Play ball! This week the boys of summer are back and baseball is in full swing. Stadiums all over the country will be packed with best buddies, fathers and sons, and baseball fanatics downing piles of popcorn, barrels of beer and heaps of hot dogs while singing “Take me out to the ballgame.”
Soon this enthusiasm will wane and the novelty of opening day will wear off. Players will have to perform and win games in order to keep fans coming back. Many teams have spent millions of dollars to buy the best players and build the best stadiums. What they believe is “If you build it, he will come.” But fans are looking for an EXPERIENCE, and this isn’t something that money can buy.
The Chicago Cubs have not won a World Series in 106 years. Wrigley Field is over 100 years old and on opening day had no bathrooms, but had no problem packing the stadium. The Cubs have built a following by delivering an experience. The only one who can deliver that experience is you. There are no angels in the outfield bringing customers into your business.
What’s your plan to deliver a home run experience?
- Is your product and service consistent? Your product doesn’t have to be the cheapest or the best for you to have the most customers. McDonald’s hamburgers are probably the cheapest, but pale in comparison to a Morton’s steak. But McDonald’s knows their audience and deliver a consistent product and experience to their customer base.
- Are you responsive to customer needs? When the Cubs opened this week, the majority of the bathrooms were closed because of renovations. The organization took steps to be proactive and arranged with neighboring businesses to use their facilities and granted fans passes to leave the park and return. This averted a potentially huge problem.
- Do you give them something they can’t get elsewhere? Identify your unique selling proposition and focus on what makes your different. The Cubs will never be the Yankees. They aren’t even as good as the Chicago White Sox, who play just across town. Data shows that the Cubs fans are more affluent, so they aren’t choosing Cubs over Sox because of the price. They go to the Cubs game because of history, tradition and the experience. What are you doing to create this atmosphere in your organization?
Having the best facility or the best players doesn’t guarantee success. A successful business is responsive to their customers’ needs and delivers something they can’t get elsewhere. If you want to discover how you company can deliver a home run experience, talk to your ActionCOACH.