The Power of Accessibility.

The Future Does Not Fit in the Containers of the Past. Edition 210.

Accessibility is a key to successful businesses and individuals.

Accessibility is defined as the quality of being easy to approach, reach, enter, speak with, use, or understand.

Every individual and business should audit themselves on how accessible they are.

a)        Do we speak simply without using buzz-word bingo and with authenticity, clarity and empathy?

b)        Are we easy to get a meeting and appointment with or are there an armada of apps, phone trees, executive assistants and other flora and fauna that camouflage us and weeks pass between a request and a meeting?

c)        Can a customer access and return products and cancel services across all channels whenever and wherever they want or does one have Roach motel model where it is easy to get in but impossible to get out?

d)        Is there a pricing and sizing model that enables people to easily try a product or fit it into their budget.

Accessibility is a sign of excellent leadership.

Accessibility enables leadership to be more effective because it helps in alignment, enhances speed and upgrades the quality of feedback.

a)        Alignment: When a leader communicates clearly and simply it often results in high performing teams since everyone knows what needs to be done, how it is to be done, and by when it needs to be done.

b)        Speed: If it is easy to reach a leader this enhances the tempo of an organization and reduces the time between the signal and the reaction. We should measure the time it takes between when someone has requested a meeting and the meeting happening and ask if there is a significant gap will it not detract from the agility, flexibility and rapid response we say the firm should have?

c)        Feedback: If leaders are very approachable, they are likely to learn more about what is going on in the organization both good and bad. Every leader should ensure that they are not surrounded by sycophants, gatekeepers and other senior leaders.  The signal comes from the edges where people are connected closely with manufacturing, customer service and competition.

Accessibility drives Business Growth

Today whether it is Microsoft or Walmart or McDonalds or so many other successful companies one will find they are highly accessible companies almost “elastic” in nature (built over a very strong DNA and Brand Vision).

They are all highly accessible in the following ways:

a)        Omni-Channel: They can be bought in many ways leveraging apps, drive-throughs, off-line and online-channels. Amazon makes it easy to both get products delivered to lockers and to return products at Whole Foods and other stores.

b)        Permeating and Leveraging Culture: Whether it is McDonalds aligning with and leveraging culture, Walmart enabling entertainment and streaming and many brands aligning with influencers, sports or local events these Brands feel both human and relevant to people’s lives.

c)        Embracing Technology: During the recent Walmart Quarterly results, they shared how AI was being used to enhance certain capabilities by 100X

Walmart president and CEO Doug McMillon told investors during its fiscal second-quarter earnings call on Aug. 15 that the company has used multiple large language models to create or improve more than 850 million pieces of data in its product catalog.

“Without the use of generative AI, this work would have required nearly 100 times the current headcount to complete in the same amount of time.”

But as importantly the new tech has significantly enhanced searching for products where today on the Walmart platforms one can search using terms such as “Help me plan a football party” or “How to get prepared for a newborn” versus searching for individual products.

Accessibility enhances Brand Building.

a)        Customer Service: Forget the advertising and bombastic claims of a brand. Instead check out customer service. The biggest mistake that many Brands have made is to consider customer service an expense they need to reduce by automating, phone-treeing and off-shoring versus it being a tattoo moment that can quickly calm an irate customer and turn them into a long-term advocate. Customers are most likely to connect when things go wrong, and this often happens at the same time in many industries such as airlines and often takes time to resolve. Yet most companies plan for peak capacity assuming the normal run of business and get overwhelmed. This happens again and again, and one wonders who is in charge.  By being highly accessible customer service can become an asset and brand builder versus and expense.

b)       Customized Interactions: Different people like learning and interacting with a Brand in different ways. Some prefer written information and others voice and others video. Some would like to interact with a User Interface and others with a Human Face. The most important parts of customization may not be how one personalizes the ad or the media but how creates a spectrum of interactions that make the brand or the company to be accessible in a personalized way. Today this is often done using AI scaled content and responses that augment human touch.

c)        Variable Financing: The more ways someone can pay for a purchase or service the more accessible it becomes. From a variety of credit cards to pay overtime programs to different tools including Cash App, Pay Pal the more a brand enables a spectrum of purchase options the more it ensures accessibility.

Accessibility is a superpower.

Rishad Tobaccowala is an author, speaker, educator and advisor.