Before How is Why

by ray stasieczko December 10, 2017

“In a business creation or it’s reinvention, It’s the Why the customer buys it that starts the business plan.”

Why should any company or industry reinvent themselves? A critical question for all businesses. Some will ask themselves this question long before others and create the answer for those competitors who waited. Too many waste time in the complacency of now, this complacency always demands justification on How something could be done different or modified and ignores the Why something needs to be different. These arguments of (how) take precedent over discoveries of why every time. Complacency will always put a shadow on why something different is needed. Reinventors or innovators look outside for answers to the why something needs modification they define through collaboration and imagination. Innovators or reinventors understand the importance of why what’s the reason for something new or something to be modified the answer will define the how.

I was standing out in front of my residence waiting on Alice the UBER driver to take me to the airport. As I stood there thinking how much I like UBER, I decided to change the conversation in my mind and think about why I didn’t like cabs anymore. It boils down to the experience. From the beginning of the engagement till the end I was informed and felt in control. The digital customer experience of UBER just kills the outdated multifaceted analog experience of the cab company. It’s the APP; it’s about getting the desired outcome with a simplicity which then becomes the better experience.  

 “You can be the vendor with the greatest relationships and lose to the new unknown competitor who delivers a better experience.”

I began to think does this quote apply to a service based business where the client and the vendor have a contracted relationship, or does it apply more towards the client-vendor relationship based on a call and pay as you go service relationship, like the Taxi industry?  I would guess that very few people had relationships with cab drivers, and quite frankly very few passengers have relationships with UBER or LYFT drivers. Is it this non-relationship between end-user and vendor which allowed the share ride model to expand beyond belief and challenge the Taxi, hospitality, technology, Retail, most all industries?

My answer is relationships in business will always be circumvented by a better experience regardless of the industry and regardless of the deliverable. Those who believe that their great relationship will persevere an obsolete experience or customer engagement are delusional. So, let’s determine the definition of an obsolete experience. First, don’t confuse bad customer service with a bad user experience. You can deliver a great customer experience and still deliver bad service as you can have the greatest customer service and deliver a terrible or completely outdated experience. Bad service will correct itself with discipline. However, a bad customer experience will only correct itself with a new business plan. Today customers what an experience in the means phase of achieving the outcomes they desire, customers what to acquire your products, or receive your services which aligns with their digital life.

 “Customer experience is determined at the intersection of the digital and physical worlds.”  

The Share Economy gave birth to many new organizations and gave opportunities for many legacy organizations to modify, to reinvent themselves. Ironically many saw the threat and wished it away, they complained about in courts, they stayed on the track to becoming obsolete and soon will realize they have arrived.

Whether the Innovator is building something new or the reinventor, who modifies to offer their current customer what the innovator created. The pioneers of the technology which built the sharing economy understood the power of the mobile hand-held device. These pioneers knew that the digital world was quickly merging with the physical world. The why for the innovators was simple. The customer has a device which could search, call, map, and execute payment for services. Building a platform allowing total control from the start to the end of the engagement would deliver the customer experience to the intersection where the digital and physical worlds meet.

The Taxi customer always had the device; the Taxi industry never asked why they should modify. The customer they picked up called them, waited blindly for the driver, the customer went to google maps to educate themselves on the distance of the ride, and the customer paid with a credit card when the ride was over in many cases the driver used a cell phone to complete the transaction (Square). If the Taxi Industry just ask why they should modify paid attention to the puzzle of their deliverable and then began collaborating with technology companies they would have discovered the how.  

So, all industries and all companies for that matter must ask themselves, why what they sell or how they service should modify to deliver a better customer experience. Why should the way your customers purchase and receive your products modify, or why should your service structure modify when you answer the why the how will begin to emerge. The caution is, the why is about what customers desire not what you desire.

In Closing;

“In the distance between the business plan and the business failure is where you find Stubbornness to Modify.”

R.J. Stasieczko       

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