In today’s society it is important for business owners to have a deep and meaningful relationship with their customers.
The customer today is well-informed about their product or service in comparison to those of his competitors. In order for customers to value the relationship with a business owner they need to be able to engage the customer in such a way that their expertise and warm personality keeps them coming back for more.
Every business can find stories of how they help people, for example a healthcare business helps people with their health problems and there are always ways that those that have been healed can testify to the business product or service. It is therefore imperative that communication needs to be real, sincere and honest. It is especially true for the gen X and gen Y demographic. These people have access to technology today that the previous generations didn’t have. The technology today allows customers to compare various products and services with relative ease and also follow comments from people that have used a business’s products or services to form an opinion for themselves.
The next few points will highlight what a business needs in order for all of its stakeholders to be familiar with its goals. Stakeholders are the customer, the staff member and the investors. The points are:
- A clear vision. The vision has to be clear and compelling and stated in such a way that it helps keep people focused on the success of the business. It also indicates where the business is going and what it sets out to achieve for all stakeholders including the community at large.
- A compelling mission. A mission statement indicates how all a business is going to achieve what the vision statement has indicated. Business owners need to make sure that all people in the organisation understand why the company exists and how they are going to achieve the vision set forth.
- A values statement. A value statement is the guiding principles that the business will employ towards its staff, suppliers and customers. It is imperative that once these principles have been decided upon that they fully implemented. Only with consistent application of the principles and values will a cooperative and fulfilling culture be created in a business.
In order to alleviate these issues the business needs to continuously communicate its vision so that all employees even down to the lowest level understand what the business wants to achieve. Management needs to openly address challenges and have those tough discussions to broach the major issues in the organisation. The business owner needs to take the lead and discuss the undiscussible. Furthermore, management must stop enabling mediocrity. If you allow everybody to sidestep excellence then you will end up with a mediocre organisation. And lastly, management needs to make sure that all plans followed up and that steps have been taken to implement what has been decided upon.
From the above it is clear that you as the business owner need to communicate clearly what it is that you intend with your business. If everybody understands what your ultimate goals are and they are aligned with it you will have a happy and productive business.
