A typical business would probably be more interested in having a model that will explain how these customers buy products and services from you. However, if you’ve a bigger company with hundreds of employees, it’s best to have a model that will cater for even more customers and then go over how these customers buy from you. The way to think of this is that you’re building a model to describe how the actual customers of your company to buy from you. To illustrate, take the example of a hotel or motel that requires reservations and a reservation form.
On its own, this can be a complex web of instructions that must be followed to ensure a reservation is processed correctly or, in other words, a complicated customer experience. If you are not careful, you may have a guest that entering all the necessary information and then left the room without taking a booking, resulting in a loss of revenue to your business.
This example models of how this might work, but you don’t really want to build something that’s complicated. Rather, you will want to build a model that’s a little simpler, and also one that relates to the theme of your business, and if this is the case then you need to be looking at the very basics and not the complex ones.
The very basic form of this complex model is one where you specify that a customer would be able to see the menu, choose the dishes they like and then print out their receipt. Then they’re done, they go back to the register and pay you for the bill. You don’t really need to explain how the order works or explain why customers should have the option of printing out their receipts, rather just make sure that they do.
Let’s say that they did lose their receipt and returned to the register after paying for the meal, then what happens next is that they would now call to cancel their order. Once they do this, it would save you money by not paying you for their meal and it could prove to be profitable for you, as well.
This is essentially the basic model and one you could use if you are building a simple, single-location business. However, you might need to add a bit more detail here and in fact, some model companies are even available online and offering even more detailed, complex models.
For these complex models, you might choose to go for a package deal whereby you get a fully detailed report with the entire booking process and other details. This would give you much more detail as well as show you exactly how your customers would select their menus and choose the menu items they like.
You would even find that you have the potential customer doing it every day and in fact, even know how to give them a taste test to show you what they’re going to choose and then let them know how that tastes, before making them a purchase. The possibilities are almost endless, but you can see the advantage of building a complex model for this much detail.
For a business that has a couple of locations, you might prefer simpler models with less detail, but one that goes over each of the locations, the customers, and their buying patterns. Some do even include maps, and this is great for helping you to plan for future expansion.
Again, a simpler restaurant example with a few tables and chairs and customers can often be used without too much detail and even leave you free to make up the details on the fly. For example, if you have a restaurant with a patio and beautiful furniture but not a lot of traffic, you can still put this into a model and have the experience to look great without too much effort.
In summary, there are a lot of example models available, so make sure you take your time and do some comparison to find the right model for your business. so that you can get some useful real-world examples of how you might construct your simulation model.