Ignore your customers at your peril

'The bad news is that our customers hate us. The good news is that we have far fewer of them.'

Sometimes it leaves you with a sinking feeling and you just want to ignore it… other times you feel like standing in the middle of a bustling networking event announcing the glowing accolades. Yes, customer feedback can generate these intensely contrasting emotions. But the fact is that if you want to grow and prosper through continually improving and enhancing your customers’ experience, you need to listen to it. You won’t achieve anything by sticking your fingers in your ears.

You must ask your customers for their feedback on what you are offering, how you are delivering your offering, what they love about your service, and the improvements they would like to see.

It’s easy to trundle along in business repeating yesterday’s actions today; to assume all is well because you’re not seeing any signs to the contrary. You may hear the odd note of disapproval but instead of finding out if it’s the tip of the iceberg, you dismiss it as an isolated problem – probably the customer’s fault anyway. In other words, you have started to become complacent and in doing so have fallen into the dangerous trap of taking customer loyalty for granted.

The inescapable fact is that most customers, especially British customers, do not like to complain unless they are really pushed to do so. They are likely to put up with a high level of dissatisfaction before making any noise about it. But those customers that are not actually complaining yet are nevertheless unhappy in some way with your service, are entering an extremely dangerous zone. They are becoming ‘ripe for defection’.

This means that they will continue using you, but only until a more customer focused competitor comes along. Then they’ll pack their bags and leave you, and you’ll be left none the wiser as to why they stopped using you because they never voiced their dissatisfaction in the first place.

Don’t let it get to this stage.

Be bold and fearless! Whip up a simple survey and ask your customers to rate your services, your products and your customer service. Are you consistent in your delivery of a first-class customer experience? Consistency is at the heart of building a successful customer focused brand.

But do you know what?

If you have been doing your job properly, your customer survey will reveal an abundance of positive feedback. And in amongst the lavish superlatives will be  constructive nuggets that you can use to improve your customer’s experience of your business even further.