Listen to Your Customers

Customer focus within your company is an important one, because it allows you to pick up on the needs of the customer and develop strategies for ensuring that they continue to generate revenue for your business. This is the driving factor for most companies, and the primary reason that so many industries use customer research to run their businesses.

But what if there was a hypothetical company whose customers were unaffected by satisfaction. In other words, their buying power would stay the same no matter what your products or processes. Would customer research still be valuable? A blog post by the CCO Council explains why it may be.

From the article: “…I went to the nearby Mobile station, which is the only other nearby source for fountain drinks. I don't like the soda here because the syrup mixture is way to [sic] strong for me. As I entered, I mentioned to the manager that the mixture of syrup at his store is awfully strong.

He said he would look into it. This morning he told me that he’d mentioned to the vendor that a customer had brought an issue to his attention and asked them to take a look at it. … The service rep discovered that the syrup mixture was double what it should be! In the back of the room, the machine pumps a specific amount of water & syrup into the tubes connected to the dispenser.

The mixture had been very wrong for quite some time, costing the company double what it should have in syrup consumed." Because the mobile station listened to the customer complaint, they found a flaw in their product delivery system that was actually costing them more money. It wasn't just that they gained a customer (and potentially more customers in the future). It was also that this customer's response allowed the company to improve its efficiency and use of resources.

The mobile station will now experience greater profit thanks to this customer, regardless of the satisfaction of future customers. Valuing the customer experience in your company is mostly about reducing customer loss and boosting the customer's willingness to purchase your products or services.

But there are additional benefits that make customer satisfaction research so valuable. The above story is just one example of how understanding the customer can help your business in numerous ways.