What has a multi-billion pound world dominating smash hit success of a business got in common with my little company, Creative Warehouse?
Not a lot you might think, and (sadly/annoyingly!) you might well be right…
But there is one thing.
Two in fact, and they’re what I’m going to talk about here:
A potent pairing of beautifully easy yet highly effective tricks to help you succeed in life.
I learnt these insights from one of the executives behind said multibillion pound world dominating smash hit success.
Before I reveal what they are, what the business is, and who he is, first some context.
Happily Creative Warehouse are getting busier and busier, signing up a couple of lovely new customers last week alone.
So, why are we doing well?
We’ve got a fantastic team, people say we're good at what we do, we always try to be utterly customer focused, warm, enjoyable and enthusiastic to work with…
But that lot, however important, only takes you so far.
Which brings us to the first critical element of the potent pairing I’m talking about in this blog.
One of the customers we signed up last week approached us through our website.
I got the notification on my phone, and called him back immediately.
He was surprised and delighted to get such a service.
In fact, it was pretty much the deal clincher from the start.
He knew in an instant what we were about, and how we liked to work.
- I was expecting to wait a few hours to hear from you at least, he said.
No chance. No way. Just no.
I have a rule with Creative Warehouse that we deal with any enquiries within two hours.
That’s whether it’s new business, an existing client enquiring about something, just a quick question, whatever.
Two hours absolute max, ideally within half an hour, and even better - even sooner.
Modern life is fast. People are busy. They want a rapid reaction.
And, quite frankly, if they're going to give you their business they deserve it.
Time and again, customers have said to me they hugely value the fact that they get a rapid response from us.
So that’s point one - swiftness - which brings me to point two.
If one of our customers wants a website, we don’t start talking about coding...
If they need help with pitching for investment or customers, we don’t lecture them about attention spans, the need for interactions and signposting to retain an audience's interest...
If they want media coverage, we don’t baffle them with a long spiel about the way journalists operate, and how they see a story...
We simply ask the customer what they want to achieve, and then lay out a plan for doing so.
Don’t get me wrong, we are happy to talk, explore and explain if someone is interested.
I'm a tutor and teacher at heart, after all!
But most of the time our clients just want results, and so that’s what they get.
In my experience, there are far too many people in this world who like to baffle and bamboozle with the supposed brilliance of what they do.
We just keep it simple:
- What you want is what you get.
Which is point two of my powerful pairing.
From our website, to our services, to our ethos, it's all simple.
Finally for this blog, who and what company did I learn all this from?
The world beating wonder I mentioned earlier?
Let's see if you can guess.
You'll use the company's main service many times a day...
It’s so omnipotent in the modern world that the name of the business has become an everyday verb…
It'll be on pretty much every computer, phone, tablet etc. that you've got...
And it’s an absolutely amazing success.
Much of that built on swiftness and simplicity.
So, the answer is…
Google.
When I did an event a few years ago here in Cambridge with my (now) good friend Jonathan Rosenberg, a former senior executive at Google, that was what he put much of the company’s success down to.
Swiftness and simplicity.
Which Google's search engine has in spades.
As well as being very good at what it does.
Thank you Jonathan, I've never forgotten your words of wisdom, and they have always served me well.
Swiftness and simplicity, a super shortcut to success.