One of the key challenges in business improvement is “holding the gain”.
Holding the gain means ensuring that, once improvements to your business have been implemented, the area you have been working on stays improved. Continually.
Without a focus on holding the gain, you run the risk that when you move onto the next development project, all your hard won gains from the last are lost. As your focus moves elsewhere in the business, there is a danger that you leave the previous improvements to slowly deteriorate.
So how can you make sure you don’t lose your hard won gain? Shewhart/Deming’s PDCA Cycle is a good place to start…
Plan. Work out your improvement plan before you start implementing it so you know exactly what you’ve agreed, how you are going to measure it and what you are expecting to be the result.
Do. If you don’t actually carry out the improvement, you won’t find out if it works! “If objectives are only good intentions they are worthless. They must degenerate into work.” (Drucker, 2007, Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, p.101)
Check. If you don’t check your target measures (e.g. volume of sales) before implementing the improvement and after it has been implemented, you’ll only be guessing as to whether the improvement worked. Checking these measures allows you to find out if the improvement is achieving the results you expected. A note of caution however – make sure you allow enough time for the improvement to bed-in before you jump to conclusions about the results. Some measures may take several months to achieve the intended results; checking them in the first week may lead you to believe the improvement has not worked, whereas really it just needed time to get up to speed. Over time, you will then need to keep checking these results at regular intervals: this allows you to compare performance to the results you got first time around and to your expected results over time, thereby assessing whether the improvement is still performing at the expected level or whether it has lost its gain over time.
Act. Having planned, done and checked, you now need to act. If the improvement has had the desired results, you need to act to hold your gain, or if it hasn’t performed as expected, you may need to start again by re-planning. It can be tempting to quickly move onto the next area of improvement without actually putting in measures to ensure you hold your gain. Measures to hold your gain may include (for example): revising processes; (re)writing policy; implementing ongoing staff training processes, and so on. And, at this stage, don’t forget to schedule the next time you’re going to check your results again to ensure you’ve held the gain over the long term.
Once you’ve done all of the above, you may proceed to plan your next improvement!
Becoming aware of how areas within your business communicate with your customers is vital if you want to convey a consistent message about your brand/business.
The difficulty is that your customers don’t just read the words you write, or hear what you say about your business. They tend to read a whole lot more into every single interaction with your business. Both consciously and unconsciously. They even read things into the interactions they don’t have, or the things you don’t do.
Some examples…
Shabby carpet in a reception area.
Customer perception: Maybe your business isn’t doing very well if you can’t afford a new carpet.
Taking a long time to answer the phone.
Customer perception: Maybe you don’t actually want my business.
Old fashioned branding.
Customer perception: Maybe you are just an old fashioned company delivering out-of-date solutions.
Becoming aware of what your business is saying about itself can be hard when you’re so close to it, but with some outside help you can train yourself into noticing again. Try interacting with your business as if you were a customer – how does it make you feel? What would you be thinking if you saw or experienced those things in another business? Ask your friends, family, colleagues and customers what they think about your business. Listen to their honest opinions. Then aim to change the things you can.
Being confident that your business is communicating what you want to communicate is a great place to be. Don’t let your business undermine what it is you really want to say!
Business excellence isn’t about being the ‘perfect’ business. And it isn’t about always getting everything right.
But nor is it accepting and maintaining the status quo.
Rather, business excellence is about the continual striving to develop and improve our businesses, one step at a time.
It is a mindset that says, “Whatever and wherever my business is right now, it can be better, and it will be better.”
And so that’s what we do: we take each element of our business, assess it, and improve it. We listen to our customers, we listen to our staff, we listen to people in the know, and then we act.
Again, and again, and again.
And the result?
We have more loyal customers, more involved staff, better products/services, more efficient operations, more awareness of what is going on around us in the market place.
Our businesses start to become stronger, more competitive, better.
As cool things go, a flying car is certainly one of them! If you’ve got the cash to splash, then this should certainly be on your list…
Being able to fly and drive certainly opens up your options for commuting! Think of the time saving – that’s got to be worth something!
Church of the Customer picked up the flying car a while back and suggested it was prime material for word-of-mouth marketing: it’s a great idea and if people know about it, they’re likely to talk about it. People want to talk about cool stuff to their friends, family, colleagues, anyone who will listen. However, people can’t talk about your idea if they don’t know about it and if the channels for communication aren’t easily available, and that’s what Church of the Customer picked up as the problem with the flying car. The company who had the idea (Terrafugia) weren’t making it easy for people to connect and share their excitement about this great product. Ben McConnell (who wrote the original blog) also suggested videos, social media, Twitter etc. to increase participation and help generate word of mouth.
The flying car company now at least have some videos.
In Ben’s most recent post, ‘The flying car flies’ (which includes the first video above) he suggested a multi-media fest, including videos on the front page, to help get people excited and to create a buzz; along with the code to embed the videos to help us bloggers!
However, I’d go one step further.
To create a real buzz you need a real sense of participation. At $194,000 anticipated retail price (when it goes on the market) that’s going to be out of reach for most of us and therefore limit the sense of being involved.
If however Terrafugia were to offer 5 lucky winners the chance to go for a drive/flight in the flying car by entering a special competition, then I’d be excited (especially if they flew me over to America for the prize – I’m based in the UK!).
Then, if they then offered me an extra chance to win for every one of my friends who also entered the competition, I’d happily suggest they entered – for my sake as well as theirs!
At very little cost to them, they could generate huge marketing and PR opportunities.
Within a short space of time you would have generated a buzz and a sense of participation far beyond what could be generated by YouTube and social media assistance alone. Combine the social media, YouTube and an exciting competition and you’d get something that was greater than the sum of its parts!
ps. If you’re a member of Terrafugia and you’re reading this, you can sign me (and all my friends) up for the competition!
The Google AdWords concept is very simple: connect a customer who is looking for something with a company that is selling something. The better the match, the happier both parties are.
But for people who are less familiar with Adwords and the technology behind them, this concept can sometimes be quite hard to visualise and understand.
Last week, I was attending an initial meeting with a client to explore whether they would like me to update their Google Adwords campaign and drew a brief sketch to take with me explaining how Google Adwords works as a marketing concept. They loved the sketch and we found that it really unlocked the concept in a way that just wouldn’t have happened with words. So, I thought I’d share the pictures with you here…
(To view the full size image, just click on the picture. Depending on your browser settings, you might need to click on the picture a second time to get it full screen width.)
I’ve had a number of conversations with businesses regarding the ’social media phenomenon’; the general feeling is that they should be on Facebook and the like because it’s the ‘in thing to do’ but really, they’re not sure why!
It’s still all about customers
At the end of the day, it was and always has been about customers. A business can’t survive without them. It needs ways of engaging and connecting with both existing and potential business.
Social media doesn’t change this basic business principle. Social media provides a new communication channel for customer-to-customer and business-to-customer.
Therefore, the same rules still apply…
1. Go where your customers go
All social media sites have ‘contexts’. They generally have a defined purpose; function; knowledge focus; or social context. Understand this and you’ll have your answer to whether you should be involved in any particular social media site for your business.
For example, if a social media site has a primarily American social context but you are in the UK selling to the UK market, then it won’t help you much!
Similarly, if it is a car support site and you sell gardening equipment, then that’s not a good start.
Just do a bit of research and then use your common sense.
Here is a list of over 400 social media sites to get you started. It has some categorisation but you’ll need to do a bit more work to identify those that are appropriate for your company or charity.
2. Appropriate communication
Appropriate communication will depend on many factors. It will depend on your business type; on whether it is business-to-consumer or business-to-business; and on how it is appropriate for you to relate to, and communicate with, your customers.
For example, if you tend to have a more formal business-to-business relationship with your customers, Facebook may be the wrong context; you could come across overly familiar and customers may not wish to share at that personal level with you.
However, if you sell to consumers, Facebook may be just the right communication channel. People represent themselves on Facebook (not their employer as they would in B2B) so if they care about your product or service they may well sign up to be associated with you or any groups you create.
It’s a whole new world
Social media may seem daunting at first, but the first step is to give it a go. Sign up for something and start learning. The more you do this the more natural it will become. Before you know it you’ll feel right at home!
Choose ‘Except from this domain’ [5] and ‘Entire site’ [6].
Voila! You have your list.
You can also export as this list as a TSV file [7].
If you sign up for a free Yahoo account you’ll also get additional tracking features.
What do I do with the list?
There are various things you can do with this list; it is essentially free market intelligence!
By allowing you to understand who is interested in your site, the list can help you to better tailor the content of your site to those people/organisations.
You might find that there new opportunities to explore if some of the links surprise you.
Use the list to check your market positioning and check that you are described accurately by those linking to you.
Do the same check with your competitors, which might provide you with an interesting comparison. If they’re ahead of you online, it may be a way of getting new ideas of how to develop your organisation and website.
Tips kindly provided by Hugo Russell from iCentrum at their Social Media Drivetime event.
I wanted to book a van into the local tip at short notice to dispose of an old fridge whilst I still had the van on hire. Surely not too much to ask on a Friday morning? It wasn’t going to be that busy, was it?
I rang the City Council hotline, only to be told I have to book 24-hours in advance. Any chance of changing the rules just this once? Surely they had spaces left?
“Sorry sir, they print out the booking sheet at the beginning of every day. They won’t pick up your booking until tomorrow.”
A good reason for the 24-hour booking rule? I don’t think so!
A prime example of systems first, customer second. The frustrating thing is, it would be so easy to fix!
A Solution
There are lots of solutions! Solutions aren’t the problem these days with the continued advance of technology. You can get systems to do what you want, when you want. And with an increasing number of technology platforms, you can provide access to them far more easily.
THE CHEAP AND CHEERFUL SOLUTION: The easiest and cheapest solution I came up with was emailing or texting new booking details from the central call centre to a pay as you go mobile located at the entrance to the tip. The booking details are then added to their paper list; job done!
WHAT THE CUSTOMER WOULD REALLY LIKE: However, in the world of business excellence and web technology, what customers expect is probably far beyond that. How about real-time telephone and online booking for your slot; online cancellations; postcode eligibility checking; text message reminders; and (if required for businesses) integrated payment system? And, at the tip, how about a rugged handheld Windows Mobile device with 3G access to check visitors off in real-time and keep up-to-date with bookings?
Worried about the cost? Factoring in the time saved at the call centre, higher tip utilisation, shorter waiting lists, plus the fact that a system like the above wouldn’t actually cost the earth to set up, you might be surprised at the speed with which you get a return on investment. You also have happy customers. And they’re priceless!
You wouldn’t catch us doing that!
It’s easy fall into the trap of making customers work around your systems, rather than the other way round. We get numb to our own systems because we use them all day, every day. Our customers don’t! It will never be possible to delight your customers by making them work around you.
Customer Service First
By working around your customers and exceeding their expectations, you’ll pave the way to increased customer loyalty and positive word of mouth – both highly valuable commodities!
Systems can, and must, come second.
Technology and systems are, after all, adaptable and upgradable. Customers usually are not!
Try exploring your business through the eyes of a customer. What would frustrate you if you were on the receiving end of your business? How much of a difference would it make to you as a customer if the business had put your experience first?
Ask your customers how they experience your business. Ask them if there is anything they feel could be improved. Listen to that feedback.
Find out how much it would cost to make the changes.
Implement the improvements, and watch your customers smile.
I recently came across a blog post titled “What if Carlsberg did redundancies?” by Lou Burrows, who, when faced with having to make redundancies at her company, helped her team completely rethink their approach by asking the question “If Carlsberg did redundancies, what would they do?”
Though redundancy is not something that anyone would wish for, by asking the question and looking at what could be possible, it opened up new innovative thought and freedom from previous expectations.
“It really got us thinking. It would be like their adverts – somehow it would all be okay, people would get new jobs (probably better ones), they’d get the best looking references in the world, they’d be introduced to their next employer, we’d all manage to stay friends and people would feel happy and confident when they left. Oh yes, and everyone left behind would be fine about the changes. And we’d all have a leaving do together with speeches and music – a real celebration of our time together.”
By asking the question, “What if Carlsberg did redundancies…?” they discovered a new benchmark. They managed to provide a somewhat different experience for all involved.
“We got to the end of the consultation and, though it was not like a Carlsberg ad, we did manage to get pretty close. That question forced us to think through the problem from a different perspective and to go the extra mile just to see what the possibilities really were in this difficult process.”
The Power of the “What if…?”
The question was the tool that unlocked the possibilities. Without the question, people’s pre-existing expectations about the situation would have been the most dominant force.
The question is based upon the ‘truth’ that Carlsberg can make things great, whatever they are. That they can take something ordinary we know and love and create something extraordinary; “probably the best…”
By taking something we can engage with and allowing us to disengage the ‘practical realities of life’, it allows us to dream. In the land of Carlsberg anything is possible, and it’s all about you and me.
If Carlsberg made your product or delivered your service, what would they do? How would they take something ordinary and make it extraordinary? How would they excite and engage your customers and give them something to talk about for weeks afterward?
The power of the “Why not…?”
The ‘What if…?” question is only powerful if it is translated into a reality of some kind. Therefore, the next question after ‘What if…? must be “Why not…?”
Well, why can’t you? Why can’t you make what you just dreamed a reality? It’s easy to say to ourselves that it’s just not practical, or that no-one else does it, but seriously, why not?
Delivering a leading edge product or service may just give you the market edge. Or in the case of Lou Burrows, delivering redundancies with a difference meant that a tough situation was made a little bit kinder. Although you may not be able to create ‘the best’ or fully deliver your “What if…?” dreams, what if we all tried to get that little bit closer?
‘A recession could be an opportunity for your business’
It might sound like a strange statement but could it be true? I am not saying that a recession is something to look forward to, nor am I saying that it is not without its considerable uncertainties or risks. However, there may be opportunities available that would normally be out-of-reach in a stable marketplace.
Here are some opportunities to look out for…
Increase your market share. If you keep marketing and working on building your business when everyone else is running scared, you could capture a much larger share of the market than would otherwise have been possible.
Use the external pressure to develop a highly efficient and effective business. Use the economic pressure as an incentive to re-assess processes and systems thereby cutting out wastage and inefficiencies; this will enable you to cut costs and deliver a more efficient and effective business. However, ensure you continue to build strong customer service into your processes and don’t cut down at the cost of your product or service quality.
Look for opportunities to diversify into new markets thereby spreading your risk and increasing your revenue. This doesn’t necessarily mean expensive new product development. Could your product be sold in new markets you haven’t tried before with a little bit of re-positioning? Maybe you have the skills to offer new services with very little effort? It may just add a little stability to your business. Be careful about the more risky moves. I’m not saying they’re not worth considering but don’t jeopardise your existing business for the sake of a riskier alternative.
Buy your competitor’s assets if they go into liquidation. Select your competitors carefully, but making an offer for selected assets, such as their customer list or any intellectual property they may own, could be an opportunity that only comes up once in a lifetime. Think about this in advance: pick them now, then keep an eye on them. Companies House offers a monitoring service for £0.50 a year per company so you will get an email about any documents are filed by your competitors. You could also set up Google Alerts.
