The One Word to Describe What You Do for Your Customers

This article answers the question: Why should businesses define the problem they solve in one word?

One-sentence answer: Businesses that define the problem they solve in one word create clarity around their value, making it easier for customers to understand what they do and align their messaging, decisions, and customer experience around solving that problem.

The One Word to Describe What You Do for Your Customers

If you can’t describe what you do in one word, your customers probably can’t either. 

I’m just back from the National Speakers Association winter meeting, where several hundred speakers met to hone their speaking and marketing skills. This conference featured Rory Vaden, cofounder of Brand Builders Group and the author of Wealthy and Well Known.  

One of the key takeaways for me (and there were many) was distilling the problem I solve for my clients into one word. Not a paragraph. Not a sentence. Just one word. 

While working through the exercise, I realized this isn’t just for speakers. It applies to every type of business. I’ll use my keynote speaking and training business as an example. 

I’m hired to speak about customer service and customer experience (CX). My team is brought in to train organizations to build customer-focused cultures. Those are the services we offer.   

Vaden teaches the principle that people don’t buy solutions as much as they buy the disappearance of problems. So, the question is, what “problem” do we solve? And to make a more interesting question, can we narrow the answer down to one word? That question becomes: 

In one word, what problem do we solve? 

I brainstormed with my team, and we identified our one word: retention. We help our clients retain their customers, thereby eliminating churn. 

A follow-up question was then asked to determine the cause of the problem. And, once again, to make it more interesting, it needed to be a one-word answer. The question is: 

In one word, what causes the problem that we solve? 

The answer is inconsistency. Customer retention problems stem from inconsistent experiences, which are often a symptom of an inconsistent company culture. From the customer’s perspective, inconsistency shows up as a gap between a brand promise and the actual experience. 

Notice each word is followed by a short one- or two-sentence explanation. The word creates clarity. The explanation creates meaning.   

So, here’s your homework. Get your team together and ask the two one-word questions. Add a sentence or two to describe the one-word problem and solution, and you have a simple, yet powerful, way to describe the “what you do and why you do it” for your customers. When everyone aligns around the real problem you solve, the simplicity and clarity of this exercise make decisions easier, and messaging becomes clearer. Then back it up with a great service experience, and you have a strategy that gets customers to say, “I’ll be back!”

Shep Hyken is a customer service/CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author. Learn more about Shep’s customer service and customer experience keynote speeches and his customer service training workshops at www.Hyken.com. Connect with Shep on LinkedIn.