The Process of Innovation
What is one way to avoid customer dissatisfaction? At Next Day Blinds, customer problems just do not occur, due to the fact that the staff and the managers are well aware of the benefits of innovation, not only in their designs, but in the way that they follow through with customer service and customer care. The first step in the process that they tackle is simply to have clear definitions of what they are setting out to accomplish. Sounds like common sense, but so many other companies hold meetings, and when they are over, no one really knows what the last hour or two was about.
Not so at Next Day Blinds. Once the goal is defined, total immersion will pull out ideas that many people did not know they were aware of finding. Market research and data may help, as well as current trends, just anything specific that will help to give light to what is being investigated. Identifying the areas of opportunity helps with this step, such as small blinds for people living in apartments, or looking through the current color schemes that are hot and popular. The Target corporation did this recently when they came up with an entire line of home decor, focused on the college student. The colors and the patterns were funky, everything matched, which enticed people not only to buy a single pillow or throw rug, but also to a buy a candle or a rubbish bin, in the same color scheme. This was brilliant on their part.
The facilitator for these kinds of meetings at Next Day Blinds, must be extremely focused, choosing some of the best ideas, and then prompting a honing in on those ideas, throwing out a bunch of “what ifs” in a way to further stimulate the creative process. Any detective show or medical show on television uses these kinds of methods—when the team is collective trying solve one issue. It’s a bit like improv acting, one person says or does something, and another person follows with an action or a sentence in which they have no idea of where it came. The human mind functions on this kind of active stimulation, and by creating a team of innovators, one will be certain of success in the very picky consumer markets of today.
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