Most get this backwards…
The US stock market is extremely complex. Add in things like private companies, real estate, cryptocurrency, commodities, bonds, currency markets, and collectibles and it gets even worse.
And each of these things, each company, each stock, each piece of data, is influenced by more factors than anyone could ever quantify.
Even the most advanced computers don’t come close
Investor behavior is also impacted by human psychology and social cues, and not usually to our benefit.
It’s why so many people buy at all time high and sell at all time lows, despite “knowing better.”
We’re still herd animals, whether we want to admit it or not.
How do the best investors in the world get around all this? How do they still find a way to win?
They simplify.
The details vary. Some just go with their guts. Others use charts and technical analysis. Others follow simpler rules or heuristics. Some even take themselves out of the picture and trust the whole thing to software.
It’s been said that the main job a financial adviser is saving people from their own unconscious biases and bad decisions. Someone who keeps it simple for you.
Now, let’s relate this to business.
Customer service, on the surface, is simple.
Answer the customer’s question. Solve the customer’s problem. Process the requested transaction.
But from that simple origin grew the massively complex monstrosity that is customer service in the 21st century.
NPC’s, AI chatbots, call centers, Procedures Manuals, scripts, “Quality” departments, piss break timers, managers, middle managers, micro managers, hold music, ‘your call is important to us,” wasted man hours, and the creeping sense of dread everytime we realize we have to contact customer service about something.
Customer service has been separated from the thing that really matters… customer satisfaction.
Unlike customer service, where you simply handle whatever the customer throws at you, customer satisfaction is complicated.
Do you satisfy the customer by handling his requests very well in customer service? Or do you satisfy him by making sure he never has the problem in the first place?
Do you do it by making the product as good as possible, or by really selling it effectively in the marketing?
Do you need a large call center, or a couple Filipinos with laptops responding to emails?
Just make a quality product, market it well, and make sure it meets or exceeds expectations.
Sounds simple, but when you get started, you see how complex it really is.
There are literally thousands of moving pieces, each of which affects the others.
Just like the stock market.
The writers of “procedures manuals” have a never-ending task, trying to anticipate every possible customer question or complaint and write a script for it.
It’s a job they’ll never finish.
It’s a job they never should have started.
Throwing complexity at complexity doesn’t work.
It’s time customer service takes a lesson from the most successful traders and investors.
It’s time we keep things simple.
Like stock traders, we need a system. A framework. A series of rules, or a general understanding of what we’re trying to do.
Smaller and more nimble, not bigger and more bloated.
Effectiveness rather than a perverted definition of “efficiency.”
There are different ways to do this, of course.
But the most effective, and simplest way I’ve found is the 80/20 Principle.
Focusing only on the things that make the biggest difference, and letting all the other unnecessary complexity completely slide.
That’s what I help businesses with. And that’s why I wrote the 80/20 Service Guide.
I want to make this stuff as simple as possible for everyone reading this.
Get it here: https://gumroad.com/l/rkbth/VIP
— Mark
