Are You Listening to Your Customers?

Are You Listening to Your Customers?

Ever noticed something like this before: you get a newsletter in the mail each month from a company. They have a section in the newsletter where people can write in and offer suggestions. They print whatever suggestions they like, and you usually sit back and think that many of these are quite good.

Well, you’ve been getting this newsletter for years and you’ve been seeing these suggestions for years and yet you really can’t remember a single time where you’ve noticed the company actually follow the suggestion. They print it in their newsletter but you don’t see any evidence of them acting upon the suggestion.

People like to have their opinions heard and they like to know that a company cares about what they have to say. This leads many companies getting newsletter printing done to have such sections in their newsletter, but just printing a suggestion isn’t going to be the same as actually listening to what it has to say. Far too often companies spend more time acting like their listening and not enough time really listening to these different suggestions.

The problem that can come from it is when people start to notice that you aren’t paying as much attention as you act like you are. The larger a company is the more likely people will be to have a certain natural distrust for it. The reason is because large companies prevent you from really getting to know the people keeping it going.

A popular image in our society is of the cold, corporate business owner who doesn’t care about anything but profit. Is this really what most business owners or managers are like? No, this isn’t a very common representation of people working in larger companies, but you have to fight the public’s perception, and if you appear to be ignoring them they’ll be more likely to apply this caricature to you.

Newsletter printing itself can be helpful in combating a lot of these kinds of ideas. If you can show people who you are and what your employees are like in your newsletter you give more personality to your company. At the same time you have to show them that you really care about what they have to say. You could very well be following their advice as well, but the average customer won’t be able to tell.

Why not have a companion article next to the suggestions, where you discuss how you implemented previous ones, and if you chose not to use one than explain why. This way people know that you were doing more than just printing their letter, and that you actually listened to what they had to say.

The best way to develop trust is to open up a solid line of communication with your customers. Show them that you’re listening and that you truly care about their input.

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