Most of our top priorities for the first half of the year have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic but we managed to achieve a few such as;

1. Book Publications: We managed to publish our eagerly awaited 2020 Business Opportunities for Zimbabweans and launched it at Capitalk Gardens in Harare. We also got an opportunity to showcase the book on the national TV. The South Africa Business Opportunities Book also came with the Digital Marketing Book being the third one.
2. ZBIN TV: We launched our small Youtube TV Network and managed to feature a couple of our members.
3. Monthly meetings: We started holding monthly meetings with 2 in Harare and a similar number in South Africa. Well attended meetings attracting a total of 400 members in Harare and 26 in South Africa.
4. Partnerships: We partnered with Capitalk Radio for the use of their premises for our meetings and feature of our members on radio.
5. ZBIN RIDE: We launched the ZBIN Ride which helps our members to share rides and send parcels at preferable rates
6. Digital Marketing Training:We conducted a Digital Marketing Training for 700 members during the Covid-19 lockdown

Top Priorities for the next 6 months

1. Funding for members: We have been approached by a leading bank interested in funding  our members involved in agricultural activities and we are currently compiling a list
2. Crowdfunding Initiatives: We will ramp up crowdfunding initiatives targeting at least 5 successful projects
3. Women’s Forum: We were supposed to launch a women’s forum in April 2020 but due to Covid-19, we will push it to the later part of the year
4. Forum Tours: We will be conducting at least 2 tours during the last quarter of the year with provisional destinations being Nyanga or Mtoko
5. Telegram Account: As of 1 June 2020, our Zimbabwe forum has 70,000 members and our RSA forum 90,000. Our forum views per month up to 700,000. We have created a Telegram account with a target of 20,000 members by end of year
6. Monthly Meetings: We created suburb specific groups for Bulawayo, Chinhoyi, Bindura, Marondera, Norton, Chitungwiza, Beitbridge, Namibia, Zambia, Botswana, South Africa and various Harare groups. The objective is to have these areas conducting monthly meetings and fairs after the lockdown with a target of a total of 10,000 of our members attending by end of the year
7. More Virtual Classes: We will be conducting more online trainings and meetings online through platforms such as Zoom

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.