Carol Roth is a radio host on WGN, a CNBC TV contributor, a ‘recovering’ investment banker & a bestselling author of The Entrepreneur Equation. You can find her on Twitter @CarolJSRoth or at www.CarolRoth.com. She also has an action figure made in her likeness.
Change is a vital part of any business’ success and growth. Regardless of how many ideas you generate in-house, however, you can target ideas more precisely when you introduce the customer voice into the mix.
To improve your current products or services, or if you’re ready to branch out into new areas, consider the following ideas to avail yourself of knowledge gleaned from real-life customer experiences.
An associate of mine tells the story of a former employer that sent the whole company out to a fancy resort so that they could, among other things, form teams that built boats out of Styrofoam. All that she learned from the exercise was that computer engineer skills don’t translate to practical boat design — and that great working relationships are not necessarily built based on a few days of manufactured fun outside of the office.
By now, you’ve probably heard the term disruptive innovation and you know that disruption has positive connotations when it comes to the future of your business. Jeff Bezos has proven it to the extreme. But, any level of disruption can have a negative effect on your business if your customers are not ready for it — or cannot afford it.
As is frequently said, “Steady as she goes”; done correctly, disrupting does not mean chaos. As long as you are thoughtful and well-organized, you can be the next successful disruptor.
Do you remember Jan on The Brady Bunch? Plagued by middle-child syndrome, she couldn’t simply rely on small-child cuteness, like little sister, Cindy. And, she didn’t get the recognition and accolades earned by her older sister– Marcia, Marcia, Marcia.
At times, the celebration of growing to mid-sized status wanes due to the unique issues of being in the middle of the pack. You’ve lost some small business benefits, but you’re not quite ready to compete with industry giants. This is the time to get creative.
In small companies, everyone wears many hats. Now that you have a larger team (and departments with defined functions), you can embrace the saying, many hands make light work. Unfortunately, another saying, too many cooks spoil the broth, can also apply to your team and effect your team productivity.
As your company continues to grow, you have to adjust your organizational thinking to maintain a productive and engaged team.
You know that all customer-facing employees need to handle customer concerns with due care and a degree of finesse. But, do you realize that the people in your company who never see customers also have a great deal to do with the customer experience?
Everyone in your company should view their roles with a customer perspective.
With a small customer base, you can be very accomodating. You’ll happily perform backbends to retain flexible business systems. This is how you grew into the business that you are today. But, with a larger customer base, all those backbends would send you straight to a chiropractor. It’s officially time to take on a new mindset by redefining what flexibility in business means.