WHAT’S the most important element of your business? Finances? Your staff? Premises or resources? Your product/ service?
Well, none of these really.
Surely, it’s all about the customer.
Without customers or clients your business has no reason to exist. No revenue, therefore no ability to employ staff, or ability to meet expenses.
So it’s vital that we consider these people before anything else. Who are they? How will they perceive our business? How will they react to everything that we do?
Therefore, they should be considered at every point in our operation – considered first, in fact. The business name, its logo, overall marketing, its product and/or service delivery, how it handles its accounts – absolutely everything, should be looked at through the customers’ eyes first and then our own, second.
My daughter had a business concept in mind and was asking my opinion and those of other family and friends with regard to her business name and proposed logo. My answer was that it didn’t matter what I thought. “Go back a few paces”, was my advice. “First, really study who the people are who are going to buy your service. Then detail the demographic, try to imagine how that group will think. What will appeal to them? Once you can answer those questions, you will be in a far better position to decide on a business name and logo.”
The logo of MBR Corporate was one of four or five that my graphic designer presented. We had provided him with a brief, based on the information we had about our target market. There was one particular logo that I really appealed to me, but we did not believe it would have been a fit for our target market. The one we chose was not my personal favourite, but was the one we believed was a fit for our potential customers.
Motivational speaker Tom O’Toole famously insists that his staff, when arriving at work each day, enter the shop through the front door. Why? To look at the business premises as if they were a customer. Is it dusty? Are there flies in the window? Could the presentation be improved?
Sir Richard Branson says the trick is always to look at your business or brand from outside in. ‘‘Instead of looking strictly through the prism of the latest quarterly financials, attempt to see yourself as your customers see you,” he says.
If it’s good enough for him, surely it’s good enough for the rest of us. He further suggests phoning your own customer service line – this is a great first step that can often unveil an immediate requirement for change.
Another suggestion is to continually question your customers in a way that elicits real and usable information. This can range from training staff to ask leading questions and being on the lookout for customer attitudes, to fully blown questionnaires designed to provide real information regarding your products services and service delivery.
Once you have been provided with this information, it’s a matter of being prepared to act. It’s all well and good to pretend that ‘it’s only a once-off response’ – and therefore not requiring any remedial action. However, if you’re asking for feedback, the least you should do is give that feedback due consideration. This might take the form of a weekly or monthly meeting that considers customer response and what action the business might take to keep you on top of your game.
The other important benefit from this viewpoint is that it helps you gain a healthy objectivity about your business. Without constantly looking at the business as separate from yourself, you tend to take failures personally. Basically, your ego gets in the way of objective decision-making. During these times (and I would suggest set times during every day or week) it should be remembered that the business is a means to an end and not an end in itself.
So, when you making any decision about any aspect of your business, ensure that your first consideration is that of the effect that decision will make on the customer.
