刡间故事

Yesterday, I went for a hair cut. I had a talk with the business owner and also a professional stylist, Bernard. A few times, he discussed this topic to me which every one had asked me the same question too. :bigeye:

Do you write program/applications/system for the anybody?

My answer is “Yes”. Of course I will do it when there is a profit but not necessary to every one. 😎

Bernard told me that he had acquired a few quotations from some suppliers ranging from RM20,000 to RM40,000. He wants a computerize system to capture all customer data and allow all his branches to share the same database for products or benefits redemption. A very good objective and very positive business motive too. I must praise him because that is not much of business owner will really care about how to increase customer satisfaction. :goodjob:

Although he has a good objective but that is not enough. To be honest, whenever there is a business, there is profit or loss.

I did share some of point of views with Bernard because I see the investment is not small for a small / medium business.

First, he must think about the Return of Investment a.k.a. ROI. To be frank, he did not thought about it. He was thinking to have a system to process things faster and consume lesser man power. So my question to  him is “How much profit do you expect the computer system to generate for you?”. His answer is “Not really generating any profit”. I was so shock… I replied “Then you should not consider to apply any computer system, because you are investing on something that don’t bring you any profit… So why you do it? Better purchase more business related products or equipments in order to provide better service to the customers. That will bring better impact to your business.” :smoker:

Second, I advise him to aim for true Win-Win instead of a fake dream. The question is how to maximum the value for money that a customer spent in each transaction? There are no reasons to ask your customer to pay more because you are going for computerization. If you do not ask your customer to pay more then yourself have to bare the system cost which did not add any value to your business profit. So why bother to apply I.T. where you can’t formulate a really Win-Win strategy for it? I am not attempt to force him to retreat but this is the crucial point for all business owners to think about… All of you need a system to generate money but not to waste your hard-earn money. The story can be different if you are filthy rich…

Third, I have asked him, “Do you have any idea on how to guarantee the customer loyalty?”. Obviously, he was thinking that the computer system is able to help to secure a customer by providing membership to them. Well, this is partially true. It is because if his competitors apply the same or more advance membership system then his investment will be mostly turn into no value… The first thing he should do it to think on how to secure the customer based by rolling out the computer system. :bingo:

Anyway, our chat did not go any further because my hair is not that long. Only 20 minutes, he managed to get my hair into a good and stylish shape again! :xd:

I pay the bill and come back to share this with you.

I hope this give you some thinking points when you are going for computerization. :glass: