Providing Value to Your Customers in Your Service

I'm always interested in the response I get from my clients when I ask them if they deliver good service. Almost all of them say they do and then give me some examples of how they do it. However I get a very different response when I ask them how they deliver value in their service, most of the time I get a quizzical look that says, "What do you mean"?

Providing value in the minds of your clients or customers means that you have taken the time to put yourself in their shoes and have asked the question, "What would I want?" As you look at your service you need to make sure that what your perception of good service is and what your customers perception is are in alignment. Many times I have heard my clients say they give great service by doing something for the customer and then when I go back and ask the customer they say well yes they do that but that really isn't all that important to us.

I believe that one area of service that is critical is communication to your customers, not only when something good or bad happens but also as a means of establishing expectations. If you go about setting written service standards for your business but then don't communicate them to your customers you have done nothing to set the expectations and give yourself the opportunity to exceed those expectations.

Here are a couple of examples that I have recently encountered:

• I occasionally eat at a local Arby's and for a long time now they have been offering a special pick 5 items for $5.95. I thought this was great value and the last time I was there they had taken it off the menu, when I asked about it they said they had taken if off the menu because they were sending out coupons instead. As I was standing there waiting for my meal I must have heard 5 people ask about that special and all got the same response. Now it seems pretty obvious to me that the 5 people and myself could care less about the coupons that we didn't have, we wanted the special that was a value in our minds. They have lost at least one customer because they changed their value proposition.
• I have recently been working on a project with a couple of different companies and to get them to communicate with me on what's going on has been like pulling teeth. I am about to make a considerable investment in what they have to offer and yet to get them to answer an email, return a phone call or keep me in the loop as to what's going on has been virtually impossible. Here all I am asking for is a simple response and they don't seem to think that is important. Again in this case it may cost them a very good customer.

These are just a couple of examples of service that could have made my perception of these companies very different. When you don't get basic answers or perceived value you have a tendency to start looking at the other things that a company or business does and start wondering what else is wrong. So as you look at your service and create a plan that will help you deliver exceptional service make sure you put yourself in your customers or clients shoes and remember the old adage, "what's in it for me".

Where is the Common Sense?

Chicken little is having a hey day today! Between the economy, the auto industry, the mortgage crisis and swine flu the sky is definitely falling! Of course being the eternal optimist I have one big question; what the heck happened to common sense in the world today?

Let's examine a couple of these things:

• The economic crisis, no question it is here and upon us, the interesting thing is a little common sense could have avoided it. Where was the regulation of all the financial instruments that created the problem in the first place, Congress and both parties are quick to lay the blame but if one of the purposes of government is to act for the greater good of it's citizens then why wasn't good old common sense used in the regulatory environment, most of these designed financial instruments were designed out of greed and to take advantage of the system, a little common sense by someone might have brought out that realization.
• Here's my favorite one, swine flu! I saw yesterday that Ft. Worth was closing all it's schools for almost two weeks because of it and of course it's all over the media that we have a pandemic. I'm not quite sure what a pandemic is but right now this flu has accounted of about 160 deaths, each year the flu kills over 36,000 people in the U. S. alone, so does that mean we have an ongoing pandemic? Again a little common sense would tell me that if you take the normal precautions against getting sick you are probably going to be OK and even if you get the flu almost all of the cases have been mild here in the U.S. So like usual in the year of no common sense we overreact and forget about using some!

It would seem to me that what this country really needs to get moving again is simply some common sense, if it doesn't look right it probably isn't, if it doesn't feel right, it probably isn't. And as far as the U.S. media and news goes they are the biggest culprit, because they like creating a frenzy and hysteria and so they report (sometimes skewed) on all of these issues and they get their so-called experts talking about the sky falling and next thing you know Chicken Little is all up in arms! Maybe we should just figure how to unplug them all for a month and get some peace and quiet! Now that's some good old common sense!

Ultimate Breakthrough Planning is a Finalist for Best New Business Book!

I just found out that my book, Ultimate Breakthrough Planning: The Business Funnel Approach is a finalist for best new business book by the Midwest Book Awards, click here to see more. This is a testament to all the work put in by my publisher Scarletta Press and to those that have reviewed the book and given it great reviews! Although is wasn't intentional the book is incredibly timely in that it really gives business owners a blueprint to help them get focus in their businesses. In today's economy that is essential and having a business plan that you will actually use every single day is clearly a way to get through this recession not only surviving but thriving.

I read an interesting article last night that some of the greatest companies have been started during a recession, Microsoft, HP and others came out of set backs and then looking at things differently and creating a business through an opportunity that came about because of the recession. Ultimate Breakthrough Planning takes you through a process to identify where those opportunities might lie in your business and then helps you create a game plan that can capitalize on them. This book can help any business whether it's a new business or one that has been around for awhile. I am thrilled that the book is being so well received but I'm most proud of the fact that I can help businesses find success in these difficult times!

The Fallacy of Business Planning

I recently read an article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune business section that talked about how with unemployment up more and more people are looking into starting their own businesses and certainly during most recessions you see a spike in business startups. The article was stressing the importance of having a business plan and was going through the various steps of creating a traditional business plan and how important it was to have this document that painted a picture of your business so you would have something to use in working with you banker or investor. The article also went on to talk about the process of creating a plan and using the same basic format that has been used for years and years how this plan would really help you get your business off the ground. Herein lies the problem with this whole approach, the last numbers I saw said that almost 90% of all business startups never make it more than two years, with that being the case why in the world would we continue to stress the importance of this business plan format when it obviously doesn't work? I have worked with countless businesses that create very well thought out business plans that go into a lot of detail about what the business will look like however in those plans I have never seen a section on how we are going to execute the plan. The fallacy of business planning is that if you don't have one you won't succeed where the reality is that the format that we have been using for years does nothing but create a static document that gets stuck in a binder or file folder and is never used to help grow the business.

What I suggest and work with my clients on is to create a business plan that is all about execution, it gets the business owner clearly focused on the actions they need to do to make that business successful and keeps them on track by measuring those actions using key milestones. This business planning approach gives the business owner a much greater chance of success by keeping them clearly focused on strategies and priorities that will grow their business. I call the approach the Business Planning Funnel , this planning process takes the business owner through a specific progression on the priorities, strategies, tactics, and tasks and timelines that will allow them to create a true business action plan. With this plan and a good set of financials I would give them a much greater chance of success then the traditional business planning model will ever give them, and I'm guessing that their bankers and investors would also be very interested is seeing the how rather than the what of the business!

Business Planning vs. Business Motion Planning

I constantly get potential projects and clients that are looking for help growing their buisness and the first thing I ask them is do you have a business plan? Of course if they do they show me the standard business plan format that almost everyone uses and has used for 50 years. It has your executive summary, your financials, your market analysis, your product or service analysis and some projections. And it is typically prepared for their banker or potential investors. The problem with all those plans are that they are static documents they show what the business will look like at some point in the future but there is one major thing missing, how the heck are they going to get there? The major component that is missing is action or motion, what are the specific things they are going to do to achieve this picture they have painted.

A business motion plan gets them thinking about the how they are going to get there, this plan can be done very simply, it may just lay out the specific things they are going to do or it may break it into specific steps such as I talk about in Ultimate Breakthrough Planning: The Business Funnel Approach where I give you a road map to create a business motion plan.

In my book I talk about creating an active document, a blue print that will you will use every single day to grow your business. Forget about your standard business plan and create a business motion plan that will keep your business moving forward even if tough times! You can here more about my process here: Ultimate Breakthrough Planning book overview

Tired of Bad News?

I was the keynote speaker at the Duluth Business to Business Expo yesterday in Duluth, MN and got the opportunity to present to a group of business owners. I started my presentation with the whole idea that it is becoming increasingly difficult for business owners and anyone else to stay positive and upbeat in light of the constant bombardment of bad news by the media. If we do a side by side comparison of this recession to the one on 1981-82 it will show that this one is not really any worse than that one, however one big difference is the fact that in 1981-82 we didn't have the internet, we didn't have multiple news and business channels constantly overwhelming us with not only the news but their gloom and doom predictions. I never thought I would say this but I long for the days of election coverage and red maps and blue maps just so I don't have to listen to anymore gloom and doom.

I think the biggest challenge we all have is trying to tune out the distraction of the constant bad news and focus on those things that we can control, I have written about that before but I think today it is crucial in order to stay on task and do the things you need to do to keep your business moving forward. And look for good news, I hear stories everyday about businesses that are doing just fine and even having more success today than they did a year ago, so there are success stories out there, unfortunately those aren't nearly as appealing as the gloom and doom the networks like to cover! Maybe we all need to watch the clip of Howard Beale from the movie Network and proclaim in one voice to the media "we're mad as hell and we're not going to take this anymore".

The First 100 Days

In the past week we have witnessed the historic inauguration of Barack Obama as the nations 44th President. As he takes office we hear in the news much about what will happen in his first 100 days of office. He takes the helm in a tumultuous time with a suffering economy, two wars and the historical partisan politics. So how could that relate to your business?

I talk a lot about creating a laser focused game plan for your business to survive and thrive in these difficult times and as you look at the parallels of President Obama's first 100 days in office I find it an interesting comparison. He must move quickly and establish himself as the new commander-in-chief and in addition position himself and his administration as a new way of doing business. Like President Obama your business faces unique challenges right now, with the economy going south like snowbirds from Minnesota you need to decide what fast action you are going to take to keep your business moving forward. Have you developed an action plan for your next 100 days?  How will you make changes in your business and change the way you do business to set the tone for the next 100 days?  These are questions you must answer and answer quickly in order to survive and thrive in these times. 

I would suggest you sit down and work on 5 things you can do and control in the next 100 days that sends a clear message to your mind and to your team that you are not going to sit on the sidelines doing business as usual and wait for this to blow over. Think about what you can do from a marketing perspective, from a sales perspective and from a service perspective that rocks the boat over how you usually do things.  And once you have done that write down the specifics of how you will do it and assign timelines and communicate it to your team. Then execute and measure the execution so that it happens. 

Just as President Obama wants to get his administration off to a fast start in it's first 100 days you should think about getting you business off to a fast start in 2009 and take control of your business and focus on success, not worrying about those things you can't control!