Business on a silver platter
Posted on September 11, 2007 | Leave a Comment
In family businesses, it’s common for the son to work alongside his father in anticipation of ‘inheriting’ the business later on. I’ve just seen a perfect example of this happening with my mechanic.
The only problem with the son’s handling of the business (now that his father is no longer running the show) is that the level and quality of customer service is dropping tremendously.
I think the problem stems in part from the fact that the son is inheriting decades of his father’s hard work without having been present in the struggle from the beginning. So he doesn’t appreciate the business in the same way his father does.
To the son, everything has been handed to him on a silver platter and now he’s free to run it any way he wants with little thought for the goodwill and image his father has painstakingly built.
I think it’s such a shame because sooner or later, long-time customers (like me) will feel the difference and move on to someone else who can provide the level of service we’ve come to expect of a good mechanic.
The Chinese have a saying that goes along the lines of “few family businesses will survive beyond the second or the third generation”. How true!
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