Piecing Together Success: Thinking about your Client Experience.

Kristina Stubblefield: [00:00:00] I'm excited to introduce a special conversation featuring the Marketing Mavens, a dynamic group of women in marketing who are passionate about helping businesses thrive. And I'm also happy to call them my friends. Welcome back to my channel and welcome to another video. I'm Kristina Stubblefield and every week we help you unleash your business's potential, boost your visibility and maximize your time.

Now, before we dive in, let me give you a bit of a background. The Marketing Mavens are a collaborative group dedicated to supporting each other in business growth, sharing insights, and tackling challenges together. Did I say that I'm also glad to call them my friends? Today, we're discussing a topic near and dear to every business owner's heart.

The importance of having all the right pieces in place for success. From the right people, to the right software and tools, and also [00:01:00] strategy. Every element plays a crucial role in shaping the trajectory of a business. In this conversation, we explore how businesses can optimize their operations by ensuring they have the essential components in place.

Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting out, get ready for valuable insights and actionable advice from this insightful discussion. Without further ado. 

Welcome to Simplified Solutions, your go to resource for small business owners and entrepreneurs seeking practical advice, innovative strategies, and simple solutions for business, marketing, and technology. I'm your host, Kristina Stubblefield. If you're eager to take your business to greater heights, then you're in the right place.

We're here to help you unleash your business's untapped potential. Boost your visibility and maximize your investments. Let's dive into the world of simplified [00:02:00] solutions. Stay tuned and let's simplify success together. 

Okay, everybody. My friends here, marketing friends, are here to have a roundtable discussion and Brittany's gonna kick it off. I'm gonna ask them a question and we're gonna have a conversation about it. Are you ready? I am. What is one thing that you think your customers are struggling with right now?

Brittany Murphy: This may be a different topic than what you think, but mine's actually going to be, they do not have the right people in the right seats. So my quick example is I talked to someone who was talking to me about marketing and mentioned that they just hired a marketing manager for their company to help them with these things.

And I talked to them again, later on, I said, how is that new marketing person doing? And they said, well, They thought marketing was just creating fun images and Instagram posts and reels and videos and aren't really excited that once they post that, I'm asking, how did it do, are we getting [00:03:00] any business from it?

So I think that this, that position, yes, related to marketing, but I'm kind of seeing that they're not hiring the person with the right characteristics for the right job. People think that you should only get a creative, fun person for marketing, which we all are, but we are also analytical data driven problem solvers.

And we know that, yes, this amazing video that was so fun to make has to do something. So how are we tracking it? What's the call to action? What are we going to do to differentiate this? We're going to split test this bitch, all of these things you're thinking about, but someone who. It doesn't have that personality trait, doesn't want to do those things, or doesn't see the job as that 

Christy Smallwood: or even have the knowledge for it 

Brittany Murphy: or even have the knowledge for it is really weighing these companies down.

So now they hate marketing even more because they don't think it works. And I have to tell them, I'm sorry, but that person you paid at 40 K a year didn't know anything about marketing was yes, coming at a lower rate, straight up college and those classes helped them. They had no real life [00:04:00] experience, nor understand all the capacities that go into it to make sure that job is functioning well.

So, that's something I've seen is more people are investing and investing maybe in in house people, but not actually qualifying that is, will that person 100 percent take the job of that freelancer or that agency that I was going to use to do that and do it very well. And that could be for HR, project management, customer service, anything.

But I'm really seeing some unqualified people in seats that are ruining companies and they're not, changing or adapting quick enough to cut the loose meat or whatever, 

Christy Smallwood: dead weight. 

Kristina Stubblefield: There's so many things to talk about and that's a great topic because working with small businesses or entrepreneurs that it's one person or maybe just two or three people that don't feel like or have reason to believe they cannot bring on another full time person that are turning to virtual assistants.

VAs or admins that are not necessarily in an office. And I'm not knocking those because I do [00:05:00] believe that they're very beneficial. However, not just going out and getting one because person says they're a VA, what roles do they need that target what they have on their plate right then? Like what area in the business do they need help with?

And when we're talking about marketing, I'm hearing even people say, Well, I guess I need to go out and get a person that's, on Instagram or Tik Tok all day. But has no marketing background, doesn't know about the algorithms. Like, yes. Is there a time and a place for a person to help you put together short form video?

Absolutely. So interesting that you bring that topic up. I know you have something to say about that same topic that she's talking about. 

Christy Smallwood: No, I'm just over here as a strategic guide and a business coach. I'd be like, I can't, I don't have space for that. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Okay, moving on to Amy. You have some feedback on this topic.

Amy Torres: You know, bad hires don't make your business better, regardless of what seat you're in. 

Kristina Stubblefield: They don't? 

Amy Torres: No. 

Kristina Stubblefield: But just putting an ass in a seat doesn't help? 

Brittany Murphy: What? 

Amy Torres: I know. Or because your niece doesn't. [00:06:00] I love that. My niece, my nephew, they're young. And because they're young, I love that even more so because I'm old. Right?

Christy Smallwood: Not every young person knows what the hell's going on. 

Amy Torres: Just because they grew up with a phone in their hand doesn't mean they know how to market or even do social media marketing. 

And it's frustrating because you see them wasting dollars. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Time. Precious time they're wasting. 

Amy Torres: And it's not good for either, any of them in the business, right? That person doesn't feel valued because they don't know what they're doing. And then it starts putting doubt in their mind. Am I good at all at anything? And the business owner's frustrated. 

Kristina Stubblefield: This brings me right around to you, where I have conversations with people about strategic. Oh yeah. Because when I get involved with them on their tech stack, going through, like they don't have a business system.

Well, it's just me. I don't have time to learn something else. It's just me. I can't utilize the social media or market my business because I'm running my business. 

Christy Smallwood: Well, okay, so when you ask the question about one thing they're struggling with the most right now, what has been consistent with my clients lately is that they are [00:07:00] behind the times on their tech, on even using social media, like Facebook is not a fad. They just haven't caught up on that. 

Kristina Stubblefield: But even emails. Email, 

Christy Smallwood: they haven't been using emails. They haven't been using Facebook. They haven't been using Instagram. They haven't been using. Google business profile. They haven't been using jack crap out there CMS system and their website is from 2014 nothing's been updated in the background.

Last five websites. Nothing has been updated in the back end of this. 

Amy Torres: It's not my website by the way. No, it's not. 

Christy Smallwood: It takes, and what do you know? All we have to do is update some code. And shit. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Whoa. Code. What? In some cases you only have to update code. You're just updating pictures or wording. 

Christy Smallwood: Well, right. It can be that simple. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Or just the thing at the bottom of your website that says 2015. We're talking 2014. 2014 is the copyright. 

Christy Smallwood: PHP. PHP update. It really wasn't that hard. I just needed to go to [00:08:00] hosting and say, Hey, this needs to be updated. They got it updated. 

Kristina Stubblefield: ChatGPT can help you with that too.

Christy Smallwood: It opens the gates for all kinds of traffic. Well, I wonder if that, yes. The answer is yes. 

Brittany Murphy: So is our main problem ignorance or a lack of something? 

Christy Smallwood: Well, and both. Right? Because, I know what she's talking about. I'm sorry. Because if we as a business owner and a solo owner, Let me turn the fan on. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Oh my God. 

Christy Smallwood: If we get stuck in our lane too long, we also have blinders on.

Kristina Stubblefield: And they're not, they don't come off. They're like stuck on in one direction. 

Christy Smallwood: And that is also a hindrance to your business. You have to stop strategically. You need to stop and look around a little bit. Take that off ramp. Stop at the rest area. You need a break. And look around at the options. Are you going in the right direction?

Do you have the right people on the bus with you? And are they in the right seat on the bus? Do you have the right bus? Does the bus still function? Like, do the [00:09:00] wheels fall off? Does the bus have air conditioning? Or do you still have to on the windows? 

Brittany Murphy: No, there's even gas in the bus to go around the shrine.

Christy Smallwood: All of these things kind of feed into every little piece of the business, which can add up to a lot of frustration. But if you don't stop to look at the bigger picture of what's not working out along this pathway in your systems and your customer journeys and all this stuff, and then it's up to us as the owner, we have to step back to look at the bigger picture.

But that one struggle is that they're refusing to do this to be able to keep up in business in general. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Okay, somebody said this. I'm going to have you come back to this. But one of these things that someone said to me, and I'm not saying I'm a super fan of it, but it makes the point. People are putting band aids on bullet holes.

Christy Smallwood: Yes. 

Kristina Stubblefield: And, going back to what you originally said in your statement there about not having the right people in the right seats or in the right positions. You're putting a [00:10:00] band aid potentially on something by just putting a person in that seat. Because if you don't look at the bigger picture to know, these are three areas in our business that we need help with.

Whether you find a person to deal with those three, or do you need three people? That doesn't mean three full time people in today's age, 

Christy Smallwood: you know, get in, get a gig person. 

Brittany Murphy: If only there were tools to help you automate certain things as well in your business. Too bad it's 2014 still, we don't have AI yet.

Kristina Stubblefield: You know, I used to joke about this. I used to joke about this. But, I've really been taking people all the way back. Let's, we're gonna go all, we're gonna do a complete audit of your business. I need to know when someone walks in that door, this happens. When someone goes to your website, this happens. When someone finds you on social media, this happens.

All of those entry points start the client journey, the client experience, which I talk to people about all the time, and that is a big gap [00:11:00] right there in client experience that you can set yourself apart from the competition. Why people are flying by the seat of their pants in business. They are just doing what business comes their way.

They're just handling it. There's not a lot. Of goal planning strategy. Unfortunately, it's gotten better. But also on the other side of that is there should be a whole strategy with your tech stack because these softwares nowadays work with each other. There's ways that you need two or three softwares. There's no way around it, but there's tools that help them communicate.

And when you talk about technology, people start to think, well, that's either A, I've got to get rid of someone. Potentially I had that came up the other day. I'm going to be getting rid of a position. Wouldn't go right to that place or I've got to take so much time to learn this. No work forward, backwards, inside and out, before I can put it to use. Those two things [00:12:00] are completely false and it's crazy now how much tech fits into all of that and being open. I just did an audit of someone's tech stack a couple of weeks ago. And if I could remember the exact number, I would share it with you that they were paying out monthly and software and they weren't using 20 percent of it, but you know what they thought.

They would need it one day. They thought they would get to it. Well, can't you come back and resubscribe? Yes, you can. But, that's a mistake that people make is without a plan how you're going to use that software. How is it going to get interweaved in your business? Just so much. 

Christy Smallwood: Here's one tip and then you can close. Draw it out. Literally take, and here's where the start is, and then go to the next step, and then what happens? Let me see your drawing. I just put pictures on it, but if you start here on any subject, content, what what, customer journey, your tech stack, like if your customer journey requires them to hit a landing [00:13:00] page, well then what?

So let's look at that landing page. That landing page is here, but then what? And what if they don't do this thing, well then here's this option. And then what? And then what? And I need, because what this kind of a system, this chart's gonna do is tell you what pieces of software you need. 

Kristina Stubblefield: And you know what, can I steal your chart real quick? Most of the time, I start down here. What is the end? Okay, let's work backwards because There's maybe steps missing. Maybe there's too many steps. Uh, did you know that there's software that does 80 percent of these steps? Potentially. But, until you take the time to work this out. Yeah, and I actually do a lot of whiteboarding, even on Zoom sessions, that, and I, you sparked this conversation from what you said, but people think that they can't bring someone in.

That they can't do this and they can't do that. You're not even giving yourselves a shot. 

Amy Torres: And they probably haven't looked at their budget to even know if they have a winning or not anyways. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Oh, well you brought up the B word. Well, that's our next [00:14:00] topic. 

Christy Smallwood: That's a whole lot of problems. 

Kristina Stubblefield: Brittany, thank you for the great topic. Thank you for branching it out how you did. Greatly appreciate it. If you don't recognize these people right here, my friends, we've become known as Marketing Mavens. And we get together on a regular basis. We try at least quarterly. And we are all in marketing. 

Christy Smallwood: And if you catch us on my podcast, which is Small Business Success Talk.

Kristina Stubblefield: Absolutely. Thank you so much for tuning in and I hope you were able to take something away from this.

 Thank you for joining us today on Simplified Solutions. If you found value in this episode and want to dive deeper into topics like this, here's how you can stay connected. Join our vibrant Facebook group, Simplified Solutions with Kristina Stubblefield, to connect with fellow entrepreneurs and continue the conversation.

For deeper dives into our topics and more exclusive content, visit our YouTube channel. Just search Kristina Stubblefield to find us. And if you enjoyed this [00:15:00] episode, please take a moment to rate and review us on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback fuels our mission to simplify success. We appreciate you being part of our community.

Until next time, remember, there are always simplified solutions for your business.