Today, we went to see Santa in Merry Hill Shopping Centre, Brierley Hill. It is that time of year when children get pretty excited about Santa and presents and all kinds of things.
Every year, on the ground floor of the shopping centre, one of the available units gets converted into a place for Santa and his very friendly, helpful elves to appear. The princesses get pretty excited. They repeatedly ask when we can go to see Santa and today was the day.
The princesses could barely hold their excitement in as we approached the shopping centre. (My littlest is unfortunately unwell so she was asleep for most of it!) We rushed to Santa’s grotto with V in the lead. We bought our tickets from the lovely elf then we had to wait an hour to actually meet Santa as he seemed to be busy with some other children.
We went shopping while we waited and returned in time to enter the mini cinema room where we got to watch a film about a naughty elf.
Now this is where my main point originates. As we sat there waiting for the 5D (?!!) movie to begin. I thought to myself – I hope this is not the same as last year. Unfortunately, it was the exact same movie as last year and the elves that assisted us said the exact same thing and after the movie, we queued up the same as last year to see Santa.
It was all exactly the same and a part of me wondered why they could not be more creative with their offering.
But then, I realised that I was not their customer. My princesses were and guess what? My princesses had had a grand time and all their wishes for the experience had been fulfilled. And come next Christmas, they will want to do exactly the same thing again.
Being the business coach that I am, it got me thinking about knowing your ideal client. As soon as you know your ideal client then you know what your business set up and offering is and you would do well to never deter from that without some considerable testing.
Santa and his elves could have come up with the most amazing, technicolor, artistic, amazing experience but the truth is, their ideal clients were more than satisfied with the offering as it was.
So the question for every business is ‘Who do you serve?’
As soon as you can answer that, give them what they want. Not what you think they should have but find a formula that makes your customers happy and keep on giving it to them.
No need for innovative product ideas, sometimes you need to Keep it Simple!
