ccsboardroom blog

No one likes hearing negative things about themselves. Not even me or you! The truth is …. we are perfect. Our service is good enough. Our products mostly deliver. Our front-line people are always courteous. In effect, we are on track. That’s what we all like to think.

The reality I’m sure you’ll all agree, is quite different. Mistakes happen. Deliveries are late. Orders are wrong and people are rude and indifferent if they have a bad day.

The challenge for many managers and business owners is that dissatisfied customers may, and I stress ‘may’ let you know of their dissatisfaction. More likely behaviour …. they have low expectations of you and wait for something better or in fact they simply don’t come back. Even worse … research indicates they spread the ‘negative word’. More importantly people tend to embellish the story to make the problem more believable to others.

Measuring what our customers think, feel and perceive about our products and services provides, amongst other things, an early warning system before things really go wrong. In fact a priceless strategy. So why are some companies hesitant to take the initiative and embrace the opportunity to connect with their client’s opinion, and in so doing improve the relationship?

Many Managers I work with, who have initially been sceptical, have said;
- “Before we measured, we don’t know how to measure or where to start!”
- “Initially we are afraid of what we might hear but chose to overcome our fears and face the truth to cement the customer relationships!”
- “We didn’t know what do we do with the results?”
- “Never even thought about putting resources into the process of customer measurement.”
- “Never thought we could make the time to do measurement.”
- “We never imagined we would receive the value, especially when we had no budget!”
- “We were concerned we would not follow thru on expectations!”

The central theme is fear and inexperience on not knowing how to leveraging the many benefits. Just holding onto one important customer, who was about to ‘walk’, who didn’t think you cared, because of your initiative to get some feedback, will in fact have a positive ‘halo’ affect on both your people and profits.

Lets make this personal …. think about how many relationships break-up because of poor communication and unrealised expectations? How well did I perform? Please let me know … and show me, teach me and train me how I can do better?

Before we continue to lose more valuable customers, those that we have spent loads of energy winning (time and money), how about getting some input on how they feel about doing business with you. Cement your relationships with your customers to ensure you don’t lose them.

It takes courageous management to risk launching a new product or developing a new market segment. Non of which happen without some research.

Similarly, before developing your next strategic plan, consider getting input from those customers that have helped you achieve the success you are enjoying today.

You may be very surprised how quick and rewarding the payback can be!