She answers my many questions patiently, shows me a display iPhone I can play with, and even checks to see if my husband’s corporation offers a discount for setting up an account. I’m interested but wary about call coverage in the rural areas outside Knoxville, where I live. I leave with her card, though, and when I leave I’m pretty convinced that I’ll go back to purchase.
A few hours later I went (for the third time) to the Verizon store just across the street from my office. I’d been there twice before, and after waiting a good 10 minutes and having no one even give me eye contact I left. This time, a tall young man met my eyes right as I walked in and asked if he could help me. Ahhhh….we’re off to a good start! I explain that I’m in the market for a phone/PDA combination and had been off looking at an iPhone, but was undecided and currently a Verizon customer. I also pointed out that I am currently a free agent cell-phone wise – a cue to the salesperson that he has a great opportunity to upgrade my current phone, engage me in yet another two-year contract, and make some good money in the process. “Oh,” says he, upon hearing all this, “Well, sounds like this would be a good time to change since your contract is over.” Before I can get over that reply he launches again, “If you’ve looked at the iPhone, you must like touch-pads. We have the Blackberry, no touch pad to offer you. But thanks for stopping by.”
I hope that you are as aghast at the Verizon salesperson’s lack of finesse as I am. Does the company give no sales training at all? Here this guy has a customer of 8 years standing with him, asking for a solution to her problem, fully able to walk away to another company, and he comes off as uncaring and completely lacking in sales acumen. He may as well have said to me, “Our products really aren’t very good.” Maybe he thinks that, but if so he might think of working somewhere else.
So, you might be wondering, did I go back to get the iPhone, kissing Verizon goodbye? No, not yet – although I still might. I’ve checked around with 3 people who use AT&T and all three independently complained to me that their calls drop constantly – right in the middle of town. This points out another marketing truth – word of mouth will overcome even a good salesperson every single time. While I appreciated the helpfulness of the AT&T salesperson, I can’t deal with dropped calls – and I DON’T live in the center of town.
I still need a new PDA, and I still need a good solution. I’m the epitome of a frustrated customer who can’t find a place to put her money – and in these tight economic times that is really a sad thing for both AT&T and Verizon.
Until next time,
Sue P.