I remember vividly watching a training session where my sister easily threw another student flat on his back. What staggered me though was size of student.

He was huge.

But she didn't strain or struggle. She simply appeared to step calmly backwards as he approached and let him fall over her in a big circle to land flat on his back.

I was amazed and by look on his face so was he.

You may be mistaken in thinking he was going easy on her, but he wasn't. There was something in way she reacted to his movement which gave her this enormous power.

Something in technique she used that enabled her to lift a 20 stone man off ground and plant him flat on his back.

I'm now going to share her secret with you with ideas for applying these principles to your own business...

Dr. Jigoro Kano, founder of Judo devised a theory known as "kazushi" which essentially means, "Using a minimum amount of strength, it is possible to throw your opponent if you force him off balance by breaking his posture."

Kazushi (unbalancing your opponent) is effectively promoting idea of "Minimum Effort - Maximum Impact". Which, by no coincidence, happens to be key concept behind Lean Marketing.

This understanding of Kazushi is what gave my 10 year-old sister power and belief she needed to throw 20 stone man.

She yielded to his forward momentum and put her foot in a position low enough to act as a lever which had effect of disturbing his balance with full force of his own momentum and weight behind it.

In other words she harnessed all 20 stone of his weight, combined it with her own and used it all against him!

So How Do You Use Kazushi In Your Business?

Good customer service is life blood of any business. Although new customers are important good customer service will help generate customer loyalty and repeat business. With each satisfied customer your business is likely to win many more customers through recommendations and remember, if you are not taking care of your customers, your competition will.

A Customer Satisfaction survey will help you not only identify problem areas but will also demonstrate to your customers that you care and are proactive in looking for ways to improve service that you provide.

Where to start?

Objective - Before you start compiling your survey you should first consider what objectives of survey are, in that way you will remain focused and find it easier to decide what questions to ask.

Analysis - In addition to objective consider also how you will analyse answers having completed survey. Keep in mind that ‘closed’ questions (where respondent is asked to choose from a limited number of responses) are easier to analyse than ‘open’ questions (where respondent can reply in anyway they want). Much will depend on volume of respondents, higher volume more important it is to have an easy method of analysing results.

Opportunity – Keep in mind that as well as obtaining valuable market research data customer surveys are also a good way to publicise aspects of your service that your customers may not be aware of. After you have drafted your survey read through survey from a market research view point and check that you are asking right questions in right way and that with feedback information you will be able to make informed decisions. Then, read through survey from a marketing view point, check that you have phrased each question so that every opportunity has been taken to promote your business? The ideal question will perform following three functions:-

Market research–provide valuable feedback to help you improve your customer satisfaction levels and in turn your business Marketing –promote aspects of your business Information/Education–advertise a service that you provide that your customers may not have been unaware of

For example:-

Do you find in-store baby changing facilities useful?

By asking this question not only will store receive good feedback on facility they provide but they will also advertise their baby changing facilities and promote themselves as a family friendly store beyond those customers who have a specific need for facility provided.

Warts and all – to benefit most from a customer survey you need to be prepared to dig deep and accept worst. A customer satisfaction survey should be designed to highlight problems so that they can be addressed; regular customer satisfaction will prevent complacency and will also give early warning on where your competitors initiatives may be loosing you business.

What to ask?