This is part of a series of posts on what you can do to be more successful in your business this year. To get a free report full of success tips for your business, click here.
The advice I am about to give is dependent on two things already being in place in your business. First, you need to know what you love. Never veer your business too far from your passion. Second, you need to have a clear idea of who your ideal customer is. You should be worried about pleasing and serving this type of customer above all else.
With those two things in place, it is safe to follow this advice. Without them, you could derail your business. What is this advice, that is potentially so dangerous? Simply this, let your customer shape your business.
Customer Input
If you want a business that is loved by your customers, you need to be sure to pay attention to them. Proactively find out what they like and what they don’t like, and make adjustments accordingly.
Katharine Coles, of Mad Marketeer, is a strong advocate of this. She says:
Listen to your clients. If they complain that they don’t like something about your product or service, try to find ways to change to meet their needs. If they don’t like your customer service or they think you are not listening or being responsive enough, try to put new systems in place to address the issues. If they don’t understand your documentation or your contracts, make them clearer and easier to understand. One of the biggest mistakes that small businesses make is NOT LISTENING.
Adapting to fit the needs of your customers is an obvious move. Yet, sometimes business owners can get so caught up in what they know, they forget to find out what the customer knows. And if the customer knows something is too complicated, too slow, too out of date, they will move on.
Customer-Centric
By listening to each customer, finding out what their experience was working with your business, and making adjustments, you can create a business that is customer-centric. And when customers are happy, everyone is happy.
Don’t forget though, this can go horribly wrong. First, if you have a customer that doesn’t fit your ideal customer blueprint, you shouldn’t listen. That sounds harsh, I know. But what if your ideal customer is small grocery chains? Your business is flexible and serves these chains well. Now, maybe you have one sale with a larger grocery chain. Suddenly, this larger chain is making different demands on your business. If you change according to these demands, you know that it is going to hurt your smaller customers. What do you do? If you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the small grocery chains are your ideal customer, you don’t kow-tow to the big guy. Always do what is best for your ideal customer first.
The same goes for doing what you love. Customers needs a lot of different things, even ideal customers. Some you can deliver with perfection and passion. Others you can’t. So, even if you see a need, it may not be your best move to fill it. Always run any new product or service pass the test of whether you are going to love doing it.
Listen and Change
If you keep those two things in line, you can safely play within the boundaries. Listening to ideal customers and adapting your business accordingly can be fun and very profitable. Focus on making the customer experience amazing. The only way to do this is to talk constantly to customers about it, listen to their suggestions, and make changes accordingly.
I’ll end with some advice from Iman Jalali, of Train Signal.
Listen to current and prospective customers and the communities around them. Listening to them is only part of being successful though. If you only listen and don’t react or adapt, listening does you no good. By utilizing tools like Twitter search you have access to millions of conversations, conversations that may be about your business. Conversations that may help shape how you conduct business and the future of your business.
The information you need to know is accessible to you, both through talking to your current customers and through your engagement with communities online and off. So stop making excuses, start listening and adapting. In the end, you win and your customers win.
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Follow Bradford Shimp on Twitter.
photo credit: Slack pics
