How Small Businesses Compete Using Their Data: A Narrative (Pt. 1)
Value Area: Analytics
Brad and Alicia’s Background Story
Meet Brad and Alicia. They are living the American Dream. They have been married for 12 years and have 2 kids. As Brad explains, “There are 2 really great things that happened to me in my life; Alicia and this business!” Brad and Alicia first met during track practice while they were Freshmen at Liberty. Brad studied Business Administration and Alicia majored in Communication. They could hardly wait to graduate to get married. Brad knew what laid ahead of him. They are fortunate enough to be third-generation small business owners in suburban Columbus.
Brad’s grandfather started a small-town laundromat with his brother in the ‘50s. By the ’70s, they expanded to 10 counter locations before the brother passed away at an early age. Brad’s Dad was always looking for growth opportunities. They eventually grew the service side of the business with insurance contracts for fire damage. They also offered specialized storage services.
By the time Brad and Alicia entered the business, their payroll had grown to over 100 people. The business was beyond critical mass, but Brad was anxious. There were several larger competitors in their geographic markets and many smaller competitors. What would the new direction be? At the same time were serious challenges in the business. The previous opportunities the business had been presented with all grew the top line., but bottom line performance remained unchanged. They were plagued with high levels of employee turnover which was expensive and time-consuming to constantly address.
After 5 years in the business, Brad and Alicia had a crisis moment. When honest, they had to admit they were mostly chasing their tails. Days and weeks were very busy, but they didn’t feel like they were making any progress. Brad was determined that this was not going to be a lifestyle business. He wanted to take things to next level, whatever that meant. Their journey began.
Brad and Alicia’s Data Journey: Beginnings
One Saturday afternoon, Brad was at his favorite bookstore: Watson’s. It wasn’t one of the larger national chains. This was a small-time book merchant with 2 locations; one main location and one satellite location. Brad always admired how the look of this business had transformed over the years. Alicia had told Brad he should pick out a book for himself for his upcoming birthday. On that particular Saturday, Brad was in one of the aisles, looking for a book to sit down and read with a cup of coffee from the small bistro in the back corner of the store.
Brad glanced over his shoulder and noticed a young woman on the other end of the aisle dressed in black. She was busy organizing books on the shelf to ensure the spines were all facing the same way. He noticed when she finished that shelf, she went over to the customer service desk, looked at something on the computer screen. She was frowning before she made a call
That frown caught Brad’s notice as his glance returned to the open book. He knew the feeling. There was this instant sense of empathy he had, knowing what it’s like to get that latest email and realize the screen is not your friend.
He didn’t find the present Alicia had sent him for. He figured he better just ask. As he was moving in the young women’s direction to ask if the newest John Le Carre book had come out yet, he overheard the women on the phone.
“Hello, this is Emily Watson from Watson’s Book Merchant. I was just reviewing our fill rates from the central publisher’s warehouse. This is the second biweekly period that our fill rates have dropped. I’d like to speak with someone about what can be done to get our numbers back up to our target levels”
Brad had not been around enough to observe the “ageless old Hugh” was no longer there every minute of every day. In the past 5 years, there wasn’t a lot of time to hang out at the bookstore. She ended the phone call just as Brad approached the desk. She made a deliberate effort to leave that phone call behind and smiled at Brad, giving him her full attention.
“ Can I help you?”, she said.
“ Didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but sounds like shipment issues”, said Brad, “Yea, I’m living the dream”.
“Oh, that,” she said. “No, not really”. “ We’re still fine, but I’m a bit compulsive with keeping on top of the metrics”. “It’s a brave new world”.
“I gather you're helping out Hugh with running things around here,” said Brad. “By the way I’m Brad, I’ve been coming here to Waton’s for a lot of years”.
“ Hi, Brad. I’m Emily. Well, as a matter of fact, my Dad handed over the reins 3 years ago now. His were big shoes to fill, but I’m trying. If I’m not mistaken, you are Alicia’s husband, right?”. she said.
“Wow, totally impressed. You know Alicia?”, asked Brad.
“I do!”, said Emily. “You and Alicia are one of our Tier Account Members. I probably shouldn’t say this, but if you part with a little bit more of your gold, you’ll probably make Premier Status this year.”
“Over the top impressed!”, said Brad. “do you keep tabs of all the people that walk into the store?”, he asked.
“Well actually”, she said, “as part of our data-based transformation, we’re focusing on a lot of new things.”
“The Customer Experience” is one of our top 3 emphases. It took us a while to gather data and work with a “Subject Matter Expert”, but now, all of my sales associates pretty much know who is walking through the door and which cluster they belong to. We alter our approach to customers based on where they are in the clustering and try to move them up to the next level.” Emily said.
“Uh!”, she said “There I go again, blabbing “bookstore speak” to one of our customers. I really do apologize. You’re probably bored to death and can’t wait for me to shut up!”
“No, no” said Brad “It’s totally fine. You’ve piqued my curiosity about things like “data-based transformation”, “clusters”, and “The Customer Experience”. “Gosh, I’d really like Alicia to hear about this.”
“Well, I’ll tell you what”, said Emily.” Let me give you a link to my calendar, and why don’t you and Alicia drop on by for the cliff note version of Watson’s whole story since my Dad retired. We are in a very different space. The coffee is on me!”
“Thanks for the offer,” said Brad. “Alicia and I would really appreciate you sharing your experience. You can’t possibly know the resonance you have created with the little bit you’ve shared”
“Great”, said Emily,” I’ll look forward to hearing from you or Alicia”, as she handed him the link.
Brad went home empty-handed. In the exchange, he had completely forgotten to ask about the Le Carre book. Over dinner, he told Alicia about the conversation with Emily that afternoon. Reflecting on her time at Watson’s, Alicia had to admit that in her recent times frequenting Watson’s, she walked away with a special feeling. It had always been a great place but somehow, it was even better. Alicia would go online that night a lock in a time with Emily.
Falling asleep that night, Brad could not help but think that there was a sense of Providence at play in the day’s events. He had a really good feeling as he dozed off….
To be continued….
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