The 2% Rule - Dairy Free!
20. February 2009 by Bob Griffin.
There is a view in the business world that you need to always keep your guard up because customers are going to steal from you if you give them the chance. I think this is garbage. Why would I, a guy who has seen the worst situations from armed robbery to flat out theft, be saying customers are not going to steal? Mostly, I know better than to paint a picture with one big brush.
Can you honestly tell me that most of your customers are thieves? I hope not. What a bleary, dark and dreary world you must live in to have that view of people.
There valid reasons for thinking this way.
It could be your location. Some places are not good for business and soon there is no business worth owning there.
It could be your micromanagement threshold is set too high. Many underfunded new owners have a fear of losing that puts them on the edge of rational thought.
I think if you spend any time watching the local news you are going to have warped view of your area and are going to approach things from the wrong angle.
Small business management consulting gives me the opportunity to travel the country and see first-hand the people who frequent stores and how they are. I ask customers questions when I want to know about a store (sorry, but owners do not know why a customer visited better than the customer himself). Customers, by and large, are good. I should highlight that again –
Customers are good people!!
OK, now that I have most business owners sending me mean emails, let me clarify my remarks. Customers are good – some people aren’t.
I had a great mentor when I started consulting. He was a rough-around-the-edges kind of a guy, but he threw some gems on the table when he wanted you to think about a situation. He said,
“Customers will ask for more than you have on the shelf. It will drive you crazy trying to please every customer. Remember, though, not every person who walks in your store is a customer.”
I think about that when a person starts to raise their voice instead of asking like every other person in the store does. The “non-customers” have a tendency to be loud, rude, and threatening. They are easy to spot and just as easy to get rid of. You do not want to spend any more time than you have to trying to please them, get them to settle down, or trying to make the problem go away. You need to make the person go away and have them understand that you do not want them back.
In a time when you are scratching to get any customer, it may seem backwards logic to send someone away, but they weren’t going to buy anything. They were only going to disrupt your business and give you heartburn.
THE 2% RULE
We call this law of business the 2% rule. In the entire world, there is only 2% of the population that is looking to steal from you. That means that 98% of people are good, law-abiding citizens who want to follow the rules of commerce and buy what they need. Which group are you going to want to spend most of your time thinking about and working with?
Be cautious when you operate your business. Be aware of everyone who enters your store. You need to plan for your employee’s safety and your own safety when you are operating your store. Just don’t spend all your time thinking about theft.
It may seem sometimes that you have nothing but “2%’ers” walking into your store and you may be right. Thieves do run in gangs and will call each other when there is a store that they feel they can overwhelm and take from. This is a great reason to talk with your neighbors and let them know what you observe. It works the same way old neighborhoods did. Everyone knew what was going on and were able to handle the situation before it got out of hand.
Be focused on the good stuff (real customers) and plan for the rough spots (2%’ers) and you will have a smile back a lot fewer grey hairs.