Tuesday Blog Topic: Content and Consistency –
Quote: “A pivot is a change in strategy, not vision…”
So, a month ago your restaurant was booking reunions, weddings, and evening dinners at the bar… now you’re shut down to anyone coming in your establishment?
What do you do?
If I had written this blog post 6 weeks ago, no one would have believed that we would see restaurants close to the public.
What is a restaurant? Food, right… it’s more than that… it’s people eating together and enjoying a meal.
So now what do you do? Close the doors or start a take out service?
That’s your choice… but how do you implement a change like this… I mean it’s a big change. This isn’t making hamburgers and changing vendors, this is an entirely different profit center.
How about a yoga studio that has always done in-person classes, and now you can’t… so you switch to live video – yet you’ve NEVER done a live feed.
YIKES
Both of these are business altering changes. And this is happening over and over and over. Our business is implementing an automated gas pump on our boat dock, a new program for our forklift service, and implementing online pay.
We are seeing changes EVERYWHERE!
When you see people stressed out right now, this entire disruption to slow paced change is shaking us to our core. Not only do we have uncertainty in health… we have uncertainty in when it ends… and how we make money… how we pay bills… all of the above.
Again, making a change such as the type of paper you use in your copy machine, doesn’t require these 5 steps… but these 5 steps should help guide you through the “bigger” changes.
1- Clearly define your change and align to business goal
Everything starts with your goal and aligning the change to fit. For example, the restaurant went into take out… the yoga studio went into live classes… these are not “far off” from the fundamental business. If the restaurant decided to start a lawn care business, that’s not in alignment with the core. Granted it might make money, but try to stay close to your core.
2- What’s the impact and who’s affected
So who is affected by this decision and HOW are they affected. Your yoga solution is easy… grab a camera and start filming. But what is the impact to your students? They will NOT receive the journey to your studio or the time spent in the special environment you create. Sure they get yoga, but you really need to stress the space they create. At your studio you may shelter them from the outside world, in their house their dog may be barking, their toddler crying, and the TV blaring in the next room… take time to consider the impact on the WHO is affected.
3- Communication strategy
How are you going to communicate your change? For me… it is email. It seems to be the most reliable and intimate way to explain our changes, however, I’ve got a lot more phone time happening. The thing I’m noticing from my conversations is that our customers are worried about the business and us. It’s heartwarming. But how you handle your communication is a valuable opportunity to strengthen the bond of your tribe…
4- Training Strategy
Training of BOTH employees (that might be you) and the training of your customers. Today my dad, who is Mayor of our town, participated in his first Zoom council meeting. Yes, he’s 81 and now can list Zoom as a skill. But the amazing part of this adventure was that the city staff made it an amazing transition for all 5 council members, they created a power point presentation of the agenda, they individually held a training session with each person, and inspired confidence in the process. They did not leave it up for chance – it was a wonderful process. Ask the question, how can you train your customers and yourself?
5- Measure
Listen for success. If you can’t measure it you can’t monitor it… so make sure you find the success signs. This could be the “likes” you receive, it will be the feedback from the emails, but most important it’s your customers showing up. I went to a local restaurant the other night and EVERY parking space was FULL. Sure, it’s the local drive-in restaurant… but in my entire life of living in this town, there was ONLY one time I’ve seen the drive in busier… and that was their 40th anniversary when hamburgers were $1.00. Last week, prices were full. What did they change? They actually opened their restaurant a month earlier than normal!
Pivot can be doing the exact same thing, just at an entirely different time.
Look at your business and dig in. Success is happening all around us.
#doingininfinity
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Infinity Marketing Machine Daily Topics:
Monday – Character (Subject Matter Expert)
Tuesday – Content & Consistency
Wednesday – Midweek Motivation
Thursday – Infinity Customers
Friday – Big Money
Saturday – Try This!
Sunday – Week in Review
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