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Welcome to Success Strategies

Are you listening to your customers?

In this edition of Success Strategies, we focus on the benefits of listening to your customers. I am defining the word “listening” quite broadly. It is not good enough to listen to the feedback passively; it is essential to act on what customers are saying. Our clients that are the best at both listening to and acting on feedback are the ones who have superior experiences for their customers.

What are you missing?

Most importantly, being open to what your customers are saying isn’t easy. It takes time and effort to listen and act on feedback by reviewing your processes and communicating with front-line staff. To learn why it is worth the effort, read my latest blog, “Just What Does B2B Customer Feedback Get You?” I share the responses of top CX Managers to the question of what are the primary benefits of their programs. Learn what you are missing at your company without a B2B Customer Feedback program.

Continuing on our topic of listening to your customers, I found Medium’s “Let Your Customers Love You, by Listening to Them.” In short, this blog outlines and explains the main reasons to listen to your customers which are to improve your:

  • Products (“Metrics tell you what, but feedback can often tell you how and why.”)
  • Customer Relationships (“…sometimes people don’t expect you to solve their problems; listening and acknowledging them is good enough.”)
  • Stories (“Powerful customer stories infuse meaning into your organization: they motivate and inspire employees.”)

In addition, I also recommend Entrepreneur’s “Are You Listening to Your End Customer? Here are 5 Reasons You Should Be,” which gives us some reminders of the benefit of listening to our customers.

  1. You need the data
  2. Satisfied customers will be your champions
  3. It gets you out of your bubble, i.e., keeps your perspective fresh
  4. You’ll learn where your brand is misunderstood
  5. You’ll be better prepared for change

Next steps

If you want to learn more about how to really “listen” to your customers, check out our EBOOK Why B2B customer feedback programs fail (and how to make yours succeed). Also, you might want to visit our knowledge library and read an earlier blog, Are You Providing Consistent Experiences?” to give the benefits to your NPS score by providing consistent experiences. 

Though improving customer experience appears daunting, remember a trip of a thousand miles begins with the first step.

Let us know what you think!

Lynn Daniel
CEO

 

Featured Blogs

Just What Does B2B Customer Feedback Get You?

What are the measurable benefits of a formal B2B Customer Feedback Program?  When we first discuss the idea of a formal B2B customer feedback program with a prospective client, one question is what are the measurable benefits of such a program. It is an excellent question. I can point to numerous studies showing improved business outcomes stemming from enhanced customer experiences. For example, we know that customers who give a 9 or 10 on the likelihood to recommend account for nearly all active referrals in many of the markets we serve.READ MORE

Are You Providing Consistent Experiences?

Consistent experiences that are easy and effortless is what it takes to get loyal customers. While every business and industry is different, consistent experiences at all locations is key to create loyal customers. The Tempkin Group has a useful model which measures consistent experiences along three dimensions: Success: To what extent is the customer able to accomplish what he or she wanted to do? Effort: How much energy does the customer have to put forth? Emotion: How does the customer feel about the experience?  READ MORE

 

EBOOK – Why B2B customer feedback programs fail (and how to make yours succeed)

Selling a backhoe is nothing like selling a toothbrush.

And yet, most B2B and industrial businesses—whatever they sell—still try to use customer feedback strategies and tools designed for B2C businesses.

When you’re selling toothbrushes, you can email a generic feedback survey to a customer sample that’s millions strong. If only a very small proportion of them respond, that’s fine—because your customers are so numerous.

It’s also no big deal if your overly long survey leaves a few customers feeling harassed and frustrated, and they switch to another brand. After all, individual customer value is typically low. But as you’re no doubt aware—selling to a B2C customer  is the polar opposite of selling to B2B and industrial customers. It’s possible just a handful of those customers are responsible for the majority of your annual revenue. So… the last thing you want to do is get on anyone’s nerves.

READ MORE AND GET THE EBOOK

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