It’s all about having the right perspective

I came across this puzzle recently. On average, adults take 10 minutes to solve it – but primary school children take less than 30 seconds.

That’s because it’s simple – but, as adults, we tend to over complicate things. We spend a lot of time trying to work out the relationship between the numbers to get to the answer.

In this case, the answer is 87. How do you get to that? Well, the image is showing the car park from the business premises. If you turn the picture upside down you get the customer view – and the answer becomes obvious.

So, what does that have to do with customer service?

I’ve written before about the importance of understanding your customers and what they want. This puzzle shows that when you have the right perspective the answer becomes obvious.

So how do you do that? Being a business owner is a bit like being an adult. You know so much about your business and how it works that you look at any issues from a certain perspective.

But your customers are much more like children when thinking about your business.  They don’t have the level of knowledge that you have, so they see things in a much simpler way.

The best way to have the same perspective as your customers is to map their journeys. Those are all the business processes that they engage with from their point of view. Then you understand all the points that they touch and will find the small changes that can have a huge impact.

It’s also good to use someone who doesn’t have a detailed knowledge of your business. Then they see what the customer sees and think the same way.

That’s where we come in. We can help your business grow sales and profits through making small changes.

 

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