Let Information Flow

Information is only useful when it flows. Making sure that the right information reaches the right people at the right time is, typically, a hit and miss process. And that feels like a great opportunity to me.

As consumers, we are all familiar with the best of breed services of companies like Amazon. Information simply flows through their systems and we, the customer, get the benefit. Could the shopping experience be any easier?

Unfortunately, most businesses incur way more cost than they need to in exchanging information with their customers, and most would benefit by sharing more information.

Think about how often your business shares information with your customers. There's marketing ( communicating what you do and how you do it, the value that you provide), sales ( closing deals, transacting orders, taking payment), and delivery ( shipment, support, returns). Thousands of times a day? More?

Now imagine that you improve the efficiency of this communication by, say, just 10%. What would that do for your customer satisfaction on the "easy to do business" scale? How much time would that free up for your staff to spend on helping more customers?

Happier customers and more of them.

The faster the flow of relevant information between you and your customers, the more efficiently you can service their needs. If you email shipping updates, customers won’t be left waiting, won’t need to call your service team. If you provide an online customer account access, they can tailor your service to their needs, update account and payment details at their convenience, and won't need to call your service team. And the more you avoid the need for paper forms, the less faxes you’ll receive and the less data entry for, well, your customer service team.

Information is the rocket fuel at the root of every great business design. Mix in the right technology and you can make something great.

Better Flows

Assess the fluidity of your business information with this simple exercise:

1. List the ways that you exchange information with your customers. Your list will most likely include sales, order processing, product delivery, support, and (hopefully) repeat sales.
2. Now consider how easy it is, or isn’t, for your customers to communicate with your business. Do you still require them to print out, complete, sign and fax in paperwork? How many calls do customers make each day with questions that you could answer online? How much of your team's time is spent moving information from one medium to another, keying faxed information into your systems, handling a sequence of emails to clear up a miscommunication?
3. What are your top 3 opportunities to improve your information sharing with customers?

Contact me at graham@primeFusion.ca and we can talk about the fastest way to execute on these opportunities.