CX Demo

Author: Franz Malten Buemann

  • I Couldn’t Afford My First Employee, But Hiring Her Helped Me Grow a Million-Dollar Business

    Like many small business owners, I launched my boutique as a one-woman show. The Flourish Market was just a fashion truck at the time, so it was manageable for me—and eventually some hourly staff—to take it to events, ship online orders, and market the burgeoning business.When we opened our first brick-and-mortar store 13 months later, everything changed. Suddenly, someone needed to be present at the storefront six days a week, on top of keeping things running behind the scenes. I was being pulled in a thousand directions and barely had time to do the basic tasks that would keep my business running, let alone the strategic work to help it grow. I had reached a sticking point where the only two ways to move my business forward would be to hire someone to free up my time, or to magically add more hours to my day. Since I am not a wizard, it would have to be hiring. And I didn’t want to just keep relying on hourly staff, either—I wanted an experienced store manager who could take the mental burden of day-to-day operations off my plate. When I looked at our revenue at the time (just over $300,000), I could only afford about three months of payroll for a full-time store manager given other costs—but I decided to take the leap and hire a salaried employee anyway. Let me tell you, it was terrifying. I was paying her more than I was even paying myself. I was worried we would run out of money before I knew it, and that I would end up a failed business owner.Instead, we more than tripled our revenue within that year—more than enough to pay her salary, to grow mine to where it really needed to be, and to put away some savings for the business. Since then, I’ve found the biggest gains in my business happen when I invest in bringing on help, even when it feels like a bit of a stretch.Here’s why that hire paid off so much, how I ensured I was making the most of my newfound time, and how I now recommend other business owners think about growing their teams.It Was an Investment in the Future of My BusinessI find that the majority of business owners pick option number two when they’re feeling stretched too thin—they try to magically add more hours to their day. That’s usually what’s talked about in entrepreneurship: Are you willing to put in the work? Are you willing to hustle hard enough?The question I like to ask at that point is: At what expense? Beyond the mental health implications of working yourself into the ground (more on that in a minute), I don’t think this approach will ever lead to true scalability because there’s only so much you can do on your own.The mental shift that really helped me was this: Instead of thinking about my new employee as a cost, I started thinking about her as an investment. I always tell my coaching clients now that, if you’re hiring the right person, they should make you money, not cost you money. I learned this from experience when hiring my first salaried employee. For starters, she quickly made up for her salary (and then some) by bringing in retail expertise that helped the store run more efficiently and increase our sales. On top of that, she opened up my time to spend on strategic tasks that would grow the business’ bottom line and impact.Now, anytime I’m hiring someone new, I ask myself what value they can add instead of what cost. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Emily Grey (@emilygreyunderway) It Motivated Me to Spend Time on Higher-Value WorkTaking the risk of bringing on a salaried employee before I felt ready really lit a fire under my butt to work on my business instead of in my business—to do the work that wouldn’t just sustain the business but that would grow it to the next level. I had put a lot of these tasks on the backburner, partially for lack of time and partially out of fear that they wouldn’t work out. But I told myself that, if I hired this person, I had to start investing my time more wisely. I started to think about every task I was doing in terms of the value it was bringing back into the business. There was the $10 per hour work (shipping orders, working the register, administrative tasks) that should be done by hourly staff (who, by the way, we pay more than $10 per hour—that’s just a useful number for this mental exercise). There was the $100 per hour work (styling customers, merchandising the store, tracking best selling items through inventory reports) that should be on my new employee’s plate. Where I needed to be investing the bulk of my time was in the $1,000 and $10,000 per hour work. This is the stuff that isn’t just focusing on bringing in one transaction but is paving the way for many transactions: Pitching press to get our name out there, improving our marketing strategy, making strategic connections in my city, spinning up new revenue streams (like the coworking space we launched to make use of extra space in our store). I still wanted to stay connected to my customers, so I committed to spending 10 hours a week working in the store. But, I challenged myself to spend the remaining 30 hours only on those high-value tasks. This approach was game-changing for taking my business to the next level: Less than a year later, we had hit the $1 million revenue mark.Thinking of how I spend my time in terms of value is now a cornerstone of how I run my business. Each quarter, I do a time audit by tracking every hour of my time for a two week period, and I work to offload any low-value tasks I’m holding onto. I now have my team do the same, which helps us build the job description of who we need to hire next to open up everyone’s time to have more impact on the business.It Was Necessary for My Mental HealthAs business owners, we carry so much. There’s obviously the never-ending list of what needs to get done (which, as I mentioned above, is important to get support on so we have time for loved ones and fun and other things that contribute to our wellbeing). But there’s also the heaviness of wondering: Will my business succeed? Will I be able to take care of my employees and my contractors? Will I end up in a puddle of shame because my business fails?Before I hired my full-time employee, I felt like I was running on a hamster wheel trying to keep up, and the weight of worrying about my success was making it harder and harder. I’ve always found that the best way to fight overwhelm and fear is by taking action, and by offloading the day-to-day tasks to someone and putting myself in motion on strategic tasks, I felt more empowered to create the success I envisioned.Bringing on team members is ultimately about investing in spaciousness. The space to take care of yourself so you can show up fully in your work, the space to dream up new ideas, and the space to actually implement them: That’s what unlocks the next level of growth. We just celebrated seven years in business, and I’m now surrounded by a team of 22, including five salaried employees. Taking the scary leap to invest in someone new never gets easier, but it’s been worth it every time. Not only has it consistently helped me take my business to new heights, but I get the joy and fulfillment of doing it alongside others. View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Flourish Market (@theflourishmarket)

  • CX vs. UX: the complete comparison

    Have you ever been confused with the concepts of customer experience and user experience, thinking they are the same? For most, it’s still unclear what’s the difference between the two terms. While UX is about digital product usability, CX is about how the customer feels about the brand throughout the whole customer journey. It’s what closes out conversions and drives long-term loyalty. What is user experience? In 1995, Don Norman coined the term user experience%20is%20a,computer%20interaction%20and%20product%20ownership.) to describe the activities his team was engaged in at Apple Computers. Eventually, the term UX has taken a more limited interpretation in practice. A user’s interaction with a specific digital product, such as a website, app, or software. It focuses on the digital interface regarding utility, usability, navigation, information architecture, ease of use, and visual hierarchy. The key UX metrics are: Success rate: The percentage of correctly completed tasks by the users. It’s about how effectively users are able to reach the goal that you want them to reach. For example, ten users attempted to register on the platform: eight of them succeeded and two of them failed. You need to find out why these two failed. The higher the success rate, the better the UX. Error rate: The number of mistakes the user makes when interacting with the product. It gives an idea of how user-friendly and intuitive your product is. The higher the error rate, the more problems with usability. Abandonment rate: The percentage of users who abandoned the task before completing it. The reasons for abandonment may be different: from struggling with complicated navigation to forcing users to update their software. Completion time: The amount of time a user needs to complete the task. The shorter the processing time. The better the user experience. Clicks to completion: The amount of time it takes the user to complete the task. UX is an inevitable part of the CX. To put it another way, UX is the experience your users have with your product, whereas CX is the experience they have with the entire brand. What is customer experience? On the other hand, customer experience has a broader meaning. CX describes a larger experience a user has with an organization. It’s an umbrella concept that encompasses the way customers perceive your brand and feel when interacting with it across every stage of the customer journey. Above all, CX is the sum of all touchpoints, interactions, and engagements that a customer has with a brand and a product throughout the life of a customer relationship. The customer experience metrics help you understand how loyal and satisfied the customers are with your brand. Customer experience is measured with metrics like: Net Promoter Score (NPS): The gold standard customer experience metric. It stands for the willingness of the customer to recommend your company and product to others. Customer Satisfaction (CSAT): Measures customer satisfaction level with a product and the entire interaction with a company. Customer Effort Score (CES): The metric that measures how easy it was for a user to interact with a product or service (solving an issue, finding the information, signing up, etc.). Why is UX important for your business? User experience optimization across all platforms and devices has become a basic rule for any digital product development. No matter how fancy your product might be, if your users don’t know how to navigate and use it, they won’t come back. In the hearts and minds of humans, no feature or benefit will ever outweigh usability. In fact, you have only seconds to capture users’ attention and keep them. The UX connects your users with your products and increases brand loyalty. UX design is focused on research, analysis, and testing, and because of that, these risks can be reduced. In addition, investing in a good UX design can help improve SEO rankings. Why is CX important for your business? Customer experience isn’t a buzzword. It relates to customer satisfaction and their willingness to pay for a particular product. In other words, the more satisfied customers are, the more likely they are to stay loyal, become your brand advocates, and recommend your product to their friends. We live in an experience-brand economy. Today customers are buying not just products. They buy brands that can transform their lives. Now more than ever, companies should rethink their processes and deliver an exceptional customer experience so that their customers come back. Spotify & Netflix: customer obsession To dilute the theoretical part of the differences between CX & UX, let’s look at the example of the biggest digital music service Spotify. At the heart of Spotify’s customer experience strategy is delivering a tailored listening experience to the users. One of the wizards behind Spotify is user researchers who work together to understand what users are doing and why. Spotify is considered to be among the top customer-obsessed brands. They continually work on uncovering customer insights to improve their entire experience. Spotify’s approach to the customer experience is multifaceted. First of all, the onboarding process is fast and clear. Spotify makes it easy for users to collaborate on playlists, share music, follow friends, and check their music preferences. By using prediction models and data analytics, Spotify offers simple suggestions like “Your Daily Mix” or “Discover Weekly,” thus introducing each user personalized playlists. No surprise, the next example that I’d like to mention is our favorite Netflix. A lot has been written about their approach to creating a personalized experience. Netflix managed to develop cutting-edge algorithms. These algorithms allow them to serve content that caters to the users’ tastes and preferences. This level of personalization is what makes users come back for more. No doubt that Netflix is an industry giant with a great staff, including data scientists. Not every business can afford such a level of customer experience approach. But what each business, no matter small or big, can learn from Netflix is being customer-centric and delivering a great experience with every interaction. Data informs every decision they make at Netflix. It begins with data collection. Ensure you collect data points across all customer touchpoints. This includes complaints, support requests, transactions, social media, and customer feedback. Netflix has turned customer engagement into a science. They’ve prioritized learning who their customers are and how to reach them. ​ You can make real decisions based on user feedback and proper requirements development for your product. If you want to learn more about developing a product based on customer insights, check out the CX-aware solutions development approach. submitted by /u/joe_dojo [link] [comments]

  • Salesforce Admin Salary Guide 2022/23

    Salesforce Admin salaries are a hot topic. The steady demand for Salesforce Administrators and the growing Salesforce economy means that these professionals find themselves in a good position. How much do Salesforce Admins make? Read on to find entry-level Salesforce Admin salaries and senior Salesforce… Read More

  • Why Should I Choose a HR Solution on Salesforce?

    HR sits on a gold mine of data. Its many responsibilities including recruitment, onboarding, absence management, employee feedback, and expenses – it provides a host of valuable information. However, it often goes unused. What if this data was used to get a better understanding of… Read More

  • What’s the best “All In One” platform or app to use for building landing pages, email marketing, building sales funnels, etc.?

    One that doesn’t break the bank as well. submitted by /u/TheBossLady22 [link] [comments]

  • Some insights about mother slave methods?

    submitted by /u/un12gh [link] [comments]

  • 4 D Chess

    Perhaps that super-genius is playing a very well-thought-out long game, anticipating every countermove with plenty of resources and alternatives at hand.

    It might be the local business you’re competing with, the publisher you hope to work with or the general of the opposing army.

    It’s easy to imagine that they have a view of the competitive landscape that escapes ordinary humans.

    But it’s far more likely that they’re simply winging it.

    In the early stages of a campaign, winging it is a form of poking the box. A chance to try new approaches to see how the system responds.

    But if we confuse a policy of winging it with a long-term strategy of well-planned, strategic 4-D chess, it’s not going to end well. Because winging it doesn’t stay resilient at scale.

  • Check the link if you like this photo

    https://laszlopics.picfair.com You can have any picture from here 🙂 submitted by /u/ValueGlittering2764 [link] [comments]

  • You left out the all caps part

    If you see a set of rules that don’t make sense, that are overly stern, that seemed designed to be offputting instead of helpful, it’s possible that the poster is leaving part of the memo unsaid:

    It could be something like:

    THE LAST CUSTOMER WAS UNFAIR AND UNKIND!

    And so the list of rules to make sure that this never happens again, even if the next customer isn’t like that at all.

    Or:

    WE’RE STILL REELING FROM THE UNEXPECTED THING THAT IS PROBABLY NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN AGAIN, BUT ONE WAY TO DEAL WITH THE TRAUMA IS TO ERECT SIGNIFICANT BARRIERS SO WE’RE SURE IT WON’T HAPPEN AGAIN.

    Or:

    WE GOT INTO THIS BUSINESS BECAUSE WE THOUGHT WE LOVED BOOKS AND THE PEOPLE WHO BUY THEM, BUT THE REAL REASON IS THAT WE MISTAKENLY THOUGHT WE COULD MAKE A GOOD LIVING WITHOUT ANNOYING PEOPLE BOTHERING US! ESPECIALLY CUSTOMERS AND PEOPLE WHO CAN BRING US CUSTOMERS.

    THIS IS MUCH HARDER THAN WE THOUGHT, AND WELL, MAYBE IF WE MAKE A LOT OF RULES, PEOPLE WILL LEAVE US ALONE.

    You certainly don’t have to put the all caps part in when you publish your rules, but it might be helpful to write it out to be sure it’s what you really want to be implying.

  • Understanding the Benefits of CRM Software for Shopify Stores

    submitted by /u/Proof_Assistance_824 [link] [comments]