PRESS RELEASE: Be Kind Initiative For Small Business
In response to the small business customer service challenge, Bewitched Crystals and Candles has launched the Be Kind small business logo, for use in Australia and around the world.
We’ve all been there. We’ve been irritated and in a bad mood and this gets reflected or passed on in the form of a customer complaint.
Whilst many customer complaints might be against big business and their processes or beliefs, many complaints go to small owner managed businesses, where unfortunately the comments are received as personal or are unrealistic. Consider a complaint going to the world’s largest luxury company LVMH. Sure you’re entitled to your opinion, but the average person answering is getting paid to write according to a preset script, but is in no way invested in the actual reply or outcome.
Small businesses that are owner managed on the other hand, feel the responses personally because they are the business. Customers generally don’t differentiate the tone/tenor of their complaints between small and large organisations because most of the time they just don’t know, don’t consider it, or aren’t aware of this is important.
Worst of all, social media has a greater effect on small businesses and one or two aggressively negative comments can destroy a small business. Whereas the same to a large organisation is water off a duck’s back.
The Be Kind initiative has been launched for small businesses that are owner managed and equal to or under five employees, to be able to communicate to customers that their comments are received in that context. It is to remind them to be kinder and more considerate in their customer messages and relations.
Tyler of Momma’s Kitchen in Moorabbin Victoria, a popular Vietnamese eatery says, “Everyone has their own expectations but hopefully this initiative will help small businesses to remind customers to be kind.”
“We launched this initiative after a lot of feedback from small businesses that negative customer comments, often couched in 5 star big corporate expectations, caused anxiety because it directly affected a small business’s viability and livelihood,” noted Swadha Bisht, of Bewitched Crystals and Candles, an online crystal jewellery and candles business in Melbourne. “Designer Markets Australia is already sharing our logo, so we’re thrilled about the possibility of it expanding and benefiting the mental health of small business owners everywhere.”
The logo requires no sign up or fees to be charged, but relies on the goodwill and trust of users to display it appropriately in the spirit it is intended.
