Newsletter: Farrier Industry Report | October 2009

A Side Effect of the Recession: Cranky Customers and Cranky Storeowners, and What We Can Do About Them
By Rick Segel

Although there are signs that this recession is nearing an end, we have a long, slow road to recovery. Business conditions will remain challenging for the foreseeable future. But that doesn’t mean your business is going to tank. You just have to work harder to make sure it doesn’t.

Advertise more and in every way. Think beyond simply discounting prices. Promote any way you can to bring customers to your store and Web site, and learn to use social media networks. Explore every new method of marketing and connect with customers because the down economy has made them cranky. Our customers love to buy and they aren't happy about cutting back. So guess who is feeling their wrath?

Here are my top 10 tips to handle cranky people.

1. Be empathetic. Use terms like, "I understand how you could feel like that."
   
   
2. Let people talk. Sometimes customers just need to vent. The worst thing you can say is, "I don't want to discuss that." People like to verbalize. That's why physiatrists have repeat patients. When you close the door on communications, you slam the door future business.
   
   
3. Ask for a remedy. If you did something wrong, ask how it can be corrected.
   
   
4. Dealing with the unreasonable remedy. Use the expression, "I wish we could." That works just about every time.
   
   
5. Thank you. We cannot thank people enough. I am a firm believer that we are in the midst of an epidemic of people who expect everything, meaning you do something for someone and he or she doesn’t thank you. It is so easy but so few people do it. When was the last time you thanked a customer for coming in the store or sent a thank you note after a big sale?
   
   
6. Expectation management. What do customers expect to see and hear when they walk in your store? Ask them, write it down and do your best to implement it. Get opinions from friends, as well. Tell them to visit your business as a potential customer and give honest feedback. But don’t hold it against them if they tell you something they don’t want to hear.
   
   
7. Become a flexetarian. Don't be so rigid. Lighten up. The times are changing and the rules of the new normal are yet to be written. Things are never just black or white. There are many shades of gray.
   
   
8. Be a seeker and a doer. Many times our policies become stale because we never shop other businesses to see what our customers are experiencing. It’s one thing seeing good ideas but it's another thing implementing them. You can't be successful without both of them.
   
   
9. Decisions of convenience. In the retail business we sometimes get lazy and make decisions because they're easy or convenient. Somehow, we have different rules and policies for different customers and employees. It's the same as buying from a rep because it's easy. Be aware of how many decisions we make because of that. It's scary and extremely dangerous business.
   
   
10. Commitment. The retail business isn't easy. There are long hours and frustrating times, but you have to love it. Get excited when new merchandise is delivered. Call a customer and be so enthusiastic that he can’t help but visit your store or buy your product.

Retailing is easy when you enjoy it, but it's the worst job in the world when you can't stand the sight of a customer. Storeowners always ask me when it’s time to close their doors. The answer is simple, folks. Love it or leave it. Somehow, customers know when you’re unhappy, and they become sharks in the water when they see blood.

The next time you encounter a cranky customer, ask yourself, “Is this person truly impossible, or have I made him that way?”

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Letter from the President

So many times it’s not what you see but what you don’t see that makes the difference. That was the case at the recent FIA Business Conference. On Friday before the evening opening reception, your FIA Board and a few other FIA members spent the day in meetings. This day of meetings had one purpose: to run and grow the FIA, which benefits one person — you, a member of FIA.

The morning meeting was a “brainstorming” session, if you will. It was originally conceived as an avenue to come up with ideas to grow the FIA. Once engaged in this process, it was pointed out by our account executive Jean Weiss that the FIA didn’t have a mission statement. With that new task at hand, these individuals came up with a very strong and succinct statement. “The mission of the Farrier Industry Association is to provide companies operating in the hoof-care industry with programs and services which will strengthen and grow their businesses.”

The afternoon was consumed by an FIA Board meeting, which is where the actual “nuts and bolts” of running of the FIA takes place. Business at hand is the FIA MarketPlace at the AFA Convention coming up in Portland, Ore. The FIA MarketPlace Committee is doing a super job preparing for this event. Portland is a fun place to visit with a number of faces that you don’t get to see often from that section of our country. Be sure to take advantage of this opportunity to exhibit your products. Other business, as a result of the morning session, was the forming of an ad hoc committee to research the feasibility of FIA regional events. FIA Treasurer Michelle Nicolaides was appointed as chair for this committee. If you have ideas or would like to be involved with this research, please get in touch with Michelle.

Talking about being involved, nominations for officers will soon be in hand. The offices of president, secretary, and two board positions are up for nomination. The FIA is only as much as you put into it. Why not have your name put into nomination for one of these positions? It was gratifying to see the enthusiasm shown by the members attending the recent FIA Business Conference. The best days for the FIA are yet to come. Be a part of what you don’t see — get involved!

Bob Bachen
President, FIA

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And the Winner Is …

G.E. Forge & Tool, Inc. is the winner of the early-bird member drawing for a free room upgrade at the 2010 MarketPlace in Portland. The company was among the first FIA members to sign up for exhibitor space by the Sept. 23, deadline.

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2009 FIA Business Conference
By Michelle Nicolaides, Treasurer

Thank you to all who participated in the business conference this year. I have been attending since I started my farrier supply company in 1999. Taking advantage of the learning opportunity and the networking experience is invaluable to the growth and strength of our companies. We sincerely missed all of you who missed out on this fantastic event.

We started Friday evening with a reception on the top floor of the hotel overlooking the city. We mingled with friends and talked over hors d'oevres.

Our Saturday morning speaker, Dr. Janet Runge from the University of Las Vegas Nevada Center for Entrepreneurship spoke about doing business in a down economy and operating family firms. She provided many suggestions on maintaining good cash flow, keeping customers happy, and especially, growing our businesses.

Saturday afternoon we heard from Becky Carroll, founder of Customers Rock!/Petra Consulting Group. I enjoyed her immensely, as did everyone to whom I spoke. Becky taught us numerous ways to keep existing customers and acquire new ones by providing “wow” customer service. She was well versed about our industry and the relationships between manufacturers, stores, and farriers. The workshop included key ways to build lasting relationships, engage customers, understand and meet customer expectations, inspire loyalty, and create strategies to make your clients’ experiences easy and memorable. Becky also touched on giving customer service through social media, such as blogs, Facebook, and Twitter. Some may not think these avenues are necessary in our industry, but they are, and if we don’t keep up, someone else will. The future is pointing toward social media.

Sunday morning, Chasiti Jackson and Melissa Hudson from Dirt Road Media, the company that designed and maintains FIA’s Web site, spoke in detail about social media. They taught us about blogs, FaceBook, Google, Twitter, and LinkedIn. They were able to take the mystery out of those things that seem so ominous when you are not familiar with how they work and how easy they really are to use.

Your attendance and support for our organization’s functions are crucial to the growth and sustainability of the Farrier Industry Association. You can make a difference. Thanks again to all who choose to be a part of this great group of people dedicated to forging lasting relationships within our membership. I look forward to more members being involved and new companies becoming a part of the FIA family.

“The conference was extremely well organized, provided excellent content and was sophisticated, timely, and fun. I learned a lot from the speakers and in meetings with other FIA members. I sense the farrier industry stores are more in the mainstream of business practices and doing successful jobs. The FIA is a valuable association for all of us. Yes, there was a price for attending but a greater price for not.” — Ada Gates Patton, Harry Patton Horseshoeing Supplies

"By attending the FIA Business Conference, I tripled my ability to provide excellent customer service to all my customers and vendors." — Sarah Jane Crouse, Premiere Equine Health Products

Thanks once again to those companies that contributed to the FIA Business Conference.
  
Sponsors:
G.E. Forge & Tool, Inc.
American Farriers Journal

In-kind Donors:
Equilox International
Vettec, Inc.

Thanks, also, to Monetta Farrier Specialties for supplying Sunday morning’s coffee.

7 Keys to Enduring Success
Dr. Janet Runge

1. Technology. Don’t be first, be best.
   
   
2. Business model. Transform, don’t conform.
   
   
3. Networking. Use it to connect with new partners, employees and customers.
   
   
4. Position. Be different.
   
   
5. Gross margin is key. Monitor your cash flow diligently and forecast it monthly to ensure that expenses, both planned and unexpected, are in line with accounts receivable.
   
   
6. Execution. Don’t talk, deliver.
   
   
7. Think ahead. Resourceful entrepreneurs capture available opportunities and take steps during hard times to lay the groundwork for tomorrow’s prosperity.

Social Media Will Change Your Business
Dirt Road Media
Go ahead and bellyache about blogs. But you cannot afford to close your eyes to them, because they're simply the most explosive outbreak in the information world since the Internet itself.

And they're going to shake up just about every business — including yours. It doesn't matter whether you're shipping paper clips, pork bellies, or videos of Britney in a bikini, blogs are a phenomenon that you cannot ignore, postpone, or delegate. Given the changes barreling down upon us, blogs are not a business elective.

They're a prerequisite. Potential customers are out there, sniffing around for deals and partners. While you may be putting it off, you can bet that your competitors are exploring ways to harvest new ideas from blogs, sprinkle ads into them, and yes, find out what you and other competitors are up to.

Social Media And Customer Relationships
Becky Carroll

Those of us who are customer focused constantly remind marketing and PR teams that social media is not a campaign, it is a relationship. Collaboration via social media goes past “Thank you for being a customer” to “Since you are our customer, what can we do better?”

We can get and give immediate response, taking the discussion deeper into areas we may never have anticipated in the past when we worked only with focus groups or customer survey tools. Conversation without action can be become shallow. We are in danger of social media conversations becoming boring, familiar, and empty. Brands that truly want to engage their customers in improvement via social media need to build personal relationships with those customers and enlist them to become part of the organization.

Customers are hungry for this. They want to tell you what they think and how it can be different. Companies who start turning these social media conversations and learnings into action through social media will find they can quickly leapfrog competitors, as well as cement loyalty with customers.

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Exhibit Space Available for the 2010 MarketPlace

There's still time to exhibit in the 2010 FIA MarketPlace, held in conjunction with the American Farriers' Association Convention, coming to you live from Portland, Ore. The MarketPlace will be held at the Oregon Convention Center on Wednesday, Feb. 24 through Friday, Feb. 26, so come horse around with us.

If you're in the farrier business, this is a must-attend event, hands down. By participating, you will meet other farriers, as well as veterinarians, distributors and store owners from around the world who have gathered to enjoy demonstrations, lectures and seminars, and shop the FIA’s MarketPlace, the world’s largest market for farrier supplies and products.

An exciting lineup of guest lecturers have been chosen to speak each day on a range of topics including shoeing and trimming techniques, tips on starting a farrier business and how to be successful at it, and general hoofcare issues. Click here to learn more.

For information or questions about exhibiting at the MarketPlace, call Jean Weiss at (601) 924-3495. Or write to: Farrier Industry Association, 134 Fairmont Street, Suite B, Clinton, MS 39056. She may also be reached through e-mail at info@farrierindustry.org.

Click here to download the MarketPlace Exhibitor Packet.

To view booth assignments, click here.

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Become an FIA Fan

We’re now on Facebook, so become a fan to keep up with the latest FIA news and events, special offers, member benefitsand discussion topics.

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[ON THE WEB] If you haven’t marketed your product, service, business or organization on the FIA’s Tackroom Spotlight, do it now. Unlike most things in this world, it’s free and gives you great exposure.

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[FOR THE RECORD] Membership dues for 2010 will increase from $125 to $150, as voted in by the FIA board of directors. Annual dues last from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31.