Growing up in the 80s and being around pawn shops my entire life, I was surrounded by the stigma that the pawn world was ruled by men, and women-owned shops were very rare. Also prevalent was the mentality that the shop will just run and grow by itself. Many of the stores I encountered in those days gave little to no effort in the way of growth strategizing, growth monitoring, or new idea implementation.
Every day we hear stories about vendors not helping their clients, not calling them back, and a host of other very frustrating and disappointing things, all of which are negatively impacting peoples' businesses. The Data Age/PawnMaster brand, company, and suite of products have been known for being world-class for the past thirty years. We always sit back and analyze how to improve. I recall an event held at the Ritz Carlton a few years back. I was walking to my meeting and in the hallway I saw three Ritz Carlton employees on their knees highly focused on removing a small piece of gum from the carpet. At first I said for the amount of money a room cost I would expect this but the establishment provided great value in so many areas. They don’t need to roll out three people to get a tiny piece of gum that cannot be seen removed. This is their strategy to customer service excellence and overall user experience. Let me be clear, customer support is a strategy that many miss the mark on in a big way.
We just had our annual Data Age awards dinner. Each year we recognize the performance of the Data Age team in appreciation of the work they have done with our clients. One of the awards we give out is our “Top Gun” award. This award goes to our top performing sales rep but it has so much more depth to it than just great revenue numbers.
Competition... What is it? Someone else that does what you do? Do they do it better? Or are they just another company in the same field or on the same street.
Don't sweat competition; I try to never sweat competition. There will always be competition and sometimes I admit I don't like it (I'm not perfect).
However, I worry more about what I'm doing for my clients and my company start to finish day in and day out. So many people get wrapped up in what everyone else is doing or saying that they forget about themselves and what they have on their own to-do lists.
Consistency, consistency, consistency... Let’s face it, customer satisfaction is what it is all about in business. Your customers are your business and your life. Over the years we have learned and grown in this area. In the five years I have been with Data Age we have focused all our energies to ensure the customer satisfaction levels and experience were top notch. Successful businesses have to also have an open mind, broad shoulders and willingess to hear things that are not great about their business. We have done just that and appreciate the feedback given to us. We view this feedback as an opportunity to get better. This continues today when customer satisfaction and brand loyalty is at an all-time high.
passion pas·sion. ˈpaSHən/ noun
1. Strong and barely controllable emotion.
"a man of impetuous passion"
My name is Peter B Spector.
I am the Senior National Accounts Manager with GEIB Refining Corp. in Warwick, Rhode Island. I love what I do and I love my clients.
I have worked tirelessly for 17 years in the refining industry to earn a great reputation and following in the pawn industry, retail/Mfg jewelers as well as other industries that accumulate precious metal bearing materials. The owner of my company once told me, "the harder you work; the luckier you get" I believe that; don't you!?
