By Marcus Leach
The key to a successful business is understanding your customer's needs. That is the view of World First co-founder Jonathan Quin who spoke at the latest Smith & Williamson Entrepreneurs' Lunch.
Quin, who founded World First in January 2004, has seen his business grow year-on-year, and, in his eyes, one of the main reasons for that is the fact that they not only engage their customers, but they listen to them as well.
"We [the British] are not great at giving feedback," said Quin. "It's our mindset to rather say everything is 'fine', even when it isn't. Take when we eat out as a prime example. How many of us say the meal is fine when in reality it isn't.
"Obviously the advent of review sites is changing that mindset slowly, but even that it is done anonymously and after the event itself. However the problem is that many businesses don't ask for feedback, and that needs to change."
Quin explained how one of the key principles at World First is asking for feedback, and then acting upon it. The key to this is asking the right questions, as without that, he says, you will get useless data in return.
"The key to a successful business is the combination of a good product and the constant fine tuning through feedback channels," he added. "You must have both aspects as they drive each other forwards."
The Entrepreneurs' Lunch is a joint initiative between Smith & Williamson and www.freshbusinessthinking.com bringing together a select group of entrepreneurs and business leaders to allow high level networking and exchanges of ideas.
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