Identifying areas of business development success

Most businesses are eager to work on the areas that need improvement within their operations. However managers can find it difficult to know exactly where to start. So how does a manager sort through the many layers of business to identify the exact areas that need the most developmental attention? We outline 4 ways to do just that to ensure sustainable success.

Conduct customer satisfaction surveys

Providing an opportunity for customer feedback will help you to understand the areas that customers perceive as needing the most attention. This will also enable you to track performance and identify consistent problems across time periods. Conducting customer satisfaction surveys is a great first step in identifying problems that need solving in the immediate future.

Speak to your staff and stakeholders

Team members often have the best idea of how the business could be improved. But if they don’t have the opportunity to have their say, precious information is being wasted! It could be as easy as chatting informally to your staff in the lunchroom, asking the question during staff meetings, or conducting an anonymous staff survey. An added bonus of this approach is building rapport within the team, as staff will know that their opinions are encouraged and valued.

Suppliers and other stakeholders can also provide great insight into problems that may be more deeply seeded within the business. Providing the opportunity for feedback here is an invaluable strategy for long-term success.

Research within your industry

Researching competitors and leading businesses within your industry is a quick and easy way to get an indication of what your business needs to work on. Depending which industry your business is in, make a visit to competitors and assess your offering against theirs! This approach will also allow you to create industry benchmarks that you can track your development against. It’s vital to measure your developmental performance, and analysing this against competitors is a great way to stay ahead of the pack.

Talk to the BA specialists at Verve Group

Often one problem is just a symptom of an overriding main cause. At Verve Group, our business advisory (BA) team work with you to identify the critical success and failure factors in your business. Through our specialised analysis we can understand the weak pillars in your business and focus on these as they represent the biggest opportunity for improvement.

Having difficulty developing your business? Talk to the BA team at Verve Group today by calling 08 8120 4877 or emailing verve@vervegroup.com.au