How to Manage Expectations and Demands as a Manager
Let’s be honest. Leadership is not easy, but can be easier with the right resources.
Leadership is no easy task. As a manager, you deal with pressure from all sides. When you accepted a leadership position, you also accepted responsibility. As the company’s face to customers and vendors, you need to strike a balance between demands from customers and expectations from vendors. You also become a channel of communication between your followers and your superiors. As the stress builds in from all sides, you need to remain calm and find solutions to their issues. No, management is not an easy task, but with the right resources your job can become easier.
As a manager, you might ask yourself these questions:
1. What are my customers demanding? What do they value?
2. What are demands of my superiors? What metrics do they care about the most?
3. What are the expectations of my followers? How can I help them achieve their goals?
4. What are the expectations from my vendors? How can I sell their products better?
The answers to these questions can be answered through big data analytics. These questions can be answered though product knowledge, customer experience, and internal HR data. Today focus will be on product knowledge and customer experience. If you would like to see how to use internal HR data, read our article “How do use Big Data in the Workplace”.
What are my customers demanding? What do they value?
One major selling point of a big box retailer is the human interface. Having a staff member on site to provide product expertise can make a huge difference in closing a sale. Indeed, product knowledge has four major benefits:
1. Strengthening communication skills
2. Boosting enthusiasm
3. Growing confidence
4. Assisting in overcoming objections
How can I improve my customer experience though product knowledge? What are the expectations from my vendors? How can I sell their products better?
One of the marvels of working in a modern world is that customers like to voice their opinions. Product reviews are an accepted facet of society that is here to stay. Product reviews can be found on your company website, especially if you are a big box retailer like Walmart or Best Buy. It is great to have access to the data, but there is a slight problem. The data is unstructured. Unfortunately, text is not an acceptable format to plug into just any algorithm.
Time is a resource that is scarce and finite. Yes, you do want those insights from product reviews, but you do not have the time to read all the reviews. With thousands of products in your inventory and hundreds of customer reviews for each product, it could be a life sentence to just read all the reviews yet alone to make actionable insights from the monstrous data set.
Are you ready to become a dragon slayer? What are demands of my superiors? What metrics do they care about the most?
Your A.I powered next-gen data analytics platform, Stratifyd Signals, can be your Excalibur to defeat monstrous data sets. Stratifyd Signals is capable of social media analytics, text analytics, data visualization and sentiment analysis. We already have 30 different data connectors and 42 visualizations and more in the works. Though Stratifyd Signals Project Nova, you will be able to interact with storytelling, collaborate effectively, and customize visualizations.
By slaying the monstrous data sets, you will gain access to treasures like actionable insights. Amaze your customers, vendors, superiors and followers with your product knowledge. Yes, you can find solutions to their troubles by using Stratifyd Signals Project Nova. Yes, you can succeed as a manger with the right resources.
Let’s do a quick recap. As far as exceeding the demands and expectations of superiors and vendors go, they desire to see your impact on the bottom line. Your impact on the bottom line is dependent on sales. Sale volume is dependent on customer experience and product knowledge. How do you improve customer experience and product knowledge? You improve customer experience and product knowledge through actionable insights found though your A.I powered next-gen data analytics platform, Stratifyd Signals. Therefore, your primary questions are now: What are my customers demanding? What do they value?
Do you want evidence that Stratifyd Signals can be your Excalibur? Yes! Let’s conqueror monstrous data sets of Best Buy and Walmart in regard to a top selling item: SAMSUNG 40” Full HD Smart LED TV.
Best Buy
Customer Demands
Customer demands can be found by using the filtering tool. When a customer wants to see changes, they usually give a low star rating.
Customers demand a decrease of buffering time, consistency of service over Wi-Fi use over different platforms and apps, a decreased chance of a defective product, and easy way to deal with defective products. A money back guarantee means nothing because customers view the money as theirs to begin with. Customers want to deal with less risk. They demand a lower risk of having a defective product and less hassle when returning an item. What can do you if you work at Best Buy, not Samsung? Offer defective product pick-up and replacement. Customers want their needs met. As a manger of Best Buy, the money does not necessarily have to leave your store if you can make a better product recommendation. As you gather insights from your customers, you can send the feedback down the supply chain. If Samsung wants you to sell its product, then it will have to meet customer demands.
Customer Value
By viewing the buzzword widget, understanding value to customers could not be easier. Customers appreciate the weight because they do not want to deal with the bulk. It is true that customers value the size, but more and more customers are mounting their televisions on their walls. It is much easier to mount it on the wall with the light weight. Coming in at the second most frequently mentioned word, Black Friday clearly tells Best Buy to keep the Black Friday promotion each year. Customers also love the crisp picture and quality of sound which are equated with the product being well worth its value in money. As the fifth most common buzzword “live room” gives a clue about where in the home the product will end up. For this size of television, it ends up as a secondary television for the bedroom. This knowledge can prove useful when store associates talk to customers about how they intend to use the product.
Do you want to see the Best Buy dashboard? Yes! Here is the embedded link.
Walmart
Customer Demands
Once again, the filtering tool based on star rating makes customer insights much easier.
This consumer’s story shows the importance of balance of features. Although she was impressed with the resolution, the experience with the zoom function was a deal breaker. Why does she value the zoom function matter so much? She wanted to enjoy classic movies. She will not be the only one in her demographic with that same desire. She also demands that USB ports to be standardized for consistency in use. If customer struggles so much with the product that she is afraid of breaking it, then the product will not be a hero in her eyes. What can you do if you work at Walmart, not Samsung? You can offer customers the option of testing USP ports before purchase so they know the product will work. Giving customers that in-store assurance will go a long way in building customer trust. Once again, you can send the feedback down the supply chain. Your vendors will love you because they will know what problems to fix so you can sell more product.
Customer Value
Why would they recommend this product? They love how easy it is to set up. One consumer reported that he was able to set it up in ten minutes. Ease of set up for the product can be another arrow in your quiver so your staff can sell the Samsung TV better. Walmart customers buy this product as a way to get a movie theater experience at home. Although they enjoy the sound quality already, adding speakers with this TV as a bundle item would be a great deal sweetener.
By slaying the monstrous data sets of Best Buy and Walmart, you gained experience. You know that your A.I powered next-gen data analytics platform can be your Excalibur. You have gained actionable insights that can be converted into revenue. Your superiors and vendors will see your impact on the bottom line. You will be able to provide the guidance and training to your followers to help them meet their goals. Your customers will love you because you understand their demands. Yes, you know how to manage expectations and demands.
Would you like to see how Stratifyd Signals data analytics solution can help your organization find customer insights? Visit us on http://www.stratifyd.com/ for more information. If you would like a self-service trial account, please chat with us or email webcontact@stratifyd.com. We’d love to work with you!
