What Business are you Really in?
People don’t want a quarter inch drill. They want a quarter inch hole. They don’t want insurance. They just don’t want peace of mind. People don’t want a car. They want to get somewhere and feel good doing it.
No matter what business you’re in, you may not be in the business you think you’re in. Why? Because customers don’t buy products or services. Unfortunately, that’s what business people focus on all day long… making, distributing, marketing, selling, and servicing products or services. So let’s look up for a moment, and see the true horizon of business success.
What do people really buy?
If people don’t buy products or services, what do they buy? They buy a feeling or a state of mind. Even B2B buyers; they’re people too. The only difference is they just have to satisfy two sides of the value equation: the personal side (what makes me feel good), and the professional side (what makes my boss feel good).
An excellent customer experience is a big part of this insatiable feeling people quest for every day. Customer Experience comes in a few forms:
- Enjoyment: The customer experience adds to the product or service brand value
- Transparency: The customer experience is neutral and makes it so easy to get value, the transaction and product are invisible or quickly forgotten.
- Endurance: The customer experience detracts from the product or service and brand
In all three cases the customer experience and product or service is only a means to the end. Creating “good feeling” for the end user comes from a sense of accomplishment, peace of mind, recognition, acceptance, pain avoidance, pleasure, or basic need fulfillment…not from actually using the product or service. This is the ultimate user goal.
What’s in it for You?
Why is this important to managers? When you’re doing your job—no matter where you are in the organization—it’s absolutely essential that you realize why you’re ultimately doing it…and to get your employees realize it too. Even if it means only striving to be an “invisible success.” And that, my friends, is a very big shift from just getting to work on time, sifting through emails, dealing with your boss, managing staff, meeting deadlines, and analyzing metrics.
Driving your organization’s motivation with the ultimate user goal is the most important focus you can have as a leader or staffer. It will do four things that’ll make you more successful, dramatically minimize your stress, empower your teams, and contribute directly to business results. Those four things are:
- Minimize your management time
- Maximize your team’s productivity
- Align employees, customers, and distribution channels
- Improve customer satisfaction
Just something to think about as you’re running your 10,000 steps on the hamster wheel today.
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