The top-selling book Don't Sweat The Small Stuff gave me pause to think. Many businesses today aren't sweating the small stuff, concentrating instead on the 'big picture,' including automation, advertising media, Web sites, and mergers and acquisitions. Unfortunately, these same businesses may have relegated their customers to the status of 'small stuff.'
Last year, I witnessed an example of this situation when I spoke with customers of a regional movie theater chain during four major consumer focus sessions. Over dinner and a three-hour fact-finding session, we discussed the entire theater experience, and I exposed them to some innovative ideas that everyone at the corporate office felt would be significant in building and maintaining customer loyalty. Although the customers appreciated most of the ideas, they expressed a different mindset regarding what was really important to their theater-going experience. Their No.1 concern was clean bathrooms, followed by clean lobbies and clean screening room floors.
More recently, stock values for Crown Books plunged 39% upon the announcement that the company may seek bankruptcy protection. Its 'lowest price' strategy of the 1970s hasn't been working in today's marketplace. Consumer expectations have expanded with the mega-store capabilities of Borders and Barnes & Noble-not to mention the ease of amazon.com. Although a lowest-price strategy can work, the real problem is that Crown lost touch with the needs, wants, and desires of its customers, who want more than just low price.
In a recent technology conference for the insurance industry, attendees admitted that their automation investments far exceeded market research and product development. They seemed to be more focused on processing the business they have than on developing future business. How long can that tunnel-vision philosophy sustain an industry?
The customer must be key. Successful businesses are ever mindful of what their customers are thinking, turning the relationship into a mutually vested partnership. They maintain a regular-contact program, have an 'inquiring minds want to know' policy when it comes to their customers, and then react to what the customers say! In other words, they serve their customers.
In English, however, the verb 'to serve' is often less than respectable. Many of us tend to look down on the 'service' people of the world, the invisible 'servants' who tend to our needs. Truly 'serving' our customers therefore requires a major psychological shift.
Humans tend to be self-centered. Business is similar, tending toward greed. Yet the world's greatest prophets have taught us that the greatest rewards come from serving others; by helping others, for instance, we can escape our own self-centered anxiety. If that great truth remains an inescapable fact, might we also conclude that it will work for business as well? In other words, if we concentrate our efforts on serving the customer, success should follow naturally.
Get to know your customers. Spend time with them. Learn what they want and how they want it. Break out of the ivory tower and ground yourself with your customers. If you listen, if you react, and if you're sincerely willing to serve, they'll continue to come-perhaps bringing others with them.
One of the greatest salesmen I've ever known once told me that he never tried to sell anything to anyone. He merely approached every potential customer with the thought, 'How can I be of service to this person?' Seems like a pretty good philosophy for life-both personal and business!