direction-signs

 

I just read a great article in Fast Company about the importance of making  very minor changes within your company.  Small changes can transform your business and its culture.  Minor changes and also transform your business by changing its direction and levels of success.  All it takes is one or two small changes in behavior.  Lisa Earle McLeod, the author, related a story about her family delivering their college-aged daughter to Boston University to begin her college experience.

 

It’s Easy to Transform a Business

The family was standing at one of those large public maps of the campus – probably with confused looks on their faces.  Soon they were approached by no one less than a dean of the university.  He introduced himself and asked where they were from. He then pleasantly offered assistance in finding the location they were seeking on campus.   That was it.  That one simple behavior made an important impact on their ‘customers’.

This was more than just a senior staff member being polite.  His actions represented a routine university policy.  It was not just an opportunity for the university to help guide that student’s first steps toward their advanced education. Boston University takes this minor action very seriously.  It is a fireable offense for anyone who walks by someone looking at one of the campus maps and fails to offer assistance.  They feel it reinforces their purpose: getting students ready to become part of an interconnected world.

How You Can Transform Your Business

What can you do in your company that is minor – that takes less than a minute to accomplish – that can make a difference to your customers or prospects?  How about just stepping outside to invite inside anyone pausing to look at something in the window of your shop?  How many customers could you get inside by walking out and telling them you have a larger selection of the displayed items inside the store?  Perhaps you could offer a brochure with more information on the item in the window.  How about just greeting visitors to your location with a positive, inspiring statement?  “Hello, how can we improve your life today?” 

Think of a simple step or two to change how customers perceive your company in a positive way.  It will only take one or two of those minor experiences before they start talking about you.  They will share the news about your company; how different it is, and the pleasant experience they had.  It won’t take long for them to realize that your competitors don’t do the same things.

How many competitors take an interest in passers-by before they are actually customers?  Being nice costs absolutely nothing.  Being helpful doesn’t cost anything either.  Start thinking of how you can quickly and simply transform your company into one people want to do business with, then just do it.

What simple things have you done to transform your business and improve your company in the mind of a customer?   Please share your ideas with us below.