To make good business decisions, you need as much reliable information as possible about your customers' motivations, needs, desires, and your company's position in their minds.

Your business decisions directly impact your company's future. What information do you base your business decisions on? Has your company also fallen into a 'catch-22' situation where your decisions are based on your assumptions of needs rather than the actual needs of your (potential) customers?

When making decisions, a company can quickly find itself in a so-called 'catch-22' situation. Joseph Heller's famous novel of the same name describes catch-22 as a dilemma or difficult situation where two options for following rules are simultaneously conditional and mutually exclusive.

Business Decision-Making and Catch-22

In summary, the pitfalls of decision-making and their impact on a company's business success can be summarized in three points.

1. Companies are constantly making business decisions.
2. Customers are the only true validator of business decisions.
3. Customers are not involved in the business decision-making process.

Companies Constantly Make Business Decisions.

Companies make business decisions every day that affect our company's future. These decisions are based on the information we have. Right decisions will impact our company's growth, while bad decisions cost us time and money.

Customers Are the Only True Validator of Business Decisions.

Companies make business decisions with the aim of achieving their business goals. We can only achieve these goals if we persuade enough customers to do business with us. Therefore, customers are the only true validator of our decisions – if they like them, they will stay with us; if not, they will take their money elsewhere.

Customers Are Not Involved in Business Decision-Making.

How do we actually make business decisions in a company? Are they the result of feedback from our customers in sufficient quantity to reflect their actual needs, or are our decisions often driven solely by what we think is best for our customers? In our experience, most companies do not conduct in-depth analyses of their customers' actual satisfaction. We don't know exactly what our customers' actual needs and desires are, where we rank compared to the competition, or what they see as our competitive advantage. Why? Such systematic information gathering is time-consuming, laborious, and often expensive. However, making wrong decisions is even more expensive. Let's say we are preparing an advertising or sales campaign, developing a new product/service, or expanding our sales assortment. The costs associated with these activities are often enormous, and if the market rejects them, it's a significant blow to the company's success.

Effectively Involving Customers in the Company's Business Decision-Making Process

Involving customers in decision-making processes is a smart move that can gain or save us a lot of money. It will work when we ask the right questions, gather enough feedback from our customers, and base our decisions on this information.

Artur Insight provides you with an actual picture of your customers' motivations, needs, desires, and your position in their minds. The more real information you have, the better business decisions you can make. Are you interested in how Artur Insight can provide you with a tool for effective business decision-making? Call us at 031 458 840.