My column in this week’s Financial Post looks at the growing pressures for businesses to “know their customers.” In these times, if you're not trying every day to get closer to your customers, they are probably drifting into the clutches of someone else.
Sample excerpt: Three steps to knowing your customer
· Have open, regular communications with your customers that let you initiate discussions on all aspects of your business relationship -- and hopefully, on trust-building personal and non-business issues as well;
· Solicit feedback that encourages prospects and customers to raise their concerns about your products and services (it's better to have dissatisfied customers talking to you than to their friends);
· Show sufficient interest in your customers that you not only learn why they buy, but how they satisfy the people who buy from them.
You can read the whole column here.
2 comments:
Satisfying our customers should be one of our most concerns in our business. Thanks for sharing.
As a Limited Market Dealer, we are regulated by law about how to "know your customer" which sounds Orwellian. In practice, being required to add a documented, formal part of getting to know the customer stage has been surprisingly beneficial. I have found that customers spend the time and appreciate the attention. Surprise, surprise.
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