TRYING TO BE A GLADIATOR FOR A DAY CAN TEACH YOU SOME REALLY COOL BUSINESS-SCHOOL-LEVEL STUFF đ
I have a business & run an NGO for capacity development in young ladies, so I always look out for improvementâŚand everyday experience(s) with other people, especially businesses, their employees & business owners have been my greatest teacher.
I had an experience a while ago that taught me at least five business lessons and a handful others for life & personal growth.
The personal lessons plus pics & video from this experience including the very funny way I finally managed to try on a gladiator outfit in the museum even though there was none available for try-on are on IG â @ruthlohi & FB â @ruthlohi. You can check them out, youâd laugh at some point like I did too.
Here are the five I learnt for business;
I visited a gladiator museum and had high hopes to try on at least one gladiator outfit â the whole Armour!! From breastplate to helmet to sandals (I didnât care about the size) and sword (even if it was going to be a wooden one), think about it, if I wanted just a tour of a gladiator armour without the literal experience of it, Iâd probably read it up on google, watch documentaries on YouTube or Netflix. Because this was what the museum was offering â a visual display of the armours glued to platforms and an audio guide to tell you about the armour you were looking atâŚto be honest, I felt cheated, I felt like it was not a worthy investment for money & time! đ Guess what! It occurred to me after I was done with my tour that this same feeling/expression was what I noticed on the faces of the family that was just handing over their audio-guide devices to check out when we were about to pay for our tickets.
LESSON ONE:
The above âI felt cheatedâ feel isnât a feeling you want to leave with your clients who are literally connected to a huge percentage of your potential client bank; imagine, Iâm writing about it here and youâre reading about it! (Thatâs the client bank/cycle right there). You do want to make people feel like they got/get value for their money & time spent on/in your business or idea. It is this feeling of satisfaction that leads them to talk about your business with or without being asked about it. The experience they have is what theyâll shareâŚ.cue lesson twoâŚ
LESSON TWO:
The owners of this museum had no plans to give their clients an âexperienceâ! đł Maybe they were thinking not everyone whoâll go in there will be as adventurous as myself đ but they totally forgot that fun is fun and we are currently living in the experience-going-on-virtual-reality economy! People love and talk about what they engage in, what they interacted with â something that they FELT. The feeling they got from the thing is what they describe when they say something is âniceâ or âgoodâ or âwas really greatâ. Itâs that feeling most times that make them returnâŚaaaaaand thatâs how habits start & we all know that habitsâŚdieâŚhard!đ
Simple illustration â recall going to that restaurant and asking for an add-on or a take-out from food thatâs on the menu and the waiter replies with;
âIâm sorry maâam/sir, we only serve whatâs on the menu, just as it isâ.
How did you âfeelâ? đ rrrrrright! I thought so!
Recall also visiting another restaurant, you could order off the menu! They eagerly prepared it to your taste and gave you cookies as a gift after eating đ
How did you âfeelâ? Mmmmhm! Thatâs what I thought too!âşď¸
Which of these two restaurants will you likely recommend or return to? Matter of fact, if youâre not a foodie or adventurous eater who gets tired of having the same taste over & over again, thereâs a 99.9999999999% chance youâll return there every evening after work for dinner! Yep, Iâve seen it happen, lol.
LESSON THREE:
At the end of their tour or business with you, honestly engage your clients FOR FEEDBAAAACK that you can use. Thing is, these guys (the owners or staff â I dunno which they were) had chit-chat with me when we finished the tour of the museum but the chat was irrelevant to my visit to the museum! Can you believe that?! đł They asked about my country and etc even about my sandals! Ugh! But not one single question about my visit to the museum! I am still in shock! They chatted so much, I forgot I was going to give them feedback & recommendations anyways and only remembered after we had left and started feeling cheated all over again while discussing the tourđ. If only they brought the convo back to feedback, I wouldâve remembered my all prepped up nice, polite speech & honestly told them how I felt and suggested ways to make things better like, why they donât have room for a âtry-onâ, the museum was small â granted, but they had unused space on the ground floor that would be enough for âtry-onâ & âplay-fightâ for all interested parties! Cue lesson four.
LESSON FOUR:
There is always room for improvement â like I said in three above, they had space to set up but it was just lying there, wasting away. There is always room to create the essentials or an essential âadd-onâ to/of your business!
LESSON FIVE:
As often as you can, allow your employees be clients for a day and let them think like clients with the craziest of hopes and expectations from the business, let them be brutally honest with observations & recommendations. Afterwards, you both put your hand in the dirt and clean things up! I donât think business do this or if they do, they have round table discussions where staff still see the business from the perspective of employee. Nope, canât do! Get them out and let them be clients for a day. Difficult to please clients. âHave high expectationsâ clients. Yep, That can do!
PS: I think they know just how under the satisfaction belt the place is (for me, this is even the worst part â knowing & not doing something about the problem but chit-chatting with clients)âŚitâs probably why they try to lift up your spirits with those chit-chatsâŚbut that, as in avoiding the problem and trying to sweep/sweeping it under the carpet isnât going to help business growthâŚ.at all.
đ The. End. đ
Yâalls know I like feedback so letâs hear your thoughts! Itâs gotta go deeeeeaaawn in the comments!