What are the signs of a good business?
 

In the past few weeks I have really paid attention to whether a business owner or employee is responding to my needs. Please feel free to add on other suggestions.

- I prefer to deal with a real person. If I have to leave a message and there is no response within a day then I start looking somewhere else.

- Don't brag about yourself.

- Please listen to me and what my needs are, namely the customer.

- Try and provide a solution to my problems.

- If I say the oil has been overfilled in my car in the past, please do not let it happen again.

- Don't lie to me.

- Again pay attention to what I am saying.

Cheers,:)

Delivered as promised

underpromise, overdeliver

Was chatting with a traveling salesman the other day. He said his one sure sign of a bad auto repair shop, is a mini van 3rd row seat stacked high with auto parts returns in the waiting room of the customer waiting area as the only seat .
I thought that was funny.

Do as you said you would do, and if you can't, give me a rational explanation as to why you couldn't as well as what we can do to get the desired results.

As above. Add in a vision of where there want to go in the future and a plan to get there.

As for customer service, I think Disney is the best. Check them out some time. Amazing!

In the Uk anyway, it is universally difficult to get a plumber, electrician, or builder, even to come out to quote. Many make appointments they dont keep. Others dont bother to quote once they have seen the job,and these are not necessarily small jobs. Lead times with these guys are always fiction if you do manage them to do the work. Is it the same in the US?
With my business if I dont quote right away over the phone( ie my phone goes to voicemail as I am already busy) the potential customer is lost to a competitor.

It's been my experience here that Plumbers and Electricians are pretty good about showing up and telling you how much something is going to cost. They make pretty good money.

There is a subset of skilled labor that acts as you have described, and that's folks that do work that's more like handyman type stuff usually called contractors. Repairs of bits and bobs, painting inside or out or miscellaneous work around a house. They may or may not show up on time or at all. If the job is scheduled to take a week or two, they may not show up every day until it's done, so a 5 day job may take 2 or 3 weeks. THey may start a job but not finish it. I think that's often because they'll require partial payment up front or part way through the job.

I'm sure there are some very good ones, but I'm not sure that I've ever met one.

Look for a business that has a lot of long term employees (excluding nepotism).
I find that when the company treats the employees well, the employees treat the customers in a like manner. Happy employees:
-feel valued
-feel that their opinions matter
-aren't micro-managed
-are treated respectfully
AND
-have good pay and benefits in line with the job they do

Find a place that has employees that have been there a long time (not counting family members that work there) and you'll find a good place to do business.

I don't really care if people (customers) think we are a good business or not. I spend all of my time trying to make each customer happy, and keep my crew happy. It's a tough goal, which is met by making dozens of other goals. At the end of each day, there is no time to worry how we are rated. Ultimately, each customer will decide if they would be happier going somewhere else, and I know that we have poured everything we've got into it.