What Will YOU Learn By Being Your Own Customer?

As we transition into a summer schedule when customer activity starts to slow down, rather than getting frustrated about delayed responses or panicking about slowing sales, let's think of it as an opportunity to slow down too and get introspective on our businesses.

We talk about the importance of regularly working on your business rather than in your business a lot, but over the next few weeks we invite you to join us in a group exercise we are calling:

Learn By Becoming Your Own Customer

Learning new information and gaining more knowledge is power and once you have this knowledge you can do something productive with it.  You may have heard the expression “growth happens during recovery” and this can be applied to how a slower workflow can allow you to get out of the weeds, analyze how your business appears to fresh eyes and grow as a result.

Ready to start?

Step One - First Impressions Review  

Step One is literally taking a step back and looking at your business from a stranger’s perspective. You can do this yourself but it will be more effective if you get a neutral outside opinion. If you can’t find a willing stranger to pull off the street, how about asking a friend (who hasn’t been your customer). Ask them to take five minutes out of their day to take a look at your website or click around on your main social platform (for no more than 5 minutes) and then answer these three questions:

1. What do I do?
2. Who do I work with?
3. How would you refer me?

If this brings up interesting talking points then do it again with another friend to balance out the feedback...and again if you are on a roll.

 

What will you learn by doing so?

It may bring up some surprising feedback, highlight some important holes in your copy or identify ways to improve what you offer and how you offer it. It may also confirm that you are on the right tracks with your first brand's impressions and you may just need to tighten your message a bit more to help people understand what you want to be known for. Presenting this in a intuitive way is so crucial as it will help them (and every online visitor) easily know how to refer you or how talk about you with their peers. And we all want that don’t we?

Once you have done this exercise leave a comment at the bottom of this post or message us on our Instagram (have you noticed this new feature in your phone’s business profile?). We would love to hear whether doing this quick exercise confirms what you thought or whether it brought up some revelations.

This renewed perspective will inform how you reorganize your business in a more concise and productive way, more importantly it will also allow you time and space in your day to get out and enjoy the sunshine! Let’s not forget the perks of why we became business owners in the first place!

Next week we will be moving onto the second step of ‘Learn By Becoming Your Own Customer' by understanding what it feels like to be your customer so you can offer a better customer experience. Stay tuned.