How do you define value?
What value do you provide for those who purchase your products or services?
These are questions that many business owners are unable to answer, and yet having the capability to add value is one of the most important factors in business.
Let’s take purchasing your morning coffee for example…
You go to a particular café most days but today the café that just opened up next door catches your eye, so you decide to give it a go. What harm can it do, right?
Your coffee usually takes a while because everyone has the same idea as you at this time of day, however you hear the barista call your name out before you have a chance to check your morning emails.
At first, you’re impressed, but when you take that first sip, you decide you’d rather wait another 5 minutes for a coffee from next door.
Were you more impressed by the speed of delivery or unimpressed by the bitter taste that is lingering in your mouth?
The point is, whilst value might be in the eye of the beholder, some key values should be non-negotiable. Consider the following:
Speed of delivery
Is an obvious factor when it comes to adding value – because let’s face it people are impatient. However, many businesses fall into the trap of trying to produce and supply products/services quickly and neglect the overall quality.
Quality
Of products, services, staff and equipment needs to be consistent, otherwise you will fail to generate repeat business. Keeping all your equipment and products up-to-date demonstrates quality of your businesses capabilities and has a huge impact on your ability to add value to customers.
Increasing convenience
In a world where technology is continually evolving, businesses need to adapt and increase their accessibility for both their employees and customers. Years ago, contacting a business to understand their capabilities was a phone call away. Nowadays, people have access to businesses varying online platforms including websites, social media accounts and e-mail, giving them the ability to identify the products/services they provide – sometimes just a thumb tap away.
Forming strategic alliances
With businesses who compliment your products and services and who have common or correlating goals. In most cases strategic alliances allow both companies involved to pursue opportunities at a faster rate than if the businesses functioned alone.
Maintain a strong reputation
With many different communication channels, it is important that business owners and their team of employees stay true to the business’s values and treat every customer with respect. Failing to do so may result in negative word of mouth spreading to hundreds or even thousands of current and potential customers. This seems obvious, but we see a lot of businesses neglecting the fact that it only takes one bad comment to have an effect on their reputation.
In-house skills
Having a strong reputation stems from the team of employees and their ability to demonstrate quality skills to deliver to the customer and get the work done. As well as being skilled, your team should be passionate, reliable and dedicated to the business and their customers.
Understanding your customer
In order to add relevant definition of value to your customers journey and overall experience you need to know their needs/wants and deliver on these by providing the best possible solution to suit.
To have a successful business you must strive to be better than your competitors by providing more value to your client.
How you define the ways you add value is up to you but following a few simple steps could be the difference between business success and business failure.
This is something to keep in mind when going over your business proposition to current and potential customers.
To find out how Ledge can add value to you and your business, contact us here.
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