30/12/2021
BUSINESS BASICS - What do Customers really want?
We believe that customers want best quality, cheapest price and great service. While these are obvious, one thing that I believe that our customers most expect from us is CONSISTENCY. Customers don't want a once in a lifetime, flash of brilliance. They prefer consistency of experience- how you price your products, how you deliver your service, how you treat them post transactions etc. Well established brands ensure that they provide consistent and predictable experience for their customers which makes them a repeat buyer. Be it established brands or smaller companies, all their customers love consistency.
Consistency can only be delivered when you run your organization on "Systems". Apart from ensuring your customers get products and services of the consistent quality and price; establishing systems and processes in your company helps you reduce wastage of time, effort, rejections and rework as well (along with the headache and stress that comes along with all these). Infact, I understand Systems to be acronym for Save Yourself Stress, Time, Energy and Money.
Unfortunately, establishing systems costs time, effort and money initially and a lot of businesses look at this as an optional expense instead of a planned investment. Hence choose to save money in the short term but end up with regular bouts of stress and heartburn in the long run. Unfortunately, they also end up curbing their own growth and progress.
For long term peace of mind for the business owner and providing consistency and predictability for the customers, the organization needs to be driven on systems and processes. There will be situations that will demand human intervention but they will be few and far between. My mantra is- Systemize the routine; humanise the exception!
So start by systemising routine tasks and slowly you can build systems and processes into most aspects of your business. I can promise you, this investment will reap huge return in the long run.
