Designed for Divine Destinations

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Recession is a word that I hear most every day lately. It’s on the news shows, newspapers, online, twitter, you name it. Is there a recession? YES. Most of these people are talking about an economic recession. We hear about people losing jobs and companies closing. Is this an economic recession or another kind of recession?

Last Friday I went to a networking meeting. It’s an open meet up with no agenda and each Friday it’s rotated to different locations so that several people from the same area can meet up. The person who arranges these meet ups looked for  a local coffee shop for us to meet at. The group looks to support local businesses and encourages all attendees to make a purchase. That’s fair right? One would think that businesses are sprucing up their images and promoting great customer service.What happened last Friday was shocking and shed some real insight as to why so many businesses are closing.

This meet up was arranged with the owner of the business. It was not a great surprise for us all to show up there. I have been to this coffee shop before and I have never seen more than8 people in it at a time. We had 15 people at this event. Once it were to get established, there would be a lot more people show up. That is a lot of business. We got there and the teenager working looked dazed when we started showing up. Apparently the owner had not communicated the information to this teen girl. The owner had a family emergency and had to leave town suddenly which is understandable, however, she is a business owner and should have had things in place for us. This teen girl could not stay past 1:30. Amazing isn’t it? When the person who arranged this talked to her, she asked to speak to a manager, this manager was at another location so she had to be contacted. When we said we had people expecting to show, she said she had no one to send over nor would she come herself. WOW! They made no effort to accommodate or apologize.

So here we are scrambling to secure another location and this was even more incredible. When we looked up coffee houses to find another location, many that were near by closed up. Of the local businesses that were close and open, they closed at 2 and didn’t offer to stay open or required us to book a room. Rent a room? For us to meet at your place and bring you business?? Really?

This is so telling. Considering how many places have closed down one would think that the coffee shops left would be more interested in staying open because all the people that would have gone to the other coffee shops are now limited in their choices. The recession isn’t financial, it’s a service recession.

I live in Mesa, Arizona, part of the Phoenix metro area. So many businesses have closed down here. Many restaurants and coffee houses have closed. Yet I find the remaining ones have dreadful service. In the next city over, Gilbert, there is a man who owns 2 restaurants and a cafe. His businesses are always packed! There are people lined up outside some nights when I drive by, there is always hustle and bustle in his places. He has the most popular cafe around. Does that mean that people in Gilbert have more money to spend? NO. It means that this guy gets what customer service is. He’s not in a recession. He has a wealth of service, attitude and ambition. He is successful because he cares about his customers. He interacts with them, makes them feel special. He responds to me on Twitter and recognizes me from my twitter picture and says hello to me when I visit his establishments.

There is a great recession of customer service, in follow up, in care, in good attitude. Those who understand this, are the ones who are not in a recession. Those who get this are making money. Rather that be upset by what the news might have to say about finances and having a bad attitude, people who are wealthy in attitude, customer service and follow up are the ones who are not suffering financially. They see the importance in making people feel wanted in their business.

There are people out there willing and wanting to spend money, they just don’t want to hand it over to someone who doesn’t care about them, someone who doesn’t want a relationship with them.

So is there a recession? For some there is. Are you in a recession? If you feel you are in THE recession, think twice…. we address Customer Service & how to get people lined up to YOUR DOOR

Charlotte Salafia

www.designedfordivinedestinations.com

This entry was posted on Monday, June 29th, 2009 at 5:35 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.