I am just returning from the International Franchise Association conference in Las Vegas and I couldn’t be more energized to take on the rest of the year! There are so many things going on in franchising and generally in the world that I can’t help but be optimistic about where we are headed as a company. With 3D printing, Virtual Reality and the advancement of voice recognition, the application in our industry is enormous! But with all of that, the biggest takeaway I had was something so simple. Gary Vaynerchuk, a marketing and digital guru was the keynote speaker.  He said a very simple phrase that hit me between the eyes, “the company closest to the customer wins”. He went on to explain how important it is to know what your customer wants and where your customer consumes the information to purchase your product or service. Easy, but not simple.

Have you ever done a customer audit in your business? Do you know what your customers like to do, read, where they live, play and consume information? Is there a way to communicate to them better than the way you have always been? Are you living where your customers live? Do you understand your customers? These are easy questions, but not always simple to get the answers. Do you survey your customers? Read the reviews you get? You must live where you sell and if you are effective in getting your customers what they want, you will win.