Talking to customers (Pt. 1) : Three very underrated benefits!

Being a business founder teaches me a lot especially in the area of managing customers. I am continuously finding how impossible it is to run a business successfully without making it a company culture to talk, keep talking, and never stop talking to customers. While it may seem an impossible task, I encourage you to prioritise engaging more with your customers, to truly maximise the benefits and opportunties.

Working for a leading B2B technology company many years ago, I saw how all key business accounts had dedicated Account and Service managers. They were both in regular conversations with the customer. Many years after, I see how important it was to maintain those relationships especially what it means for the service provider financially. It is the nurturing of those relationships, and the regular touchpoints that enabled long-term business contracts. Of course, this is in addition to delivering an exceptional service.

With focus on the importance of talking to customers and maintaining customer relationships, I am sharing 3 of my business lessons in this article, hoping you find them useful in your quest for business growth.

1 - Talking to customers gives you insight to help you grow your business

If you're familiar with the story of AirBnB, the popular marketplace for short and long-term home stays, you may have heard how the founders invested time into speaking with their customers in the early stages of their business. It was this real unfiltered customer feedback that illuminated the direction the founders would take. They got the insight they needed to shape how they deliver the future services of AirBnB and we see how much the company has grown since it was founded in 2008.

I've got some first-hand customer engagement experience in my business as well. I am not referring to those automated feedback requests that many businesses drop in your inbox, but quality customer engagement that allows customers to share very deep insight about their experiences, challenges and future expectations of using your services. I dare you to invest in this activity, you will be surprised how much you learn from your customers, and it can only help you do one thing - grow your business. From speaking with my customers and interviewing some of them, I've learnt about our customers' top priorities/needs and key challenges. Think about it. Who's best to tell you how best to sell to, and serve your customers if not your customers themselves?

2 - Talking to customers bridges the gap between business and customer, driving long-term customer loyalty

I had a very bad experience with an autocenter branch once. Unknown to me initially, a car part was incorrectly fitted, damaging another part in the car. This was only detected by a second autocenter who tried to remedy the situation. I had concluded I would never use the services of the first autocenter, but contacted them to let them know how much damage they had caused. But something changed everything. I had two phone calls within a few days. A regional manager, and a more senior manager rang me differently to put things right. They apologised and eventually I was offered a refund. The statement that hit me most was "We really want you to know that you're very important to us and we don't want to lose you. You've been a customer with us for so many years". My reaction was different. If this was an email, it won't have the same effect it had. Today, I am still a customer of this autocenter. Although I am glad for this intervention, but sometimes it may already be too late with certain customers. You may have lost them already, if you're only looking to engage them when things go wrong.

I am sharing this experience because business gives us uncountable opportunities to talk to customers. This includes pre-sale, sale point and after sale. While it is impossible to talk to every customer, you can't rule out the need to pick up a phone to speak to a customer, or have a meeting with them. It all depends on the nature of the business, the services you offer, proximity and so many other factors. And when calls may not always be possible, do your best with written communication, without losing your human touch as you communicate via emails etc. The customer you talk to is more likely to remain loyal to your brand. Don't lose customers by destroying potential long term relationships.

3 - Talking to customers opens up more business opportunities to you

There's a business coach at I engage periodically, one of our VIP customers at My Centre Office . It is the rapport with this customer that opened up some additional business opportunities including a business partnership and lots of converted referrals. We have another customer who referred us to a business service we recently engaged. We had spent months looking in all the wrong places to find a similar service. We've also had another customer introduce us to a platform to engage other potential businesses. And there are so many similar examples like these.

Where am I going with these? Customers are likely to present you with business opportunities and referrals when you continuously engage them. You're positioning yourself as a business that's within proximity, so they reward you with opportunities too. When you keep talking to your customers, you're putting yourself on the top of their mind, and there's no way they will forget you. A lot of small businesses and vendors have this proximity advantage as there is a lot of human interaction in the delivery of their services. If this is you, leverage the power of customer conversations and over time it may just open up future business opportunities to you. I have experienced it countless times and I am sure it will work for you too.

Summary

To summarise, there are huge opportunities and benefits presented to businesses that prioritise customer engagement. Don't let your customers be strangers. Instead, invest in building long-term relationships that serve both you and your customers. One way to enable this is talking to your customers (not necessarily limited to verbal conversations). There's so much untapped value in doing so.