Do You Step Over Dollars To Pick Up Pennies In Your Business?

Every year for the past 12 or 15 years I have taken a Friday off in the middle of December and spent the day with my best friend in Atlanta doing some Christmas shopping. We always have a great time, being silly and having fun, while getting the majority of our shopping done for the season. We always start off the day with a nice breakfast.

We'd just had breakfast, I go to the bakery counter to buy 6 of the world’s best gingerbread men and to pay for breakfast. I pull out my American Express card to pay for breakfast and the cookies, when the woman behind the counter tells me she’s not supposed to take “that” card.

Now I am perplexed. I ask her if they take AmEx or not? She comes to the edge of the bakery counter and in a very low voice, almost a whisper, she tells me the owner doesn’t like to take AmEx because it costs him more money to process – she thinks it’s 10¢.

Well, I’m standing there with my open wallet in my left hand and my AmEx card in my right hand, so it’s pretty obvious I have other credit cards available to pay this $29.46 bill. The clerk looks to her left, looks to her right, then looks back at me and whispers “put that wallet away.” Wanting to see what she’s going to do, I promptly fold it up and put it back in my pocket.

She then walks over to the owner, who’s busily cleaning up the full service deli section of the shop, and tells him I’m in from out of town and this is the only credit card I have with me. He looks at me and shakes his head ok. She comes back over, smiles, winks at me and runs my AmEx card through for the sale.

I sign the sales slip, thank her and walk outside to where my friend is waiting for me. I am laughing and shaking my head as I get outside. My friend asks me what happened and I tell her.

Now, there are some important lessons in what happened at this little family owned and operated deli. First of all, you know they have good food and service, or I wouldn’t have driven 15 miles and passed numerous other restaurants to have breakfast there. They got the food and service part right.

But, if you’re going to take credit cards then take the credit cards. Either take American Express or don’t take it. Does AmEx cost more? Most people would say yes and, if you look at it from the surface, you would be right. My question to you is, what does it cost you not to accept AmEx? Think about that for a minute.

For a lot of people, AmEx is the first credit card they reach for when making purchases. Will that customer, client or prospect decide not to purchase from you if they can’t use their AmEx to pay? Maybe, maybe not, but why take the chance? Is the 10¢ really worth all that?

More importantly, if you chose not to take AmEx, or some other type of credit card, then don’t take it at all. Don’t give your employees an opportunity to make you look silly in front of your clients.

That’s really the other lesson in all this. Do you know what your employees are doing and saying? The lady behind the counter at the deli was trying to be on my side, but in doing so, she said some not nice things about the owner of the establishment and didn’t do any favors for the business.

The real point of sharing this story with you is to open your mind to a new way of thinking about things.

For example, my guess is the average sale at the deli is around $10. So my $29 sale was above average. In the big picture of things, would it have been worth it for deli to have just taken my credit card and not made a big deal about it? My vote is yes. So it costs a little more to let your customer use AmEx. It’s just the cost of doing business.

What did it cost him in time (his and the employee) and good will from me?

Is really is the old “can’t see the forest for the trees” scenario. In his effort to try to save money, it really cost the business owner more than if they had just taken my credit card and let me leave with my belly full and, more importantly, with my gingerbread men.