To Find Out What’s Missing, How You Ask Matters

Part of my newsletter series on Better Decisions For Entrepreneurs. Catch more articles here.

This one features Haris Lalatsis

Inspector Clouseau: Does your dog bite?

Hotel clerk: No.

Clouseau: [bowing down to pet the dog] Nice doggie. [The dog bites Clouseau’s hand.]

Clouseau: I thought you said you dog did not bite!

Hotel Clerk: That is not my dog.

Imagine you own a restaurant. It’s a new venture, with lots of things to improve. One of which is the level of your service and how that relates to sales. You want to know the following:

Do your employees do their best? Do they follow the customer experience protocols you trained them in when servicing clients?        

Here are some tools at your disposal to conduct this research.

Surveys. Surveys are good for contrasting and comparing different people’s perspectives and experiences. So you can ask your clients via a survey “How happy are you with the service?”. But that won’t get you far. Customers won’t necessarily know what’s missing.

Interviews. Interviews are good for researching complex issues that require in-depth understanding. So you can interview your employees and ask them about how their experience with customers is and where they need help to get better. But if they knew that, perhaps they would have worked on it already.

?Observation. Observation is about examining people’s real behavior and interactions. It doesn’t measure perceptions like surveys and does not rely on self-awareness of interviewees. Observation is the best tool to use in this case to figure out what’s missing and what you can improve.

Case study

Ierax Analytix, a market research agency, based in Thessaloniki, Greece was approached by a client in the hospitality industry who wanted to better understand the behavior of salespeople. To do that, they conducted 80 mystery shopper visits across the client’s outlet. What they discovered was that, even though salespeople were polite and behaved correctly towards clients, they needed more cross-selling training to help the company increase sales. Something that would have been hard to discover from asking the salespeople or clients themselves.

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Figuring out the right tool to use and how to use it makes all the difference.

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Featuring Haris Lalatsis

?Founder of ierax analytix,?is Haris Lalatsis.

Haris is a marketer with a deep understanding of human nature and how people make decisions. Here’s his take on it:

About Haris…

Started working around 15 years ago. Did some jobs in sales and then found my way into a political research company. I loved working there and loved getting to hear people thoughts and ideas and trying to understand how and why they voted. Stayed there for 8 years but then decided it was time to step it up a bit and decided to start my own market research agency. A boutique agency that would try to dive deeper into consumer decision making process. I knew I had no competitors in Northern Greece so it seemed odd as to why nobody wanted to invest in such a service in a place where you have plenty food and beverage producers.

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On behavioral decision-making…

I would say it connects almost all aspects of the different decision making model we have. People think one thing, say another, act differently and communicate something else. Our brain might show one thing but our conscious is doing something else. We need to view decision making process as a whole from a higher POV in order to be able to identify patterns and models which will lead to certain actions. Like many modern ideas, it is crucial especially in these fast changing times were time is of the essence for all brands and organizations.

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A decision he is proud of… and a decision he would have made differently…

From a business POV I am proud I invested heavily and fast in cold sales. I didn’t waste any time and immediately started looking for clients. And I say this since I got my first big and important client almost 4 months after I started looking. So you can see how important it is to jump right into sales when you have a boutique business. On the other hand, I am pretty ok with how life turned out but if I could change something I would try to work a bit less. I gave too much of my life into my business and work and I paid the price for it. Always remember that every decision have a burden you have to carry. No action comes without a reaction.

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If there was one thing he would change about how decisions are made in organizations today…

I see that even in today’s environment organizations still choose to stay disconnected from their consumers. Many leaders feel they know better than everyone else and this creates echo-chambers. And once an echo-chamber exists, breaking it will require hard work and determination. But that is when great things happen.

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On character qualities of good decision-makers…

First I would say calmness and the ability to not take anything personal. I haven’t regretted any decision I made when calm but I have when I was stressed.

Second I’d say the ability to think 360 or on all sides of an issue. You need to fit into everyone’s shoes and see their POV.

Third is a thirst for learning. Everything and anything. Just learn new things. Read, consume content or talk to people. The more you hear, the more chances are you’ll pick up something interesting.

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Some of the tools/ processes he and his team use to help get at good decisions…

We use a lot of brainstorming where we simply gather ideas with no criticism and then we take role playing in trying to see every aspect we can. It helps a lot when the team is stuck since it provides with many different paths we didn’t think of before. But personally I think that our major advantage is that we operate in a common open space. There are no offices or closed doors so we all see and hear each other. We are involved in everyone’s daily business life and so it is easier to talk things out.

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On the value of people learning more about how to make good decisions as students or in the very early stages of their career…

I think the more you know the better but I think that decision making is also something you get better at with experience. You need to make plenty of mistakes in order to do something right. So you can have all the theory in the world but lack the main ingredient which is the burden of consequences. And that is the point that all change for the person that makes a decision.

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His advice would to young professionals for becoming better decision-makers…

Keep a low heart rate. Stay calm no matter what. Train your mind to it. Serenity is the key to great things.

Question for you

Are you using the right tools to investigate your problem? Are you asking the right way?

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