050 | Missed Opportunities in Your Business

Speaker A: This is. She's equipped with Jennifer Allwood, a podcast for Christian women in business who want to earn more from their God given talent, grow their impact and lead with faith. Well, hey friends, welcome back to the podcast. I am happy to be here with you today. I want to chat with you about a recent experience that Ava and I had here in Kansas City. And, um, her and I went to, like, I'm just gonna. I'm just gonna say a craft night, um, because some of you, uh, I put sometimes on Instagram, like, where, where we're at and what we're doing. And, and this is really not about like the business that we were at. And so, um, I'm not wanting to like, expose them. The point of this podcast is really like missed opportunities that I think some business owners may not even know that they have. Um, or what this particular class. Like some takeaways that I event that her and I went to. Um, you know, it's kind of like my takeaways from that evening or how businesses may be losing customers without even knowing it. And um, and so the point I just want to make, I just want to make this point at the beginning. I'm also lowering my chair if you're watching on YouTube, because I feel like my head's too high. There we go. The point is not the business that we were at. The point is we were at a business doing what I'm just going to call crafting. That way you don't know if we were crocheting, if we were painting, if we were sewing, if we were doing pot, if we were doing, uh, strings, you know. So I'm just gonna say it was a craft night. Ava and I went to this, um, place, uh, two or three weeks ago here in Kansas City. And I just walked away from the whole thing going, wow, I cannot believe how many missed opportunities there was in one evening. And I just. In my head, it's hard for me as a business person, like, not to, um. It's not that I'm critiquing other businesses. It's that I can't help but notice where they're totally missing out on, like just, they're leaving money on the table. That's. That's the bottom line. I just. I can't help but not see that. Okay. And so M. Ava and I, we went and did this craft and um, you know, just walked away going, hmm, Hm. That was. That was super interesting. There was dozens of tiny moments where things could have happened and they just didn't, which made us then Also feel like, you know what? We probably will never go back. And so for those of you that have a store or those of you that offer class, whether it is in person or online, this conversation applies to that. If you are a business person at all, this conversation will apply to you because you'll be able to take the points that I'm making from a craft night, and you'll be able to apply it to your health course. You'll be able to apply it to your parenting class that you teach. You'll be able to apply it to, you know, um, a marriage seminar, whatever. Okay, so it's not just about crafting. Can we all. Can you guys make that leap in your brain? Um, it's not about what it's about. It's always about something different. Okay, so lots of points. All right, so Ava and I go to this craft night. We make a craft. It was, um, you know, we paid for it in advance. It was, you know, I don't know, between the two of us, it was over $100. We had to drive a little ways to get to the craft night. Um, and it was supposed to be an hour long class. And, you know, we went and there was, I think, seven or eight people there with us. And, um, and what I noticed, like, right off the bat is that the instructor didn't have us, like, introduce ourselves. And it could have even been something as simple as, like, you know, tell us your first name and why you decided to come tonight, or what part of Kansas City do you live in, and is this your first time doing, you know, this particular craft? And. And that. That's all that would have had to have happened, but instead, there was nothing. There was just radio silence. And the instructor's like, okay, so. So how many of you have done this before? And we're just gonna jump right to it. And so one of the missed opportunities is that humans crave connection more than they do information or activities. Right? So the reason Ava and I went is because I was trying to put Ava and I in a situation where her and I could just go do something for an evening. And, um, it was about the connection to my daughter, not about the craft. Does that make sense? And so then when you're in a room with other people and you're all doing that particular thing for an hour, like, what. Why wouldn't you try to make those strangers, um, get to know each other just a tiny bit? Because these. Let's just say there was eight of us in the room. Like, we all eight of us Strangers just stayed strangers. And when you think about it from a business perspective, like, your customers are not just buying a product, they're not just buying a class from you. Okay? They want to connect. They want to figure out groups that they can belong to. They want to feel like in community, especially like, you know, after we kind of got the whole 20, 20, 2020 pandemic behind us, you know, so after 2022, 2023, like, people are wanting to do things again. We're wanting to feel like we're part of things. And so if you teach a class, whether again, it's online or in person, like, try to think of how can I, like, help these people feel less anonymous, like they belong to something, like they're part of a community. Like, we have some things in common, like they are known and seen here because that's what will make people come. Actual activity itself. Does that make sense? I hope that makes sense. That was the point number one. Point number two, it was an hour long class. And, um, and at one point the instructor was like, okay, guys, we have six minutes left. And I was like, oh, okay. Um, we, like, I felt like we needed a boot scoot boogie after that. Like, we needed to kind of hurry up. And it was, it was almost like an abrupt 60 minutes at the end. Um, it wasn't as though she said, does anybody have any final questions? There was no, like, lingering. There was no conversation. Everybody kind of cleaned up their areas. And you know, obviously businesses have schedules, right? We want to adhere to a schedule. But sometimes like that efficiency can almost be like an enemy to, um, like a really great experience. Because we felt really rushed at the end. And um, instead of feeling like, hey, we're so glad you came tonight, we felt like, hey, time to get the heck out. And nobody wants to leave feeling like that. And so if you're a business owner, like, make sure, uh, and if you are a business owner and you have instructors teaching on your behalf, like, I hope you're listening because you may not even realize that your instructors are rushing some people through the process so much that it like, deters, you know, the experience. Is it possible to build in a little margin? Like, why couldn't you do it a 90 minute class? So that we could have a little conversation at the beginning, a little bit of conversation at the end. Because instead of remembering, wow, this was so much fun, we met some people in the room, we were able to kind of talk about, you know, have you done this before? Have you done this before? Are you going to sign up for anything else. Are you going to, like, instead of that, we were just kind of rushed out. And people always remember how you made them feel. And I felt unappreciated. I felt rushed. I felt like just a number, just, you know, the $60 and like, get, get out. That's what I felt like. So missed opportunities for that business all over the place just because they rushed us. Um, point number three, it was interesting to me, like, that there was no instruction when we were done, of what would happen next. So on this particular craft, I'm calling it, um, I'm going to need to go back and, like, pick it up from the, from the place. Well, they didn't say, hey, um, you know, expect an email from us in a week when your, um, craft is ready. They didn't, they didn't say that. They didn't say, we'll reach out to you in a month. They didn't say, like, what they were going to be doing to our project after we left. Um, and so instead I've had to both call and email for updates. And then I did get, like, automated emails saying, the automated email said, within two weeks, your project will be done after your class. And I'm like, well, within two weeks. Feels like a broad range to me. I mean, I would rather it say, um, you know, after two weeks from the night of your event, then you can come pick it up at any time. And, oh, by the way, here's our hours, because they're not open every day. So now I'm having to look at their website. I'm having to figure out when I can make it out to this part of town. Like, I just feel like they didn't leave, um, any instructions for us. Does that make sense? And so, you know, it kind of felt like they just either assumed that we would know or that we would do our own digging for the information. And I don't love that. Like, you should never leave your customers having to guess about what comes next. You should be telling them what comes next. You should be telling them when to expect to hear from you. You should be letting them know to check their email. Hopefully it doesn't go to spam. You should let them know, like, here's how we're going to communicate with you, or either going to send a text or we're going to send an email. Like, people know what to expect next because otherwise you just leave kind of confused. And if you're confused, you're not signing up again. Because I'm not signing up again. I'll find someplace else to do this. Point number four, and this one was like one of the hugest things I think that I just saw as like a gaping hole. And I just was baffled. And so I think what the biggest missed opportunity of the night was that you had a group of people already in the room who've already said yes to your business once. We've already signed up once, we've already paid money once, we've already all driven here once, we've already all invested an hour of our life once. But the instructor never mentioned other classes that they have, other things that they teach. If they have any open studio hours, if I could do a one on one, you know, night with her to learn how to do this particular craft better. They never talked about, you could have birthday parties here, you could have a private party here, you could have a girls night here. They never talked about, hey, hey, if you think you know somebody that would enjoy doing this, get them a gift certificate, sign up for here. Like, nothing was spoken at all about anything else that we could do at this building, which, by the way, taught more than just this one particular craft. It taught several things, but they didn't mention any of it. If I'm the business owner and I own that business and I have an instructor who I'm paying, and, uh, they don't at least talk about any other way that this group of people could sign up for something. I'm, um, heck of pissed. Seriously. Because it was like, it was like we sat down, we started right at 6 o' clock and right at 7 o'. Clock, they're kind of shooing us out. We don't have any idea what we're supposed to do next. And they haven't even told us if there's anything else we could ever do out at their building. And so it just felt like we were a check mark of something that that girl got done for the day. I'm supposed to teach class tonight. I taught my class. Bada boom, bada bing, I'm out. That's what I felt like. And I thought, wow, what a missed opportunity for them to go, you know what? We actually have a pottery class or a painting class or a sewing class or a crochet class every other Wednesday night, um, for the entire summer. Here's where you would go on our website to sign up or come up to me if you're interested, and I'd be happy to sign you up for that. None of that. And what a missed opportunity. What a missed opportunity. Point number five in Terms of, like, marketing. Some of your best marketing is going to be word of mouth. And I want you to think almost of, like, social media and tags on social media, that sort of thing. It's like word of mouth, but, you know, it's. But it's on a phone. Okay? So, like, they could have said, hey, let's take a group photo, and, um, I'll tag you all on Instagram. They could have said, hey, post your pictures from tonight on Instagram and make sure you tag us. They could have said, hey, um, here's a referral discount if you ever want to come back again. They could have said, hey, make sure you use the hashtag XYZ if you post this on social media. None of that. None of that. Again, I guarantee you the girl that taught our class is not the owner of the business. And the owner of the business has no idea that there's so many marketing opportunities that are free that they're missing out on. Like, do you know how much better it would be for somebody like myself with 100,000 plus, you know, followers on Instagram and 350,000 on, um, Facebook? You know, that's just one of my several accounts. Like, it would be so much better for me to do a post like, Ava and I came tonight to XYZ place, and we made xyz. And this was the most amazing thing ever. Hey, Kansas City friends. If you're ever in the area, you should totally check this out. Or if you, you know, are looking for something to do this summer, like, this is what you need to be that is worth a million dollars in ads. Any day of the week. Any day of the week. Your happiest customers are your best sales team, the people that enjoyed coming and doing that event again, whether in real life or online. That is the biggest miss in terms of free marketing that this company could have had. You need to be asking yourself, have I created an opportunity tonight where people can post something on social media and tag themselves? Have I made it easy for people to share something? Have I given them a reason to even share something? Have I told them how they can tag us? Because it turns out when I left there, I couldn't even figure out how to find this business on Instagram to tag them. Missed opportunity after missed opportunity after missed opportunity. Last thing, it was like, um, because Ava and I have never done this before for, you know, um, a craft for a girls night out. And so there was no, like, hey, look what you just made. There was no, like, oh, my gosh, that's so great, you guys. I'm so proud of you. Can I take a picture and put this on Instagram? There was no, like, celebrating the fact that, you know, most of us in the room were beginners. A couple people had done this before, but most of us walked in intimidated. You know, we were about to make something we'd never done before. We just created something out of nothing. But it wasn't like there was any celebration of that. Like, hey, guys, look how good of a job you did. This is so pretty. Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. And so it was like, I don't know if I did good or not. Maybe we did crappy, but still, just, like, remember how far encouragement goes, because people will again remember how you make them feel. It could have been one of those things, like, hey, Jennifer and Ava, you guys just did a great job. I love, you know, the color. I love, you know, uh, uh, how you created that out of nothing. I'm trying not to, again, give away too much information. So you don't actually know where we were. Because, again, it wasn't about this particular place. It was just about the missed opportunities that I guarantee you so many businesses have all over the place. And every time you're missing those opportunities, you're leaving money on the table. You're leaving money on the table. They could have given us a coupon to come back for a second time. They could have offered, like, a bring a friend promotion. They could have told us that this is a great place to have birthday parties for your kids. They could have mentioned private events, team building, things for companies. Um, this is a great place for bridal showers, homeschool groups, girls night out. Anything. Nothing. Nothing. They could have shown us how we could buy kits that we could take and do at home. Nope. They could have asked guests, like, what other classes would you be interested in? Nope. They could have given us, like, a handout, you know, that we could have taken home with upcoming events. Nope. They could have offered a membership or a punch card. Hey, come to the five classes. Get your six free. Nope. They could have shared how the business started, how long they've been in the building. Um, you know, uh, it's owned by this person, but they have three instructors, six instructors, 16 class. Who knows? But instead, it was just. We sat down, we got started, and, um, just left feeling like, ew. Wow. Wow. And so, listen, your easiest place to make money is with the customers you've already had. I'll never go back there, and I won't tell anybody else to go there either. And so if they left all eight of us in the class feeling that way, like, that's a bummer for that business owner, you might think you have a traffic problem. Business owners, you maybe are just not doing a good job with the people coming into your business. You need to maximize the people already in front of you who have already made a trip in. And the goal is not to, like, squeeze every possible dollar out of every person, but it is to create an experience that feels thoughtful, that feels connected, that feels like you appreciate that we're sitting in the room that feels like we know what's going to happen next and maybe you'd like for us to come back. Like, do you know how far just like basic business 101 can go? I mean, honestly, I feel like. And I get a little passion about this, but I feel like since the pandemic, a lot of us have just gone like, well, this is just how customer service is these days. Well, you know why? Because business are getting by with crappy customer service. We're all just letting them slide. The truth is, I should probably send the owner of this business a message. I should probably send her a DM and just let her know, like, hey, I don't know if you've ever sat in on one of your instructors classes anymore, and maybe you don't care about losing customers. Um, but this is kind of how it felt. Not because I want a free class, not because of anything else, but just because that business owner may not know. So it's those of you who have people teaching classes for you or, or working for you. Like, have you ever just really sat down and figured out what kind of a customer experience are your people having? Are there missed opportunities? Because this particular business had missed opportunities all over the place. And it's unfortunate for them, really. So those are some of my big takeaways from that night. And I've been thinking about this, like, ever since. I've been thinking, wow, if I owned that business and I had guest instructors, I would be so upset, number one, to find out all of these things, um, if that instructor happened to be the business owner. And I don't think that she was purely based on how she ran the class. Um, but I also think, like, as a business owner, you should almost have a list of, hey, these are the things you need to make sure you're doing in every class. Go around and introduce themselves. Try to create a sense of community. Tell them what they can expect next. Tell them how to find us on social media, tell them how to tag themselves. Tell them about upcoming promotions. Hand out this schedule, like a million things. A million things. And so, um, I hope that this was just maybe an episode that made you think as a business owner. And again, even if you're only offering things online, make sure at the end of your online class you're saying, this is how you can work with me in the future. Here's how you can do a one on one. Um, here's how you can join our Facebook group. Make sure you post about your own experience with the course or what have you. But there's missed dollars all over the place, friends. And, um, so I wanted to do this episode merely to make you think about how you're running things and if you're actually leaving some money on the table. Hope this helps. If you know somebody that teaches classes in your local community, send this episode to them. And I hope that it's going to be helpful for somebody just to make sure that they're doing everything that they can to get people to come back a second, third, fourth time to be raving fans who are their best, freest marketing possible. All right, talk to you soon, friends. Bye. Well, hey, thanks for joining me today on, um, She's Equipped. And remember, growth in your business is coming from action, not just intention. So I want you to take what you heard today, pray about it, and then put it to work in your business this week. And if today's episode encouraged you, please make sure you hit the follow button so you never miss a strategy that helps you to scale your business. And for more resources to help you grow, head on over to shesequipped.com we'll see you there.