My husband loves dark chocolate.

And that’s how I found myself standing in a line that stretched out the door of a See’s Candy store 2 days before Christmas.

Now here’s something that anyone who has ever been shopping with me knows….I hate lines. HATE them. Not sure why it’s such a visceral feeling, but I always feel like it’s a useless waste of time and that there’s got to be a better way.

You see, part of the problem, was that See’s did not need to have a line stretching out the door (and having people give up and walk away by the way) because they have two kinds of products.

1. Standard boxes of candy that are pre-selected for you (dark chocolate, nuts and chews, soft centers, etc.) that are already wrapped in thematic paper and ready to go. That’s what I was there to buy.
2. Custom boxes of candy where you can select exactly which pieces you want to go in the box one by one.

The problem was that they were treating all the customers the same way. Each person would reach the front of the line and either hand over the boxes they wanted or take the time to make individual selections, thereby causing some of the standard box buyers (like me) to seriously consider bailing on the entire idea.

What they could have done (dare I say should have done) is dedicated one register to only checking out the standard boxes and then tasked the other two employees with handling the custom orders. Everyone would have gotten what they wanted faster, and customers would have had a better experience.

So why didn’t they do it? It’s not like they’ve never been open at Christmas time before….

I’m going to guess that it’s because they were too busy serving the customers that were right in front of them to take a step back, assess the big picture, realize some of the customers were unhappy, and solve the problem.

There are a lot of moving parts to what I just described – customer segmentation, standard vs. custom products, operational efficiency and customer experience. It was easy for me to see the fix while I was standing in line because:

1. I’m wired that way and I think about this stuff all day every day, and
2. I wasn’t anxious about the endless line of customer stretching out the door, because it’s not my business.

Sometimes it takes someone outside your business to see where the congestion is. The fix may be so simple and something you can implement it right away.

As I was planning to fix a business I have no vested interest in (other than not wanting to wait in line), I also thought about the implications for business in general – all applicable to coaching and consulting:

1. Customer segmentation: Do you have clients that would rather pay less and DIY vs. those who are willing to pay more for increased accountability and feedback? You might consider reshaping your programs to accommodate both of these groups.
2. Standard products: I think every coach or consultant should have at least 1 standard product. Something you can sell that’s the same thing every time. It could be a workshop, an online course or a series of themed group coaching sessions. It might be on the front end of your core revenue generator or it might be your signature program.
3. Operational efficiency: Are you spending at least 80% of your time in your zone of genius? Or are you slogging around doing things that you could pay someone else to do. If you are worried you don’t have the resources to do it, think about it this way – if hiring someone let’s you bring in one additional client a month does it pay for itself? If your answer is yes, do it.
4. Customer experience: I probably should have put this one at the very top. From your customer’s perspective, is every single step of their interaction with you delightful? Do you surprise them? Do you go beyond expectations? If you’re not sure, then ask them. This is what’s going to keep you in business.

I bring all of these up not to overwhelm you, but to get you thinking about ways that you can improve and grow your business outside of the social media boxes. It’s really easy to get caught up in all the marketing things, but unless you get these other things right, the marketing things aren’t going to have a lot of impact.