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Subject: Part 6 d What Does Your Business Need So It Can Keep Serving Customers?

Author: Dennis S. Vogel

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ] Date Posted: 20:45:47 10/07/05 Fri In reply to: Dennis S. Vogel 's message, "Part 6a - Be Sure Your Business Is On Target" on 17:00:34 09/26/05 Mon I agree with this idea - marketing is about serving customers. All 4 Ps -- Product/Service, Promotion, Price, Place/Distribution -- should be chosen or developed to make life or business easier for a group. Profit is usually only possible by selling to a group (segment of a population), but the product/service should be positioned as the best solution for an individual, a family or a business. (It probably won’t be practical for everybody in every potential situation. Example- A sledge hammer can be used to pound a nail into a board. The result may even be faster with a sledge hammer. But in most cases a claw hammer is better for pounding nails.) This post approaches that from a different angle. A business can’t serve customers unless it survives. So, some of your workshops/meetings should be dedicated to survival. A big survival issue is how much value to put into each transaction? Are the bonuses (to encourage higher level transactions) valuable enough or too valuable (too expensive to offer)? Is your risk reversal eliminating enough risk for customers? Is it too risky for your business? Will it be appreciated enough to make it worth offering? Example- This thread is taking more time & effort than I intended last month. Could I be giving too much information, so retailers would think they know enough without paying for my service? (Why buy the cow if you can get the milk for free?) Is it enough information (milk) to make a difference? I know there’s a lot more involved in each of these issues, but I don’t have the time or space to include every detail each specific business needs. Am I referring you (& other readers) to other resources too much or too little? I know some of this information is available from other sources. So am I wasting time & space writing it instead of pointing to other sources? There’s a lot here I haven’t seen or heard from anybody else. Will it seem like I’m showing off or really trying to help? Will readers have enough faith in me & my advice since it’s not all based on things corroborated by others? Am I being too specific when I should advise testing approaches? Am I being too general (& seemingly indecisive) when I don’t give absolute answers? Will anybody use enough of this information to make it worthwhile for me to write it? We might not ever have definitive answers for these kinds of issues. We take a chance on overwhelming some & disappointing others when we provide the same level of service to each person. But giving more value to one customer can inspire resentment when others find out about it. These issues can be handled in the meetings I described below. A retailer’s Master Mind group can be the store staff in the weekly meetings. For more powerful results, store owners can have 3 weekly meetings for strategies & tactics -- 1 with store staff & another with business owners, the third with customers. The meetings with customers should be a blend of Master Mind meetings & focus groups. You can have them with the same customers for consistency & follow-up (asking if satisfaction increased) or with different customers for a broader view. Staff meetings should be weekly, but Master Mind & customer meetings could be once or twice a month if it seems like there’s not enough things to discuss on weekly basis. Or maybe the challenge would be ability to do enough research to have enough things to share each week. Staff meetings (even if the owner is the only one) are to receive & share information & training. One person can train him/herself with the right information, but input from others is important. Part 6 - Question Template (in a separate post) can guide you through this process. Though it’s best to find a nearly homogenous customer group/segment, expect some big differences of opinions about the best solutions for the problems they have in common. However many meetings you have, it’s vital to occasionally discuss input you get from customers. This is especially true if a customer says something you’d rather not hear. Very often, things we’d rather not hear are things we need to hear. Customer input should be things they say or write without being asked & indepth things you ask for. If they’re willing to invest some time, you ask for clarification. But don’t let it seem judgmental. Most of that is in vocal tone. You may be feeling defensive after hearing negative things. Do your best to release your ego, pride & defensiveness. If you don’t you may miss some important information, a customer might stop talking or start saying something pleasant (what s/he thinks you want to hear), &/or you might never get input from that person again. It might tick the next customer off if you take time to write extensive notes of what somebody just said. I advise you to have a form to reduce lost ideas & customers. The specific things on the list depends on what you offer. This can also be used for notes about what you think of by yourself. To the left of each entry you could have a line or square for a check mark to show the kind of input/idea you got. To the right there could be a space to write a description or product/service name/category or circle the subject. It could be like this - __ Out of stock (product name) __ Product/service we should offer (description) __ Business operations -- hours, staff, store layout, policy, plan, procedure __ Marketing -- response, content, timing __ Building -- repairs, cleaning Below the list you develop, or on the back, you could write a detailed description, when you have time between customers. Now it’s time to develop your system of recording & reporting inputs & ideas. Also determine whom could contribute to & benefit from the same Master Mind Group as you. Develop a plan for recruiting them. You can say something like I suggested when you go to stores in other cities. Dennis S. Vogel thrivingbusiness@email.com Your wholesale costs will be increased. Property tax will be raised. Employees will want higher wages. Insurance will cost more. Your personal expenses will be higher. Can you afford it? Your income tax may be lower, if your income is lower. You can avoid the last one. But how will you get more customers & bigger transactions from them? Here's free information to help you get results sooner. http://web1.lakefield.net/~thrivingbusiness/ http://www.voy.com/31049/ [ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

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Subject	Author	Date
Part 6 - Question Template	Dennis S. Vogel	20:49:23 10/07/05 Fri