How Not to Muck It Up
I recently visited a regional bank, with whom a related business banks only through acquisition, to open five new accounts for this business that has one existing account. Upon visiting, I explained my purpose, and the muckety-muck I spoke to began to panic. "I didn't know you were coming in today," he said. Did I need an appointment for a routine request? I couldn't recall seeing overworked muckety-mucks at a regional bank before, so I calmly explained that I had all the required paperwork. Once calm, Mr. Muck handled my request with aplomb, indicating I'd need to return to "sign the required paperwork." We made an appointment, the date came, I appeared, and we completed the transaction. I asked that all new accounts be linked electronically to the existing one, and this is where things went awry.
The bank needed four business days to set me up with a new login, as the database for the acquired bank didn't work well with the acquirer's systems. Once I had the new login, the bank said I'd need to complete the online onboarding process and then wait 24-48 hours to log in. After 72 hours, I emailed Mr. Muck, who told me to call Support. Support said "the people in that department" hadn't processed my request and that Support would ask them to expedite it. Wait—in this modern day of the Cloud and AI, we still have PEOPLE executing simple database operations? 24 hours later, I could log in. My login showed just the one existing account, so I emailed Mr. Muck AGAIN. He said he could add the other accounts now that I could log in. Thus, almost two weeks after my first visit, I was close to getting what I requested. I realized that this experience was just a different flavor of experience common to industries in decline.
Symptoms of declining industries include:
Slow adoption of widespread technology
Customer service that’s more focused on "fluff" than on substance
Difficulty with which customers differentiate between industry participants' products
Organic revenue growth that’s less than GDP growth
M&A
If you want to disrupt an industry in decline, try to do the following:
Know the industry's customers' top 5 pain points
Quantify the value of solving those pain points
Ideate around solution(s) to those pain points
Ask for feedback on those solution(s) from industry experts you respect
Build the skinniest possible solution to one of those pain points and get it into a prospective customer's hands
To avoid the inefficiencies and frustrations that often come with industries in decline, it's essential to prioritize technological adoption, customer-centric service, and streamlined operations. By understanding and solving key pain points in a focused and agile way, companies can disrupt outdated industries and drive innovation. At Marion Street Capital, we specialize in helping emerging growth companies do just that, ensuring they have the right strategies to navigate challenges and capitalize on growth opportunities.
Looking to streamline your emerging growth company data operations and boost efficiency? Explore how our DataOps solutions can transform your business. Discover more.
In our “Solve It” short stories segment, we want to connect (hopefully) entertaining professional experiences to insights that Marion Street Capital derives from pursuing its MISSION, VISION, and PURPOSE. I chose "Solve It" as the title of this series because the MSC mission is helping innovative growth companies SOLVE their most pressing challenges, and because as a child, I was addicted to mysteries like Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie, The Hardy Boys, and Encyclopedia Brown.
At MSC, our mission is to help innovative growth companies solve their most pressing challenges. We aspire to be the first name that Founders, CEOs, and Board members consider when thinking about how to best solve material challenges for innovative growth companies. MSC exists to help entrepreneurs build sustainable, market-leading businesses so that our next generation of stakeholders may prosper.