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Listen to All Your Customers
The Five Keys to Customer Experience - Part 3
By Jeannie Walters
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5
Creating a powerful customer experience is important because it creates a healthier future for your company. Your customers are your only true profit center, so keeping their needs and wishes forefront will ultimately create increased revenues.
Listening is one of those seemingly basic skills which actually require a lot of work.
I bet if you survey teenagers, most of them will tell you they listen 'most of the time' to what their parents say. If we surveyed parents with the same question - what do you think they would say?
The same discrepancy is true for how much companies think they listen to their customers, and how much customers truly feel 'heard. After all, companies are created by people. These people think they have good ideas. The companies start producing something or providing a service. Typically, they haven't asked their customers what they really want.
Research Has an Expiration Date
So you've conducted consumer research to find out more about your customers? Great! But is that really listening? We've worked with companies who have reams of research data, including lengthy (and expensive) studies to discover what their customers wanted. These reports are circulated from one department to another, only to sit idle on shelves or be overanalyzed for months. By the time any action is taken, the research is woefully outdated.
Just Ask!
Really listening to your customers means giving them every opportunity to provide feedback. Is there contact information on your invoices? Is there a feedback form on your web site and a plan to follow up with customers once you've received their inquiry? What about your call centers? Is the customer offered a chance to speak with a manager at the end of the call?
Smaller companies might have an easier opportunity to pick up the phone and check in with customers. But that one-on-one contact can still be a rarity. A great question to start with: "What can I do to provide you with better service?" Think of how many bankers and insurance agents we've each had who have never done this! In some cases, I didn't even know what my insurance agent looked or sounded like. But he was good at sending those premium notices!
The power of a check-in call or letter goes well beyond listening. Even if you don't hear back from your customers, these actions show you care about what they have to say.
I Can't Get No Satisfaction
Satisfaction surveys don't really cut it. Although they're a good start to listening to your customers, they don't reveal much about how your customers FEEL about the experience. Satisfied customers become satisfied ex-customers quickly. If there's no great reason to stay, they can be just as (or more) satisfied elsewhere. In fact, 80% of customers who switch providers express satisfaction with their previous provider*.
So what does that really tell you? Your customers may be satisfied enough not to complain, but hardly loyal enough to stay.
Speaking of ex-customers, they're a wonderful source of information about how to create a more profound experience. If you know where they are and how to contact them, ask them for everything - all the dirty details of why they are no longer your customers. It might be hard to hear, but you'll be better for it. If you don't ask for their opinions, don't worry - they'll still get the word out for you. Fortune magazine reports that 85% of dissatisfied customers tell 9 people, while 13% tell 20 people. (A satisfied customer tells only five.) Ouch.
Learn from the Masters
Pay attention to what your customers are seeking (or missing) by interacting with them as much as you can. Mark Cuban, owner of NBA basketball team the Dallas Mavericks, is famous for sitting in the stands with the fans-his customers-to hear what they think. David Neeleman, owner of JetBlue Airways, flies his own airline once a week to get feedback from customers. When Wachovia First Union banks merged, the companies gathered feedback from all their customers-everyone-from individual checking and savings customers to multi-billion dollar corporations. The resulting actions led Wachovia to have one of the highest customer loyalty rates in the industry.
It's not me, it's you.
Ready to really listen to your customers? Take a deep breath, and forget what you think you know about them. Then take your ambitions further.
Action Items:
- Train your front-line employees to ask.
Every interaction with your company has the potential for powerful customer feedback. Use these opportunities and reward your employees for getting this information.
- Make sure your customers have a way to provide feedback easily.
Provide your phone number, web site, and email addresses on every piece of communication.
- Show your customers you are listening.
Follow up. It's frustrating to voice a concern and then not feel heard. Make sure your customers get the message - 'We heard you loud and clear.' Then act on what was said.
- Don't take it personally, just keep evolving.
So you designed a web site that your customers hate? Don't blame them. Just change it.
Hearing and acting on your customers' concerns and wishes provides you with a roadmap to success and profitability. So make it easy for them, and don't forget to say thank you!
Coming Soon: Create Happy and Customer-Centric Employees
*Smith, Shaun and Joe Wheeler. Managing the Customer Experience. Financial Times Prentice Hall, 2002.
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