To always focus on the customer is something I have heard many times Tiimiakatemia. But what does it mean?
I realized the goal is not to get the customer to buy something, but to get him come back. Again and again. And to that lead all the other operations.
In my projects I try to find the middle ground between skills, passion and money source – but my passions and skills usually is enough for me, and I. tend to forget about the money income xd. Due to that, my customer variation has been within the Tiimiakatemia network mostly so far, and my projects have not been designed to serve one customer multiple times. (such as a shop for example) But even though, I am building myself a reputation and a portfolio, that builds trust in the eyes of my customers for my future projects. Even thought, the customers are FFF I can recognize, that my new projects are being welcomed and trusted, since I have provided them a valuable service already. For example, our Surf camp has been filled by 75% withing 14 days. But back to the book.
To be able to get the customer to come back, you must get the feel of them and that cannot be done by the market research. We think, it is enough, but it is just a surface information. If we truly want to be effective, we must get our hands dirty. It is harder, that just research, but worth it. The key is listening to them. We always have an idea in our minds, how the business should look like. But what is the business for, if we do not have customers? That is why listening is so crucial. It is the first step in finding a solution to our problems. (but don’t expect any answers)
To listen to their needs, complains, ideas and whatever is on their minds – it’s good to have a listening system. A listening system allows you to get feel of your customers systematically and regularly. It requires to really be there with them because a feeling is not something you can get second hand. This book presented something called a listening panel – they invited customers to come and have a dialogue together.
I have never tried it with external customers. It seems terrifying and very hard, to get people voluntarily to come and talk. But maybe it isn’t. They managed to do that with supermarket customers! It is worth a try.
We have done something similar in projects Team4Learning. We used our learning system and while having visitors from Finland we hosted a training session. We gathered ideas and points of view on the event. The way it was led was not different to listening panels, but it provided a space where we could get the feel from people. We must work more with it!
The same ways we shall change our mindset about mistakes, complains are no different. In fact, if they are handled well, they lead to more satisfaction, than If there was no complain at the beginning at all. Complain is an opportunity for us. To make our business better, keep our customers and attract more.
I am putting down this book with knowing, I need to get the feel from the customers, if I want them to come back. I need to listen to them systematically and regularly and handle complains as opportunities! (the same way some companies handle comments on TikTok – an opportunity)
