(Sponsored by PRINTING United) This week on 2 Regular Guys, Aaron and Terry will be talking with Dana Curtis from Biztool. The conversation will cover small business entrepreneurship, the experience your customer sees, feels and touches with your business, and ways to develop your own business strategy.

Our regular listeners know this, but 2 Regular Guys are all about garment decorating, a bit of fun, and no rants or lectures or selling. We are not doing this for our employers, but rather for our industry. Since February 2013, The 2 Regular Guys have been the first and the most listened to garment decorating industry podcast on this planet! We are humbled by all of you tuning in each week. We work hard to bring you information that will make your business better, and our industry better. Take a look at our incredible weekly guest list and you’ll understand where this industry goes for news, interviews, and the heartbeat of garment decorating. Thanks for listening!

News Dad Joke - Two snails got into a bar fight...It was a real slug fest

Customer Experience Aaron:  Dana Curtis is the founder and CEO of Biztools, a strategic consulting firm that helps small businesses multiply revenue through improved customer experience and pivot to new markets. Welcome to the show Dana.Terry: Dana, let’s start with defining what customer experience means to you?Dana: My view of the customer experience is the journey a customer takes from the moment they learn your name all the way through the purchase process until they: A) forget who you are, or B) think about doing business with you again – at which point they start a new experience.It is the sum of their encounters with your business across all channels. It can be a windingly complex sales cycle over a period of months with multiple touchpoints, or it can be a quick search right before popping into your shop in person.In some cases, you may never be aware of them at all.Aaron: What’s the one most common mistake a new business owner makes when it comes to designing their customer experience?Dana: There’s a couple I can think of, but probably the most common is trying to do too much and be all things to all people. Half measures get half results, and the single hardest thing new business owners must deal with is building Brand Equity. A simple definition for brand equity is the answer to the #1 question every prospect asks: “Why You?”  It’s simple to understand, yet the most difficult question to answer.You simply can’t do everything, so by stretching yourself too thin, you either make promises you can’t keep, or you don’t earn enough revenue to sustain the business.There’s a reason the “average age of successful entrepreneurs is 45”, by that age they know how to slow down and draw lines in the sand. Terry: Let's get into the nuts and bolts of customer experience. What is the process for a garment decorator to create a better “customer experience”?Dana: I approach this problem in 3 parts – essentially the beginning, middle, and end of the journey I just mentioned.Beginning:I like to have my clients walk me through their customer journey. Most don’t have one. Their initial response is usually “I get a phone call or an email” or “somebody fills out a form on the website”. If they have a retail space, you can also add “somebody walks through my door”.  What I counsel my clients is the first time you interact with your customer in person, they are halfway through their journey. They have already formed an opinion about the business.Middle:After we have this conversation, I ask my clients “what do they think of you?” Most don’t know.Their response is usually, “how should I know?” – which is completely ok,