In business, our success is tied to our abilities. And having the skills to juggle multiple responsibilities at once helps ensure that all those different things come together at one time. The main thing that any business puts together is the product that they’re trying to sell. Our product (for inspectors, that means our inspection report) must be assembled properly; it’s got to be ready for public consumption. The simple fact that we have a product, however, does not guarantee our success. It’s quite competitive out there in home inspection land. And while nothing in the world of business is guaranteed, one of the best ways to increase our odds of success is to have a complete product.
Obviously, our product must be profitable enough for our business to survive. But, in order to be considered “complete,” it must possess a few other traits as well. It needs to be user-friendly, so that the vast majority of our customers will be able to understand how it works and what it does for them. If our clients feel stupid because they can’t figure out how to use the product they just paid for, then our product is not doing its job and we have fallen short of our goals as a business owner. Obviously, that client is not going to blame themselves for their difficulties; they are going to blame us and our crappy product.
When we make our product easy to use, we help stack the deck in our favor.
Our product must also solve a problem for the customer. After all, consumers buy products to fill their needs. They buy them to solve a problem they’re having. Successful businesses figure out what their clients’ problems are and design products tailored to meet their customer’s needs.
If we are able to solve our clients’ problems, we increase our chances of success.
Another important component of a complete product is its perceived value. The leading business in any category is typically the one whose product leaves their customers feeling as though they’ve gotten much more than what they paid for.
Exceeding someone’s expectations with our product is a surefire way to help our business grow.
Consumers will take to the social media airwaves to broadcast their purchases for two different reasons: when they feel that they’ve been screwed over and when they feel that they’ve gotten an unbelievable bargain. We all want to appear to be the best bargain-hunter in history, and are more than willing to let all our friends know whenever we’ve been smart enough to have gotten an excellent deal.
If we give our clients a reason to crow about us in their posts, they’ll be less likely to give us the bird.
In the next post, we will discuss some helpful techniques that professional home inspectors can use to produce a complete product to their clients.
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Thanks, Joe
