with.
2. While you have your best and brightest together in the one place, you should also ask them to suggest two possible ways to improve the quality of your product or service that would leave your competitors for dead. Then give someone the project of figuring out how you could make these improvements as cheaply as possible
3. Using some creative thinking tools, develop at least three potential Skype-like scenarios that would completely rip the margins out of your business – even though your industry dares not consider the possibility. Who knows? You may find a new opportunity.
4. Purchase your own product or service – or at least pretend to. Then ask yourself, 'Was that fast, good and cheap at the price?'
5. Ask a handful of your team members, the more senior the better, to think about potential changes in the demands of your customers and staff over the coming years. What challenges will these changes present your business? Remind everyone that what is good enough, fast enough and cheap enough today won't be tomorrow. Give them a few days to mull over it privately, then conduct a roundtable discussion.
3 SUPERFICIAL IS ANYTHING BUT
Companies have to do more to win customers than offer a dependable, good quality, reasonably priced product or service. Lots of ordinary companies do that. The extraordinary companies do something else. So do extraordinary career-minded professionals. These flipstars do the little things. They realise that in an oversupplied market, competitive advantage will increasingly be built on elements once considered superficial. You know, the small stuff. Flipstars sweat the small stuff. Big time!
FAST, GOOD, CHEAP, X-FACTOR – PICK 4
Doing the little things right is all about figuring out how to fulfil customer wants, not just satisfy customer needs. Customer satisfaction sucks; it is fleeting at best.You could invest your time and energy into meeting customer expectations only to have those expectations rise before you get there. Even if you met the expectations before they increased, it would not give you an advantage in the marketplace. The money is not in satisfying customer needs. And remember that customer may be your boss. The money will be in giving customers what they want, even when they don't yet know what that is.
People need fast, good and cheap. Faced with the four forces of change, people want things to be simpler, easier and more beautiful, among other qualities, and they will want to feel good about the products, services and experiences they consume.
It sounds a little ridiculous to say that fast, good, cheap is a need. It is! The ability of the market to turn features and standards that were once a luxury into a necessity in the competitive landscape is nothing short of fascinating. Remember the research discussed in chapter 1, which shows that 29 per cent of Americans today consider fast broadband a necessity. And 5 per cent said the same of flat-screen televisions.
In that survey 4 per cent of American consumers said an iPod is a necessity. This is their reality and over the coming years the percentage of people who feel that an iPod is a need not a want will increase markedly. Ask yourself, what feature or standard of service do you currently offer that was previously an added luxury that may have become commoditised without you even realising? I can think of keyless entry for automobiles, as also discussed in chapter 1. Or what about same-day service from a courier company? Internet banking for some. The ability to pay with a credit card. Or maybe you are a little spoilt and it is your home delivery and pick-up dry cleaning service.
Purchasing decisions are rarely based on rational thought processes. Time and time again customer research has shown that emotions drive our decisions and behaviour.According to the Advertising Research Journal in the US, research has found that emotions are twice as important as any other consideration in customers' decisions about
2. While you have your best and brightest together in the one place, you should also ask them to suggest two possible ways to improve the quality of your product or service that would leave your competitors for dead. Then give someone the project of figuring out how you could make these improvements as cheaply as possible
3. Using some creative thinking tools, develop at least three potential Skype-like scenarios that would completely rip the margins out of your business – even though your industry dares not consider the possibility. Who knows? You may find a new opportunity.
4. Purchase your own product or service – or at least pretend to. Then ask yourself, 'Was that fast, good and cheap at the price?'
5. Ask a handful of your team members, the more senior the better, to think about potential changes in the demands of your customers and staff over the coming years. What challenges will these changes present your business? Remind everyone that what is good enough, fast enough and cheap enough today won't be tomorrow. Give them a few days to mull over it privately, then conduct a roundtable discussion.
3 SUPERFICIAL IS ANYTHING BUT
Companies have to do more to win customers than offer a dependable, good quality, reasonably priced product or service. Lots of ordinary companies do that. The extraordinary companies do something else. So do extraordinary career-minded professionals. These flipstars do the little things. They realise that in an oversupplied market, competitive advantage will increasingly be built on elements once considered superficial. You know, the small stuff. Flipstars sweat the small stuff. Big time!
FAST, GOOD, CHEAP, X-FACTOR – PICK 4
Doing the little things right is all about figuring out how to fulfil customer wants, not just satisfy customer needs. Customer satisfaction sucks; it is fleeting at best.You could invest your time and energy into meeting customer expectations only to have those expectations rise before you get there. Even if you met the expectations before they increased, it would not give you an advantage in the marketplace. The money is not in satisfying customer needs. And remember that customer may be your boss. The money will be in giving customers what they want, even when they don't yet know what that is.
People need fast, good and cheap. Faced with the four forces of change, people want things to be simpler, easier and more beautiful, among other qualities, and they will want to feel good about the products, services and experiences they consume.
It sounds a little ridiculous to say that fast, good, cheap is a need. It is! The ability of the market to turn features and standards that were once a luxury into a necessity in the competitive landscape is nothing short of fascinating. Remember the research discussed in chapter 1, which shows that 29 per cent of Americans today consider fast broadband a necessity. And 5 per cent said the same of flat-screen televisions.
In that survey 4 per cent of American consumers said an iPod is a necessity. This is their reality and over the coming years the percentage of people who feel that an iPod is a need not a want will increase markedly. Ask yourself, what feature or standard of service do you currently offer that was previously an added luxury that may have become commoditised without you even realising? I can think of keyless entry for automobiles, as also discussed in chapter 1. Or what about same-day service from a courier company? Internet banking for some. The ability to pay with a credit card. Or maybe you are a little spoilt and it is your home delivery and pick-up dry cleaning service.
Purchasing decisions are rarely based on rational thought processes. Time and time again customer research has shown that emotions drive our decisions and behaviour.According to the Advertising Research Journal in the US, research has found that emotions are twice as important as any other consideration in customers' decisions about
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