Posts Tagged ‘customers’
Thursday, October 20th, 2011
 If you search Google for “why businesses fail” you will get about 3.7 million results. Many of those articles will talk about the pitfalls and untold reasons why organizations go out of business. Our stance is, instead of focusing on what went wrong, focus on planning and building for success. Outcomes that are focused on are typically the outcomes that are generated. If you want to build a successful business you need to focus on success.
We can learn a great deal from businesses that fail and apply that knowledge to action steps that propel a business toward success and away from failure. Here are some important elements of a successful business to consider:
- Develop a plan. You can get where you are going much faster if you have a road map. Developing a plan for your business that includes a vision, objectives, and critical success factors creates a road map. Evaluating potential problems and challenges before they happen often eliminates crises. Reviewing financial, equipment, and employee needs creates preparation. Developing a plan for marketing, advertising, and customer growth ensures focusing on the right activities. Develop a plan and revisit it frequently.
- Execution is key. Developing a plan is the first step to executing your plan. Daily action steps are what make it come to fruition. Do you and your team members know what they need to do, focus on, and accomplish in order to make the business goals a reality? Frequent and consistent communication with your team will help ensure that everyone is working towards the right outcomes.
Know your customers. Who are your customers, and why do they buy from you? What makes your product or service different or better? Creating and growing a loyal customer base is the key to business sustainability. If asked, customers will tell you exactly what they need. Ask frequently and listen intently. As the world changes so do customers’ requirements of your products or services. - Evaluate competition. Who is your competition and how do you compare? Competitive research is well worth the time and effort. Know what your business is up against. Understand competitors’ products and services and how potential customers compare those products or services to your company. This knowledge is vital as it allows you to make well-informed advertising and marketing decisions.
- Be able to adapt. Business environments and customers change. The ability to adapt to the ever-changing face of business is just as important as planning. Your plan provides the roadmap but occasionally there will be obstacles located in the middle of the road which will necessitate a course correction. Being able to adapt quickly will allow the course correction to be as seamless as possible.
- Maintain focus. Know where you going and what you want to achieve at all times. Distractions can mean death to a business. It becomes very easy to lose sight of the big picture when a distraction presents itself. Distractions have a bad habit of allowing us to race down blind alleys and take our eyes off of the real objectives. Again, count on your plan to provide the roadmap and make goal-oriented decisions.
Creating a successful and sustainable business is not always easy; however, the rewards often outweigh the challenges. Put yourself in a position to win at business by giving yourself all of the advantages listed above, and the results you desire will follow!
Tammy A.S. Kohl is President of Resource Associates Corporation. RAC is the first choice among business professional for assistance in creating, building and expanding a successful consulting or coaching practice. RAC trained consultants and coaches specialize in helping businesses and individuals achieve high levels of excellence and success. Learn how by visiting our website or contact RAC directly at 800.799.6227.
Tags: Business Success, Coach, competition, consultant, customers, planning, Sustainability, sustainable business, why businesses fail
Posted in Coaching, Consulting, Strategic Planning, Sustainability | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, January 5th, 2011
If you search Google for “why businesses fail” you will get about 6.9 million results. Many of those articles will talk about the pitfalls and untold reasons why businesses go out of business. Our stance is, instead of the focusing on what went wrong, focus on planning and building for success. Outcomes that are focused on are typically the outcomes that are generated. If you want to build a successful business you need to focus on success.
We can learn a great deal from businesses that fail and apply that knowledge to actions step that propel a business toward success and away from failure. Here are some important elements of a successful business to consider.
- Develop a plan. You can get where you are going much faster if you have a road map. Developing a plan for your business that includes a vision, objectives, and critical success factors creates a road map. Evaluating potential problems and challenges before they happen often eliminates crisis. Reviewing financial, equipment, and employee needs creates preparation. Developing a marketing, advertising, and customer growth plan ensures focusing on the right activities. Develop a plan and revisit it frequently.
- Execution is key. Developing a plan is the first step to executing your plan. Daily action steps are what make it come to fruition. Do you and your team members know what they need to do, focus on, and accomplish in order to make the business goals a reality? Frequent and consistent communication with your team will help ensure that everyone is working towards the right outcomes.
- Know your customers. Who are your customers and why do they buy from you? What makes your product or service different or better? Creating and growing a loyal customer base is the key to business sustainability. If asked, customers will tell you exactly what they need. Ask frequently and listen intently. As the world changes so do customers requirements of your product or service.
- Evaluate competition. Who is your competition and how do you compare? Competitive research is well worth the time and effort. Know what your business is up against. Understand competitor’s products and services and how potential customers compare those products or services to your company. This knowledge is vital as it allows you to make well-informed advertising and marketing decisions.
- Be able to adapt. Business environments and customers change. The ability to adapt to the ever-changing face of business is just as important as planning. Your plan provides the road map but every once in awhile there will be obstacles located in the middle of the road and a course correction will be necessary. Being able to adapt quickly will allow the course correction to be as seamless as possible.
- Maintain focus. Know where you going and what you want to achieve at all times. Distractions can mean death to a business. It becomes very easy to lose sight of the big picture when a distraction presents itself. Again, count on your plan to provide the road map and make goal-oriented decisions. Distractions have a bad habit to allowing us to race down blind alleys and take our eyes off of the real objectives.
Creating a successful and sustainable business is not always easy; however, the rewards often out weigh the challenges. Put yourself in a position to win at business by giving yourself all the advantages listed above and the results you desire will follow!
Tammy A.S. Kohl is President of Resource Associates Corporation. For over 30 years, RAC has specialized in helping businesses and individuals achieve high levels of excellence and success. Learn how at www.resourceassociatescorp.com or contact RAC directly at 800.799.6227.
Tags: competition, customers, Execution, failure, focus, goggle, planning, Resource Associates Corporation, Success, Sustainability, sustainable business rac, why businesses fail
Posted in Business Management, Sustainability | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 12th, 2010
“The very essence of leadership is that you have a vision. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet.” – Former President of The University of Notre Dame
A powerful vision provides inspiration, challenge, and purpose. It gives meaning to your work and purpose to your business. Your business gives you a place where you can satisfy your need to achieve. Everyone’s life needs a purpose, something important to strive for. One way to add both meaning and context to your vision is to establish values. Clearly defined values simplify decision making. They also help ensure consistency as well as ethical and behavioral congruency.
Value is a word that describes what each of us searches for in many different places. We look for value in what we purchase. We look for value in what we do, and for value in our relationships. Most of us would like to believe that there would have been some value to our life and to our accomplishments. In today’s global and ever-changing business environment, values should play an important role in structuring, planning, and operating your business. Direction is provided in part by vision, which creates excitement, commitment, and purpose. Achievement and excitement must be tempered, however, by values lest people pursue goals without consideration for the ethics of other people. Values represent the core priorities in the organization’s culture including what drives individuals and how they truly act in an organization. Therefore, another key element of a successful planning process is the organization’s value statement. Throughout the life of the business, decisions must be made. Core values of the organization will lay the foundation and provide the framework for all decisions.
An organization’s values create a foundation for integrity and they define the important truths that guide your actions. They will serve as a guidepost for all those in the organization who through their individual efforts will collectively achieve the organizational goals. Values are principles or standards by which we do business and are to be non-negotiable. As you think about crystallizing your values, consider what you know to be right as well as how you want to be known by others.
If the primary function of your business is to attract and maintain customers in order to generate long-term profits or financial viability, then issues such as meeting client or customer expectations, delivering quality service, etc., must be included in the values statement. Your values should take into consideration the importance you place upon each stakeholder in your business. By definition, a stakeholder is anyone who has the power to exert influence on your organization. It may be an individual, a group, or another organization. For example, your stakeholders could include your customers, your employees and their families, your stockholders, the community, licensing and regulatory agencies, or suppliers.
Some examples of value statements are:
- Improving the quality of life through technology and innovation.
- The company exists to alleviate pain and disease.
- To be regarded by our customers as easy to deal with and as a provider of high-quality, reliable products and services.
- Our first concern is for our customer, our second concern is for our employees, our third concern is for our management, our fourth concern is for our community, and our fifth concern is for our stockholders.
There are many companies in the media over the last several years that clearly operated and made decisions with no values and we are all aware of how it impacted people’s lives. However, there are a lot of companies who have well defined values and make decisions with those values ever present. Go to http://www.chick-fil-a.com/#closedonsundays and learn why Chick-fil-A is closed on Sunday and why they believe it is part of their recipe for success. Check out http://www.tylenol.com/page2.jhtml?id=tylenol/news/subp_tylenol_recall_1.inc and learn why McNeil Consumer Healthcare initiated the recent voluntary recall of all their children and infant liquid products.
What value statement is your business defined by?
Tammy A.S. Kohl is President of Resource Associates Corporation. For over 30 years, RAC has specialized in helping businesses and individuals achieve high levels of excellence and success. Learn how at www.resourceassociatescorp.com or contact RAC directly at 800.799.6227.
Tags: Chick-fil-A, customers, ethics, Healthcare, integrity, McNeil Consumer, Notre Dame, Purpose, RAC, Resource Associates Corporation, stakeholders, stockholders, suppliers, Values, Vision
Posted in Vision | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 28th, 2010
After running several errands, my husband and I stopped at a local chain restaurant for dinner Monday evening. We typically eat at the bar as there are several TVs lining the header of the bar, and its provides a great way to catch up on the day. We noticed very quickly that the service was slow, but we waited patiently for the server to move in our direction. As we waited, I started observing the bar area and there was one server handling the area. The bar area seats 30 people and there were 15 people seated in the bar totaling 9 parties. It was clear from the body language of the server that she was growing frustrated. The server made her way to us and took our drink order, gave us menus, and proceeded to tell us that she was swamped based on the number of people she had to take care of leaving us with the underlying impression that the service was not going to get any faster or better. I watched her communicate the same message to the rest of the parties sitting at the bar as she served drinks and took orders. (By the way, she never delivered food. Another server from the kitchen delivered the food when it was ready. And, her customer population did not grow the entire time we were there.)
Talk about setting up expectation! I looked at my husband and asked him, ‘Wonder what she would do or say if she had a full bar of customers to serve?’
Often times in the restaurant industry customers make an immediate contribution to a server’s compensation. I wonder if in any of this particular server’s training anyone shared that concept with her. Her attitude and behavior clearly communicated that the 15 of us were too much for her to handle and quite frankly an inconvenience to her evening.
This story is an example of situations that happen every day and it is unfortunate on two levels. The customer expectations were not met let alone exceeded impacting our decision to return and the server dramatically impacted her financial success based on her own inappropriate attitudes and behaviors. Not a good experience for the customer, a possible loss of the customer for the restaurant, and a personal financial loss for the server.
There are two great articles in the March issue of T&D magazine highlighting Chick-fil-A’s views on developing employees, developing future leadership, creating customer loyalty, and being innovative. Dan Cathy, the company’s COO states, “Our sole source of capital is customers. That’s it.” Chick-fil-A has reported their 42nd consecutive year of sales growth and the restaurants aren’t open Sundays.
I don’t think it really matters if we are talking about restaurants or any other industry. Dan Cathy is correct. Customers are every business’s sole source of capital. Every team member and every contributor inside your organization directly impacts your organization’s relationship with your customer. The culture of true customer service and creating customer loyalty is in Chick-fil-A’s heritage.
What does your organization need to do or do differently in order to create an organizational value of exceeding your customer expectations and creating a loyal relationship? Have you ever quantified the financial benefit to your organization? I encourage you to evaluate the answers to these two questions, as it may be an enlightening exercise!
Tammy A.S. Kohl is President of Resource Associates Corporation. For over 30 years, RAC has specialized in helping businesses achieve high levels of excellence and success by adopting customer loyalty strategies as a critical success factor of organizational success. Learn how at www.resourceassociatescorp.com or contact RAC directly at 800.799.6227.
Tags: ASTD, capital, Chick-fil-A, communication, Customer Loyalty, Customer Service, customers, Dan Cathy, RAC, Resource Associates Corporation, server, T&D Magazine
Posted in Customer Loyalty | 1 Comment »
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