In a distant past, my business was rather dependent on a product from a particular outside-the-valley company. As good as it was, this product had a rough life, as it was passed from one company to another. Unfortunately, none of the owners anywhere along this trail seemed to have an inkling of customer relationship skills.
There has always been at least one person at these companies that “got it”, but it never seemed to be the CEO. Without exception, leadership comes from the top, even if everyone else shows leadership in the execution of their daily work. However, if the CEO mistreats the customer base and has public disdain for some of them, guess what behavior the line employees are likely to model? That’s exactly what one sees in this case.
Case in point: Any customer of this company who is unfortunate enough to offer constructive criticism is summarily ignored, at best. In some cases, the criticism is met with ugliness – an act that will start the death of 1000 cuts.
In the software business, constructive criticism is impossible to avoid. In fact, you depend on it – at least most software companies do.
Certainly the 80/20 rule is applicable and we all have customers we should “fire”, but ignoring everyone is going to prove difficult. If you are willing to ignore your customers and make them ambivalent to your company and your product or service, you’re begging a competitor to come in and take your business.
When I walk into a business (or do business remotely with someone) and get treated like this, the first thought that crosses my mind is to call around and ask if this business’ competitor is for sale.
In this case, we’re talking about a product that the customer gets fairly heavily invested in from a time perspective, so perhaps the company feels that a multiple year, multiple decade pile of products related to this company’s product is an impediment to the departure of their customers. They couldn’t be more wrong. These days, companies who act like this are fiddling while Rome burns.
What’s their future?
Will this company go out of business? Doesn’t really matter. Do they have a notable percentage of customers who are perpetually annoyed with them? Absolutely. Will they leave millions on the table? Absolutely.
Does this negatively impact their customers? Sure. Without the millions that they should have had and the resources that money could provide, this company will be less agile and less able to provide to their customers that which will keep them ahead of THEIR competitors.
Talk to your customers as often as possible, by email, direct mail, fax, telephone, smoke signals…SOMETHING. If you don’t, I can assure you that someone else is. It might even be my company and Id like nothing better than to take your customer and do the simple things that are necessary to keep them as my customer for life.
Talk to me
You _have_ to make time to be communicative. While your customers might have empathy for whatever is troubling you, that doesn’t mean their needs cease to become important while you try to reassemble your life. A two sentence daily blog entry that informs, even humorously, about your plight today is better than silence. I don’t mean “oversharing”, but at least enough to let your customers know you haven’t abandoned them and are simply fighting a fire (or not).
If you aren’t communicating with your customers on a regular basis, you are leaving it up to your competitors, Internet “trolls”, the press, random wackos and others to provide the information that your customers use to formulate an opinion of your products and services, as well as your company.
A failure to regularly communicate with customers is foolish business, whether you are a software company, a car dealer, a non-profit organization or a Laundromat.
Anyone who thinks there is a difference in how often you communicate with customers for these four types of businesses, or any other business, needs to rethink it.
Do you want us to come back? If so, be sure you’re communicating that message. Talk to us. Regularly.
Want to learn more about Mark or ask him to write about a business, operations or marketing problem? See Mark’s site or contact him via email at mriffey at flatheadbeacon.com.