The Last Word: Customer Solutions Profit Ideas

If businesses are nimble enough to adjust to this economic environment, and carefully listen to the feedback from their market, they have a better chance of survival these days. I read great examples of this in a New York Times article “Across the Country, Restaurants Feel the Pinch.” This article discussed how restaurant management has observed “less exuberant” party atmospheres; that “people are on more of a budget,” etc. It has only gotten worse since this article…

However, the article focused on how managers are making changes that reflect what they are hearing and observing. Some are introducing fixed price menus, “recession cruncher” meals, affordable family take-out options and finding ways to balance raising ingredient prices with menu pricing (including hiring chefs who master in this), and “keeping up the attention to detail” in service delivery – as examples of how flexibility is required to manage customer experience in a recession. Even with all of this effort, restaurants are still seeing declining volumes and check averages.

I also read the article “Furniture Makers Shrink Designs for Smaller Spaces,” on boston.com, which described how this is being done in the furniture industry. “Even before these days of shrinking economic expectations, furniture makers were getting the message from consumers: small is the new black” – all from watching retail industry, consumer purchase and real estate trends. Listening to these early indicators has allowed the furniture industry to react and now be prepared with smaller and less expensive furniture options.

Earlier this year “Shopatron” wrote about retailers who were changing their product delivery model to meet customer preferences (e.g. self-service at check-out, and the growing trend toward ordering online and picking the product up in-store).

The ultimate goal is managing through this difficult time in order to survive and stay in business. Ironically, this means the small businesses will be able to be the most nimble, but heightened listening and flexibility needs to happen within every business.

Every business will have to find ways through their operational, marketing, loss prevention, rising employee theft, purchasing, development and customer services leaders to find the points of impact and flexibility in order to make the changes necessary to stay alive. Changes that meet changing customer expectations and market demands in a troubled economy.