Some small business owners seem
to possess a potent combination of optimism and a belief in their own ability
to generate the circumstances necessary for business success. Others seem to be inclined to “hunker down”
and “weather the storm”, seeing each less-than-perfect economic indicator as
proof we are “not out of the woods yet”.
The perceptions of the owner aside, because there certainly can be
industry or company-specific factors that overwhelm any plan put into place by
a small business, are there any fundamentals that can help drive success no
matter who you are? We think one
important fundamental is “alignment”; in particular – alignment with your
customers.
Alignment is not a new concept. Kaplan and Norton have written about
strategic alignment in their work developing the balanced scorecard for
business. Alignment, or harmony with
one’s natural surroundings is a theme found in ancient and modern texts. We should all have an appreciation of the
many types of environmental harmony important to our well-being – if only from
the experience of dis-harmonies.
From a business perspective, what
does it mean to align with your customers?
We believe it is a not a process per
se, but a fundamental approach. In a
big company, it is called culture; for a small business it usually results from
the owner’s personality having been imprinted upon the business as a whole.
The first step is to put customer
at the center of the business. It is not
about you, it is about them. Sounds
simple, but in the real world it takes some practice – particularly for the
first type of small business owner mentioned above. Customer experiences matter. Customer perceptions matter. Everyone in the company must behave with the
customer first. And the language you use
to promote your business and interact with customers should be their language. Industry jargon is great for communication
shortcuts internally or with peers, but make sure the language of the customer
has a prominent place.
Once the customer is at the
center of the business, you will gain perspective. You will begin to experience your business as
your customer experiences the various interactions with your company. Seeing as your customer sees, combined with
your internal knowledge of the supporting processes, will lead to an awareness
of how well your business is actually doing at every step of the way.
This awareness leads to an
understanding of what needs to change and what can stay the same. It will be much easier at this point to make
decisions that can improve efficiency while maintaining or strengthening the
customer’s experience.
A key concept, related to
alignment and one that intersects in many ways, is empathy. It is important to be aware of customers as
human beings - social, intelligent, ancient creatures carrying all sorts of
evolutionary baggage.
Social constructs, such as family,
clan, tribe, village, nation, and others, always have been and always will be
part of being human. People have learned
to validate their decisions and perceptions with their social unit. This is why the reputation of a business is
so important.
Environmental cues have been key
to survival, the ultimate evolutionary measure of success for an
individual. People are pre-programmed to
look at faces, read body language, and scan the environment to make an
assessment. Your business cannot be
threatening in any way.
The individual’s current
emotional state, over which a business has little control at first, is also
part of the empathetic mix.
Cognitive inputs, such as
benefits and tradeoffs, are definitely part of the decision-making
process. But as we’ve seen, not the only
part. And at any given moment, not
necessarily the most important part.
Relying solely on the customer’s ability to logically come to the
correct conclusion regarding your business ignores the larger picture.
We recently held an
alignment-focused brainstorming session with a medical practice. Included in the session were both the
physicians and the reception, office, and supporting staff. Physicians, while not fitting precisely into
business owner example noted above, are by personality and training often
possessive of a cognitive, logical, medicine-centric approach. By introducing the customer’s voice – the
actual language used by patients when they called to inquire about medical care
(and which sometimes included crying – a pure, emotional response), the
physicians themselves gained a better understanding of the patient interactions
they had experienced.
