Customer experience is one area the forum is very passionate about. It goes hand in glove with Digital Marketing. If you read our 20018 debut book then you should be aware of Chapter 5 dedicated to the topic. In our latest Digital Marketing Book, we opened the book with staging experiences.

Let’s look at a few case studies of practical customer experiences:

Case Study 1

In 2017 the author attended a funeral in Tandi Rusape.  Upon arrival in the evening took a few relatives to a shopping centre across Mhezi River. A sleepy place with little going on and we identified a butchery where we bough meat, tomatoes and cucumbers. We purchased a few drinks from shops across the road and did set up our own braai.

What started as a small event soon snowballed into a massive experience as passing motorists upon seeing the braai going on stopped and joined in. Kombi drivers heading to the last stop in Chitsva joined us and within 2 hours we had a large gathering of us, passing motorists and villagers.

Villagers selling rabbit meat also joined in the braai experience sharing village stories of farming, hunting and other social issues. Our team had urban stories including entrepreneurship.

The butchery owner was surprised to learn of the massive potential she possessed as she ran out of meat. Bottle store owners across the road could not believe that all action had diverted to the small butchery which had never run out of meat in ages.

Case Study 2

When we toured Beira in October, we decided to save on accommodation by looking for cheap accommodation in Dondo about 40km from Beira. Accomodation was US$8/room and it was not really bad as it had basics.

If you have ever travelled along the Machipanda-Beira Road, you should be aware of the Tongaat Hullet turnoff and at the turnoff there is a restaurant pub or banca. The 3 of us did light up the place in the 3 days we were in Mozambique.

Frelimo supporters coming from a rally in Beira ended up congregating at the place and on the last day, they closed at 4:00am instead of the usual 9:00pm. We staged memorable experiences and resulted in a lot of contacts with  some promising us access to land!

Case Study 3

Our meeting in February at Leisure Centre in Chitungwiza had the biggest gathering of entrepreneurs in Zimbabwe. We did not have one place presenting but a diverse team tackling various topics such as bus transport, crowdfarming, real estate, regional opportunities and more.  The presenters staged experiences and it paid off. The after meeting had more memorable experiences and networking.

We repeated the concept with the March Meeting at Capitalk Gardens were an even greater number of forum members attended. Sadly the Covid-19 shutdown affected our plans but one thing is apparent…the forum can attract thousands of members through staging memorable experiences!

Incorporating experiences in your business

-Have you been to National Tyres in Harare recently? Their headquarters situated in Graniteside now has a fabulous fitting centre where clients rest whilst watching television whilst their vehicles have tyres fitted.

– Have you witnessed Mambos Chicken Ads? How do they factor in experiences?

-Did you read our feature of Thailand customer experiences?

-Did you know the doctor’s waiting room ensures you do not get bored whilst the doctor is busy with other clients?

-Why does Mai Chisamba show include audience participation?

-Why does Millinier Properties include videos in their adverts?

One for the road

There is customer service which we are all aware of but this is elementary. The advanced series include customer experiences and this is still an alien concept in Zimbabwe. Those who master it will have a headway and this explains why we are passionate about it. It is a little known concept and yet creates and sustains your business.

One can just start a business today-stage experiences and carve out a niche market for themselves. The good thing is customer experiences do not cost an arm and a leg….its just a mindset, its is a culture done on a consistent basis. Clients keep coming and they also refer others when they experience exceptional experiences.

To those who got a Digital Marketing Book, the good news is we are compiling a book on Customer Experiences and its coming free of charge. Add customer experiences on top of the digital marketing skills and we will be confident of having created winners.

We have started compiling the easy to read and apply book and will share the good news in 2 weeks time.

When it comes to financial reports review or analysis, many focus on budget vs actual performance.

Did we make a profit? How does it compare against the budget?

If you are a bit advanced, how is our profit compared to competitors?

The balance sheet growth, the cashflows etc

So financial statements tell you how good you are performing? Do they tell the full picture?

Of course there have been attempts to get a balanced picture such as the use of performance metrics in other areas or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and The Balanced Scorecard.

But how often are these measures used by small businesses?

Welcome to the world of lost business or hidden costs.

Self Assessment

1. How much money did you lose due to the absence of a Digital Strategy?
2. How much did you lose due to non disclosure of prices on your ads?
3. How much money did you lose due to extortionate pricing?
4. How much money did you lose due to bad  customer experiences?
5. How much money did you lose due to customer inconveniences?
6. How much money did you lose due to insistence on USD payments?
7. How much money did you lose by not hiring experts?
8. How much money did you lose due to high employee turnover?
9. How much money did you lose by using obsolete machinery?
10. How much money did you lose due to non registration of your business?
11. How much money did you lose by not partnering with others?

What you don’t know doesn’t hurt right? Well not so true….you will eventually encounter problems and many often regret when it’s too late.

The focus is often times centred on selling, selling, replenishing stock and selling. If the income comes in then we are fine BUT we never think of lost opportunities because most of them are invisible.

If a potential client searches for your business online and they don’t find you…no official record is registered in your books!

If you post an ad with no prices, no one comes to you to complain!

Perhaps you can record the number of clients who inquire about your products and services intending to use Ecocash and when you insist on cash, they walk out of the door?

How do you track the number of clients lost due to your employees being rude to clients?

Difficult world

When reviewing performance, focus on what is measurable –analyse for decision making but also PAUSE and reflect. What is the value of lost business? How do you measure it? What actions are you taking to recover potential lost business?

With most entrepreneurs not fully appreciating the value of financial experts, the results is you have to be a CEO, HR Manager, Marketing Manager, Finance Director, Production Director at the same time! Too many skills demanded at the same time and honestly no one can possess all of these skills at the same time.

This is why most start-ups fold within 6 months and for those that ride the wave, less than 15% remain standing on both feet at the end of 5 years!

So during the extra 2 weeks of the lockdown, take a pen and a paper and calculate the value of lost business—create a corrective plan and implement it as soon as yesterday.