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Thursday, August 7, 2008
Economy Vs. Customer Service Wow, Talk about being caught between a rock& a hard place! Have you noticed lately
that every where you go has less business and the speed of service has slowed to a crawl during peak hours? It seems every
place I have been to in the last 6 months suffers from this malady, including unfortunately my own businesses. Why is this?
The simple answer is the economy, but this is oversimplified. What happens is a little more complicated. As the economy slows
and people start spending more cautiously the end result is less use of non essential services such as car washing, eating
out, etc. This results in a big fall off of volume for these business owners. As a class small business owners have always
been into providing customer service above all else. We do not mind spending more than strictly necessary to have large
staffs to provide the best customer service experience possible. In the new economy, we are suddenly faced with the
options of cutting back labor & raising prices or closing our doors. Given that choice we are forced to slow the
pace of operations and trim labor hours. Those businesses that operate within all the laws and pay their help are at an even
bigger disadvantage because their competition does not play by the same rules. None
of us likes to wait in lines, but we must ask ourselves; is an extra 10 minutes really going to make that much difference
in our lives? With a little planning could I avoid being inconvenienced by that extra 10 minutes. Like all of you, we here
at Foothill Car Wash value our time. We value your time also. This economy is frustrating for all of us. Maximize your planning
and reduce your time waiting, not just here but everywhere. To help with this I have posted a chart with the best times to
visit us. On a personal note, (after all what are blogs for), I want to thank all of you for years of loyal service and we
hope to always exceed your expectations!
2:21 pm pdt
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