<< Back To Leadership Unlimited Archive

November 2008
 The One Thing You Must Do:  Stay Close to The Customer

In the summer I wrote about what to do in a down economy. Last month it was staying positive in turbulent times. Now times are even more turbulent, as the economy plunges deeper into a sinkhole. What's the one thing you must do? Stay close to the customer.

Staying close to the customer is important because without the customer you have no business. You can be doing everything else right: implementing your strategy, managing your resources, reducing unnecessary costs.

But it's all for nothing if you don't have customers.

As the economy gets worse, we'll find two certainties. One is that your customers will look for ways to cut costs and improve revenue and profitability. That could mean doing less business with you, or worse yet, doing no business with you.

Or, if you're creative and innovative, it could mean more
business.

The other certainty is that your competition will look for ways to gain new customers. And where do you think they'll look?  At your customers. Your competition is probably staying in touch with your customers. Shouldn't you be doing the same?

If you're not, you can bet that your competition is out there contacting YOUR customers (your competition's prospects), to find out what they need to do to get your customers' business.

Staying close to the customer addresses both certainties (cutting back, and threats from the competition). But it's like other areas that are easily neglected.

You get so focused on delivering products and services, the actual running of your business, that you feel you don't have time for other activities that don't directly relate to producing goods and services.

Those activities include taking time to think strategically; to get together with your direct reports to plan ahead; to provide training and development opportunities for employees. And staying close to the customer falls into this category.

And yet if you don't make time now, you'll soon find yourself in trouble.

So, stay close to the customer. That means finding out what your customers need to do to stay competitive, and then figuring out how your products and services can help them do that.

One question to ask customers is how you can serve them better.  All you have to do is ask, and they'll give you lots of pertinent information.

Another question is how you're doing in serving the customer.  Often you'll find that you're doing some things well, but that you could improve other aspects of service or product delivery.

More questions: How will changes in the economy affect the customer? What are their biggest challenges and frustrations?

Ask, "What are your plans for staying competitive in this mess of an economy we'll be saddled with for the foreseeable future? What can I do to better meet your needs?"

Once you've gotten all the information, you have to assess your ability to help the customer in ways that facilitate that customer's service and product delivery, or that alleviate that customer's pain. You need to be creative and innovative in developing solutions. Then you must deliver.

And if you're in a larger organization, where your customers are internal, all these principles still apply.

You need to find out what value you provide, and how you can increase that value. Staying close to the customer will do that.

Let me ask you, how could my monthly column better meet your needs?

Until next edition, keep leading the way!

Copyright (C) 2008 by Terry Wall

<< Back To Leadership Unlimited Archive