Business owners often call on politicians to remove red tape and make doing business easier. We think some small retail business owners create red tape of their own, red tape that makes it harder for customers to do business with the business and red tape that makes it harder for our employees to serve our business.
Common red tape we see in small retail businesses that could be eliminated and thereby help improve business includes:
- Don’t touch. Your shop is a show room. The benefit you have over online is that people can touch. Uphold this point of difference.
- Credit card processing fees on products where you can cover yourself in your pricing.
- A shop layout that discourages shopping.
- Handling returns. Have a process and ensure your people follow this as it offers certainty and comfort.
- Slow sales processes.
- Signs like this is not a library.
- Poor back office processes with customer accounts.
- Mixed messages in signs in-store leaving shoppers unsure about offers.
What red tape, what barriers could you remove from your shop thereby making doing business with you easier?
