The 4 Biggest Problems Business Have
The First Problem Businesses Have is That They Have Data Islands
If you look at the diagram bellow, you will see there are departments that are in most businesses (even if many departments are handled by one person). These silos of information are not interconnected. For some business, some departments are not computerized. There is not 2 way traffic in and out of the computer system so that all areas of the company get real time info from ALL departments.
Problem: Bad or missing data
 click to view larger image
How Business Should Operate
The whole business process should be integrated. Each department should be computerized and there should be two way traffic between department and computer system.
Solution: Integrated Data
click to view larger image
The Second Biggest Problem Businesses Have Is Missing/Inefficient/Not Customer Friendly Systems.
Does your company system run smoothly? Here is a great example of a smooth running company.
Amazon has a silky smooth returns process - it completely removes the anger at having paid for something that doesn’t work properly. I’ll tell you about it in a minute but before I do that lets take a look at how it should not be done.
I returned a faulty Garmin GPS to Argos. They made me suffer.
- Dig out receipt from my filing cabinet
- Drive to mall and find parking
- Stand in queue at customer service desk
- Explain what was wrong to vacant 16yr old behind counter
- Explain what was wrong to equally vacant 50 something behind counter
- Wait while they phone around trying to find out what to do
- Hold for Garmin Europe call center
- Explain to Garmin call center what is wrong
- Get told I should just charge the unit
- Explain that it’s fully charged
- Get told to take it home and charge it for 24 hours
- Explain that it’s fully charged
- Get told again that to take it home and charge it for 24 hours
- Give up and go home and charge it for 24 hours
- The pain continues the next day:-
- Drive to mall and find parking
- Stand in queue at customer service desk
- Explain what was wrong to same vacant 16yr old behind counter
- Explain what was wrong to same equally vacant 50 something behind counter
- Wait while they phone around trying to find out what to do
- Hold for Garmin Europe call center
- Explain to Garmin call center what is wrong
- Get told I should just charge the unit
- Explain that it’s fully charged and that I have already charged it
- Hand phone over to vacant 16 yr old behind counter
- Wait while she gets instructions
- Hand broken GPS in and ask when it will be ready (a recent immigrant really needs a GPS)
- Wait while vacant 16 yr old phones Garmin Europe call center
- Get told maybe 28 days
- 3 and half weeks later I got a phone call saying unit is repaired
- Drive to mall and find parking
- Stand in queue at customer service desk
- Explain that I want my GPS to vacant 16yr old behind counter
- Explain that I want my GPS to equally vacant 50 something behind counter
- Wait while they hunt for the GPS
Amazon was such a contrast
- Look up website
- Click on returns center
- Select item to be returned from a list of things I’ve bought that are still under warranty
- Type in reason for returning the item
- Print prepaid shipping label
- Pack the goods
- Drop off at post office
- 2 days later an email arrives saying I’ve been refunded.
What a smooth system.
The reality is that we’re going to mess up sometime. It just makes sense to build a pain free returns or refunds system.
Pete Bowen April 7th, 2008
The Third Biggest Problem Businesses Have Is Not Providing Helpful Suggestions to Customers
I can just picture the headlines - “CRAZY SURFER FREEZES TO DEATH IN BELFAST” or perhaps “OPTIMISTIC IMMIGRANT DIES FROM EXPOSURE”.
When a South African moves from sub-tropical Durban to chillier climates it takes a few years for the optimism to fade and the reality that every sunny day is not hot to set in. I bought myself a sea-kayak three weeks ago - winter had gone on long enough and it was time for some outdoor fun.
It took two days of paddling in boardshorts for me to realize that the locals shaking their heads from the shore in thick jackets and scarves were the smart ones.
I ordered a £40 wetsuit from www.wetsuitoutlet.co.uk, great service, but I think they’re missing an opportunity to systemize their marketing.
Imagine if I’d got an email that looked something like this:
“Dear Pete, I’m just about to dispatch your wetsuit and wondered if you might like a pair of boots and gloves to go with it - it’s still pretty cold right now and for an extra £30 you’ll be able to get a much longer season on the water. If you’d like me to include these in your package click here - they’ll be with you by Friday.”
Instead, I got my wetsuit in the post and froze my toes off for a week before I got around to buying the boots, and it took another week to realize that you need gloves if you’re going to pretend that it’s summer.
It’s not rocket science to work out what accessories people could use and offer them in gentle and polite way at the right time.
I bought the boat from our local canoe shop. I also persuaded myself to pick up a pair of paddles, some life jackets and 2 clips on seats at the same time. Friendly enough people but they didn’t ask for my phone number, address or email address. Almost as if they are never going to invite me back to spend more money.
How hard can it be to sell someone something they want to buy?
Pete Bowen March 13th, 2008
The Fourth Biggest Problem Businesses Have Is Getting Information to Make Good Business Decisions And Inefficient Use Of Time Doing Things The Hard Way.
Does any of the following apply to you?
- Always it – business can’t run without you around
- Don’t know how much it cost
- Don’t know what you charged last time
- Don’t know how much you quote
- Don’t know where you left off on getting new customer
- Don’t know where your prospects are in the sales cycle
- Customer service does not know details about your account
- Sales people don’t know customer has not paid past invoices sells more product
- Don’t know what your most profitable product is, push products with the least profit
- Don’t know who your most profitable customers are
- Don’t know the 20% of your customers who are doing 80% of the sales
- Don’t know who work on the job
- Can’t find contact info to call back
- Don’t know how much of a certain product you sold last year
- No online sales or product ordering
- Online ordering not connected to sales system
- Sales guy is off and you don’t know how much to charge customer
- Only a certain person can do job because nobody else know how
- The manual way you are doing things prevents you from growing because you are already at 110%
- Have to search through boxes to find anything
- Want to send out info to your customers but you have no addresses or you have them but it is a lot of work
- No predefine way to work with a customer, everyone or every time it is different
- Can’t see missing opportunities
- Don’t know last time someone bought
- Since you don’t know what your customer has bought you can’t convince them to buy a product that is related. Bought a mop you could try to sell a pail etc
- No one spot to find info, there is the accounting system, the order book, the excel parts list, the customer mailing list in word… And it is not all tied together
- Sales guys selling product you don’t have or have discontinued
- You have to write/type things down multiple times in multiple systems which lead to inefficiency, entry errors, and incomplete records.
If you have any of the above, it leads to?
- Unprofessional Image
- Unorganized and inefficient use of time
- Wasting time which is money
- Wasting money
- Lost opportunities which is lost sales?
- Hard to be competitive/innovative if you are working like a dog just to keep up
- Increased customer wait time which leads to lost sales
- Decreased customer satisfaction which leads to lost sales
—Victor Cheng
Should you computerize your sales force? Absolutely! Plan it right and you will boost productivity and profits. And it's customer friendly, too.
|