Operations and Lifetime Value of a Customer
An operations strategy is as good as a sales machine. If done well, it increases the lifetime value of a customer.
Even if you have a side gig, home based business, or a small family craft type business you will benefit from a good operations strategy.
What is an operations strategy?
An operations strategy is a process of how you do your work in a standardized, repetitive fashion. This guarantees that your customers will trust that if they buy something from you next time and the next time, the quality will be the same. Not only that. If you want to grow your business you will need to train your employees in your standard processes so that they get it right the first time and every time.
Is this a big deal?
Yes it is.
The reason is the lifetime value of a customer.
Build your product well. Deliver your service exactly correctly time after time. You will keep the customers coming back. It’s easier to sell to a repeat customer than it is to find and close a new customer.
Mess up once these days and you’ve probably lost that customer.
There are a few ways to ensure a good lifetime value of a customer. One of the best is to have well documented and well established procedures.
Simple steps:
- Write out your procedures. Or video them. Or prepare an audio explanation. Or prepare a set of photos that document step by step.
- Do an onboarding process with every new employee. Train them in the procedures. Watch over them. Correct them. Audit regularly.
- Guard these procedures. Consider copyrights, trademarks, or even patents, to protect your procedures and your secret sauce. File them in a secure place. Consider requiring your employees to sign an NDA, especially if you have complex, unique industrial processes.
- Love your customers enough to do it right every time. It will cut your error rate, reduce your “redo” costs, and boost your customer satisfaction score.
That’s why the business operations strategy is valuable!