A new way to draw customers
by Kelly Schwedland
If you want a business that works, then you first need to know what works and how to accurately define what made it work.
So far, we have decided that we are going to work on our business not just in it. We also have decided that everything that happens in our business is systemic. With these two things in mind we need to look at creating a process for finding the systems that work in our business. We call this a Business Development Process.
A process which includes:
- Innovation
- Quantification
- Orchestration
We have heard all these words so let me give you my definition.
Create a positive experience
Innovations of the way we do things, not just the products or services we offer. The way we answer the phone. The way we greet a customer. The way we open a sales call. All the little things we do in a business, not just the big ones.
Quantification of the results we get from the innovation. When we change it, how does it change the result? Better yet, how do we measure the change? Like: The Number of inquiries from each source, The average dollar sale, etc.. What I am saying is, we need to have a system in place to monitor the result of the innovation, regardless of how creative we may or may not be.
Orchestration is the elimination of choice at the operating level of your business. Now about half of you just said, “But that’s like a prison." I would respond, “Only if it is a bureaucracy and you stop innovating from within.” The point I am trying to make is that if your people are making choices about how they do it, then you don’t own it. If you don’t own it then you can’t guarantee the results. Because, what good does it do to touch a customer in exactly the right way one time, and the opposite the next. What we are trying to create is certainty of a positive experience for the customer, every single time, and it won’t happen if every time the experience is different.
Let us look at how this can work in real life. In a retail environment, for the first six weeks you greet the customer with, “Hi, may I help you.” You count the number of people that came in the store and calculate the average dollar sale of possible (not actual) customers. For the second six weeks you keep everything else the same but you change the greeting to, “Hi, have you ever been here before?” Now, regardless of the answer, you tell them about the current specials or new items, etc.. You can try this yourself or I can tell you the result from experience and you can change the way you greet customers tomorrow. The result is that the average dollar sale of possible customers jumps by 10-15 percent. If you don’t believe me, that’s fine, prove it for yourself. All the better.
The point here is that there is a process to making your business perform better. Deliberately try new simple innovations in your business. Have ways to quantify the results. Then orchestrate it into your operation. Consistently eliminating frustrations and creating a business that touches customers in exactly the right way every single time.
Kelly Schwedland is president of American Business Dynamics, a small business consulting firm focused on issues related to growing companies.