Being a client is one of the countless activities that we do on a
daily basis in order to provide ourselves the dozens of products and
services we use every day.
Being a client is a very valuable resource to get a job. This is because clients are the end users of the products and services companies provide, they pay money for them and experience both their benefits and their flaws. That is why companies value a lot their clients' feedback.
Many corporate companies like Apple, Adidas and LEGO hire Mystery Shopping Agencies in order to evaluate their services. These agencies hire mystery shoppers that go to these retailers, locations, act like clients, ask for consultations related to the product or service and then they evaluate the quality of the service received. Since big companies pay big money in order to evaluate their own services through the eyes of a customer, this means your observations as client are very important to your prospect employer and it will make it easier for you to get a meeting and a job offer.
This is how it works:
1. Look at the places, shops, restaurants, car washing service, supermarket etc. that you already buy from or have enough information about etc. You can use your experience as a client for choosing the company you want to work with or you can just decide about your favorite company and then become their client.
2. Assuming you buy frequently enough from them, try to spot some inconveniences or opportunities for improvement in a product, service or in the business overall. Or if you are an employee and want to get a promotion you can look at the systems inside the company (e.g. security, accounting, HR department, production etc.). The point is to be a USER, either a client (using a product or service) or an employee (using systems or performing activities in a company). It should be a problem, challenge or opportunity that has effects and impact on the overall customer satisfaction or business, activity, department performance (depending on your field).
3. Create a minimum solution for the issue or opportunity you have discovered.
If you focus on products and services that you are already using (not necessarily like), then you will have more chances to come up with solutions.
This is important because, being a client, offers you the subjectivity that companies don't have over their activity. At best they care for their clients and work hard to create value for them, but they don't know how it feels like to be a client.
This implies that you will actually pay for a product/service, go through the process of acquisition and use the product and eventually, you have to observe if you are satisfied or not with your product.
Becoming a customer is not just something that I used when I was offered jobs. It is also a very important principle used by Toyota and it is called Genchigenbutsu ("go and see"), which emphasizes going to the actual place to observe and understand.
If you want to work with a company and buy their products it doesn't mean that you have to go crazy for them and fall in love. The logic behind this principle is the fact that it gets you valuable information, details that you cannot find unless you actually GO and SEE, until you experience the dynamic in the service process.
Overall, you should have access to information related to customer services, processes inside the business, depending on the type of job you are looking for. So, you have to adapt the "go and see" principle to your situation. For example, if you want to work with a Mercedes Dealer, obviously, you won't go to buy a Mercedes. However, you will adapt this principle by taking a drive test or you can ask someone who has bought a Mercedes about his experience. Thus, you can be flexible in your approach because the goal is to get information from the field and to observe the process and the dynamic in the business.
For instance, if you work in accounting or production, you might have challenges to see the correlation between processes in your job, the problem you find and client satisfaction. So, I will give you an example from the "Toyota work field" to see the real problem and how it correlates to clients. It is about an engineer who is trained by a sensei (teacher) in the production field.
When a robot in the Toyota factory breaks down, this is how the engineer perceives the situation:
"When the robot breaks down, there is a fault in the loading zone because the weld nut does not feed. We have been working with the distributor to replace the feeder and we have tried different ways to find a solution, but nothing has worked out. This means we need a new robot."
If a problem is observed in this context, apparently there is no direct connection to customer satisfaction.
For the same problem, a sensei sees the situation differently:
"When the robot breaks down, the line stops, we cannot produce the parts in time, hence we have to work overtime to meet our demand, to send the parts in time to our clients".
This means that even productions lines are meant to serve clients because companies EXIST to serve their clients. Hence, every process, activity, department in a business is meant to contribute to clients' satisfaction, directly or indirectly.
4. Establish a meeting. At this point you just have to search who the CEO is, the board director or the manager responsible in the field, department you want to work. You always aim to go to decision makers because they have the power to hire you and because they understand the importance, the impact of your thinking on their company.
Thus, when you write them to set a meeting, you will present yourself as client that noticed an opportunity to improve their services. Presenting yourself as client, it is much more powerful than if you asked for an interview. This is because clients are the most important thing to a company because they SPEND their money on products and because of their subjective experience they have that CEOs cannot perceive, but want to know about.
If you ask for an interview, it is perceived as if you want to TAKE something from them (money - your salary) and not necessarily to add value to their business which is not necessarily true, but I explain in one of my articles "The Gap between your idea and a job offer" why the traditional approach is not the best way for getting a job.
So, it is about the psychology, about the meaning of being CLIENT versus JOB CANDIDATE, about how they are perceived in general. Clients GIVE valuable feedback. Candidates WANT a job, money, security, nice coworkers etc. This means they TAKE, TAKE and TAKE from companies. Thus, employers RISK a lot by receiving you in a meeting if you let them think you are a job candidate. Make it easy for you and for them and go as a client because if you do your homework right, it will be true and you should use this asset to your advantage.
Being a client is a very valuable resource to get a job. This is because clients are the end users of the products and services companies provide, they pay money for them and experience both their benefits and their flaws. That is why companies value a lot their clients' feedback.
Many corporate companies like Apple, Adidas and LEGO hire Mystery Shopping Agencies in order to evaluate their services. These agencies hire mystery shoppers that go to these retailers, locations, act like clients, ask for consultations related to the product or service and then they evaluate the quality of the service received. Since big companies pay big money in order to evaluate their own services through the eyes of a customer, this means your observations as client are very important to your prospect employer and it will make it easier for you to get a meeting and a job offer.
This is how it works:
1. Look at the places, shops, restaurants, car washing service, supermarket etc. that you already buy from or have enough information about etc. You can use your experience as a client for choosing the company you want to work with or you can just decide about your favorite company and then become their client.
2. Assuming you buy frequently enough from them, try to spot some inconveniences or opportunities for improvement in a product, service or in the business overall. Or if you are an employee and want to get a promotion you can look at the systems inside the company (e.g. security, accounting, HR department, production etc.). The point is to be a USER, either a client (using a product or service) or an employee (using systems or performing activities in a company). It should be a problem, challenge or opportunity that has effects and impact on the overall customer satisfaction or business, activity, department performance (depending on your field).
3. Create a minimum solution for the issue or opportunity you have discovered.
If you focus on products and services that you are already using (not necessarily like), then you will have more chances to come up with solutions.
This is important because, being a client, offers you the subjectivity that companies don't have over their activity. At best they care for their clients and work hard to create value for them, but they don't know how it feels like to be a client.
This implies that you will actually pay for a product/service, go through the process of acquisition and use the product and eventually, you have to observe if you are satisfied or not with your product.
Becoming a customer is not just something that I used when I was offered jobs. It is also a very important principle used by Toyota and it is called Genchigenbutsu ("go and see"), which emphasizes going to the actual place to observe and understand.
If you want to work with a company and buy their products it doesn't mean that you have to go crazy for them and fall in love. The logic behind this principle is the fact that it gets you valuable information, details that you cannot find unless you actually GO and SEE, until you experience the dynamic in the service process.
Overall, you should have access to information related to customer services, processes inside the business, depending on the type of job you are looking for. So, you have to adapt the "go and see" principle to your situation. For example, if you want to work with a Mercedes Dealer, obviously, you won't go to buy a Mercedes. However, you will adapt this principle by taking a drive test or you can ask someone who has bought a Mercedes about his experience. Thus, you can be flexible in your approach because the goal is to get information from the field and to observe the process and the dynamic in the business.
For instance, if you work in accounting or production, you might have challenges to see the correlation between processes in your job, the problem you find and client satisfaction. So, I will give you an example from the "Toyota work field" to see the real problem and how it correlates to clients. It is about an engineer who is trained by a sensei (teacher) in the production field.
When a robot in the Toyota factory breaks down, this is how the engineer perceives the situation:
"When the robot breaks down, there is a fault in the loading zone because the weld nut does not feed. We have been working with the distributor to replace the feeder and we have tried different ways to find a solution, but nothing has worked out. This means we need a new robot."
If a problem is observed in this context, apparently there is no direct connection to customer satisfaction.
For the same problem, a sensei sees the situation differently:
"When the robot breaks down, the line stops, we cannot produce the parts in time, hence we have to work overtime to meet our demand, to send the parts in time to our clients".
This means that even productions lines are meant to serve clients because companies EXIST to serve their clients. Hence, every process, activity, department in a business is meant to contribute to clients' satisfaction, directly or indirectly.
4. Establish a meeting. At this point you just have to search who the CEO is, the board director or the manager responsible in the field, department you want to work. You always aim to go to decision makers because they have the power to hire you and because they understand the importance, the impact of your thinking on their company.
Thus, when you write them to set a meeting, you will present yourself as client that noticed an opportunity to improve their services. Presenting yourself as client, it is much more powerful than if you asked for an interview. This is because clients are the most important thing to a company because they SPEND their money on products and because of their subjective experience they have that CEOs cannot perceive, but want to know about.
If you ask for an interview, it is perceived as if you want to TAKE something from them (money - your salary) and not necessarily to add value to their business which is not necessarily true, but I explain in one of my articles "The Gap between your idea and a job offer" why the traditional approach is not the best way for getting a job.
So, it is about the psychology, about the meaning of being CLIENT versus JOB CANDIDATE, about how they are perceived in general. Clients GIVE valuable feedback. Candidates WANT a job, money, security, nice coworkers etc. This means they TAKE, TAKE and TAKE from companies. Thus, employers RISK a lot by receiving you in a meeting if you let them think you are a job candidate. Make it easy for you and for them and go as a client because if you do your homework right, it will be true and you should use this asset to your advantage.
In my approach "How to get a Job without a Resume and Cover
Letter - the Entrepreneurial way", I explain in details how you can use
your client experience to get a job on the spot. You will also find two
detailed personal examples that got me job offers and were the result of
"being client" experience. In these common situations I identified
opportunities for improvement, come up with minimum solutions and
present them to decision makers.
I also show you the actual approach explained step by step, what you have to understand and do in order to put all experiences at work.
Pay only if you find it useful https://www.fiverr.com/explorerdoer
I also show you the actual approach explained step by step, what you have to understand and do in order to put all experiences at work.
Pay only if you find it useful https://www.fiverr.com/explorerdoer
