Very often when a new business, say a restaurant, opens its door in your neighborhood, you'd notice that many customers would first "give it a try" comparing the services, taste, and prize of the foods to other existing outlets. Having realised that his business is OK, the owner would provide some plus services to inaugurate the event. Things are looking good, business is good. Well not for long…..unless he is willing to give 300% to his new business from the start.
As weeks went by, when customers already noticed nothing new is happening in the products or services they are receiving, their number will drop, unnoticed in the beginning. The owner might not give a damn, who cares it's just one of those days, the owner might think; after all, not every day is Sunday.
When still nothing really happen, the number of customers will slide further down. By this time, the owner would notice the trend, but would think that nothing had gone wrong with his operation. May be, he thinks, by reintroduce the plus service that was given during the opening days, things might just swing back up. "I always keep my quality at par" comforting his feeling as he waits for the up swing turn.
He kept his quality level. By his simple logic reasoning the number of customers shouldn't be reducing, it should be about the same, and yet he is not making as days gone by. By this time the owner may have created few convincing reasons or alibi for not being successful. To stop his losses from going out of control he is forced to shut down his operation.
Why is this happening? Despite of keeping the quality of his products and services at a constant quality, he couldn’t maintain the satisfaction level of his customers. He is wrong when he judged his products and services based on his initial set of values, but instead he should look his business through the eyes of his customers.
Customers are constantly seeking the plus (VALUES) in the products or services they buy. The plus that the owner reintroduced might not satisfy them now, they have already got better from his competitors; so naturally that they want a little extra or better from him this time, unfortunate he doesn’t offer them.
You see, competitiveness demands you to be creative all the time. One method that has been proven successful is by continuous improvement in your operational processes. In fact, when one of your operational processes is already stabilized, just like an airplane reaches its cruising speed, you should be starting to look for ways to improve in all points of the said process.
Lets say you have 5 points that make up the process, and by focusing on the continuous improvement process you found that points #3 and #4 can be combined and subsequently reducing your handling time and also cost, why wait? – carry it out immediately, documented it and let it run so as to enjoy the immediate benefit.
Wouldn’t it be better if you could share your innovation partly with your customers? There you are, your customer would be very pleased to come to you……..Your next job is to look for some more, don’t ever stop, so that you can continue offer new innovative benefits to your customers again and again and again. You can’t stop them from coming; can you? - they will keep on comin’.
Now, always keep busy because improvements can only be made when you are busy. Measure your success by counting the number of customers that keep on coming. It would be nice if they bring along their friends or neighbors to share what you are ready to offer them.
As weeks went by, when customers already noticed nothing new is happening in the products or services they are receiving, their number will drop, unnoticed in the beginning. The owner might not give a damn, who cares it's just one of those days, the owner might think; after all, not every day is Sunday.
When still nothing really happen, the number of customers will slide further down. By this time, the owner would notice the trend, but would think that nothing had gone wrong with his operation. May be, he thinks, by reintroduce the plus service that was given during the opening days, things might just swing back up. "I always keep my quality at par" comforting his feeling as he waits for the up swing turn.
He kept his quality level. By his simple logic reasoning the number of customers shouldn't be reducing, it should be about the same, and yet he is not making as days gone by. By this time the owner may have created few convincing reasons or alibi for not being successful. To stop his losses from going out of control he is forced to shut down his operation.
Why is this happening? Despite of keeping the quality of his products and services at a constant quality, he couldn’t maintain the satisfaction level of his customers. He is wrong when he judged his products and services based on his initial set of values, but instead he should look his business through the eyes of his customers.
Customers are constantly seeking the plus (VALUES) in the products or services they buy. The plus that the owner reintroduced might not satisfy them now, they have already got better from his competitors; so naturally that they want a little extra or better from him this time, unfortunate he doesn’t offer them.
You see, competitiveness demands you to be creative all the time. One method that has been proven successful is by continuous improvement in your operational processes. In fact, when one of your operational processes is already stabilized, just like an airplane reaches its cruising speed, you should be starting to look for ways to improve in all points of the said process.
Lets say you have 5 points that make up the process, and by focusing on the continuous improvement process you found that points #3 and #4 can be combined and subsequently reducing your handling time and also cost, why wait? – carry it out immediately, documented it and let it run so as to enjoy the immediate benefit.
Wouldn’t it be better if you could share your innovation partly with your customers? There you are, your customer would be very pleased to come to you……..Your next job is to look for some more, don’t ever stop, so that you can continue offer new innovative benefits to your customers again and again and again. You can’t stop them from coming; can you? - they will keep on comin’.
Now, always keep busy because improvements can only be made when you are busy. Measure your success by counting the number of customers that keep on coming. It would be nice if they bring along their friends or neighbors to share what you are ready to offer them.
