Over the past few weeks we have discussed The Business Bullseye – 6 Parts of Your Company, Marketing – The Art of Attraction and Sales – Create Value and Win. Over the next few weeks we are going to dig deeper into the additional pieces of The Business Bullseye to discuss their purpose, opportunities that you may or may not be familiar with and processes & systems that can be implemented. This week we are going to talk about operations and wowing your customers.
Most business owners get started because of an interest or capability in their product or service. They have specialized knowledge or skills and decide to go into business for themselves focusing on operations. And it is good that they have talent or awareness to begin with, because the first rule of operations is to WOW your customers and give them an excellent experience, so they become repeat buyers and send you referrals.
The first step of WOWING your customers is to provide superior service by managing expectations and over delivering everywhere possible – quality, timing, cleanliness, customer service, etc. Behind the scenes, operations revolves around optimizing the production and logistics of your product by managing costs and scheduling.
You have production costs, whether you provide a product or a service. These costs are typically more straightforward when you are producing a product – material cost, labor, waste, etc., however if you provide a service, your production costs still include the labor and materials necessary to provide your service. While controlling these costs are important to your operations and the bottom line, remember, these costs will never be eliminated and you get what you pay for, so be cautious of sacrificing quality for a few pennies.
Additionally, in our instant gratification society, logistics has taken on a life of its own in many organizations. Remember, your goal is to be flexible, meet the client’s needs and follow up on your commitments. You don’t want to become a running joke, like the cable guy with an appointment between 10AM – 6PM and you never know when he is going to show. Managing delivery and scheduling expectations with your clients can be the difference between success and failure in their eyes.
Making sure you can provide a great product, on time, complemented by exceptional service and controlling your costs along the way is a critical component of every business, this is the essence of operations.
Next week we will take a look at the General Manager.
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