Recently I was doing a little bit of market research and happened upon our biggest competitor’s Facebook page. My intent was to see what types of items were they posting. We’ve started doing a lot more advertising on social media and wanted to ensure we were being as engaging with our audience as possible. They honestly weren’t even posting that much. What I found instead is their page was littered with complaints. People downright upset with how their online continuing education courses were working, or really, NOT working.

Please don’t get me wrong. I am not going to trash our competitor. I simply wouldn’t feel right about doing that and you probably don’t want to hear, or really read, something with that as the topic. Every company has glitches–the internet and computers are fallible, and honestly, the people operating these systems are also just as fallible. Things go wrong, and in my mind, the proof of a good company is how they react to it.

There were two things I considered as I looked through the items on their Facebook page. First, they weren’t responding to these complaints–at least not on the Facebook post themselves. Maybe they were in communication by some other means, but some of these customers had posted multiple times days ago with nothing from the company in the comment section.

The second thing I considered, and really this ties into the first issue and is really the most important point of all, BIG companies have a far larger volume of business. This creates greater opportunity for failure–it’s just in the odds. We aren’t as BIG as they are and as a result, our response time is quick–REALLY QUICK. When something at Bryan Ventures breaks, and it does happen, we don’t get hundreds of calls distracting us from getting the ultimate problem fixed. We also don’t need to go through several administrative levels to find the right person for the job or to await the approval from someone at the top. We simply respond and get it taken care of as soon as possible (ASAP)–and ASAP around here is normally within minutes of your request. SERIOUSLY!

Chances are you are a small business owner just like me. The vast majority of agents taking our insurance continuing education courses fall into that category and as a result, you see the value in supporting another small business, but even if you are not, even if you work for a company of any size, you see the value in working with a company who will be responsive to your needs–who will be here to help in the process. A company who will save you time and energy by first making the process simple but will also be available to help should you need any assistance. The truth is, “Bigger Isn’t Always Better”, and I encourage you to check out the difference with Bryan Ventures today.

Published October 2017. This blog features the special benefits of working with a small business. Renee E. Bryan also publishes writing at her blog: WrongWayLizzie.Me.