Fear or staying complacent is not a strategy. Many of my clients are worried about their businesses and how they can continue to grow and be profitable. Challenges like social media, AI, the economy, politics, online sales, more competition and the list can go on. But just because these issues are creating scary market indicators doesn’t mean businesses, business owners and managers like you should be running scared. Even success can be a challenge. Being complacent, not adapting to change, or just putting your business on autopilot and not looking at how you can continue being successful can be just as bad for a business. What is your competition is doing?
The real question you need to ask right now is, “How can I take advantage of the challenges happening today?”
There are many ways to do it and I continue to share, with my clients, coaching members and you, three things to focus on in your business today and every day in order to continue to strengthen your business, keep your current customers, one up your competition and set yourself up for massive success.
- Improve Your Customer Experience
It’s time to reevaluate your entire customer experience journey, starting with every customer touchpoint in your business. What is your team doing to build relationships with each customer during the journey? How are you emotionally connecting and engaging with your customers? These are extremely important but often times overlooked.
Too many businesses focus solely on bringing in new customers and don’t develop personal relationships with the people who have already proven willing to pull out their wallets and buy your product and use your services. It is much cheaper to upsell and resell to the clients you have right now than to find new customers, especially in this economy. So, what are you waiting for? Start learning, communicating and relationship building right now. Don’t be one of those businesses that are just average.
Businesses with a superior customer experience brings in 6X more revenue than competitors who have just average experiences.
2. Find and Smooth Out Any Friction Points
Friction points in your business and customer experience will lead to increased customer turnover and unhappy employees. Two issues that won’t help you be successful. To prevent future problems, look for areas in your business, hiring, team culture and customer journey that frustrates your employees, annoys your customers or are just overly complicated.
What do your customers complain about? What does your team gripe about? The biggest issues are your friction points. Remember that for every complaint that comes in, there are three people who remain silent by keeping their mouths shut.
Maybe you get a lot of complaints from customers about support, follow up, hard to do business with, not caring or empathizing, being treated like a number or product satisfaction. Maybe your team struggles with not having the right tools, overworked, lack of recognition, no feedback or even your technology. Figure out what is causing these challenges, revise policies and remove those friction points.
3. Cut The Fat Out Of Your Business
Businesses tend to get sloppy when sales are rolling in and money is easy. You might be shelling out money on Facebook marketing campaigns right now that haven’t done anything for your bottom line. Maybe you are sending out emails with the wrong content or message, letting a third of your leads to fall through the cracks. Are you wasting money on the wrong type of employee recognition programs, office supplies and new shiny objects and business toys?
Now is the time to sit down with your staff and team, look at the money going out and the systems you have in place. Is there a lot of unnecessary expenses and policies in place. It is time to clean things up. Don’t knock the basics or keeping things simple.
I advise business owners all the time, but they don’t always listen or act. Often, they fall victim to these challenges and issues. They either wait too long to get started or they let their ego get in the way and refuse to get the help they need to make it happen. Don’t be one of those people! Instead follow the wise words of Warren Buffett: “Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful. I believe many of your competitors are fearful. They’re laying off staff, compromising customer experiences, dealing with employee turnover and slacking off. It’s time for you to be greedy! Make those investments in yourself and your business. Learn to work right not just smarter or harder in your business. If you do that, your business will come out on top no matter how tough the economy gets.
Need help or would like to know more about John’s affordable training and coaching programs? Schedule a FREE 45 Minute Discovery Strategy Session call with John today. It just might be the best and most productive 45 minute investment in your business. No Fluff and Nothing For Sale! Just pure help. Do it today by clicking on this link: https://go.oncehub.com/DiscoverySessionCall
John Formica is America’s and Australia’s Customer Experience Coach, team culture experience expert, keynote speaker, and Top 10 Global Thought Leader and Influencer on Customer Loyalty. For information on customer experience programs, leadership training, team culture, business growth, how to find and hire great people and tailored training programs just for you or to book John to speak at your next event, contact 704-965-4090 or visit our website at JohnFormica.com.