No matter what business you’re in, achieving success depends on your relationship with your customers. Even if you have a monopoly, unhappy customers will go elsewhere as soon as there’s somewhere to go. So, what are the most important points in taking care of customers?
A recent article in Entrepreneur.com more or less lays out the five most important elements:
- Be proactive
- Communicate
- Have a positive attitude
- Understand the client’s business
- Follow-up.
You can read the article for more details.
However, there is one more thing I would add, something I’ve found to be a real issue in many companies – letting management and product development people know about the feedback front line people get from customers.
Years ago a study was done regarding the support desk industry – the people you call when you have a problem with a product or service you’ve purchased. These individuals make a big contribution to a company achieving success. However, it was found that often the support desk people heard about the same problems over and over again – but they didn’t let anyone else know about it. The information never got to management or product development so nothing was ever done to make the necessary changes in the product or service.
Everyone likes to feel like they’re being listened to. It’s a vital part of achieving success in any activity, and a vital entrepreneurial skill.
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I worked on a help desk for years–and this is so true! A sign of good management is listening to the people on the front lines. However, you can’t cater to their every need–I learned that, too. Often the front lines aren’t seeing the big picture–good leaders do.
I am a student and work in part time. Today is fantastic day, I read “Five Key Elements of Achieving Succes” carefully and have feeling good. My idea is very very good tips.