“The times, they are a ‘changin.”- Bob Dylan
Everything changes- businesses, people, relationships, products, food- you name it. If everything is changing, why would a successful business stick to the same old tired routine? We’ve noticed it before- rapidly destabilizing work environments, unhappy employees, and unhappy customers. What used to work simply isn’t doing it anymore.
Why?
Because age old tactics like Lean Six Sigma that only approach customers as an end to reduce waste, whereas the only true focus is to reduce waste and lower costs are driving customers away.
Good businesses operate with an “outside- in” approach that allows them to succeed in the highly transparent times that technology has created. Instead of putting your customers at the end of the list- most modern, successful businesses (like Google, Acuity, Twitter or Intuit) have started putting the customer first. Sure, it’s a novel idea, but the end result is the same- to increase sales, do what customers want. There are a wide variety of ways that modern companies are approaching this topic:
- User Experience Technicians
- Enterprise Feedback Management
- Voice/Needs of the Customer
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
- Understanding CEM (Customer Experience Management)
But in general, it’s all about simply collecting and analyzing the things that customers say about your brand, business or market. Then, you have measure the gap between what you’re doing and what you want to do, and close the gap. The way modern businesses are doing this is by supporting the idea that positive customer experiences fuel sales and retain customers- and that’s going to increase the overall organization’s market position.
There are 8 Ways to Achieve the Outside- In Approach In Your Business
1. Figure out who your customer is.
2. Define what outcome you want your customer to have.
3. Figure out how to align your goals with your customer goals (this is called SCO [Successful Customer Outcome] in the business world)
4. Identify what is keeping your customer experience scores lower than perfect
5. Use these scores and interpretations to figure out your weak points internally and eliminate them
6. Establish plans that reinforce achievement of your SCO to boost sales exponentially
7. Execute your plan as you go
8. Don’t wait to improve your customer’s experience, start now instead of waiting for a sign off from upper executives
When all your eggs fall into the right basket, everything works perfectly. Your business revenues skyrocket, your employees are happier because your customers are happier, and you’re lowering costs because you’ve cut out the parts that aren’t working, and buying more because you can afford to branch out. The facts are thus:
-You’ll see 10% pipeline conversion to your competitors
-40% increases in staff productivity
-25-30% improvement to customer retention
-lower costs across the board
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