Overview: You’ve probably heard of ROI. But what about ROV? It’s another way to measure the success of your business vision, from multiple different perspectives! Read on to find out what we mean!

In recent blog posts, we’ve been talking about vision. We’ve covered the importance of having a vision for your business, how to articulate that vision, how to execute your vision, and how to guarantee that all of your employees and your clients understand your vision as it’s reflected in your company culture. We hope you’ve enjoyed reading!

We have one more thing to address from the realm of business vision. Once you’ve dreamed up and implemented your vision, how do you know if it’s working?

You may be familiar with the abbreviation “ROI,” short for “Return on Investment,” which refers to a comparison between an amount of money put into an investment and the amount of income earned in return.

>> Related Reading: Keeping ROI in Perspective

We may not be the first people to come up with the phrase “ROV” (short for “Return on Vision”), but we’re fond of it as a way of determining how successfully your business vision is coming true.

It’s important to note that a good “ROV” goes beyond financial measurements. There are several things to think about when considering the success of your business vision. Let’s count the ways…

Good Customer Service = Customer Loyalty 

This is especially true of businesses that are relatively new: You shouldn’t expect to rake in massive profits early in the game. But if your customers are happy with their experience, you’re on an excellent path.

Encourage customers to rate your business on websites like Google Business, Yelp, and Trip Advisor. If you get consistently high ratings, that’s an indication that you’re on the right track with implementing your vision.

If some customers leave you less-than-stellar reviews, don’t immediately dismiss them as bitter or ignorant — take a look at what they have to say, and determine whether you can use their feedback to better achieve your vision in the future.

You can also take this a step further by sending out surveys to customers so they can send their feedback directly to you. Don’t be surprised or disappointed if only a tiny percentage of customers actually submit a completed survey — after all, how many of those surveys do you ever complete? But review the feedback you do receive and look for adjustments you can make.

Another, related way to measure your ROV is to note how many customers keep coming back. This is easy to do if you conduct a lot of your business online — you can see which customers are making repeat purchases on your website or app.

But you can also keep an eye out for satisfied return customers if you have a brick-and-mortar location: Has the lady with the yellow purse come back to your business to spend money multiple times in the same month? That’s a good sign of a successful ROV!

Word of Mouth 

One of the best things about happy customers is that they create more customers. If your existing customers have a good experience thanks to your successful implementation of your business vision, they’ll let their family and friends know about it.

When you communicate directly with customers, or when you send them those surveys, consider gently nudging them in the direction of recommending your business to people in their lives. Saying something like “Please recommend us to people in your life” should do it.

Then, when a new customer shows up, ask them how they heard about your business. If they say they heard good things from their co-worker, their pal, or their uncle? That’s another indication of a successful ROV!

>> Related Reading: Word of Mouth Marketing

Employee Morale 

As we’ve discussed in previous blog posts, company culture is an important method for manifesting your business vision. Happy customers are a wonderful sign that things are going well… but don’t overlook the role your employees’ happiness plays in the successful implementation of your business vision.

How is morale among your team? Do your employees enjoy working together? Are they motivated by a clear understanding of the company’s vision? To answer these questions, you may need to actively solicit feedback — and you may want to keep it anonymous so employees feel comfortable sharing. And if their feedback is generally positive, guess what? That’s another sign of an awesome “ROV!”

And while we’re on the subject: Your own morale as a business owner is important too! If you’re not enjoying your work, or your work-life balance feels like it’s out of whack, you might need to make some adjustments to keep your vision on the right track.

>> Related Reading: Take a Hike, Boss! Isn’t It Time for a Vacation?

How Are You Responding to Challenges? 

A helpful way to measure your “Return on Vision” is to review how your organization has dealt with the challenges that constitute bumps in the road of business.

If you’ve had unexpected problems, have you managed to band together and resolve them quickly? If you’ve heard from an unhappy customer, was your team able to turn things around and retain that relationship?

Every business will face challenges. The way you and your team work to resolve them says a lot about your success at achieving your business vision.

>> Related Reading: How Smart Business Owners React to Challenges

Lest We Forget: Money Is Important Too 

As you can see, there’s a wide variety of ways you can measure the successful implementation of your business vision that don’t directly involve money.

But don’t ignore the parts that do directly involve money! Financial stability is the most obvious way to measure the success of a business for a reason. You might not be hugely profitable in the early days of your business, which is not unusual. But you should still keep a close eye on your profit & loss statements, your cash flow, and your daily operating expenses.

Dreams and aspirations are essential to a successful business, but unfortunately, they don’t pay rent or salaries. A steady financial status may be the most concrete way to tell whether you’re getting a good return on your vision.

In Conclusion

So, are you getting a good “ROV” (return on your vision)? There’s a plethora of ways to determine the answer, from customer satisfaction to employee morale to financial stability.

Unfortunately, there are many potential roadblocks in your journey toward achieving your vision. For example: Website tech issues. If you’re spending hours working on the back end of your website, fixing errors, updating plugins, and so on, that’s less time you have to work on achieving your business vision.

We can help with that! At MyUnlimitedWP, our vision includes eliminating website woes from business owners everywhere by offering unparalleled support. It doesn’t matter if your website is built on WordPress, Wix, SquareSpace, or none of the above. Feel free to reach out to us to let us know how we can help!