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The Business of Design: The Wow Factor
Nancy J. Slater
WOW spelled backwards is WOW. No matter how you look at it ….it is still WOW. [Upside down it’s MOM. But that is for a May article.] The WOW factor is something different in every business and every individual or situation. Wow takes your breath away, causes you to shake your head, blink your eyes, and marvel internally. Each of us has a Wow factor….a particular gift we have been given. How we discover and use that Wow factor is something I want everyone to think about as we approach the 14th of February and begin hitting our stride for 2007.
I think my wow factor is my public speaking ability. It is fairly easy for me to stand in front of an audience of any size and speak on a multitude of subjects. Others think it is my writing ability. Others think it is my smile. My Mom thinks it is everything about me. I imagine my Creator agrees with my Mom. Nevertheless, each of us has a special gift and our challenge in 2007, this year of doors opening, is to discover, develop, and hone that gift. We all have more than one gift, but let’s concentrate on one at a time.
As individuals with a variety of gifts, we have come together to form working groups, businesses, retail shops, wholesale markets. We must realize that each of us bring something of worth to that business/group. Our Wow factor is valuable and precious. It is, after all, a WOW. How we use it determines our success and contentment.
Businesses need to have a WOW factor in order to attract customers, encourage returning customers, and insure its stability and survival. In other words, that WOW factor will make profit and provide wealth. So what is your business’s WOW factor?
If you can’t answer that question right away, then your assignment for February is to discover your Wow or create your Wow. What can you do to take your customer’s breath away? What special flair or item or mark can you add that will become your trademark, the symbol of your company? It may be as simple as how your phones are answered. It may be as simple as ample parking places labeled “reserved for special customers”. It may be an unusual color that you add to your walls, packaging, delivery van, care and handling tags, labels, or uniforms. A Wow color that becomes your color. Create your own golden arches.
It may be a particular container or accent in your signature arrangements. Every dozen roses leaving your shop this month better have a Wow factor. That is what every customer is expecting because that is what he/she paid for when they agreed to pay February’s rose prices. It could be French ribbon, or curly willow, or jeweled ting-ting, or unusual vase. Think Wow when you are planning your Valentine’s specials. No one wants cookie cutter, fast food, roses. You may have to mass produce 500 dozen roses, but they each have to have that Wow factor in order for that customer to come back and order flowers again and again.
A Wow factor for a business, and I will concentrate on the smaller retail shop because that is where my experience lies, is how those shops are perceived by their community and how those shops view their community. Wow factor can be a simple attitude. Whether you can pay all your bills or not, your customers must never see your concerns, hear of your worries, or hear you complain! Customers only want to be associated with success. If you are in your “oh poor me. I might fail” mode, your customers will flee like rats from a sinking ship.
Your responsibility is to make every effort humanly possible to create a successful business. And the first step is a winning attitude that becomes one of your Wow factors. Write it [a plan]. Visualize it and say it out loud so you and others can hear. Know where you want to go; know how you are going to get there; and know you will arrive perhaps even ahead of schedule. We are what we think and we have to think Wow.
Another Wow factor is to treat your employees fairly. Show respect for their talents and gifts and reward that respect financially. You may have to bite the bullet, but if you pay your employees more than anyone else is paying, will they work harder, be loyal, and produce well beyond average? I think so. You also get what you pay for. If the industry average is $12 per hour and you are paying $13.50 and only getting $10 worth, it is time to change employees.
Dick Spady, President and founder of Seattle’s famous Dick’s Drive -In Restaurants, founded in 1954, pays his starting employees $9.00 and after 90 days increases to $9.50. “Anyone working 24 hours a week is eligible for 100% company paid medical insurance and is eligible to begin a $15,000 college scholarship program after six months.” I quote from an insert in a recent Sunday edition of The Seattle Times that thanked Seattle for all the awards and continued support of the five Seattle locations. Dick’s pay up to four hour per month for community service and offers 401K programs.
Dick’s business philosophy: “The first responsibility of a business is to itself. ….It must thrive. It’s income must be greater than its expenses. The second responsibility of a successful business is to treat its employees and its suppliers fairly. The third responsibility of a successful business is to its immediate community. The final responsibility of a successful business it to the common good, to help build a sustainable community.” Talk about WOW factor.
How does your business philosophy compare with Dick’s Drive-In Restaurants? You may not have a drive up window or a hot grill or a milkshake machine, but you do have a reach in cooler, an easily accessible sales counter, and a unique, quality, well priced product. Are your employees so thrilled with their working conditions and financial security [living wage] that they come to work early and shine with smiles bigger than life? Does each one flaunt their Wow factor? Does each one welcome your customers with a greeting that takes their breath away? Or do they stand around the design room grumbling like a mutinous crew on a sinking ship? It is time to examine your direction, your responsibility to yourself and your staff, and lastly to your community.
The last responsibility of Dick’s according to it’s founder and president is to the community. Dick’s does something called “Change for Charity, a program in which customers contribute their spare change”. Since 1999 they have collected and contributed $170,000. This is a double Wow factor in my eyes….the small but powerful, consistent, and visible helping of your local community.
Mr. Spady explains that the final responsibility of building a community includes not only giving of one’s money, but giving of one’s time. Volunteering and rewarding those employees who also volunteer. These types of activities do not go unnoticed. And whether our businesses do them as a marketing effort or an effort to help, the result is our communities are better for your time and money. Citizens notice and reward this time and effort by their role as your loyal customer.
The Wow factor of our caring about ourselves, our businesses, our employees, and our communities cannot be beat and will not be diminished. I urge you to discover and develop your Wow factor so that you can share that Wow in 2007 with all whom you encounter. Never compare yourself with others because you are unique and so are your gifts….your Wows. Remove the limits from your mind so that you can clearly see the wonder of your Wows. You are capable of making a huge difference in your world. Take the first step toward Wow.
For more information: The Leadership of Civilization Building, by Spady, Kirby and Bell is a book available in libraries and bookstores.
Visit: www.ForumFoundation.org and www.EasyCitizenInvolvement.com.
Direct requests and comments to:
Nancy J. Slater
CEO of THE PHOENIX GROUP, Seattle, WA.
E-mail: FenxGrp@msn.com
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