New Year’s Resolutions for Businesses
Happy New Year.
It is that time of the year where many people reflect on what has taken place in the year before and what they want to achieve in the following year.
Yes, it is the time for a New Year Resolution. For businesses, many people think about this in terms of key objectives. That is good. But there is one “management objective” that gets to me at this time of the year. Yes, you see it in the title “excellent customer service”.
You hear the head honchos, the chiefs, the GMs; the boss – they say this, “This year, our key strategic focus will be on a) profits, b) growth and c) excellent customer service.”
You know, if you have excellent customer service as your focus this coming year, what were you doing last year? Lousy service?
Let us not confuse what would amount to the essentials with the differentiating factors that set your business apart. A business is always about profits. Growth, maybe also true in many instances, but excellent customer service is not a strategic thrust. Really. It is actually, surprisingly, a fundamental expectation from your customers, of your business.
As a small business, most of us have no time for fluff. We need to focus on the essentials and then, try to identify the one or two defining qualities that set us apart from our competitors.
What’s Our 2022 New Year Resolution?
After 2 years of pandemic, many of us are stressed and burn out as the many changes hit us like tsunami. Working from home also mean the lines between our personal and professional lives are further blurred. For our New Year’s resolution, we may like to include a work-life balance. What else? Hmmm, redefine our market and target audience would be right at the top of the list too. Once that’s done, I think I’ll have to to communicate our intention in a concise and clear manner. Clarity gives us a destination of where we want to go, and clarity helps to eliminates all distractions. So designing a clear corporate and marketing messages. What are for your new year’s resolution?
Here’s 7 tips for you to consider your New Year’s Resolution for your business
- Cement your current market position or create footprint in a new market
- Develop new product or create a product extension
- Outsourcing or Hiring
- Refresh your marketing plan
- Expand your business network
- Improve customer service
- Build social media presence
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7 Replies to “New Year’s Resolutions for Businesses”
Finding new customers is an expensive business which is why it pays to invest in hanging onto your existing clients. Good service can also give small companies a lead over their bigger rivals. Great service can do wonders for your business.
“A fundamental expectation” – thank god, finally somebody said this out loud! It makes you wonder why it would be any other way, but apparently, some companies still haven’t got this.
My New Year’s resolution is to take care of all the little things I don’t like about myself, such as staying in bed too long in the morning even though it makes me stressed out. Also, I have my goals, like trying to move abroad.
Customer service is always that thing that makes one competitor stand out above the rest! Everyone should be focusing on being the best, but I know a lot of companies change their priorities from year to year and sometimes customer service isn’t one of them! There are very few companies that stand out to me as having very good and consistent customer service: Nordstrom and Starbucks. We need to find out what these companies are doing as well as how they treat their own employees because sometimes that’s the most important thing!
Quality customer service can take you a long way. And the key to quality customer service is simply to go that extra mile to ensure your customer happy. It’s just a matter of giving a crap. When you do something extra for a customer, they’ll remember that and will come back in the future. They’ll also recommend your business to people in their network which should bring you more customers.
This is so true! Why would you make a new year’s resolution about something that should be implemented all year round and does not set you apart from competitors. I do not personally own a business, but I would take your advice on trying to do something new and creating a competitive advantage.
Interesting blog. Very informative and useful post.
Thank you. Hope to have you visiting us again.