Making life more simple and promoting growth. Photo / Getty Images
A great way to boost sales for many businesses is to make your product or service very easy to use.
Here are three examples to get you thinking
1: The easy to use car cleaning product:
A few weeks ago one of my friends gave me a bottle of a new car cleaning product to try.
It was called Pure Wax Waterless Car Wash and my friend raved about how easy it was to use. (I was a bit sceptical but based on my friends obvious enthusiasm I decided to give it a go to clean my car.)
The directions on the Pure Wax Waterless Car Wash bottle were pretty simple.
Just spray it on any part of your vehicle that you want to clean and then wipe it gently with a microfiber cloth to remove any dirt. Then buff with another microfiber cloth to make it shine.
I used Pure Wax as directed and to my surprise my car looked amazing once I had finished.
It took half the time I normally spend cleaning my car and best of all the finish on my car looked great for 3-4 weeks. (Dirt and water just seemed to slide off the protective coating that was in the product.) Other people that saw my car were very impressed as well.
I also discovered that the same product has many other uses including cleaning shower doors, house windows and so on. (I've tried it on a few windows in my own home and have been delighted at how well it works.)
What Pure Wax do is offer a product that is super easy to use and as a result a lot of people who use it (like my friend and now me) tell other people about how good it is.
2: Uber and other ride sharing services
Uber has done amazingly well around the world by making their service super simple to use.
You download the Uber app on your smart phone and book an Uber driver.
Uber's app is backed by Google, integrated into Google Maps, and available on the major smartphone platforms. It allows customers to order a ride through their smartphone based on their location. They can see who their driver will be, and then track the arrival of their car.
Fares are set by the user's smartphone tracking their start- and finish location, and the time the journey takes.
Other advantages include the fact that the user pays via the app, so no cash is required.
Uber is now available in over 400 cities around the world and one of the reasons it is so popular is because of how easy the service is to use.
3: The easy to use electronic newsletter
I'm a big fan of staying in touch with clients and key contacts by sharing useful ideas with these people on a regular basis.
That way clients and contacts remember you and your business positively and this stimulates a large amount of repeat and referral business.
A great way to stay in touch with large numbers of people is to use an electronic newsletter.
(Or e-zine as it is commonly caused.)
Now to work well an e-zine should have helpful information, look professional and be sent regularly.
Ideally an e-zine should go out to your data base at least once a month. (Your database should include clients, customers and other people that you have permission to email.)
There are a number of reasons that many businesses don't use an added value e-zine.
• They don't have added value information to put into it
• They don't have an easy way to send out their newsletter electronically
• They don't have the resources in house to create a professional looking e-zine.
I was speaking recently to Lara McCormick from Newsletter Ready
This business has made creating and sending an electronic newsletter very easy to use.
Newsletter Ready will create a professional looking newsletter for any client and give them a choice of helpful added value articles to include in each issue.
They will also send it out to your own database.
All a customer does is pay a super affordable fee each month to have Newsletter Ready do this for them.
I had a look at the testimonials on the website of Newsletter Ready and was very impressed.
Many of the businesses using their ready-made newsletter service are picking up new customers as a result of using the service.
And they all love how simple and easy the newsletter service is to use.
There is a huge opportunity for many of us in business to offer products and services that become super popular because they are so easy to use.
I recommend you think about how you could make some part of what you offer a lot easier to use. (It could be just what you need to boost your sales.)
'Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.'
— Confucius
Action Step:
What can you do this month to make any of your products or services a lot easier to use?
Stats NZ has revealed its latest Retail Trade Survey for the September quarter.