To all business men and woman: – This commentary below has been taken from a genuine facebook article written by one of our clients we felt compelled to share it.
It reads as follows:-
“To all my friends, family and business supporters,
As a small business owner and self-employed individual we rely on our customers old and new to support us and continue the use of our business on a regular basis. Are you aware that over 99% of all businesses in the UK are classed as SME’s (Small to Medium Enterprise) which means that we are the backbone of the country by paying our taxes, employing individuals, purchasing goods, supporting other SME’s etc. Being self-employed does not only take up the hours that our customers see but many more in-fact it’s a 24/7 job to us to make sure our business stays afloat in this challenging time and to do this we personally sacrifice both time and energy for the good of our customers for their satisfaction. We do not get sick pay, no annual leave entitlement, no employment benefits, no annual pay-rise, no overtime etc and there is no minimum wage for us and i guarantee if the self-employed worked out there rate per hour over a year it wouldn’t even come anywhere near the minimum wage. Do we moan or whinge about it…. no we are here to serve our customers to the best of our abilities. Like yourselves we have family to look after, roofs to keep over our head, mouths to feed, bills to pay whilst all of the time doing it for a lot less money and working more hours than the typical employee.
Whilst all of this is going on we do our upmost to ensure our customers are happy and sometimes we do fall short of expectations and to be honest could you say that if you are an employee you get it right 100% of the time. On these times we fall short we will do our best to turn the situation around as we are all only human and cannot get it right all of the time. With the growing development of Social Media we as small business owners use it to reach our customers old and new to promote our business so we can increase our customer base and therefore put more back into the local and national economy. We could be dealing with 10’s, 100’s or 1000’s of customers a day, week or year and as I said we are only human and cannot get it right all of the time. The majority of our customers use and return to the business time and time again and do they use Social Media to say positive things on a regular basis…….. no they just return to us which we are truly grateful for. Then we have the odd customer who we have to admit could have received a better service from us and do they refrain from using Social Media…… NO they could have used us many times before and never had a problem but yet when expectations fall short just that once they feel it necessary to plaster it across Social Media and revel in the likes and shares it gets without a single though to what effect it can and does have not only to the business but the people who work there and the support SME’s give to the community and economics of the country. Social Media is so easy to hide behind these days as it is not face-to-face but its speed of spreading news especially bad news is unrivalled but this is the age we live in now. I do hope those individuals stop for one minute and actually think what they are doing and reflect on the amount of people there comments are effecting and how damaging their written words can actually be. To that end I have decided to close down my business Facebook page in a few days to allow me to concentrate on the things that do matter in my business which is customer service and satisfaction. We will still be here for the good of our customers and I truly hope that the local community can continue in supporting local businesses as without us where would the country be. If you have managed to read all of this then I thank you for your time and I would really appreciate return comments and the sharing of this before I close it down.
Many thanks Written By Alan Aston, Moulton, Cheshire