Industry Spotlight: Can’t We Have the Pretzels Back?
The message from the airlines is that we all have to pay because no one has figured out how to make a profit at this business. As a customer, I’m not impressed.
Listening to the Voice of Your Customer
If you ask closed questions, you are limiting your client to the set of answers that you design—and a lot of what you should be looking for are the answers that you can’t design or foresee. That’s why there is often no substitute for high quality, and hopefully, face-to-face conversation based on open questions.
Tapping into the Strategic Voice of Your Customer
Customers can talk to you about where their business is going, how their market is changing, and even how your competitors are developing—but you have to ask them. That’s what’s really interesting—your business lies at the intersection between the customer’s needs and your organization’s abilities.
Industry Snapshot: Business and Web 2.0
One of the most interesting things about this conference was the subtle, but fundamental shift in the focus from technology for technology’s sake to the consumer (both for B2B and B2C businesses).
Reading List: The Long Tail – Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More By Chris Anderson
“Selling less of more” will become the predominant model as the availability of greater selection becomes the norm due to the minimal cost of digital inventory.
Improving Your Competitive Intelligence
Management teams tend to look at internal information—financial, sales and operational reports—while professional investors spend most of their time soliciting the opinion of external experts that understand the company and the business opportunity.
The Power of Competitive Intelligence
It is ultimately market movements, technological changes, evolving customer needs, and competitive environments that are critical in determining the fate of most companies. External information is the best way to ride, rather than be drowned by the waves of change in your environment.
Reading List: Lean Solutions by James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones
It makes the very compelling case that a good customer buying experience can and should be grounded in a more efficient (and profitable) provision process. Done well, it’s a win-win.
Getting Better Data
If you have an important decision to be made and hard data are incomplete or unavailable, how can you improve your techniques of gathering soft data? Ask effective questions of your important information sources.
Hard vs. Soft Data
Mintzberg said it well, “Overall, while hard information may inform the intellect, it is largely soft information that generates wisdom.”
