6 Things That Happen When You Listen to Your Customers…

Listening… it seems like such a simple thing to do. Yet, “not listening” is one of the biggest reasons that relationships fail. This is true whether those relationships are personal or professional (see https://www.websitemagazine.com/blog/the-impact-of-listening-to-customers).

The statistics in a recent Infographic produced by Eureka (linked above) seem to prove this without a doubt. Pretty much everything that results in unhappy customers starts with listening—or rather, not listening to what our customers want and need from us.

If we can accept that to be true and really believe it, why don’t we give more attention to how well we listen to those who choose to do business with us? Our valued customers?  And if we aren’t good listeners, why aren’t we actively trying to become better?

Perhaps the answer to those questions is that we don’t really understand what we GET from the practice of listening to our customers or clients? Maybe without that insight, the motivation just isn’t sufficient. Well, let’s see if we can change that!

Here are 6 super-positive things that happen for your business when you listen to your customers:

You Learn What They Want

Gaining understanding of what your customers want and need, makes it really easy to give it to them. Since this is one of the basic tenets of business success – ask them what they want and then give it to them – this only makes perfect sense.

You Learn What They Don’t Want

Perhaps as valuable as what they DO want is discovering the opposite—what they don’t want. First, you might be spending or be planning to spend time or money on things your customer base doesn’t desire or need. Obviously, that would be a waste and would prevent you from doing or spending on those things that WOULD provide positive momentum. Second, it leaves you with customers who are unhappy because your business isn’t living up to your part in the mutually-beneficial relationship and they will ultimately, like a disgruntled partner, look elsewhere.

You Learn What They Will Accept

We can’t always give our customers everything they want. Sometimes it’s not possible or profitable or even feasible. However, if we are really listening to them, we know what they will accept that will still keep them satisfied. On the other hand, if we aren’t listening, we will miss those cues or signals and think we must either cave to unreasonable demands to keep customers happy OR we will just go ahead and write them off when the relationship may indeed be salvageable.

You Learn What Will Lose Them for Good

Similarly, by listening, we also learn where that line is that if we cross, we will lose them forever. Of course, sometimes we will still have to cross that line if the only thing that will keep our customers satisfied is indeed, unreasonable. However, unless we listen, we don’t know where those lines are and thus, can’t make educated decisions about what is or isn’t possible for our business and that relationship with that customer.

You Discover What Will Make Them Loyal

Of course, there are pretty “magical” benefits to listening to our customers too. One of these beautiful highlights is that we discover what will make them loyal forever. Sometimes, this is something small – just a little something extra in benefits or service – that makes all the difference in the world. Do it and you have a customer for life. Ignore it and you’re missing a tremendous opportunity.

You Discover What Will Make Them Evangelists for Your Business or Brand

Likewise, another “magical” thing that happens when we truly listen is that we uncover not only what will make them loyal but will make them so over-the-moon about our business or brand that they start to “evangelize.” This means that they do much of the hard work of acquiring new customers for us. They are so thrilled with the care, attention and service they are getting that they can’t help but tell others. And in the process, they help to grow the business on our behalf—without our ever having to ask! When we reach this point, we know we have become master listeners and it’s our business that will reap the massive rewards for years to come.