These are just observations I have made while working for small businesses. They may not apply to all cases but this is what I’ve seen.

1. It is quit cheap to motivate staff without increasing their pay.
2. Responsible workers should be given more responsibility
3. The biggest missed opportunity is when employers don’t ask employees for feedback or on “how we can better serve our customers”
4. If you have good loyal staff it’s always safer to give them the benefit of the doubt over the customer (depending on the industry)
5. Losing customers is still the easiest thing you can do in business. Do some favours for them and they’ll remember it, at least the customer that you want will.