Small businesses in Michigan, the Great Lakes region, and across the United States all contend with competition from larger global or corporate businesses that rely on high-volume transactions and races to provide the lowest possible prices. This article will explore how small businesses frequently outperform larger businesses by emphasizing quality, exceeding customer expectations, and offering personalized customer service. We’ll also highlight why small businesses benefit from banding together to create strong local economies supporting community growth and prosperity.
Prioritizing Customer Service and Quality
“Goliath” businesses and corporations sometimes consciously lower quality and service to improve their financial bottom line. As a result, a large number of customers are stuck with sub-par services or products. When these same customers try to voice justified complaints about the product or services they’ve received, they are subjected to impersonal (and often time-consuming) call center interactions or boilerplate apologies that fail to rectify the core issues.
Bear in mind that these large businesses often have stringent corporate policies that prevent sales representatives or customer service representatives from offering meaningful, dynamic solutions to the issues the customer has encountered. As a result, the customer feels unheard, devalued, and frustrated by their ongoing reliance on a business that doesn’t respect their needs.
In contrast, leaders of small teams or companies stay consistently attuned to what is fair, appealing, and highest priority to their customers. They are so consistently engaged in their business’ day-to-day operations that they understand what it takes to retain customers and why it’s their responsibility as part of an interconnected local community.
For small businesses, even a small sign of miscommunication or customer dissatisfaction is cause for self-evaluation, operational change, and a genuine effort to resolve the issue to ensure customer satisfaction. Small businesses rely on word-of-mouth recommendations and endorsements from those within their own communities, so their customer service demonstrates genuine appreciation for the individual customer. This can manifest in small or substantial ways: customers being remembered by name, offers of in-person “demos” of services or products, or discounts and added services for long-standing patronage.
Small businesses prioritize business's personal, human dimension and offer accessibility, reliability, quality, and trust that generally outperform larger businesses and corporations.
Why Small Businesses Should Work Together
In the face of global corporate competition, small businesses can collectively support each other to create a strong local ecosystem that fosters entrepreneurship, innovation, economic vitality, and community connection. When small businesses in a given community agree to support each other and create a symbiotic “network” where products and services are exchanged among businesses within the community, it safeguards them against “Goliaths” who stand to undercut small businesses while sacrificing quality and service for those in the community.
On a deeper level, the presence of larger businesses and corporations can also redefine the physical and social landscapes of communities, diminishing the character, connectivity, (and potentially the touristic appeal) of the place itself. By supporting other small businesses in your area, you contribute to keeping the character, relationships, and economic growth of your own community intact and more likely to thrive long-term.
The cornerstone of success for small businesses and small business networks is strong relationships with customers and their communities. Large-scale companies may sometimes retain the ability to offer the lowest possible price, but if small businesses bypass that “battle” to focus on personalizing their services, emphasizing quality, and going the extra mile with customer service, they are likely to remain viable and provide a distinct and refreshing alternative to faceless big-brand transactions.
Michigan’s Small Business Saturday
One way for small businesses to demonstrate their investment in their communities and customers is to participate in community-centered events that support their local neighborhoods and economies. Whether you’re in Southwest Michigan or elsewhere in the state, remember to celebrate Michigan’s Small Business Saturday on November 26th – part of a nationwide campaign to acknowledge the importance of small businesses throughout the United States. For small business owners in Michigan, this is a great opportunity to hold a special event or sale, or to organize a collaborative event with another local business or businesses.
How Workforce PayHub Can Support Your Small Business
At Workforce PayHub, we work with a number of small and mid-sized businesses in Michigan and throughout the Great Lakes, offering comprehensive workforce management solutions to achieve operational success and employer and employee well-being.
If you’re a small business in Michigan seeking payroll support or a workforce management solution that integrates payroll, timekeeping, HCM, HR, benefits administration, and more, please contact us today to enjoy access to the tools, customer support, and expertise you deserve.
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