SimpleBiz360™ Podcast
The SimpleBiz360™ Podcast focuses on inspiring continuous improvement. Our content features "One Minute One Question" shorts, interviews, and monologues designed to ignite contemplation, and action.
Episodes
446 episodes
Are you a problem solver, or problem sweeper? OMOQ #183
The business landscape is littered with scads of operators that tend to sweep issues under the rug, rather than roll up their sleeves and try to fix issues. Problem sweepers are a dime a dozen. Sweepers are easy to find, but solvers are a rare ...
Are your customers receiving your full attention, or partial attention? OMOQ #182
People feel disconnected and uncomfortable when they’re having a conversation with someone who is only half listening. What amazes me, is how many times we choose to do this in business. Why? If you are trying to win a potential customer to you...
Do you look customers in the eye when you’re speaking to them? OMOQ #181
Eye to eye contact builds connectivity during a business conversation. Looking down, or looking away creates customer uneasiness, feelings of alienation, and heightened skepticism. Teach, train and manage, consistent eye to eye contact with buy...
Does your internal terminology match your external customer terminology? OMOQ #180
Creating customer confusion is one of the quickest ways to eliminate potential repeat and referral business. To avoid falling into this trap, one of the easiest fixes is to make sure your company is using the same terminology whether you’re tal...
How many customer touchpoints are woven into you average transaction? OMOQ #179
Each touchpoint creates an opportunity for a customer impression. However, very few owners, or executives, have ever counted the number of touchpoints in an average transaction. With that said, it’s hard to manage customer satisfaction if you c...
What are the hidden business costs of being a perpetual procrastinator? OMOQ #178
Perpetual procrastination can literally send your company to the boneyard. How? As proprietors, we constantly see opportunities for improvement, but we rarely act on them. In many cases, these missed opportunities might be costly enough to sink...
Are you in the habit of touching things once? OMOQ #177
One of the biggest time wasters in business, and a large contributor to margin erosion, is being in the habit of touching the same thing multiple times. Streamlined businesses, mega-profitable businesses, and many well-run manufacturers realize...
Are you taking on more than you can handle? OMOQ #176
This is a classic contributor to broken promises. So many customers get upset at vendors who dropped the ball. Customers often chalk this up to a vendor that they think is inept and incapable, when in fact, the vendor is overcommitted. Are you ...
Do you address your customers by using their name? OMOQ #175
Sounds like a silly question, but you would be shocked at how many of us vendors miss the mark time, and time again. Most of our customers are given the name, “Hey”, when we could easily address them by their name. Maybe it’s time to take a goo...
What pain points do customers experience with your business? OMOQ #174
Have you ever examined your business through the lens of identifying pain points in your business? It’s a great exercise, and can be very fruitful. Every once in while assemble your team for a story-telling session. Encourage them to share thei...
Have you ever checked your voicemail message to see if it’s professional and clean? OMOQ #173
Sounds like a funny question right? Well I just ran into a very strange situation a few months ago, and I feel compelled to share it. I was leaving a voice message for a vendor when I heard a bunch of F-bombs coming from him as I was leaving my...
Are you careful to make claims instead of assertions? OMOQ #172
In today’s world, so many buyers have one eyebrow up when they meet with vendors. A classic, and easily detectable mistake is when vendors rely on assertions instead of claims. What’s the difference? A claim is a statement that can be backed up...
Do you put emphasis on punctuality in business? OMOQ #171
I learned a valuable, and painful lesson years ago. I met three customers for important lunch, and for the second time, I was 15 minutes late. Little did I know that the leader of the customer group was an ex-marine, and punctuality was a stand...
Would your customers describe your business as being polite? OMOQ #170
This concept may get a chuckle or two. However, this operating tenant is often times skimmed over in the board rooms and training rooms. The customer experience is set on the right axis if the vendor displays genuine politeness. This is especia...
Are you baking consistency into your business model? OMOQ #169
Customers find great comfort when their vendors operate in patterns that are consistent, and good for the customer. Inconsistency is one of the most common occurrences in business today. The companies that flourish are those that operate with a...
Are you consistently winning the middle in business? OMOQ #168
Successful businesses don’t live on the extremes where people either really like you, or really dislike you. Successful businesses, learn how to win the middle staying away from the exterior. Utilizing the tenants of professionalism is the best...
Why do customers detest business streakers? OMOQ #167
Business streakers are fast operators who vanish just before they get the project ball across the finish line. These enthusiastic beginners magically disappear at critical times. As a result, customer projects yawn past expected completion date...
Why do so many customers avoid answering critical business questions? OMOQ #166
We are going to flip the tables and talk about customers for one minute. As vendors attempt to provide quality services, questions may arise that need customer input, or direction. The customers can be both invoice-paying customers, or internal...
How can we monetize business irritations? OMOQ #165
This can be a fun, simple and productive exercise. Start by asking yourself for the top three things that irritate you when you purchase something? Then, hunt within your own company to see if these pain points exist within your operational str...
Imagine explaining your price once, but never apologizing for quality? OMOQ #164
Design well. Manufacture to exceed expectations. Take no shortcuts. Audit properly. Audit regularly. Be the customer. Constantly improve. Imagine if you were to run your company with these seven principals? The result could be a premium price t...
What if blame-shifting was replaced by ownership? OMOQ #163
Do you want to deliver a pleasant surprise to your customers? Do you want to look fresh and exciting to customers? If so, all you have to do is take ownership of you actions, and retire the societal trend of blame-shifting. Novel. Humble. Endea...
Are you assuming customer trust, or are you earning it? OMOQ #162
Many companies put the cart before the horse by expecting customers to trust them first, rather than earning trust through action. Has your company inverted the trust relationship? Repeat and referral business grows for companies that consisten...
Do you explain the benefits to your customers? OMOQ #161
We live in a feature driven product world. Buttons, modes, settings and codes accompany so many products we buy. But what benefits do all these features serve? If you are not in the habit of explaining what the features do for customers, now wo...
Do your customers know the reasons why? OMOQ #160
This is a classic example of putting yourself in the customer shoes. If you want to make customers happy, do your very best to eliminate mysteries. The best place to start is to voluntarily provide information that addresses the questions of wh...
How often is your correspondence brief, clear and succinct? OMOQ #159
The majority of our business correspondence is quickly embracing minimalistic content over comprehensiveness. In other words, we are leaning into communications that look like texts instead of letters. If this is you, are you confusing customer...