Is Your Business All Shell and No Egg?

When you scroll though most business blogs today, you’ll find a plethora of advice on marketing your small business. And that’s completely understandable. The digital realm has created an environment where businesses need to invest in their digital marketing, and online visibility. Not only do they need to make SEO a serious consideration, they also need to paint an attractive image of their brand through their website and their social channels. They need to create a selling proposition that is engaging and appealing to customers who know full well that they can afford to be fickle.

Yet, while marketing is a necessary consideration for your business, it needs to be backed by an infrastructure that maintains operational excellence. Otherwise, your marketing campaigns could be putting the cart before the horse. Or the chicken before the egg. Frankly, your business could become all panache and no substance. Or, to return to the poultry analogy… all shell and no egg!

Here’s how you ensure that your marketing copy is backed by the kind of substance that keeps customers coming back. 

Protect your equipment

Your operations rely on equipment to offer a smooth ans seamless experience for customers. It’s what makes your products and service what they are. And you need to ensure that it is routinely protected. Whether that means using routine industrial metal sandblasting and restoration for your industrial equipment, or ensuring that your team’s iPads are appropriately protected in case they’re dropped. The right equipment can either facilitate operational excellence or bottleneck it and create a world of problems. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. 

Incentivise your team

Your employees work hard on your behalf. But their energy and enthusiasm are finite. Unless they’re properly motivated and incentivized it’s only a matter of time until they stop delivering the outstanding customer service upon which you want to build your brand. Which is why you need to invest in the right incentives. That dosn’t just mean monetary bonuses. It means formally recognizing and celebrating their accomplishments and letting them know how much you value them. 

Lead  by example

Your team looks to you for leadership. Even the senior-most members of your organization will look to you to model the attitudes, behaviors and skills that will take your business from strength to strength. You are your brand. And it behoves you to act accordingly. Lead by example and your team will always have a clear idea of what you expect from them. 

Listen to your customers

Your customers are an invaluable source of data that can let you know whether you’re steering the ship in the right direction, or if course correction is needed. Incentivize customers to give you feedback. If they leave positive reviews, it’s more grist for the SEO mill. If they have complaints, they’re giving you the gift of a learning opportunity. Refuse it at your peril! 

Listen to your employees 

Finally, your employees have a unique perspective on your business and its operations that is completely different to yours. If they have an idea of how you could do things better, you owe it to them to listen. Which is why you should also actively encourage feedback from them.