Where is value created in your business?
The obvious response is with the products and services the company provides. This thinking leads to well-intentioned mission statements that are service and quality focused, but that’s not enough to inspire action at every level within the organization.
Lofty aspirations are soon forgotten in the day-to-day efforts to deliver what was promised to customers. This is where customers want to be delighted, surprised and made to smile. It’s here where opportunities for transforming first-time customers into advocates live.
What’s specific gets done. What gets done merits a response, and that response can be tracked, measured, fixed or repeated to enhance it. This is the thinking behind value mapping.
Value mapping can be broken down into as many processes as makes sense. Every company should have at least one, typically a sales process. At Landscape Digital Institute, we’ve found the following three value mapping processes work well for most landscaping and lawn care clients:
- Growth and consultation: attracting, onboarding, and retaining clients
- Innovation and communication: creating, improving, and communicating product and service offerings
- Fulfillment and service: delivering the value promised in memorable ways
Each process has potentially unlimited opportunities for creating value because every company is unique. You don’t have to overthink this. You can take those practices and make them your own.
Adding value at every step will raise the value of the transaction and the client relationship. You are effectively reengineering everything you do to increase its value, or in some cases, eliminate it if necessary.
You may find a few value opportunities from the list below that resonate with your company’s strengths, or are not done well in your market. Consider making these stages that can become signature practices over time:
- Greeting new clients
- Packaging products and services
- Showing how your process works
- Declining clients you cannot serve
- Transitioning to new client representatives
- Making courtesy service calls
- Collecting overdue payments
- Troubleshooting problems
- Communicating progress
- Encouraging feedback
It’s the little things that often add the greatest value. Value mapping is nothing more than a series of triggers and events. A great example is how the greeting at an Apple Store puts you at ease, knowing that your device will be promptly repaired or replaced.
Every employee wants to do their job well. However, there’s a difference between getting a job done and delivering exceptional value. When the latter happens, you have a more confident team member that wants to do it again for the next client and a delighted client that will talk about it or write a five-star review.
It’s up to the leaders of your company to map out the process that makes that possible.
