After building my own business, one of the main reasons for the possible decline in service quality is that the company is growing and developing!

Of course, no one wants to run a stagnant business, right? Businesses are meant to grow and develop, as expressed in prayers at company events. However, if not careful, the growth and development of a company can lead to many problems that, if not anticipated and managed well, can potentially cause issues.

For example, five years ago, the company only consisted of 2 people and had ten client companies. It was pretty busy to handle the project, but with hard work, the company could run well and subsequently opened opportunities for more clients. A few years later, clients increased to dozens or even hundreds. The company may have added more resources, but business math is not ten divided by 2 = 5 and then 100 divided by 5 = 20. This means that even if the number of personnel increased to 20 people, it might not be able to handle everything well. One hundred clients do not necessarily have 10x the problems of 10 clients. It could be less or even more. Often, it’s more.

Moreover, not all 20 recruits have the same capabilities as the company’s two founders. In practice, companies only sometimes add personnel as the number of clients increases. If you keep adding, what happens when a client stops subscribing? Do you immediately lay off staff? This is why I can understand why some businesses set a time limit.

For example, a fried chicken seller who has a lot of visitors still makes the same amount every day, even if some visitors are disappointed because they run out. Why not increase the number of sales and increase the number of servers? Because the fried chicken seller does not want to disappoint customers who get lower-quality fried chicken. It’s better to be disappointed by running out of fried chicken because there is a possibility that he will come back tomorrow than to be disappointed by the quality, which may lead to the bigger problem: he never comes back again.

Does this mean we need to stop the growth and development of a growing and developing company? Of course not. It is important to anticipate and manage it well so the company can grow and develop sustainably.

The overall message is that as the company grows, there could be a potential for things to go wrong; it is crucial to managing the growth well so that the company can grow sustainably without compromising the quality of service.

Image by Lenka Pileková from Pixabay

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One of the advantages of the seller is his ability to remember the preferences of each customer. For example, when I ordered, he never forgot to remove the green onions from my chicken noodles because I had told him that I don’t like green onions. If my wife, Dear Rey, ordered, he didn’t forget to add fried onions. For others, he sometimes added a lot of chili sauce, or for other customers, he gave a little sauce only. This shows that he pays attention to his customers’ wishes carefully and remembers them to satisfy the buyers.

I thought before that remembering customers’ preferences happened naturally because he did it often. It turns out it was by design. He deliberately did it because he himself felt happy when receiving the same service when buying goods, so he tried to remember customers’ preferences even though the number of customers was increasing.

In management terms, this habit is called Customer Oriented and Customer Engagement. This means that he focuses on customers’ needs and is involved with them to increase their satisfaction.

One day, he was no longer alone. Someone who looked like him came and helped him sell food. His tasks included cleaning bowls, serving customers, receiving payment or giving change, and so on. He could be called an assistant chicken noodle and meatball seller.

I asked the older seller, “Who is he?”

“Oh, that’s my brother. He’s helping me,” said the older seller.

After a while, his position changed. This time the older seller served the customers while his younger brother made the chicken noodles with meatballs for the customers. Even then, he was watched by the older seller because I heard the older seller reminding him a few times, “For this one, don’t use green onions, while for this one, just a little sauce…”

A few weeks later, the presence of the older seller became increasingly rare. He now only came 3 times a week, then became once a week, and after a few months, he disappeared completely. It turned out that the younger brother had taken over the business. He was now the one who made and sold the chicken noodles with meatballs.

I asked the younger brother, “Where is your brother?”

“Oh, he’s still around. He just helps me manage the business from behind the scenes now,” replied the younger brother.

Wow, that’s cool. If his younger brother tries to sell in a new place, it might fail due to his different mindset. Yes, he has the experience, but he must engage the new customers by himself. The older seller has a better strategy. He chose to transfer his skills, then he himself went on to open new business opportunities. The probability of success is higher because he has proven experience and a mindset.

The younger brother had learned a lot from the older seller about customer orientation and engagement. He had seen how important it was to pay attention to customers’ preferences and needs and how it could increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. He also learned how to manage the business efficiently so that he could serve more customers while still maintaining the quality of the food and service.

Note: Image source from here.

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• Birthday cake. Vivian’s birthday cake was ordered from a pastry shop around Bekasi. I asked one of the Excellent staff to made an order
• Birthday gift. I share my duties with my wife Dear Rey to looking for a gift for our daughter. Dear Rey looking for a gift at the mall, while I am looking for a gift on an online store
• Order a birthday clown. A poor one, clown birthday sticks announcements on walls and trees, but none said happy birthday to the clown, hehehe …

I searched in Google, the name and contact number of the birthday clown around Bekasi and finally met one of them. It turned out the clown’s house is close to my home (usually called as Excellent DJ), maybe only about 5–10 minutes on a motorcycle trip. After talked for a while by phone, my wife and I met with the Clown, talking about the preparation, the concept of the show, the time of execution and the decoration of the room.

After all of the business-related discussion was done, we talked casually. Knowing my background in IT, the Clown (let’s say so, I forgot to ask his real name zzzz …) asked me how to get him to be on top on Google search result so that if people search for clown services, his name is on the top of the list.

I said that there is a science in that. The name is SEO. Search Engine Optimization. I briefly discussed about the concept of SEO, but after talked a little bit about SEO, I just focused more on the opposite side.

I convey to the Clown, being number one on Google is a good thing, because it can open new customer opportunities, but there are things more essential than just being number one in the search. I advise him that it’s better for him to make one good website than the website with the city names he was doing at that time.

So far I see he has a lot of Blogspot web. For example, looking for the keyword “Badut Ultah Bekasi “ with “ Badut Ultah Kelapa Gading “, “ Badut Ultah Tambun “ and so on, will refer to their respective websites but boils down to the same name, he himself.

What he did is good enough, but not good for his branding, and he may experience difficulties if one day he wants to change data. I told him three basic things that I think he can do:

1. Create one primary website, well-made, fill it with complete information, clear contact names and interesting photos. This will gain interest for the information seekers about a birthday clown like him
2. Made an easier process to his customer. For example, when I’m looking for clown information, I need a cost estimation, and I think the others would also. Some birthday clown providers just say, “Oh, it depends on the package sir, depends on how many clowns you need, usual decorations or a complete one and others and others and so on … “. For me, it’s time-consuming. So Ping-Pong. Asking back and forth and not simple. I suggested him to make a form contains an estimation of cost calculations, along with detailed information.
   For example, Form may contain a column called “Total MC clown”, “Total clown character”, “decoration type” and provide with examples of each of them. This will make the cost calculation process easier, both for the clown service provider like him and for me as a potential service user
3. Improve Quality. In my opinion, customers will come by themselves if our quality is good. Instead of busy looking for new customers but the quality of services is so-so, and existing customers will be chary, why not focus on improving the quality? Expand magic techniques, learn how to be fun, find out how to protect children and make pleasant surprises. That’s what I mean the most essential of all that needs to be done

During my visit to Solok city of West Sumatra on my recent Eid 2017 holiday, I stopped by a nice cafe with a millennial atmosphere and had a cool atmosphere to hang out and chat with colleagues. When I came there with Vivian, I saw many young people gathered with his colleagues. I ordered food to take home because we intended to eat at the hotel with family.

While eating at the hotel, I just felt the quality of the food. The fried butter chicken is too dry and makes it hard to eat. The other menu is too salty. In short, I give a point 8–9 for the atmosphere while for the taste of food I give 3–4 score point.

If you have a cafe, bistro or restaurant, strategic location is a plus. The nice interior is a plus. But if the food and drinks are not good, it means forgetting an essential thing that should be maintained and managed as well as possible. People may complain if the location is less strategic and difficult to reach, they will also complain if the interior is less attractive, but people will not come back again if the taste of food is too severe to digest.

In any business, do not forget the essence. Do not ignore the basic things that should be met from the beginning, because it becomes our business fundamentals.

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In fact not all matters can be run remotely. Sometimes our customers need face to face meetings, whether for presentation, implementation or training. For things like that, I have no choice other than pick the appointment.

At first, I consider to rescheduling all the appointments and wait for a better situation. However it seems not a wise thing. The reason is simple : In Indonesia, rainy season goes from October to April and might longer when anomaly happens. It’s impossible to stop all of activity due to rainy season. Business should go on as it always and should not be interrupted only by a trivial case. Rainy season is a reality, it already exists since ages ago. It’s better to looking for a work around rather than complaining.

From now on, I have several list checklist as below:

1. Rain Coat.  Keep me dry when using public transportation
2. Kanebo. Well known as Kanebo Plas Chamois is a synthetic cloth used for dry cleaning, in this case, keep my raincoat dry and comfortable.
3. Sandals and Socks. I use sandals when I must go through the flood. The socks are prepared as a replacement. Actually I prefer to use water proof boots or sneakers, but it seems not suitable with my suit.
4. Smartphone/Mobile Tethering Hotspot
5. Power Bank
6. Laptop, I’m using MacBook Air for it’s simplicity and stand by battery
7. Jacket

Besides all of those preparations, please keep the spirit and enjoy the life. Don’t give up for live in Indonesia and  do not make it as an excuse for our business. No matter how the condition is, business keep going on as usual .

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