How Consistent is Your Business?

It’s dull and dreary outside today but I was reflecting on my recent trip to Bermuda with lots of affection. Why? It was just so consistent:

• The weather - the temperature day and night doesn’t fall below 20 degrees C or rise above 32 degrees C.
• The beaches – clean and soft with stunning colours of sand – the water clear, warm and full of fish.
• The constant smiles on Bermudians faces, their continuing interest in, and joy at meeting and helping visitors, their constant friendly greetings and a consistent love of their beautiful country.
• The bars and restaurants too – especially those Rum Swizzles!

Consistency was definitely a theme and this got me thinking about how inconsistent we are in our businesses, especially how inconsistent our delivery of customer experience is to our clients. Not always, but our delivery, our product quality, availability, our service and of course our moods, can be so inconsistent. But most of all businesses suffer from such inconsistent messages about their business.

Companies that get that consistency right are the companies that we admire, remember and probably re-purchase from.

Here are 7 areas where consistency is vital in projecting the right (and consistent) image of your business.

1. Product quality – make sure that your customers aren’t your quality control department!
2. Product availability – constantly ‘out of stock’ will drive customers away.
3. Pricing – why is it that we still give ‘new’ customers better prices?
4. Service – probably the most inconsistent of all. But how nice is it when you experience a great and consistent customer service?
5. Customer contact – nothing for months then that ‘buy me’ offer arrives and the pestering starts.
6. Response times – usually depends on how the staff feel.
7. Customer experience – Read the E-Myth or study MacDonalds, Premier Inn (to name just a couple) for a great display of consistency of Customer experience – now lovingly called Customer UX.

I can’t wait return to Bermuda – if only for some sunshine – but each time my mind wanders to Bermuda I’ll be reminded just how important consistency is.