No Brainer: Stay in Business by Meeting Customer Needs

No business will stay in business unless they are specifically meeting the needs of the customers they wish to serve. Often that includes meeting needs that customers don’t even know that they have. Successful businesses help customers with the need they know they have and then, go one step further, to solve a problem that customers didn’t know they had.

To do this, businesses start with knowing who they best serve; they build a “customer profile” to understand and meet the needs of their customers and then design systems to do that. For example, Simplex Pest Control realized that most customers need ongoing support to control the seasonal types of pests that we have in Utah AND because their customers are often businesses, their customers need another business to take care of pest problems so they can continue doing their business.

So Simplex Pest Control developed a two-pronged approach to meet these needs. First, they developed a subscription system that puts customers on a regular schedule and makes it easy for customers to reach out when they identify a pest problem. And second, they train their employees to recognize signs of pests, rather than relying on seeing the pests (or the customer seeing the pest). Because the employee is looking for signs that most of us don’t see, they’re able to identify and solve problems, before the customer even knows there is one.

That “step ahead” approach is valuable in any business. The best way to identify and serve the needs of your customers is to begin with identifying your “wildly important goal” that the business does for its customers. Then review all the systems that support that goal. What systems need modification to ensure the goal is achieved? Once you’re looking at systems, you can determine how your business can meet customer needs they don’t even know they have.

And when you do that, your customers become your raving fans!