Simplicity as a Strategy: How to Streamline Your Business for Success

foreign
customer service and experience expert
today I'm going to discuss Simplicity in
business now I love good barbecue I live
in St Louis Missouri which is famous for
some of the best barbecue in the world
really we have several restaurants that
have competed in worldwide competitions
and come back with the first place
trophy well my friend Norman Beck loves
barbecue as well and living in Texas
he's also exposed to some of the best
barbecue in the world although I'll
argue it's second to the St Louis
barbecue well he teased me the other day
by sending pictures of dinners featuring
brisket ribs sausage and delicious side
dishes from award-winning Hutchins
barbecue in north Texas he also included
a description of the restaurant's
marketing plan according to Beck the
marketing plan is simple number one cook
the best barbecue in Texas now here's my
comment that I'm going to share with you
five ideas and I'll follow it with my
comments always do your best that's my
comment so Beck said the owner has one
goal be a little better today than you
were yesterday so that's a great goal
and even if you don't hit it trying to
do it makes a big difference number two
sell it at a fair price so my comment to
this is a fair price doesn't mean the
lowest price when you sell a good
product price is less relevant number
three be nice to everyone well this is
customer service 101 it's the basics if
you have the best barbecue but treat
people with disrespect you won't be
nearly as successful and when you
combine friendly service with a great
product price becomes even less relevant
people will pay more for The Best of
Both Worlds number four close when you
sell out so this is an interesting one I
I love the concept of the law of
scarcity when people know they have to
act now or they might miss out they make
more of an effort to do business with
you and number five repeat so my comment
about repeat is simply this if it works
just keep doing it now the other thing
you'll notice about Hutchins and most
other barbecue restaurants is that they
don't spend a lot of money on Ambience
many barbecue joints have wooden tables
and chairs the restaurants are set for
function in other words no fancy light
fixtures or expensive Cutlery and plates
they keep the place clean and that's
about it the point of all of this is
Simplicity you don't go to a barbecue
restaurant unless you want barbecue the
choices are limited and so are the
quantities the barbecue chefs know about
how much to prepare every day and when
they run out that goes for the night
customers know this and don't expect
anything more most likely your business
has a few more moving Parts than a
barbecue restaurant but that doesn't
mean you can't find ways to simplify the
customer experience and your internal
processes go through an exercise in
simplification by asking questions like
these number one is any part of the
process of our customer experience or
employee experience redundant number two
is there anything in our processes that
is unnecessary number three is every
touch Point our customers experience
with us optimize for ease and efficiency
and number four what could we do to make
it easier to do business with us and by
the way number four that is a basic
question that you should be asking all
of the time so asking questions like
these and implementing the answers will
will help you simplify your business
well I hope you enjoyed this short
lesson thank you very much for tuning in
this is Shep hyken reminding you to
always be amazing