Why aren’t they your customers?
In a recent Wall Street Journal article,
management guru Peter Drucker talks about the importance of
understanding the outside influences that drive the success of
companies.
To paraphrase Mr. Drucker, the owner,
president or CEO of a company is the link between the inside
and the outside of all organizations. The inside of the
business is very familiar: the employees, equipment, garments
and all those bills that must be paid every month. The outside
of the business consists of the economy, society, technology,
customers and markets.
 | ||
A great deal of important market
information is being neglected by even some of the largest
corporations. Why? Because the top executives have not been
able to define which data is important and how to organize the
data into meaningful management tools.
One of Mr. Drucker’s statements on
this subject made me realize how isolated our industry is when
it comes to understanding what motivates consumers.
According to Mr. Drucker: “Every
major maker of branded consumer goods knows that few things are
as important as the values and the behavior of that great
majority of consumers who are not buyers of the company’s
products, and especially information on major changes in the
non-customers’ values and habits. The data are largely
available. But few companies have so far converted them to
organized information on which to base their
decisions.”
Mr. Drucker says it is primarily the owner
who needs this information and whose job it is to organize
getting it.
Mr. Drucker’s insight about the need
to know where your non-customers are spending their money and
why many affluent people never use the services of a drycleaner
have huge implications for you, me and the industry as a whole.
In 2002, a group of drycleaners and other
industry representatives underwrote and published a study of
heavy drycleaning users. According to this report, phone calls
were made to “upper-income” zip codes nationwide.
Only sixteen percent of the people they talked to said they had
been to a drycleaner in the past two weeks.
The focus of this study was to gather
information from heavy users. But what about the other 84 out
of 100 people this study missed completely? Why are 84 percent
of the people who live in upper-income zip codes not going to a
drycleaner on a regular basis? Where are their disposable
dollars going? This question brings us to Mr. Drucker’s
next question: “Who are your competitors?”
Most organizations view their competitors
as the other organizations in their industry. Toymakers see
their competitors as other toymakers, drycleaners see their
competitors as other drycleaners, etc. Actually, the most
meaningful competitors for you are not other drycleaners but,
according to Mr. Drucker, “other claimants on your
potential customers’ disposable dollars.”
Therefore, the most meaningful information
about your “outside” is what value your services
present to the potential buyer. Consequently, non-customer
research (that other 84 percent) is more important than
customer research.
This leads to the next question: Who has
the time to research/ interview this great majority of
consumers — those non-customers of drycleaning services?
Keep in mind, the business owner is the link to the
company’s “outside”. Therefore, you cannot
afford to wait for someone else to do the research for you.
In every company there are far more tasks
to do than there are people to do them. Also, there is constant
pressure on the owner to do a little bit of everything.
Although this might make all the employees
happy, it guarantees there will be no results. As the top
executive, your most critical and difficult job is to say
“No!” You must delegate more of the inside tasks to
others and invest more time on the outside.
To link to the outside you must connect to
the outside. The first step is for the owner to decide that the
company will commit the necessary resources (people) to achieve
this goal. The owner is the only one who can make this decision
and the owner is also the only one who can decide what
information is of value and where to get it.
As president/owner of your drycleaning
business, you may belong to the local Chamber of Commerce,
Rotary Club, etc. If you don’t, it’s time to join!
Next, put your membership to work for you. Start by drilling
for information. People love to talk about themselves.
Ask non-drycleaning consumers why they
don’t use a drycleaner. The membership of these
organizations is made up of business people who are the bread
and butter of this industry. You will learn from them and you
can also educate them about why professional cleaning is
necessary and worthwhile.
With all our technology the most important
segment of your business remains understanding what makes
people tick. As Peter Drucker says, you (the owner) need this
information about consumers who are non-customers and it is
your duty to get this “outside” information and
organize and use it.all!
In the game of business the more you know
the better you can play the game.
Alan Robson is a private consultant
dealing with the specialized needs of the drycleaning industry.
Contact him by telephone at (941) 408-8819 or send e-mail to
him at: alan@bizbuilderonline.com or visit the Biz Builder web site: www.bizbuilderonline.com.
 |
