We’ve all been swamped in negative stuff about the tough economy, shaky politics (if any) and to cap it all, bad sports performances. Sometimes it’s a struggle to stay positive. And hard to be hopeful that things will get better. But if you tuned in to 702 Talk Radio this week, like I did, you might have had the same feel good lift that I got. Hey, maybe it’s not so bad after all! I’m talking about the small business competition they’re been running for the last two weeks. The winner gets to advertise their business on 702 – which for any small business on a shoebox (size 3) budget trying to get noticed in the clutter is a really cool prize.

It’s really refreshing to hear people raving about the great service they got from the small business they’ve nominated for the competition. The positive service messages and the energy of a lot of the callers is pretty contagious. It makes you wanna break out and start your own business – to give stunning service just for the pleasure of it… and of course to make big bucks when your customers keep coming back for more.

It just seems such an obvious and easy formula for business success, no matter what kind of business it is. So why don’t all businesses do the great service thing - all of the time??  They’d be so much more successful!! All of us know this simple recipe for success. Yet there’s still there’s so much bad service everywhere you go. What’s the problem? Maybe employees and business owners just get plain slack or stale after a while and kind of forget that their customers need attention and pampering 24/7. So I’m thinking 702’s small business competition could become a regular thing – to keep reinforcing and reminding us and businesses all the time that the secret of good service is not really a secret – it’s a known winner! So we can’t do much about interest rates, politics or losing a rugby game – but we can cut the slack and make some customers happy! Shhhh it’s a secret!