Sometimes it is the small things that make the big difference in your sales. A company recently proved this to my family. Their $1 act of kindness was rewarded tens of thousands of times over!

It is funny the changes companies go through when they are told that there is an economic slowdown approaching. In a drive to cut costs and increase profits, many businesses forfeit good customer service and start billing customers for every little thing, or up-selling unnecessarily.

An example of this was recounted to me recently where a big-name computer store attempted to sell a customer a whole new computer system because the hard drive lead on their existing computer was faulty.

It doesn’t matter if this is institutionalized bad customer service or profit fear motivated, it is plain to anyone with half a brain cell that this is not the way to grow long term consumer trust!

A couple of articles ago I said I was in the market for a new car. Well, we did buy the car and are currently enjoying the new car smell while the dealership who got our business is enjoying the healthy profits from our lack of negotiating skills, heh.

The difference that made the difference? A $1 bulb.

My wife found a warning light one morning and took the car to a dealership to have it checked out. Turns out we just needed a replacement back light bulb. In the past dealers have billed us not just for the replacement piece, but also fees for looking into the problem and the time to put it right. Not this time, the repair manager just swapped it out and sent us on our way.

I used to work for advertising and marketing agencies before going solo. One of the frustrations was that clients could not talk to me directly to have their problems solved without first going through layers upon layers of account handlers, project managers and salespeople. All of those people added cost, bureaucracy, inefficiency, obfuscation and frustration.

The funny thing looking back is as the dotcom crash whittled down our company size from hundreds to around a dozen, our customer service and client results improved. We were empowered to make a difference rather than just make sales.

Making a difference does make sales, just not perhaps right away. That small act of customer service by the dealership landed them with a brand new car sale.

• Everyone in your business is in sales
• Be generous with customers and they will be with you
• A penny saved today could prevent you earning big bucks tomorrow
• Allow the people who can make a difference to deal directly with customers
• Empower staff to make the good judgment calls