Prioritize Customer Experience

Although most entrepreneurs think they are in love with their customers, too many are actually in love with their product. If you dream of running a successful business that delights its buyers, ask yourself these four questions to know if you’re really head-over-heels for your clientele.

Really, you should be giving your customers a voice throughout their lifecycle, including the time before they purchase. If a customer walked away from a demo, ask why? If they recently stopped renewing, call them to understand their barriers to success. These small gestures will provide invaluable insight, after all, no one knows more about being your customer than the people who buy from you.

If you’re not already convinced, there is one more undeniably important reason to give your customers a voice — if you don’t give them an outlet to express their concerns, not only will they stop working with you, but you open yourself up to a bad review.

Giving your customers a voice only goes so far, to build a truly customer-centric brand, you got to turn their feedback into action. In fact, collecting feedback and then failing to improve is worse than never asking for it in the first place.

Within a week Tesla had rolled out a new 40 cent per minute idle fee for drivers who left their vehicles in the port longer than necessary. Not only did Musk immediately solve a problem for his customers, but his solution also created an entirely new revenue stream for the manufacturer.

That’s not to say your customers will reach out with clear directions regarding their problems. On the contrary, customers are most inclined to speak up when their experience falls to one end of the spectrum — extremely happy or disappointed. This requires you to proactively procure their input. Even negative comments are really an opportunity to improve and no matter how hard it may be to hear, the customer took a moment to help you better your business, so listen intently to what they say.

At its peak, Blockbuster had nearly 10,000 outlets nationwide, dominating the DVD rental market with its convenient locations and superior selection. But with the rise of streaming in the late 2000s, Blockbuster failed to adapt and was eradicated within a handful of years.

On the other end of the spectrum was up-and-coming Netflix, who quickly adapted their DVD by mail model to meet new customer demand for on-demand entertainment. We all know what the media-giant Netflix became, but what would have happened if Netflix had focused on their product first, trying to be the best DVD delivery service? They would have tanked with Blockbuster — another failed business that didn’t understand their customer.

A cautious warning for any entrepreneur who thinks their market is immune to rapid change — Blockbuster declared bankruptcy in 2010, just three short years after Netflix launched it’s streaming service in 2007.

Especially if you haven’t given your customers the attention they deserve, it might be difficult to instantly become a customer-centric brand. Are you ready to accept the loss if a new product feature isn’t as useful as you thought? What if market conditions change and you got to rethink your model, a-la-Netflix?

Only you can know, but these are the questions you should be asking yourself if you’re really ready to fall in love with your customer.

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