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Change
for change’s sake is useless. Surgeons don’t operate for the sake of
operating and businesses shouldn’t either. When you make a change to your
product or services or you provide a completely new offering, you need to
gauge whether it is successful or not. Knowing this will help you to
determine future changes and offerings.
Often small businesses
neglect measuring for success because they think it is unaffordable, too
time-consuming or un-manageable but it doesn’t have to be.
Here are some tried and true
ways for assessing whether or not your new offering is producing the results
you want:
Ask
your customers and target buyers what they think.
Are they satisfied with the quality of the product and the caliber of
service? Do they feel like they have got their money’s worth? How can you
improve? This can be as informal as greeting random customers and asking for
a minute of their time to discuss their purchases or it can be as formal as
conducting a meeting with selected target buyers. Most importantly, it puts
you in direct contact with your buyers. This gives you valuable actionable
information and leaves customers impressed with your dedication to quality
and service.
Test
advertising spending in different test markets or with a single business in
one location over different periods of time.
Monitor your advertising expenses compared to your sales volumes
during different times of the year. Consider coupon programs or referral
code systems where you can track and monitor where your advertising dollar
is being best spent.
Set
up easy systems for tracking new accounts versus refills or re-orders.
This may be as simple as tracking sales receipts for new accounts or
entering a code in your customer database that designates new customers in
monthly reports. Coffee shops and beauty salons offer an easy-to-replicate
model. They hand out cards to customers. The customer then gives it to the
cashier after each purchase and the cashier denotes a purchase has been
made. The incentive for the customer is a free coffee or in the case of the
beauty salon, a free salon service after a designated number of purchases.
The benefit for the business owner is tracking the quantity and success of
their business. It would be easy for a cashier to write a code designating a
new or repeat client.
The important thing is measuring new orders versus re-orders so you can then
determine the long-term success of your offerings. If you retain customers
and keep them coming back over time, you know you have a winner.
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