When you first launch a business, your primary goal is to establish your brand image and use it to grow. This is a long and complex process that requires hard work, patience and attention to detail. It’s important to remember to value and nurture your existing business while you focus on growth. Let’s explore a few methods businesses are using to support their business while they focus on growth and development.
1. Get to know your customers
When you first identified your target market to develop a business plan, you looked carefully at what customers needed and wanted, and then you found a way to create or supply it. It’s important to stay in close contact with your customers to track their changing needs. Surveys, reviews or direct customer service communications are great ways to gauge future customer needs, and get ahead of them. Remember, it’s easier and less expensive to keep existing customers than to make new ones. Don’t leave your existing or loyal customers behind to focus on creating new ones!
2. Utilize a customer management system
A customer management system eliminates the need to manually track customer transactions, eliminating wasted time and human error. There are many customer management systems to choose from, both open source and software for purchase. Consider implementing cloud-based software to streamline the accounting, billing or shipping processes, and free up staff for more productive tasks and projects.
3. Identify new opportunities
A growing business must identify new opportunities to continue their upward trajectory. As you expand, you will discover many areas of the business that could use some new energy. Many businesses choose to revamp their shipping methods, using shipping warehouse to get products closer to the customer. This results in faster delivery times and a smaller eco-footprint, eliminating the need for many trucks to drive long distances, to deliver customer products from centralized warehouses.
4. Offer great customer service
Offering great customer service might be the most important element of growth for any business. A Microsoft survey determined that a full 90% of Americans use customer service experience as an indicator when determining whether to do business with a company. It can be no surprise that almost as many customers will decide to make a purchase based on an excellent customer service experience. Focus on optimizing your customer service functions, using scripts, regular training and regular reviews to keep your customer service reps in top form, or make use of an outsourced call service for their years of experience and excellent call center technology.
5. Form strategic partnerships
Use data to determine markets where your product or service will be successful, and for strategic partnerships with companies who offer complementary services, or work with your swatch of customers already. Forming partnerships with the right businesses will be mutually beneficial for both businesses, making use of email lists and marketing opportunities to advertise both companies. Successful strategic partnerships have been responsible for launching some of the world’s most successful brands, like Beats by Dre and Apple have worked together to corner the wireless headphone market.
6. Give back to your community
Giving back to your community is a great way to get your name and brand out there, and associate your business with a positive brand image. Consider sponsoring a local event, or give employees paid time off to participate with local charities. Some enterprises even organize group volunteering trips, building comradery and helping potential future customers at the same time.
7. Measure what works and refine your approach as you go
You must continuously measure and track successes and failures as you go, and refine your processes as needed. Without these metrics, it’s very difficult to tell when an idea is really taking off and resonating with customers. Start by setting clear organizational goals, killing or setting aside projects that won’t help you achieve them. Train your staff to look for opportunities to refine your processes, and get complete buy-in and a sense of ownership in the project and the company's success.
Finding the right growth strategy for your business will be a series of trials and errors. Start by picking one or two ideas that have proven successful for your business, or your competition in the past, and create a new business plan based on this strategy. Focusing on these elements will ensure that your business is supported while you focus on future growth potential.