When was the last time you looked at your business from the customer’s perspective?
You know when you work and work, but at the same time it feels like you’re not making any progress or reaching your goal? Are your efforts not getting you anywhere? Then it is time to pause for a moment and look at your business from the customer’s perspective, view from the outside, and ask yourself why your efforts are not reaching your customers.
Have you ever heard the phrase: put yourself in their shoes? You’ve probably heard that phrase before, right? But what does it have to do with your own business?
The view from outside – the customer’s view
Every now and then, it makes sense to put yourself in the shoes of your customers and potential customers. How do customers perceive your business and you? When was the last time you consciously made your way to your location on the golf range? Is it easy to find you and what does it look like? Is everything in order, tidy and clean? When was the last time you googled yourself or checked your website?
Try to look at your business from the customer’s perspective and be honest with yourself. This is the only way you can improve. How does your business look to you?
Three areas you can review
There are three areas that you can look at directly and easily from the customer’s perspective.
Actuality of information
Check the information you provide about offers, programs and yourself. Is all the information and offers that you advertise on your website, in flyers, on posters or in the club still up to date and are these offers still available?
An additional tip, if flyers or posters no longer look good because they are faded, weathered, or broken, then replace them. Remember, this is your business card – and first impressions count.
Communication – without errors
When was the last time you checked whether the contact form on your website is still working or the automatic appointment booking etc.? There are two things you can check here:
- are the booked hours and the requests sent via the contact form also reaching you. Believe me, this also happens from time to time, that a bug occurs, and interfaces suddenly stop working due to updates etc. The question is not only whether you receive the request, if you have stored an e-mail automation, you should also check it – is it still up to date and does it work properly?
- how easy it is for customers to find the contact form or the link to your online lesson booking tool. The more important question, however, is how easy it is for the customer to book a lesson with you. Is the booking tool self-explanatory or is it complicated? Sometimes it may simply be due to a small error or because the system has been updated. You should always make sure that booking an appointment is as easy as possible – try to set the hurdle to booking an appointment as low as possible.
First impressions count
This point may seem exaggerated, or you may think it goes without saying, but believe me, it doesn’t. Make sure that your workplace, your information board, everything that bears your name as the sender – is clean and in order. Golf is an outdoor sport and spiders, leaves, dust etc. are part of it, but you should still make sure that your workplace is clean and tidy.
This also applies to your appearance – remember that first impressions count.
Take some time to look at your business from the customer’s perspective. Is everything still up to date or can you improve or optimize something so that your customers and prospects have better access to you?
Plan vs. IST condition
In addition to the quality of your business, you can also use the external review to determine whether your current actual state is in line with your plan. Are you still on target or have you deviated?
What do I mean by that? By looking at your business from the outside, you can also check how your awareness and visibility are. How visible are you really on social media channels, on Google in the club, etc.? It is important to know what the current state of your own company is so that you can develop in the right direction.
For example, let us say your current plan is to get more clients for 1 to 1 training at your golf club and no new clients for online training. When reviewing your plan vs. actual state, you realize that you are receiving more requests for online training and no requests for on-site training. The next step would be to see why this is the case. How does a potential customer perceive your offer? Do they only see the online training offer? Are you perhaps not advertising your offer onsite? There are many possibilities as to why the plan and the current status quo are not on track. An outside view or a change of perspective can often help you to reassess things and optimize the current situation.
How often should you take a look at your business from the outside?
There is no such thing as the perfect frequency to view from the outside for everyone. Every business is different, and every business is at a different point in its journey. You may have just started actively marketing your golf business and another colleague may have been marketing their business for several years.
So, there is no one perfect answer that applies to everyone. The same applies to the areas that you should look at during the review.
My recommendation would be to take a critical look at your own business from the outside at least once a year in order to identify any potential for optimization.
Bonus Tip
Here is a little extra tip if you find it difficult to look at your business objectively. Get support for this area.
You can ask friends, family, acquaintances, or customers, but you can also seek professional support from an advisor or consultant. In fact, it can sometimes be easy for a third party to take a critical look at your own company and then point out areas for optimization.