Are you attracting customers or frightening them off? 

Work Smart Not Hard Tip No. 37 in a series written for Indie Cambs.

Recent data shows the average UK household seems to spend between £600 and £1200 a month on Amazon (and that’s before you get to Audible, Prime TV, Twitch, Wholefoods etc).

They do this primarily because Amazon cracked the idea of making buying easy. Not only ordering, but paying, delivery, returns, refunds, re-ordering. You name it, they made it easy.

Many people say they hate Amazon. They think it’s evil, and unfair competition for small businesses. They say they want ethical, sustainable, green, eco-friendly, low carbon products and services. But they mostly buy what’s easiest, most convenient, and cheapest.

I’ve just seen a post from someone who says he won’t watch the next James Bond movie because the franchise is now owned by Amazon. I bet he does though. People like virtue signalling but mostly don’t tell the truth.

So, as a small independent business, if you can’t guilt trip people into buying locally or sustainably, what can you do?

When I first moved to Cambridge I found a hairdresser who was brilliant at cutting my very difficult hair. The only trouble was he was a misery. Every few weeks I’d be subjected to a monologue of complaints about his staff, his suppliers, his wife, his kids and his tennis partners. Much as I hated trying to find a replacement I eventually ditched him. My current hairdresser, who has had my custom for over 20 years, is always cheerful and a joy to visit. I even have a dentist who makes me laugh.

What is lacking from most business transactions is not just a human touch but a bit of joy, fun, a cheery word: Something that a self service check-out can’t provide.

How do you do this when the world is in a mess and everything seems a bit hopeless?

When Covid struck in 2020 and no-one really knew what to do, the government of the tiny island of Taiwan invited a group of gamers and hackers to build on-line games that gave people points and rewards for finding the places that stocked masks, even making it cool for boys to wear pink masks to school when blue ones ran out. Instead of debating (or preaching) about the safety of vaccines, the population was were encouraged to vote for their favourite one and encourage friends and relatives to get theirs and be on the winning team. They had league tables of ways to deal with rumours and misinformation that they called pre- bunking (the opposite of trying to de-bunk it once it’s got hold). Players were able to create their own cartoon mascots and game characters. The result was the second lowest death rate in the world. The Taiwanese population enjoyed playing at fighting Covid and most of them won.

What does this have to do with dealing with rising prices, trade wars, tariffs, fighting developers and all the other issues that running a small business puts on your plate?

Only this … our customers don’t really care about our troubles. They have their own problems. What they want from us is a better experience than they get from a faceless superstore. They don’t just want to be appreciated, they want to smile and feel good and have a bit of fun and share that with other people.

So what are you doing to make it fun for them to do business with you?

When business is hard we need to work even smarter.