STOP with all that copying behavior! In the shopping street, we see it far too many: windows and shops that are not distinguished from each other. And then complaining that more and more people are shopping online ...
If we want the consumer to continue to buy from us, we will have to provide value for that consumer. And in an environment that seduces, inspires and motivates. In order to do this, we will have to continuously develop new articles or services that stimulate consumers. We must activate and embrace innovation.
Many entrepreneurs, however, have fear to innovate. Do I have the right people on board to innovate? If such an innovation does not affect my target group, what kind of risks do I run? What will all these innovations cost? All these questions are recognizable and belong to a fixed mindset. We only look at potential problems in the final product. As mentioned in an article previously published, we must embrace the road to the final goal. Encourage learning of mistakes made. Work on a growth mindset.
In order to make this step, we will have to monitor everything, measure it first, in our strategy. Full spead ahead into a new, innovation-oriented strategy involves many major (financial) risks. To avoid this, we need a whole series of (somewhat smaller) pilots. Various deployment scenarios are used in these various pilots. By doing so, we are able to skipp the moderately performing pilots and focus only on those things that really work.
With the analyzes of the output of the well-functioning pilots, we can then look at how and where they fit into our business. 'To measure is to know' still applies! In developing the pilots, we must pay extra attention to scalability. And when measuring, we must pay particular attention to traction; how quickly it is embraced by the consumer. If we don’t, the pilots will not work. In larger organizations, we must also fase the scalability, in smaller organizations this does not matter.
Often we receive unsolicited customer feedback and we think we must defend our approach (our concept). At feedback, we automatically enter the resistance mode. Review and ask yourself where you want feedback. That makes listening to what people really want to contribute easier. Ask feedback and turn yourself into resistance to learning. The world is not makeable. So stop making master plans. Make it small and just do it. It does not matter if it's efficient, but it's effective! Efficiency depends on assumptions and that the world is makeable. But the world is not makeable and so you need to get into reality as soon as possible. Particularly attempting to experiment.
Only when you listen and act on your customers' feedback you can build a business model which will tempt the consumer to come to your store and continues to come!
