Clients consulted in:
Kuwait
Emirates
India
Russia
Ukraine
Kazakhstan
England
Netherlands
United States
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Business Today = Change
Doing Business in a Difficult Economy
October 2008
Page 3 of 3
Low customer loyalty
In any economic climate it is critically important to understand your customers. Who are they? Where do they live? Where do they work? What do they want or need? Success begins with gaining a deep insight into your customers, their problems and desires. Then develop your strategy by putting everything that is known about existing solutions or that can be created - gaining ideas from your employee, your vendors, your business partners and financial assets. If you do a better job in providing your customers with the 'right' solutions, your business and profits will grow. Dedicating your top priority to putting your Customer First is the differentiator between you and the competition.
Importantly, building a lasting relationship with your customers is critical and a very hard work. Are your customers loyal to your business? Do you measure the customer experience? Have you set goals for customer experience improvement?
There are 5 key questions that must be answered:
- AWARENESS - Is the customer aware of your brand and your value propositions?
- CONSIDERATION - Do your customers consider buying at your stores?
- CONVERSION - Did your customers make a purchase at your stores?
- RETURN - Did your customers return to your stores to make another purchase?
- LOYALTY - Will you customers recommend your stores to friends?
Leadership and employees must know their customers and assure that every customer leaves thinking, "Wow, that was great!"
CUSTOMER LOYALTY - WHY?
- A loyal customer base will produce most of the profitability for the company
- Providing a 'thrilling' experience = repeat customers
- Loyalty programs win repeat business with the most profitable customers
- 'Relationship selling' builds trust and confidence why "I" get the best value here
Resistance to change
All businesses must change to continue to grow but doing something differently is hard work. It is never too late to change but successful managers and businesses look into the future and plan changes before it is too late.
Change creates uncertainty. Change creates ambiguity. Change creates fear.
Remember, if you are not changing and growing, you are dying.
Leaders, managers, employees working at any level of an organization will need to change if an organizational change effort is to be successful. If you think you can delegate change or hire someone to do it for you, you are wrong. The change process requires first that you know yourself and then change yourself. The learning and changing accomplished and demonstrated by executives and senior management is critical to success.
Elements of successful change:
Understanding - HEAD - Why should I change?
- Do you clearly understand what is not working and why you need to change?
- Do you know what changes need to be made?
- Do you know how the changes need to be implemented?
- Do you understand the role that you need to play to achieve change success?
Believing - HEART - What's in it for me?
- Do you believe that the change is right?
- Can you support the change with your words and actions?
Doing - HANDS - What do I do differently?
- Because you understand it and believe it, do you actually do it?
- Are you the role model for the change?
CONCLUSIONS
- External forces affecting your business today
- Global inflation
- Recessionary pressures
- Energy crisis
- Housing crisis
- Financial markets in chaos
- Increased competition
All of these external forces create urgency for business owners and leaders to develop new strategies to grow their business and increase profits.
In order to make sound decisions you must look inside at your own business first. Where are you? How did you get there? What needs to change to turn your business around?
- Develop a short, mid and long term strategy
- Get your organizational structure right - Remove the hierarchy
- Make sure you have the right leaders in place
- Review your standards and SOPs
- Instill a strong selling culture where everyone focuses on the customer
- Training your people is a top priority of all leaders
- Put the customer first
- Embrace change - be the role model
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Eames Management Group
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