Look for the Pattern You Can’t Ignore

Have you ever lost a customer and didn’t know why? 

I was talking with Business Coach and Professional Speaker Leslie Ungar of Electric Impulse Communications about customers.  She shared a story with me that really helped put things in perspective.

As the economy takes its good old time recovering, the trickle down effect of lower revenues is hitting some of the smaller companies and as such, companies are cutting back some of their vendor/freelance relationships.  Each time we loose a customer we have to access the situation. 

Is there something I could have done differently? 

 Was it price? 

Was it attitude? 

 Should I have said something different? 

Should I have kissed him?

(That’s what Elizabeth Kitt – recent participant who was eliminated from ABC’s The Batchelor is asking herself today.)

Leslie used to show horses.  She told me that at the end of a competition participants could approach the judges and ask for advice on what they could do differently next time to place or win in their category.

“I was always the first in line to ask a question,” Leslie told me.  “I wanted to know why I didn’t win and what the judges thought I should have done differently.” Sometimes they would remember, or after refreshing their notes they might have a specific comment, but often it was a general bit of advice that they would share.  She listened carefully each time to what they had to say.

“If one person told me something, I would listen but I might not make a change.  I was listening for patterns that I couldn’t ignore.  If I heard the same comment from different judges or multiple times then I knew that was an area I needed to address.”

She was looking for patterns.

We need to do the same thing with our customers.  Of course that means we have to engage them in conversation – exit interviews – follow up surveys or phone calls to ask about the service and experience and then listen for patterns.

Customer complaints are another great place to look for patterns.  Some times you just have a complainer – but often, if you listen closely enough, you’ll find out about an area of service you need to address because it impacts the customer’s experience.

Have you lost a customer lately?  Do you know why?  Has it been the first time you’ve heard the reason or has a pattern begun to emerge? 

Listen carefully to those patterns you can’t ignore and then start to make some changes!