Customer Communication Struggles? Here's How One Small Business Owner Solved It

Organization, communication and prioritization are three key elements of running your small business. But, how do you balance it all without getting sideswiped by overwhelm, chaos and decision paralysis?

Kellyn Legath, founder of Daydreamer Coaching, joined us to discuss customer communication, start-up struggles (and solves) and making it easy for potential customers to find you.

Join us as we dive deep into the very real struggles small businesses face and how they can be solved with Thryv’s free small business solution: Command Center.

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What is your #1 small business struggle?

Wanting to do it all — and fast! It’s easy to get excited about growth opportunities but trying to do everything at once is a recipe for disaster. Trying to do it all ironically leads to getting nothing done.

It’s so important to be able to take a step back and ask yourself: “What’s most important to me at this moment. What’s my first priority and how it is going to help me reach my clients and grow my business?”

What was one of your main priorities when starting your business?

For me, it was establishing my online presence. I wanted to be sure customers could easily get in touch with me, whether it’s through email, DM on Instagram or calling me directly from my Yelp Business page.

There are people out there who are looking for what you have to offer — no matter what industry you’re in. But if customers have to climb mountains and look under rocks to find you, you’re doing yourself and the people you want to serve a major disservice. I wanted to make sure that my digital door was always open so I never missed a call, text, DM or email.

When it comes to customer communication struggles, what was the biggest challenge?

I’m sure small business owners can relate, but sometimes it can feel like checking one thing off your to-do list — you have to take care of five other things first.

For example, I knew I wanted to set up my Yelp Business page. However, when I was in the final stages of completing my profile, I was asked to add a phone number for customers to contact me directly.

I knew I didn’t want to include my personal information so I was trying to figure out what I should do next. Should I get a new phone and add it to my monthly cell phone plan? How do I get a business phone number? Should I just say “It’s fine!” and use my personal phone number?

That’s one of the major reasons I signed up for Command Center — being able to set up a business phone number for free was huge for me!

Why was setting up a business phone number so important to you?

In our digitally savvy world text, DMs and chat messages reign supreme. Most people tend to joke about the idea of actually someone on the phone. I can see the memes now.

But the reality is, when people are looking to invest in a service — whether it’s self-development or adding an addition to your house — they want to get information directly from the source.

I don’t think you can put a price on human interaction. It’s one thing to read details on a website. It’s another to get all of your questions from the person whom you’re going to be working with directly.

How do you manage your time as a small business owner?

As the saying goes … time is money. I know that’s cliche but it really is right on the money (pun intended). One of the reasons I was getting nothing done was because there were distractions everywhere.

I would log on to Instagram to respond to my DMs, and the next thing I knew I was trapped in a rabbit hole of consuming content.

Or I would check my email and suddenly be organizing my Google Drive. I love that Command Center centralizes everything so I can respond to messages distraction-free. I get so much more done in half the time.

Do you have any advice for small business owners?

Take advantage of tools to simplify your life. Focusing on organization, prioritization and communication can be hard to do on your own. But when you find the right software to support you it’s unbelievable how quickly you can stop spinning in circles and start taking action that supports the growth of your business.

If your small business is dealing with customer communication struggles, then it’s time you try Thryv Command Center. The best part: It’s free. Sign up here.