Take some time out to think

 

Since setting up Simply Customer last year, I’ve learned more than I thought possible at my age. I spent 18 months planning the business, and believed that I had thought of everything. But that wasn’t the case!

I’ve made some mistakes and tried some things that I didn’t think would be successful that were. I’ve also talked to lots of advisers and entrepreneurs. And the most valuable piece of advice I got was to book some regular thinking time into my diary.

When you are running a business, it’s easy to become embroiled in the day to day operation. Looking for new customers, serving existing ones, networking and doing the paperwork! Having your head down like that is inevitable, and you need to do it a lot to get a business up and running.

But keeping your head down means that you start to miss the bigger picture. You start becoming reactive rather than proactive and you miss out on opportunities.

So I book time out every Friday. I have a business call with my partners to review the past week and the next week, then I have an hour of thinking time.

First, I review any customer feedback we’ve had – good and bad. I look at contracts we’ve won and especially any contracts we haven’t won to see what I can learn from them. Then I ask myself some key questions:

The key questions I ask myself are: Have we got closer to the type and size of business we want to be? What has worked well? What do we need to change? What do we need to stop or start doing?

It works for me – maybe it could work for you?

 

Keep in touch for regular advice and practical examples about customer experience.

Get in touch to see how we can help your business.

Ask an expert if you have a specific question about customer experience.