Such a small thing, and it would be no surprise to me to find you shaking your head in wonder. I mean, how can one line of text change everything? This is something I’ve contemplated myself in the past as well, yet it’s true.
Let’s go on a recent journey of mine. For those of you who do not know me yet, I’ve been in business for myself for 23 years. In that time, I’ve built 13 successful companies, and yet, still, one line of text can change everything.
After pivoting myself twice this year, I started building my latest venture – blog and article writing. It’s taken off like a rocket, and already I have six staff working for me. It’s growing exponentially, and I can already see a big future for it.
As with most things you start, it’s trial and error in the beginning, right? Well, this business is no different. Building up my clientele, I’ve had to write some pretty unique copy.
I must say, I’ve done an outstanding job, and the clients are rolling in.
Then last week, I decided to make some changes to it.
I changed just one line. Before I did this, I was getting around ten quality inquiries a day. Many people who started with me were ordering just a small job to test the waters. Fair enough, right? So I decided to run with that idea, and I put the line “Start with just one job, you’ll be back for more.”
Sounds good, doesn’t it? Sounds like the ideal line to put in when you want someone to trial what you offer, right? All of a sudden, though, my world seemed to change.
I started getting the same amount of inquiries, but I noticed something different. All of a sudden, I was attracting small, one-off jobs. Beforehand, I was getting people who would order 3 or 4 blog posts or articles at once, but now I was getting one at a time.
I ran with it though, because they were all new clients, and I could see an opportunity to impress even more people.
After all, that’s my sole purpose here. I want to give customer service that’s rare these days. So that means I am prepared to go over and beyond what is required to ensure I create raving fans. Smart, I am.
Anyway, I digress. I started working on these small jobs and completed them in record time. Many of them were finished a full day before the deadline, something I prided myself on doing as often as possible. The articles were at my usual level, which people loved. In fact, the only thing that had changed at this point was the size of the jobs. My commitment had not wavered.
That’s when it started happening.
Suddenly, for the first time ever, I gained a 3.3 star rating! I was stunned. Every job I’d done up until this moment had earned me a rock-solid five-star review. The reasons were that it wasn’t up to the standard she’d expected. Ok, I can live with the fact that my writing won’t suit everyone, but there wasn’t even an opportunity offered for me to fix it for her. What shocked me, even more was when I approached this lady, I was bagged out for bothering her. How dare I try to fix what she deemed broken? LOL
Then another one arrived. This person was accusing me of copying an article that was already published. This made me laugh because this particular job was simply a rewrite of a terrible article that he’d supplied. I simply made what he wrote readable.
They kept coming. One after another. This person didn’t like the way I wrote this sentence. That person didn’t like that paragraph—problem after problem. At first, I was in a stupor, not understanding what was happening.
Having the business experience I do, I already knew that something I’d changed was making this difference. Was it the price? Was I charging too little and attracting the wrong crowd? No, I hadn’t changed the price. Was it accepting jobs that I knew were no good? No, they all seemed pretty ok to me. So, what could it possibly be?
That darn line of text!
So, I went in and removed it and then took cover until things settled down. There were a couple more little problems, and then suddenly, the client’s caliber went back to where it was before.
Five-star reviews started coming in, and so did the bigger paying jobs! Phew right? It seems that just one small line of text really did make a difference in this case.
One week on, and all is good in the hood once again. I am back to getting great clients, great jobs, and my business is expanding. In fact, this week I am increasing to eight staff.
So, if something suddenly goes wrong in your business, don’t freak out. Look at the last change you made, and simply change it back. If that doesn’t fix it, then look deeper until you find EXACTLY what it is that made the change happen. By doing this, your business can go back to thriving, and you’ll learn a valuable lesson.
