In Port Lincoln, there’s a railway crossing with two contradictory signs – one warning of trains that will never come, the other asking to keep tracks clear. It’s an apt metaphor for the paradoxical situation many Australian small businesses find themselves in as we navigate 2025.
A recent YouGov survey covered by Broker Daily, paints a sobering picture. A staggering 18% of small businesses are operating without cash reserves, while 77% of business leaders report personal financial impact. The squeeze is everywhere – 46% of leaders have reduced their own income, and 28% have used personal funds to keep their businesses afloat. Rising operational costs (energy, wages, raw materials) combined with reduced consumer spending (anticipated by 33% of business leaders) create a perfect storm. While inflation has recently dropped to 2.8%, the cumulative effect of prolonged inflation has already taken its toll.
Yet in these trying times, it’s often the simplest elements that separate survival from success. A recent journey through Port Lincoln and Port Pirie revealed how service – that most fundamental of business elements – can either be your greatest ally or your Achilles’ heel.
The Queue That Broke the Camel’s Back
In Port Lincoln, there’s a famous bakery where I traditionally break my dietary rules for a daily croissant indulgence. But this year, my body benefited from one of the worst service bottlenecks I’ve seen. There’s just one till, and every time staff look up to serve someone, their demeanor suggested fresh surprise at finding customers wanting to order. It’s not uncommon to stand in line for 20 minutes with only a few people ahead of you, watching orders crawl through the system. This year, I couldn’t bear it.
Similarly, a popular hotel restaurant has continued its tradition of turning dining into an obstacle course, with queues snaking between tables like a particularly inefficient conga line. When members of my table blinked, they found themselves separated by 20 minutes of ordering time. As Oscar Wilde might have said, to be slightly delayed may well be considered an inconvenience but to have marathonesque queues is to move into the realm of the absurd!
With consumer spending already under pressure, these service failures feel less like minor mishaps and more like acts of business self-sabotage.
A Bird in the Hand
Yet amidst these cautionary tales, there’s Juicy Birds, a chicken shop that looks sleek, clean, and professional. What struck me wasn’t just that this locally-created store started from scratch, offering good food and service, but that they built in a separate pre-ordered window.
They’ve thought about the logistics of those peak moments and built an option into their systems to help people take matters into their own hands by ordering ahead.
In other words, they’ve done what many businesses forget to do: they’ve thought about their customers’ journey before the customers had to think about it themselves.
The Sign of the Times
Two stops in Port Pirie offered contrasting lessons in customer service. The first was a café where the first thing you see is a large sign at the serving counter: “Please end your phone call before approaching this counter.”
Straight away, there’s a passive-aggressive tone that weakens the store and makes staff seem defensive and bitter, almost begrudging the fact they have to serve.
The Art of the Perfect Pour
But then there’s Rebecca, with her new coffee cart on the corner of Main Road and Illman Street in Port Pirie.
She’s still caught up in the love of crafting perfect coffees – so much so that she drew me into her journey to perfection.
She did two attempts that weren’t up to her standard and then, having perfected the third pour, gave me a sample of a rejected espresso to contrast with the perfect one. Just two seconds difference in pour time made a big difference in taste.
I told the world about her. And that is what you need as a small business in these times.
The Cost of Waiting
None of this is rocket science, but when times are tough, it’s extra painful to lose customers through frustration.
The cost of remedying service issues now will be more than having taken the time to remedy bottlenecks ahead of time. But, that said, there is no time like the present.
The Way Forward
While there are glimmers of hope – the number of businesses without cash reserves has dropped 4% in the last six months, and interest rates are positioned for potential cuts – the fundamental challenge remains.
Success in these times isn’t just about surviving until conditions improve; it’s about building systems and cultures that create resilience regardless of external conditions.
The solution isn’t always about grand innovations or expensive systems. Sometimes it’s as simple as adding another till, creating a pre-order system, or maintaining the enthusiasm to make every coffee perfect. In challenging times, good service isn’t just about keeping customers happy – it’s about keeping customers, period.
After all, in business as in coffee, the difference between bitter and perfect often comes down to just a few seconds of attention. And in these challenging times, we can’t afford to serve anything less than perfect.