I have been talking to a lot of small and mid-size companies over the last few weeks. Many are hurting. I’ve found it surprising that so many agree that right now, shaping desirable customer behavior is not just important, but possibly life and death to their busiensses. Whether it’s better feedback for what customers are looking for, more clearly understanding what the current customer experience “looks like” to customers, or incrementally improving different aspects of customer experience to drive higher retention, referrals or cross sales, most business owners get that they should be doing something.
And that’s when I wait to hear just what they are doing. And I wait some more.
It seems most business owners don’t know where to start. We, of course, have some strong opinions on that, but the main point here is that – somehow, some way – it’s time to do something.
Do anything! Talk to customers, review an internal customer process, look over your billing statements. In other words, get started! If you’re waiting for a sign that customers are the most important part of your business, just take a look around. It should be obvious.
And once you start down the road to improving customer experience, a couple great things happen. First, you almost immediately start finding ways to improve how you deal with customers. You also start to make customers a focus in your biz. And that can only help you moving forward.
So don’t wait. It doesn’t really matter where you start. The important thing is to start.