As a Business Coach I am often asked, “How can I give my company a competitive advantage in the marketplace?” To which I answer: customers are just like water, they will always seek the easiest way to get what they want. Water going downstream does not care if it goes around or through rock; it sees no obstacles because it only wants the result. It seeks only one thing: the fastest, easiest, and most efficient way.
Your clients and customers are the same way. They will always want what they want cheaper, better, faster, or different. They don’t care about you—they care about themselves. Don’t fight this with concepts like, “we cherish customer loyalty and relationships.” These theories lead to inaction and loss. Innovation, customer experience, and constant change are the words that describe the world that we live in. Customers left horses for cars, house phones for cell phones, and mail for e-mail when they saw the opportunity it had to impact their experience of life. How does your business react to, and anticipate, such change?
You don’t have to be wealthy or brilliant to understand and use the power of change. At CoachFirm, we use a tool called “Experience Mapping” to ask, “Why do we do things this way?” and “How can we do it differently?” at every customer/business intersection point.
Always ask, “How can we make this easier?”
