Dare to Listen
and reap the rewards
If there is one thing I have learned from being in business for 35 years, it is this: Your customers
will tell you everything you need to know to succeed. Consequently, I am always encouraging business
managers to set aside an hour every three or six months and invite three customers to come and talk
to all their staff about what the company does well and how that helps them, what the company does poorly
and the problems that causes them, and what they expect or need from the company. It works best if you
bring in customers who are quite demanding and not afraid to speak their minds.
I have done this with companies in every kind of industry you can imagine in several countries of
the world for nearly 20 years and every session has had a positive impact on both the company’s
management and front line staff. It is also a great way to strengthen relationships with customers who
are always chuffed they have been invited to express their views and impressed the company would allow
them to come and talk directly to all their staff. Sadly, I know that after I stop working with the
company, not matter how outstandingly successful these meetings have been, they do not hold another.
I am also quite sure that whenever I suggest such events in columns like this, nobody ever acts on the
idea.
From what business managers tell me, the biggest obstacle to holding such meetings is the fear of
what customers will say about the company. Managers in particular feel threatened because they would
not only take any criticism of the company’s performance personally, they would feel embarrassed
in front of their staff. All of this is quite pathetic when you think about it. Imagine having so little
confidence in your company’s performance that you are too scared to invite customers to come and
talk to your staff. Moreover, imagine having such low self-esteem that you could not handle the criticism
personally. I wonder how well the ABs would do if they were too frightened to look at the video of their
last game? Anyway, you would not fear stop you, would you?
But the saddest part of not holding customer-staff meetings is everyone misses out on the opportunity
to hear what they need to do to become, or continue to be, successful. In my experience, customers not
only provide positive and negative feedback, they clearly outline what they need, want and expect from
the company. It is like being given a recipe for success.
Just yesterday, for example, I was holding one of these meetings with my client, a construction company,
and three of their customers. One customer, the CEO of a medium-sized organization, said that when his
organization signed a contract with my client, he was providing them with an opportunity to show they
could come up with ideas to do the job better. Better, he told them, meant cheaper for him and more
profitably for them. He said he expected each member of staff to take responsibility for making the
most of that opportunity. Finally, he said, “I hire you because of your intellectual property.”
Not one person in the room, including me, expected their customer to talk like that. We expected he
would tell us he wanted the job done on time, in spec, within budget with minimal disruption to others
while it was being done. We expected him to say he chose this particular company because of their experience,
equipment, track record or reputation. We thought he might have talked about concrete, steel, pipes,
asphalt, metal and sand, or diggers, trucks, cranes and bulldozers. But, no. He just talked about opportunities,
intellectual property, taking responsibility and finding better ways of doing things so he paid less
and the company earned more. It was a fascinating meeting, and I can tell you everyone, from the top
manager to the most junior person walked out with a very different understanding of what they needed
to concentrate on to make their customer happy and to succeed.
A few weeks ago, working with another company, a customer outlined to all staff the four things he
needed from the company Product, price, performance and people. The product had to be good and the price
had to represent value for money but not necessarily be the cheapest. Performance had to be measured
according to his standards, not their company’s, and had to be consistently good. But most important,
he said, were the relationships he had with people in the company. Once again, this is not what management
and staff expected the customer would say, and they walked away with a very clear idea of what they
needed to focus on.
What might your customers say that could revolutionize the way you think about your business if only
you had the courage to invite them to talk to you and your staff?
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