Common business blind spots from flawed operations can cost customers. However, more importantly, they can have extensive repercussions that have long-lasting negative consequences on a company. Whether it’s ignoring customer feedback or poor team management, the impact can be severe, leading to decreased revenue and reputation. Understanding these pitfalls can help leaders avoid them or minimize their harmful effects.
Inadequate Customer Support
Even established businesses overlook the customer experience (CX) to the detriment of the company. Common customer support issues include long untrained staff, limited support channels and long response times. Hiring a professional answering service helps with all three of these and frees up your company to focus on other things. This helps avoid loss of customers, reputation damage and revenue losses, as faced by businesses like Comcast.
Business Blind Spots with Feedback
Feedback is an overlooked part of modern business, but it comes with masses of valuable data. That being said, 40% of customers believe feedback is ignored, and 90% of companies don’t seek it (Forbes). Failure to solicit valuable data, however, is a mistake on the part of a business:
- Ignoring data such as social media comments can lead to missed opportunities.
- There could also be a decline in customer numbers and brand loyalty.
- As a result, business reputation can also be negatively impacted by ignoring feedback.
Failure to Adapt to Changes
Another failure that can cost a business dearly is not reacting quickly enough to changes. A company can become complacent and comfortable within a sector, not seeing the forest for the trees, as it were. When this happens, an organization can fail to embrace necessary changes in technology, evolving market trends, and changing customer preferences. As a result, declining sales, a lower market share, and tougher competition become inevitable as a company tanks.
Financial Metrics Business Blind Spots
One of the most overlooked business blind spots is metrics. An Air IT article found that 79% of companies have defined KPIs, yet only around 36% actually use them in business plans. Reliable KPI management software helps businesses track performance and adapt based on real data. However, there are solid and practical reasons for using business KPIs and metrics.
Improved decision-making
Through KPIs a business can gain quantifiable data and use that data to make better decisions. This leads to more effective strategic planning and helps compare against industry standards.
Enhanced goal-tracking
By keeping track of metrics, teams have a better understanding of how close they are to goals. This makes it easier to track performance, but also highlights incoming issues for correction.
Effective team coordination
Data made available through metrics and KPIs establishes common goals and promotes collaboration. As a result, there is reduced confusion among teams and increased performance.
Poor Internal Processes
For various reasons with many variables, modern businesses can become inefficient to the point of losing customers through poor internal processes. Perhaps some processes are outdated and slow, impacting the customer experience. It is likely that a company will experience increased costs, lost customers, and lower productivity because of outdated processes. Considering shipping as an example, a slower process is unlikely to beat the competition.
Business Blind Spots with Teams
According to an article by Action Coach, 75% of leaders struggle with delegation. Delegation is a critical part of modern business, with many advantages, which is why it is a core soft skill that recruiters look for these days. Some of the consequences of poor delegation are as follows:
- An inability to delegate effectively is a common cause of professional workplace burnout.
- It also prevents other team members from being able to develop their existing skills.
- Business growth is stifled through inefficiency and increased workloads piling up.
Assuming One Size Fits All
One of the most impactful blind spots to a business is assuming “one-size-fits-all”. Generic products and services are available to anyone at any time. However, a company that tailors unique experiences to customers is more likely to attract and retain them. For instance, stocking clothing items of standard sizes without petite or plus size excludes some customers. Without this approach, customers can feel undervalued and ignored, resulting in disengagement.
Not providing adequate customer support is among the most harmful business blind spots for a modern company. Many businesses also choose to ignore the real data potential harvested from metrics and KPIs. When it comes to business operations, there are also issues with providing a standard service rather than catering to a broader or niche audience if necessary. Addressing blind spots in business will enhance customer loyalty and potentially reduce harmful churn.
