Do you really know what your Customer wants/needs?
Are you 100% sure?
Do you sell something other than Kaftans?
Does One-Size really fit all?
Please indulge me for a minute while I share a quick story…
Last weekend while on my traditional fresh food market shopping spree I bought a handful of Italian sausages from a local butcher. We got into a chat and he shared with me a conversation he’d recently had with another of his local customers. In this case, the owner of a local pizzeria who was also a connoisseur of his Italian sausages, but to the tune of 20kg of the spicy specimens each and every week.
The story goes that my recently befriended purveyor of all things bovine had inquired of the the Pizza shop owner how those 20 kilos of Italy’s finest snags were served on his menu?
- Maybe, with a spicy Italian sauce on a bed of mash, and a fresh crisp mediterranean salad?
- Possibly with a serving of grilled polenta and some duck fat wedges accompanied by a medley of roasted zucchini and carrots with a hint of garlic and rosemary?
Nope. The Pizzeria man replied. “None of that”, he said.
He shared that each week he stands for 3 hours and squeezes every ounce of the brilliantly blended chorizo infused concoction out of those sausage casings so that little marbles of pepperoni, parsley, pepper, and prosciutto can adorn his famous Spicy Italian Pizza!
“The Butcher Stood with a stunned and aghast look on his face at the answer”
He replied to the Pizza Man, ‘Mate, are you fair dinkum?.. The Butcher went on with his voice almost trembling in despair, rhetorically echoing the Pizza Man’s statement back at him… “Mate are you really telling me that you spend 3 hours each week squeezing the meat out of my sausage skins?”
“Still in shock, the Butcher continued in despair”
“Mate, I spend 3 hours each week shoving 20kg of Italian sausage meat into those bloody sausage skins!”
Silence fell across their conversation for a minute, til the Butcher said, ‘Would life be easier for you if I just made 20 kilos of sausage meat for you every week and not put that meat into the skins? It’d save me 3 hours and it seems it’d save you 3 hours too?
I’ll repeat my opening question…
Do you really know what your Customer wants/needs?
Are you 100% sure?
One of my current presentations to conferences, offices and consulting clients revolves around the 4 consumer trends of Speed – Simplicity – Personalisation and Transparency.
- Speed – What are you doing to make your ‘boat’ go faster?
- Simplicity – Do your processes make you easy to do business with?
- Personalisation – Is your customer journey dictated by how you want to do business or how they want to do business? Do you nurture customer relationships or are they just a number?
- Transparency – In a world where societies cynicism is growing and we’re seeing a lack of trust in governments and corporations, are your processes transparent? Do your customers (and people) truly believe your business is 100% transparent in all that you do?
Or are you still thinking about sausages?…
Let’s chat. Peter Brewer – 0417630962 peter@peterthatpeterbrewer-com
