Friday, October 22, 2010

Top 7 Critical Success Factors for Business - Part 5

Week 5 of the series in discussing the Top 7 Critical Success Factors for Business brings us to a subject that scares many people due to the pace of its change and the need to constantly keep up to date.
  1. Plan
  2. Competitive velocity
  3. Customer satisfaction
  4. Network
  5. Technology
  6. Culture
  7. Global thinking
The right use of technology can not only reduce manpower needs and operational costs but also increase efficiencies and open channels to new markets, all directly affecting your bottom line. The danger is adopting technology for technology's sake, care must be taken to identify and only implement that technology that is needed to support your business and its growth.

As part of the technology consideration the mix of Online vs Offline must determined.

Many facets of business operations can now be conducted both on and off line - e-commerce, business development, sales, customer service, marketing and public relations - you must find the right balance between online and offline that is right for your individual business and budget.

Whatever the mix though, consistency of message must always be maintained.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Top 7 Critical Success Factors for Business - Part 4

Week 4 in my series of the Top 7 critical success factors for business brings us to a discussion of how we cannot go it alone.

  1. Plan
  2. Competitive velocity
  3. Customer satisfaction
  4. Network
  5. Technology
  6. Culture
  7. Global thinking
No one can be all things to all people, so use the skills and resources of others to open and unlock growth opportunities and provide support outside of your core business.

Analyse and determine what capabilities (usually non-core) that could probably be provided more efficiently or effectively through strategic alliances in which each alliance partner realises a benefit from working together.

There are many virtual resources that can be tapped into that in years past would have necessitated capital and or human outlay.

Networking requires thinking outside the box and building strong relationships, it does not happen overnight but persistence can reap huge rewards.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Top 7 Critical Success Factors for Business - Part 3

For week 3 in my series of the Top 7 Critical Success Factors I discuss the thing that many businesses place too little importance on and is my pet subject.
  1. Plan
  2. Competitive velocity
  3. Customer satisfaction
  4. Network
  5. Technology
  6. Culture
  7. Global thinking
Sub standard customer service not only alienates the immediate customer but can damage the reputation and brand of the organisation, leading to additional customer loss and an inability to attract new customers.

Surveys suggest that a discontented customer tells an estimated 10 people about their experience while a happy customer tells only one.

The more information you have about your customers the better you can service and anticipate their needs. You must have mechanisms in place that gathers customer information to allow personalised marketing and service and the future needs of your customer to be anticipated.

There is also the internal customers to consider - the humble employee, a type of customer that is quite often left feeling very dissatisfied at great cost to the business.

Remember a satisfied customer is a repeat customer!