What Advantages Do Small Businesses Have Over Big Ones?

In our last blog, we went over a couple of advertising ideas for small businesses that want to take advantage of the hype surrounding the upcoming Super Bowl. Every year, the Super Bowl broadcast is highly touted for its commercials. The actual football game is more of an afterthought. Of course, to advertise during the Super Bowl, you have to have at least a million dollars to spare. It’s a not a game made for the small business owner.

Because of that, you may be under the impression that big businesses have far more advantages than small businesses. To assume this, however, would be to undermine the many benefits that come along with being a small business owner. In many cases, consumers much prefer dealing with smaller businesses. And one of the main reasons for this is the personal touch that is added to customer interactions.

Small businesses gain personal connections with customers.

Take, for example, the customer service call. Larger corporations almost always have a long list of voice prompts for their callers to go through in order for them to speak to live representatives. And when a live person finally gets on the line, he/she usually greets the customer by asking, “May I have your name please?”

Small business customer service experiences are quite different. In most instances, phone calls are answered right away and the person on the other line is often able to greet his/her caller by name. Personal connections provide customer experiences that simply can’t be beat!

“Being close to the customer is important for success in business, and a small business is frequently much closer to the customer than a large one,” affirms Tom Kirkpatric of The Startup Magazine, “A small business can meet with the customer more frequently and develop more of a personal relationship than a large company. A large company has many layers and departments and often has procedures that prevent close contact with the customer.”

Small businesses can generally be more flexible.

“Unfortunately, that’s not part of our policy”, “I’ll have to take this up with upper management” and “There’s nothing I can do about that” are phrases that are quite often uttered from the mouths of customer service representatives of big-named businesses. Most often, these individuals have little to no control over how they go about providing customer satisfaction.

Smaller businesses, on the other hand, have the ability to make changes on the fly. Their direct contact with customers often results in feedback that implements change.

“Small businesses are more nimble than larger businesses, and are better able to adapt as market conditions change,” writes Devra Gartenstein on Chron.com, “Because a small business is closer to its customers, it is in a better position to hear feedback and observe changing preferences. A lean business can shift gears more easily than a large one — especially, if it hasn’t invested hefty sums in obsolete infrastructure.”

Small businesses are eligible for merchant cash advances.

At Synergy Merchants, we pride ourselves on assisting both small and medium-sized business owners all over Canada with our unique merchant cash advance program. We turn their future Visa, MasterCard and debit sales into immediate cash that can be used to grow their businesses immediately! For more information, please don’t hesitate to give us a call at 1-877-718-2026 or email us at info@synergymerchants.com.