Marketing Now

HOW TO LISTEN TO YOUR CUSTOMERS

HOW TO LISTEN

BE A TRUSTED LISTENER

When communication has a negative consequence, or is thought to be of no consequence, it stops.

Sitting in an airport departure lounge, I was appalled to hear the fol- lowing communication between a woman identified as Mommy (proba- bly an alias) and a two-year-old named Jason.

“Jason, Mommy said no.”

Jason responded, but not verbally. He continued to run along the crowded hallway.

“Jason! I’m not going to tell you one more time!” Mommy didn’t move, and Jason continued a drunken imitation of a tornado that nearly bowled over a businessman with a cell phone glued to his ear. “Alright, mister! Mommy’s going to count to three. One. Two,” followed by a dejected, “Three,” followed by a rolling of the eyes and the sad disclaimer, “I don’t know why he won’t listen.”

We could write a book on the communication between Jason and Mommy, but suffice it to say that for Jason there were no consequences to the exchange, which pretty much rendered it useless. Communication with negative consequences, real or imagined, doesn’t stop. It never gets started. People are only likely to communicate if they believe that the consequences will be good. And “good” is defined by the communicator, not the listener.

If the communicator believes nothing will happen, or worse that the consequences will be negative, communication will not occur. This is as true for internal customers as it is for paying customers. Give me a little positive feedback this time, or there darned well won’t be a next time. This explains why so few of your customers complain-to you. And an eager audience explains why unhappy customers find it so easy to tell their friends!

What are the consequences for communicating with you?

- Nothing makes me angrier than when I find a better deal, switch or cancel my existing service, and then am offered a cheaper rate just to get my business back. Why should I have to cancel my service in order to be offered a better deal?

- When they promise a delivery time and then don’t show up (Sears)

- I had two five-year-olds missing in the store for over an hour. We asked in the first 20 minutes for the police to be called, and the manager said he had called them. Thirty minutes later, no police and still no girls. Only one worker helped us search for our children. We went nuts looking for them! I wondered how the girls could have disappeared so quickly and decided to check the stock area nearest where we had been standing when they vanished. I saw movement and there were our girls after an hour and 20 minutes of frantic searching. I called the police to ask why they hadn’t responded and was told there was no record of a call. The excuse given by the store was that the store manager could not leave his office, because he was counting money!

- Service companies such as Verizon, Gateway, Sears, the U.S. Postal Service, and any company that cares about customers should have a real human being answering the initial call. Then I can understand being routed to a menu of options. But to call up a company and endure four or five or a dozen rings (a phone company, for example, should be able to afford multiple lines) to hit a mechanical voice, offering a few cold, sometimes confusing choices.

- Being often utterly unable to speak to a person is the single worst offense against the American consumer. How expensive can it be to hire a $7 an hour employee to spend ten seconds routing customers to the right department? I’m not asking for service at this point, but at least allow me the illusion that I can actually talk to somebody!

- I will never again purchase a gift card at Best Buy. During the holidays, I gave each of my grandsons (six) a $50 gift card at Best Buy. One of the little boys lost his card, but I had the receipt with the number of the missing card. I gave this to my daughter to take to the store. After waiting 45 minutes on the customer service line, she was told that only corporate could help us. After many phone calls, we spoke to someone and were advised it would take eight weeks to receive the new card. It actually took three months. I wrote an e-mail explaining our displeasure and reminding them that our family spends over $3,000 each year in gift cards. I never received a response. That is unacceptable, and Best Buy will not be selling any more gift cards to members of my family.

- I dislike the $9.99 tactic. Why not just make it $10? And I really don’t understand the $1.69.9 for gasoline. Let’s keep it as simple as possible please.

- Faking the biggest sale of the year just before they do a seasonal clearance.

Bombardier Listens

It has low wings swept rearward at such an angle that it looks fast just sitting on the ramp. Two whisper-quiet engines mounted high on the tail set the standard in low-noise super-midsize corporate airliners. You may not hear it when it f lies over your neighborhood, but the Bombardier Challenger 300 business jet is a monument to corporate listening.

You might think that since Bombardier manufactures the regional jets that brought commercial jet service to many small and midsize markets that building the Challenger 300 would be a simple matter of downsizing a regional jet. But Bombardier didn’t take the easy way out. Instead, they recognized that the customer for a regional jet is entirely different from a corporate buyer. Starting from a blank page, Bombardier began developing the 300 by finding out what the customer wanted.

They surveyed the corporate market in 1996, revalidated the research in 1997, and continued asking customers throughout the process. Customers asked for a jet with a standup cabin, transcontinental range for eight passengers, and able to fly into airports with only modest-length runways.

Pilots and owners were included on all the big decisions and many of the small ones, too. They participated in engine selection (a large detail) and made suggestions about switch and instrument placement (small details). Honeywell, the supplier of the jet engines, also caught the spirit and employed advisory panels of business jet owners and pilots. These panels asked for engines with low parts counts and almost unlimited access for maintenance without having to remove the engines from the plane.

But here’s the big question. Now that the plane is available, is anyone actually buying? Bombardier quickly took orders for the first 100 Challenger 300s, proving conclusively that customers will buy what they ask for.

But you have to ask!

Getting in Front of the Customer

Sometimes, the best approach is the direct approach, and a few smart operators have decided that organizing a customer council is one sure way to get customer buy-in.

Southwest Airlines is known for inviting frequent flyers to assist in the hiring of new flight attendants. The idea is simple: customers will have more interaction with flight attendants than supervisors, so why not let them have a say in the hiring decision.

Many franchise organizations have franchise advisory boards consisting of sometimes-elected representatives from the franchise community. These boards, or councils, are often given approval authority over marketing budgets, introductions of new products, even substantive policy decisions that directly impact the organization. As an aside, think about the buy-in that comes when people have a say in the decisions that impact their lives and livelihoods.

Saturn was built on the principle of customer involvement. Owners of Saturn automobiles are invited to watch their car be built via the Internet. Dealerships invite owners to return for maintenance seminars, barbeques, and other owner-involving events. Getting in front of the Sat- urn customer has created a cultlike aura around ownership. You don’t just drive a Saturn, you experience one.

Chevrolet built one of the all-time ugliest vehicles on the planet, the Avalanche. But rather than admit their mistake, they organized it. Now Avalanche owners, often with the help of local dealers, can join an Avalanche truck club, which acts, I’m just guessing here, as a support group for buyers with poor taste.

The point is this: Get in front of your customers. Organize before they do. Listening doesn’t have to happen only under formal condi- tions. You can learn a lot just by asking, and any event should be considered a listening opportunity.

Compute This!

Here’s evidence that trust comes from action.

In the fall of 2003, Computerworld, the magazine for the information technology crowd, published an article on ComputerWorld.com that turned out to be a hoax. They could have pulled the article from the Web site, published a retraction somewhere inconspicuous, or ignored it entirely in the hope that no one would notice.

They could have, but they didn’t.

Editor-in-chief Maryfran Johnson responded with a full Monty, which included a follow-up story detailing what happened. And what was the impact on readers? Positive! Readers now have tangible proof that the editors of Computerworld are trustworthy. They know that even if something is not correct as originally published, it will be right thanks to the integrity of the staff.

To advertisers, the whole affair only served to demonstrate that their advertising messages were appearing in a highly credible, highly respected industry environment.

You’re Not Listening to Me

Listening is a skill you learn. It may be “only human,” but too many clerks and companies are so busy sending out messages that very little communication filters in. If we were as good at listening as we are at marketing, the market would tell us exactly what we need to do to suc- ceed.

At the heart of poor listening, you will find incompetence. Incompetent organizations and performers know that they are incompetent. They attempt to hide their incompetence under a torrent of outbound communication, while at the same time blocking any inbound communication that might reveal their shortcomings. “It’s not my job,” is not the response of a lazy person. It is the theme song of the incompetent. While building our new restaurant, I had the dubious honor of having the following conversations in back-to-back phone calls, first to a local sign company:

“Hi, my name is Scott, and I’m looking for a traffic sign that has the icon of a bicycle. Do you have them in stock and, if you do, how much and what size are they?”

“You have to talk to Shirley.”

“OK, may I speak with Shirley?” “She’s in a meeting.”

“Could you just tell me if you have the sign I am looking for?”

“That would be up to Shirley.”

The second conversation was with a restaurant supply house:

“Hello?”

“Is this XX Restaurant Supply?”

“Yes.”

“I’m sorry, I was a thrown off a little when you answered by just saying hello.”

“Well, we aren’t open.”

“Oh, I get it. You aren’t XX Restaurant Supply until you open.”

“Sorta.”

“Well, this is Scott from Sporty’s, and I was wondering where my dining room furniture is. Remember, I called yester- day, talked to you and Rocky, and was told that someone would call me right back. No one ever called.”

“Rocky went home sick.”

“It would have been alright for you to have called me and told me that.”

“That would have been up to Rocky.”

Listening for Fun and Profit

Listening is about a whole lot more than fixing problems. Smart operators can actively involve their customers in such forward-thinking projects as product development. Staples, the office supply people, offered a $25,000 prize to customers who came up with a new product idea that the company could choose to market.

Did they have a winner? You bet! A panel of judges and more than 147,000 online votes declared Wordlock, a combination lock that uses easy-to-remember words instead of number sequences, the winning idea. Amateur inventor Todd Basche created the idea that was deemed best of the 8,000-plus invention ideas submitted. (If you want to know, nearly 1,100 of those ideas involved writing instruments; 900 involved clips, staples, or adhesives; and 181 brainstorms involved the common envelope!)

The real beauty of the process was how it involved real customers, talking in a forum that invited them to tell what problems needed to be solved, and then telling the retailer exactly how to solve them. Truly, the customer is the first outside expert who needs to be hired. Grace Performance Chemicals understands that nobody knows their products quite as well as their customers. So Grace decided to ask! Actually, the directive was to observe. Sales reps for the company that makes chemical supplies and materials for the construction and packag- ing industries were told to look for innovative and unexpected ways that customers put Grace products to work. Boy, were they surprised! Grace waterproofing materials were being used to soundproof automobiles, patch tents, and repair boots! Not that the company endorsed such off-the-wall applications, but the search for new ideas turned into 134 anecdotes that eventually became seven compelling ideas with a sales potential in the millions.

Grace named their campaign “Customers Do the Darnedest Things,” and it’s a killer example of what you can learn when customers talk, and you listen!

Happy Listening

Some companies do the right thing because it’s the right thing. Some companies do the right thing because it’s also the smart thing. As I was about to write this short piece on corporate ethics and corporate listening, an e-zine that I subscribe to fell into my electronic in basket. The headline read: “McDonald’s Enhances Happy Meals Worldwide.” Why do you suppose the good folks under the arches would mess with a product that has been a runaway success for two and a half decades? Because they listened to their customers!

Among what McDonald’s calls “menu enhancements” are 1% milk in the United States, fruit cups in Italy, bottled water and low-fat yogurt in Spain, cereal bars in Romania, and organic milk in the UK. The new Happy Meal graphics feature children playing sports and having fun with friends.

Do you suppose this could have anything to do with the recent an- nouncement that obesity is the second leading cause of death in the United States? A quick search of the Internet yielded more than 34,000 references to cheeseburgers! The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill authored by a Florida congressman that protects purveyors of fatty foods from lawsuits claiming they were complacent in obesity. On our menu at Sporty’s, we have covered ourselves with this warning: “If you eat too much of our food and sit on your butt…it will get big!” Also, in 12-point type, our menu announces: “Our kitchen will always be immaculate. You can ask to see it. Our service will always be fast and friendly. You can feel comfortable asking to see one of our manag- ers. If you are not happy for any reason, you can call Scott. His cell phone number is…If you’re not happy, we’re not happy.”

In another life, we owned a fast-food restaurant where we had our home phone posted right on the menu board. In eight years, we had exactly two customers call us at home. The first was so shocked that it was actually our home phone number that he apologized and hung up before ever voicing a complaint. The second call came three weeks after we had sold the restaurant!

At three months into our new restaurant, I have had three calls, exactly three more than I expected. The first came in week one while I was changing planes in Phoenix. (Yes, I was out of town on business the first week we were open. You can do that if you have a great management team, and ours is the best!)

“Hello! Pants phone!” (I may not be in the office when you call, but chances are if I’m accepting calls I am wearing my pants. So call my office or call my pants phone-either way you’re in for an experience!) I shouted my answer as I stepped timidly down the stairs of a regional jet, “Sorry, I can’t hear you. I’ll call you right back.”

“This is Scott. You just called?”

“Yes. This is Jay Sanchez. I was in your restaurant at lunch.” Swell, a complaint already, I thought.

“Yes, sir! How can I help?”

“I have to tell you the food was great.” Okay, it’s going to be a service issue, not something I expected.

“And?” I prompted, not really wanting to hear the gory details. “Oh, the service was terrific! You’ve hired a lot of smiling people.” Now, I’m totally lost. It’s not the food. It’s not the service. Maybe he’s a vendor. “I have just one question about the f loor.” Oh, no, he must have slipped and injured himself.

“Yes, sir?”

“Is that real wood or is it vinyl?”

Whew! Thankfully, the other two were just as innocuous. The point is simple. If you ask, you had better be prepared to listen! There is an unexpected side benefit to listening to your customers. If your employees know that customers can comfortably talk to the boss, they are a tad more likely to give them something positive to talk about!

Source: T. Scott Gross, “When Customers Talk… Turn What They Tell You into Sales,” Dearborn Trade Publishing, Chicago, 2005

Republished by Marketing Now

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