The one thing everyone is willing to share is his or her opinion.  Bad news if it’s your in-laws but great news if it’s your customers.  In my experience working with small business professionals rather than being the first line of defense it’s often left out of the playbook all together. No matter what it is your selling asking for customer feedback, insights, and unfulfilled needs should be part of your organizational policies.

Making it standard practice among all employees (so who in your organization doesn’t touch a customer or potential customer?) and institutionalizing it as a regular procedure is a key to business success. Create a list of questions that can be asked during customer interactions. Here’s a few to get you started:

How are we doing?
Is there a product or service you’d like us to be offering?
What have we done recently that would encourage you to recommend us?
Have we done anything that would prevent you from recommending us?

Most importantly keep the questions fresh, honest and mean them.  If I hear from one more sales drone, “Did you find everything you need?” I am likely to yell ARGHHHHH! We all know that when you say “no I didn’t” the likely response is “Oh, I’m sorry.”  Well sorry doesn’t save me a trip to another store.  (No wonder online purchasing continues to grow). That response should begin a documented conversation.  If I saw the salesperson reach for a handy form and begin taking notes I might feel the store cared about my wants and needs. Unlike my local grocery chain that has sacrificed stock consistency and satisfying customer desires for the cost efficiency of central warehouse purchasing and distribution. You know the game.  The store stocks a particular item that you begin to purchase on a regular basis and then all of a sudden it disappears from the shelf for a number of weeks.  No the product is still available just not at this particular location.  That’s another of my ARGHHHHH moments.

Want to grow your business faster in 2010? Then put service back in customer service by asking for an opinion.  But please be prepared to engage your customers in an honest dialogue and you’ll end up giving the customer some satisfaction and your business the best market research possible.

Susan Frederick

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