Easy and Efficient!

“Time isn’t the main thing. It’s the only thing” 

Miles Davis

I was perplexed. It was a Saturday morning, I had been to an early meeting and I had a decision to make. My wife and I have this understanding in our relationship that if you are on the way home from somewhere and it is still morning, you grab two coffees, one each! Well this Saturday morning as I was getting closer to home I had two choices, I could stop at the local coffee shop, great coffee and a great price, only $3.70! Or I could go through the McDonald’s drive thru and pay $4.70, still good coffee, but an extra $1.00 each! Now a dollar might not seem like much, but it all adds up. I love my coffee, but one thing that does irk me is how this commodity (right?) has now become an overpriced luxury item.

So what did I do? I went through the McDonald's drive-thru!

Why? As I was driving home with my two coffee’s this decision intrigued me, why did I choose the more expensive option, what was my motivation?

I put it down to two reasons, firstly McDonald's was ‘easy’, I didn’t have to find a park, get out of my car and walk into a shop, and potentially wait in line to be served. Secondly it was more ‘efficient’, it was quicker, and I would get home earlier and be able to maximise my day. I made my decision based on what was easy and efficient, and I was willing pay more for that experience.

Easy: achieved without great effort, presenting few difficulties

Efficient: achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort.

This is an important lesson for all of us who operate in the sales and customer experience domain! No, you don’t have to go and install a drive thru into your business model. But what the drive-thru represents is important and science supports this theory. Humans / Customers will look for easy and efficient first (low hanging fruit), and will be willing to pay more for it!

“When we make decisions to act (or not), the brain thinks like an economist and runs a cost-benefit analysis. If the “cost to act,” as the researchers call it, is too high, it can bias our decision-making process, making us less likely to do things.” (https://www.inverse.com/article/28139-laziness-neuroscience-…)

Understanding this theory is vital if we are to create customer value and customer experience that resonates with our customers. How easy and efficient are you to do business with?

Back in the 1960’s a new approach called customer-centricity started to influence sales and marketing. Customer-centricity is the methodology of endeavouring to see things from your customer’s viewpoint rather than from your own. It focuses on putting your customers wants and needs at the forefront of your operations and sales strategies. Understanding what is important to your customer and exceeding those expectations is a crucial step to building sustainable customer relationships built on loyalty. If we start to understand that our customers are looking for organisations that are easy and efficient to deal with, than we need to design our customer experience to maximise that experience!

“Revolve your world around the customer and more customers will revolve around you.”  

Heather Williams

Over the last month we have been working our way through the Customer Value Framework, identifying ways we can create real value for our customers. We have discussed in detail Engage, Energise and Effective, all three of these strategies are based on creating sustainable customer value and a high quality customer experience.

The fourth strategy of the framework is Efficient.  With this strategy a sales organisation applies a customer-centric methodology to their customer experience and strategic sales model and looks for ways to save their customers time and money by delivering a customer experience that is easy and efficient.

“Here is a powerful yet simple rule. Always give people more than they expect to get.” 

Nelson Boswell

Customers are continuously looking for more efficient ways of operating and running their business with the ultimate goal of saving time and money. Proactive sales organisation's need to get on the front foot and provide efficient quality customer service that limits the customer’s investment of time and effort in the transaction. The more effort and time a customer has to invest in doing business with an organisation, the less likely they are to want to repeat the experience.

Sales organisations need to introduce processes, products and performance that ensure that they are easy to do business with. This entails being proactive and organised, getting information to your customers before they have to ask for it, for example letting them know about the progress of their back orders. When your customer has to chase you for information, you increase the amount of effort and time they have to invest in the relationship.

Remember to be easy and efficient to do business with, you have to reduce the amount of effort and time a customer has to invest. Remove the steps they have to go through, remove the obstacles that stop them from getting what they need. Help your customers maximise their productivity, by being proactive, organised and competent.

This week take a walk in your customers shoes, what would it feel like to do business with you? Are you easy and efficient to do business with? Or are you difficult and disorganised?

This week ask this question to your team – â€œHow can we make it easier for our customers to do business with us?

Regards,

Peter Edwards

"We learn faster when we learn together"