Sometimes when we try and fix a customer problem, we bump into the discovery that we are making things confusing, and complicated for customers. How cool would it be if a team of employees were to go out and look at every aspect of the business, and uncover other opportunities to exchange complication with simplification? This could be a fun summertime project. Simplicity is admired by most customers.

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The business landscape is littered with scads of operators that tend to sweep issues under the rug, rather than roll up their sleeves and try to fix issues. Problem sweepers are a dime a dozen. Sweepers are easy to find, but solvers are a rare commodity in today’s world of apathetic workers. Next time you’re confronted with a difficult issue, we encourage you to look at it as an opportunity in disguise. Issue resolution allows a worker to develop new problem-solving skill sets. Problem solvers win the hearts of associates and customers, and they can command higher salaries than sweepers.

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People feel disconnected and uncomfortable when they’re having a conversation with someone who is only half listening. What amazes me, is how many times we choose to do this in business. Why? If you are trying to win a potential customer to your side, why would you only give them half of your attention in the process? If this is you…perhaps you should think about paying full attention to someone who might be spending money with your company.

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Eye to eye contact builds connectivity during a business conversation. Looking down, or looking away creates customer uneasiness, feelings of alienation, and heightened skepticism. Teach, train and manage, consistent eye to eye contact with buyers, and watch your customer loyalty increase.

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Creating customer confusion is one of the quickest ways to eliminate potential repeat and referral business. To avoid falling into this trap, one of the easiest fixes is to make sure your company is using the same terminology whether you’re talking to an associate, or a customer. This will ensure seamless conversations, comprehension clarity and margin protection.

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Each touchpoint creates an opportunity for a customer impression. However, very few owners, or executives, have ever counted the number of touchpoints in an average transaction. With that said, it’s hard to manage customer satisfaction if you can’t identify and measure satisfaction. Impressions are good and bad, and research shows it takes about 10-12 positive impressions to erase one bad impression. Maybe it’s time to start charting, training and managing touchpoints? If not, then buckle up, because your are on a road that will take you anywhere it wants to go!

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Perpetual procrastination can literally send your company to the boneyard. How? As proprietors, we constantly see opportunities for improvement, but we rarely act on them. In many cases, these missed opportunities might be costly enough to sink your company. I know because I have lived out this scenario in one of my business failures. If you’re constantly procrastinating, why don’t you try waking up tomorrow and start hunting for three, small ways to improve your business. Not wholesale changes…just minor tweaks to product development, administration, customer service or processes. If you were to install three, one percent changes, you would have 36 improvements in the course of one calendar year. The results could literally save a sinking ship! It might be time to put perpetual procrastination in your rearview mirror.

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One of the biggest time wasters in business, and a large contributor to margin erosion, is being in the habit of touching the same thing multiple times. Streamlined businesses, mega-profitable businesses, and many well-run manufacturers realize the significance of touching things one time only. If you want to decrease touches, then we have a great place to start. We suggest you begin your improvement journey with your incoming email and postal mail. Simply open it, read it, process it, and file it. If you start doing this on a regular basis, you’ll find that your streamlined task management mindset will create more quality time to devote to other business duties.

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