Ride the Bus

As part of my profession and my own love of reading and knowledge, I read several newspapers (including the Wall Street journal) daily as well as a multitude of business periodicals (averaging two or more daily). In between, I do find the occasional time to read a business book. Of the hundreds of such books I have read, I have just finished one that has really influenced my thoughts and one of whose main points I must share with you, my captive audience.

Selling to Eskimos, is a book by the former general manager of both the Portland Trailblazers and the New Jersey Nets. It could have very well been an autographical story of the great basketball stars and battles he had seen as a GM. But it is written as a handbook of great marketing principles. In it, he indicates during a typical game (of which he had to buy his own tickets), he did not sit in the luxury boxes nor in the first row with the team but in the “nosebleed” section, where the average fan sits. He stands in line for refreshments like any other fan. He does this so he can experience the game, the entire sporting event experience, from the perspective of the average fan, listen to their comments, see what they like and don’t like. When the Nets game became so crowded, they had to park fans in the distant lots, he arranged for vans to shuttle the fans to the stadium and back, and in his normal business habit, rode the bus himself to check out the conditions Although anecdotal and not as statistically significant as a true marketing research random survey, he learned quite a lot about the fans, what they wanted, what irked them, and what to do to streamline the process to make the entire experience more enjoyable for the average fan.

Ride the Bus. Check out your business from the typical customer’s point-of-view. Many larger stores have secret shoppers that perform that function. Sam Walton used to drive to many stores a day and observe both customers and employees. Multi-billionaire as he was, he could have stayed in the ivory tower and received carefully written market research reports discussing customer satisfaction and other marketing data. But he (and many other successful entrepreneurs) wanted and needed that first-hand customer interaction.

How do customers view your business? What kind of treatment are they getting from employees, from retail clerks, from support staff? What types of hurdles are you making them perform to receive the product or service you offer? You may not believe there is a problem and everything is functioning perfectly but what do the customers’ perceive? The old Indian saying, “You must walk a mile in another’s moccasin to fully understand that person.” Says it all. You must experience your business from the point of view of a customer to fully understand what they customer sees it.

Ride the bus. Audit the business from the customers’ point of view. Be a customer for a day. See how you like it. If you don’t , chances are many customers don’t either. If you can get some good feedback, great. If you can identify places to improve your service or business, excellent.

Ride the bus. Once you have viewed your business from the perspective of a customer, you will probably never be the same again.