Bottom line, the business world is changing?
NO SCRATCH THAT, HAS ALREADY?CHANGED?
For the past 100 years, it was good enough to have a solid product, market it through traditional channels, sell some, have an outsourced customer service team at least acting as if they are listening, then sit back, relax, and watch the revenue come in.
Those days are gone?
Every single day I see new companies that get it, companies that understand the power of ?listening? to their customers and actually care about what their customer wants.
In the past, it was good enough to pretend to care, pretend to listen to your customer, have a cheerful voice and get them OFF THE PHONE as fast as possible! Success inside customer service organizations was measured by how few minutes you spent with customers when they called with a question or a problem. Bonuses paid for the people that could get through the most calls in an hour!
For those companies, there is a new problem: CHOICE and INFORMATION.
They can no longer hide, any potential customer can find reviews, ratings, real customer experiences online, this information is out there, and it?s good, it?s free, it?s accurate and it comes from people like you and me, people ?we? trust.
I can?t think of the last time I didn?t look on yelp at the reviews of a restaurant or hotel before going there or didn?t thoroughly dig through comments on Amazon.com before purchasing something. Or browse through linked in, facebook, twitter, and others before hiring!
You can?t hide anymore.
If your product sucks, or you don?t ?actually? care, uh I have bad news for you, your gonna fail, but if you do care, and your product doesn?t suck then you have an opportunity like NEVER before. The same reason that companies that don?t get it are going to wake up to a harsh new world can be YOUR greatest asset! You can reach people, ?your people? the people that want to hear you, learn from you, and buy your stuff. If you?re good, they are going to tell their friends.
I see new and old companies alike thrive or die by these new rules?
Which are you?
-Christopher Behnke
