EPISODE 89 OF WHAT WOULD THEY DO? THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE PODCAST FOR SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS
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I’m a big believer in DIY. Sometimes doing the work yourself absolutely is the right decision.
But there’s an important difference between asking: “Can I do this myself?” and “Should I do this myself?”
Because DIY isn’t free.
In Part 3 of my Outside Perspective mini series, we’re wrapping things up by looking at when DIY makes sense, when you need to diagnose before you act, and when the problem has enough moving pieces that an outside perspective becomes particularly valuable.
And if you’re still not sure which camp you’re in, start with my free Customer Intelligence Gap Finder to diagnose your biggest customer intelligence gap and give you specific next steps based on your results.
What we cover:
The difference between “Can I DIY this?” and “Should I DIY this?”
The hidden costs of trying to solve every customer experience problem yourself
The three levels of business problems I look for
Why symptoms like low sales, poor engagement or declining retention need diagnosis before action
How one customer experience problem can create symptoms across your entire customer journey
Why pulling the wrong lever can make another problem worse
Soundbites:
“In business, there are three levels of problems: Level one is “I know the problem and what needs to be done to fix it.” Level two is “I know the symptom, but not the cause.” And level three basically happens when you have multiple symptoms across the business. This is where outside perspective becomes super, super valuable. And level two and three are my zones of genius.”
“Absolutely don’t hire me if you have clearly identified the problem, you have the evidence to back that up, you know what needs doing, and you have the capacity to implement it. If that’s you, you don’t need me. But if you’re now thinking something isn’t working and I don’t know why, or I have so much information that I can’t make sense of the many moving pieces, or you have tried fixing things, but you have a suspicion that you pulled the wrong levers and you addressed the wrong symptoms… well, that is my playground.”
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Episode Transcript:
Nadine (00:00)
Hey, hey, and welcome back to another episode of What Would They Do, the Customer Experience Podcast. As I start part three of the Outside Perspective mini series, I want to pick up where we left off last week. Tune in if you missed part one and part two.
I’m not against DIYing your customer intelligence strategy. Far from it. if you’ve been in my world for a while, you would know How obsessed I am with teaching you how to look at your intelligence strategically and identify the right patterns so you can make the right moves in your business.
Sometimes DIYing absolutely is the right decision. And I love supporting clever business owners who want to do the work themselves, get their head around how to do it strategically, and then take it from there. I do that on a regular basis inside the intensive. But can I do this myself? And should I do this myself are completely different questions.
Getting this question wrong can cost you in time because if you go down a rabbit hole because of something one member told you once.
you can literally spend weeks and weeks and weeks investigating something that is a one-off problem and a member problem. It can cost you an opportunity because what didn’t happen while you were working on this information gap can lead to missed out speaking opportunities, customers, landed projects, you name it.
it can cost you in objectivity because you are still diagnosing your own business from the inside out with proximity. That is still the main issue. It can also cost you in wrong turns and wrong decisions, which is really the biggest cost factor here because you could successfully
Fix the wrong thing and cause even more headaches. I touched on that in part one of this mini-series. See, in business, there are really three levels of problems from my perspective. Level one is I know the problem and what needs to be done to fix it, which then calls for DIY, right? you know the problem, you know what needs doing.
Go and fix it. Level two is I know the symptom, but not the cause, So it could be that my client pipeline is somewhat empty. I need more sales. It could be people in my membership just aren’t engaging. What am I gonna do? It could be customers are buying from me once but then they ghost, they never buy again.
This level needs a diagnosis before you can fix the problem and the symptoms. Level three basically happens when you have multiple symptoms across the business.
It could be how you get people into your membership affecting the need for onboarding. Then the onboarding and your strategy when it comes to welcoming people into your membership could affect the engagement or the lack thereof.
The lack of engagement then affects your retention because people cancel. And people canceling affects your referral rates because people who leave your membership often don’t refer your membership to other people.
addressing one symptom in this situation here without looking at the bigger picture of your customer journey, how people come into your world, what they need to see success, how they remain engaged in your membership, and how you can make sure they don’t cancel and refer you becomes really dangerous because.
You could pull the wrong lever, which then breaks something else and makes another symptom even worse. So this is where outside perspective becomes super, super valuable because you’re removing the proximity to all those moving pieces, to your customers, to your offer, to the way you have designed your membership. And level two and three are my zons of.
Genius because I love to investigate and look at what’s actually happening. I love to listen to what your customers are saying and doing. I’m a data nerd. I love, love, love a strategic customer survey, particularly if you’ve never surveyed your customers. I love to connect the many moving pieces. my Clifton strength are super, super geared to futuristics of picturing how things fit together, strategic.
I
live in this world connecting the pieces and finding the patterns, often patterns that you have struggled to identify for years. And I love to help you prioritize because, looking at pieces in the right order is critical to that bigger ecosystem and not pulling the wrong levers and addressing the wrong symptoms at the wrong time.
But before you now go off and check out my offers if this resonates with you, Here’s one caveat. Absolutely don’t hire me if you have clearly identified the problem. You have the evidence to back that up. you know what needs doing, and you have the capacity to implement it. If that’s you.
You don’t need me. You have everything to take action, address the right symptoms in the right order and make it happen. But if you’re now thinking something isn’t working and I don’t know why, or I have so much information that I can’t make sense of the many moving pieces. I don’t know what it’s telling me. Or you have tried fixing things, but you have a suspicion that you pulled the wrong levers and you addressed the wrong symptoms.
Well, that is my playground. we can do it together in the incubator.
or you can have me do it for you as part of my Done For You services. And if you’re now wondering which camp you are currently in, I highly recommend starting with my free customer intelligence gap finder. If you’ve listened to part one and two of this mini-series, chances are you already know your gap. If not, here’s a quick recap. This free tool diagnoses your biggest gap and gives you immediate action steps to take.
from here, specific to your diagnosis. and if your results make you realize this is bigger than one missing survey or one conversation with your customers that you should have had. let’s chat.
And with that, we return to regular programming next week.
thanks for tuning in and hopefully this three week journey has helped you work out where you need to get started on your very unique customer intelligence journey. I’ll be back in your airports next week.
