You need to be ready for Business Innovation in today’s fast changing world of technology disruption. Although Modshopr’s focus is to help you take advantage of the digital marketing technology, Modshopr recognizes that marketing goals exist within a dynamic business environment. That means you need to constantly assess whether technology changes force the need for your business to adapt. Business innovation along with investing in Digital Marketing can be used to create a competitive advantage for your business.
Alex Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas is a valuable tool that can be used to navigate the complexity of business innovation. When a business comes to Modshopr with a good understanding of its 1) customer segments and 2) the products & services (UVP) it serves to its customers, then great things can be achieved with digital marketing to connect your business with your customers.
Below you will find links to help you apply the Business Model Canvas onto your specific business. The links are only a starting point for a larger conversation. You can join the conversation by giving feedback at Modshopr’s Feedback Page.
Business Model Canvas
Business Model Canvas, Business Model Generation – Alexander Osterwalder
Customers
Serving customers is what a business is all about. Understanding customer needs and then delivering a product/service to satisfy the need is the magic behind a successful business. You can find a few links about Customer Focus and Customer Service below:
Customer Focus
“For my whole career in retail, I have stuck by one guiding principle. It’s a simple one, and I have repeated it over and over and over in this book [Sam Walton: Made in America] until I’m sure you’re sick to death of it. But I’m going to say it again anyway: the secret of successful retailing is to give your customers what they want. And really, if you think about it from your point of view as a customer, you want everything: a wide assortment of good quality merchandise; the lowest possible prices; guaranteed satisfaction with what you buy; friendly, knowledgeable service; convenient hours; free parking; a pleasant shopping experience. You love it when you visit a store that somehow exceeds your expectations, and you hate it when a store inconveniences you, or gives you a hard time, or just pretends you’re invisible.”
Customer Service
From Delivering Happiness …
Zappos Top 10 Ways to Instill Customer Service into Your Company
1. Make customer service a priority for the whole company, not just a department. A customer service attitude needs to come from the top.
2. Make WOW a verb that is part of your company’s every day vocabulary.
3. Empower and trust your customer service reps. Trust that they want to provide great service … because they actually do. Escalations to a supervisor should be rare.
4. Realize that it’s okay to fire customers who are insatiable or abuse your employees.
5. Don’t measure call times, don’t force employees to upsell, and don’t use scripts.
6. Don’t hide your 1-800 number. It’s a message not just to your customers, but to your employees as well.
7. View each call as an investment in building a customer service brand, not as an expense you’re seeking to minimize.
8. Have the entire company celebrate great service. Tell stories of WOW experiences to everyone in the company.
9. Find and hire people who are already passionate about customer service.
10. Give great service to everyone: customers, employees, and vendors
Market Research
Customer Relationships
The relationships you build with customers are critical to your success. Relationships build on authenticity and trust create a lifetime of rewards for everyone involved.
Branding and Brand Transparency
Branding is the best way to scale relationships when having a person-to-person relationship with every customer does not make sense. It can also be an effective way to create relationships with customers who have not yet made contact with your business yet.
Zappos – Your Culture Is Your Brand
Martin Lindstrom – Delving Inside the Consumer’s Mind
Channels
Channels are not just the choice of how to distribute your product/service to your customer, but also include the communication choices you make to communicate with customers. The Internet is disrupting distribution and communication. You can find more information about marketing and digital marketing on the Modshopr Marketing page.
Key Activities
There are many key activities that businesses must perform well in order to stay in business. Modshopr has the experience to help with your marketing plans, but take a look at the strategy information below to help create solid business goals before starting on your marketing plans.
Business Strategy
One activity that has great impact on results is creating the right business strategy. It’s important to understand that executing on strategy is also critical, but the risk of executing without a strategy is that you waste valuable time and money. Here are a few links to help you build your strategic business plans:
The Power of Pull: How small moves, smartly made, can set big things in motion
Wikinomics: How mass collaboration changes everything
Digital Strategy
How to Identify New Business Models PDF (MITSloan Management Review by Joseph V. Sinfield, Edward Calder, Bernard McConnell and Steve Colson)
Itamar Simonson
Reinventing Your Business Model (Harvard Business Review by Mark W. Johnson, Clayton M. Christensen, and Henning Kagermann)
Seizing the White Space (Mark W. Johnson)
Key Partners
Key Partners are those people or organizations that help you achieve success in your business.
Zappos – Vendor Relationships
Key Resources
Key Resources are the resources you directly control inside your business.
Zappos – People Pipeline
Stay Informed
The following links can help you stay informed about business disruption in an ever changing technology environment:
Business Innovation Resources
Stanford Free Online Courses
MIT Open Courseware
Steve Blank – Startup Tools
Kauffman Founders School
The Startup Owner’s Manual – Steve Blank and Bob Dorf
The Map of Innovation – Kevin O’Connor with Paul Brown
Getting to Plan B – John Mullins & Randy Komisar
Register for Harvard Business Review
Free access to 3 in-depth HBR magazine articles each month
Register for MIT Sloan Management Review Site Member – Read 3 free articles per month
Small Business
Business Know How
Business Plans
Globe and Mail (Small Business)
New York Times (Small Business)
Government Resources – USA
Federal Trade Commission
US Small Business Administration
Small Business Administration Online