MUCH HAS BEEN SAID OVER THE LAST 19 YEARS about the value of getting close to customers; listening to their needs and meeting their expectations. Indeed, a lot has been said but little has been done to improve the art of employee-customer communication in even the most mundane of places, such as in the local grocery store, restaurants and the consumer retail sector.

Customer satisfaction has been a major management topic for several years. There again, if you fail to satisfy your customer, the only way to know what went wrong may be to listen to your competitors' message and pay attention to the way their employees communicate with their customers. Why? Because THEIR customers are no longer in your store, that's why!

	Customers cost a bundle to attract and retain.
	Few customers will actually take the time to share their views with employees or managers unless they are "extremely" unhappy

The end result is the ill-served customer leaves and the opportunity to improve your customer-interaction process is broken. To make matters even worse, the lost customer is now sharing with his/her friends a story about a former unpleasant experience and/or a newfound and now "favorite spot."

You had an opportunity to communicate and further solidify a bond with that particular customer at one point. Now, however, it may be too late. The customer may not care about your business anymore and may have become "loyal" to one of your competitors. What happened? What can you do to prevent customer defection? How will you find out so that you may solve the problem?

How to find the answers to customer defection:
First, ask yourself, "What does my competitor offer that attracted my customer?" Remember, you once had that customer. You succeeded in attracting that customer. You had an edge. What was it? Why were you unable to retain that customer? What made your customer look to and stay with your competitor?

I can tell you what motivates me to frequent a specific place of business. Usually it has to do with their enticing marketing message and/or positive word-of-mouth. Something in the marketing message appealed to my needs, my wants, my senses and I found myself walking through their doors!

Once there, I expect those promises and incentives to be fulfilled. Period. Be it fresh food, fast and friendly service, fair prices, or a clean environment. No matter the reason, if I do not get what I was originally expecting I may simply leave without sharing my disappointment with any members of the establishment. I may never return and I also may engage in casual "bashing" of the establishment with others in my circle. And sometimes if my level of disappointment was high enough I'll use them as an example to my seminar audiences!

A Personal Example
Within a three-mile radius of my residence, I have easy access to four grocery stores. I spend on average $150-$200 for groceries each week. Over a period of 10 years, this number ads up to more than $95,000. Nowadays, only one of these four stores gets my money and I am very happy to spend it there day after day. Given my line of work as an Employee-Customer Relations Consultant, I expressed my needs, expectations and disappointment to the management of the other three. They failed to adequately address the issues. Only one adequately met my need and hit the jackpot! Not only have I become "extremely" loyal to that grocer, I've also communicated my $atisfaction with that establishment to several of my friend$ and neighbor$. Further, I freely share my views of the other three as well. (Look, I am human and like to chit-chat with fellow human beings). Repeat business and word-of-mouth is the key to business success. Work on it - it pays!

In retrospect, the other three grocers could have earned my loyalty and my dollars. Instead they turned it away - they actually FORCED me and my friends away. They were given more than a fair shot at retaining my loyalty. Time and again, they were informed of weak performance on their part, which would have prevented this measurable loss, not to mention the loss of other customers. In an attempt to express my loyalty, I volunteered to share my views, but they weren't listening.

The Bottom Line
As strong as the above example is, it's certainly not the end of the story! Imagine if I remain a loyal, happy, satisfied customer for life. Not only am I spending my money, but my influence brings in other customers to the establishment. If you multiply the amount of money spent by a "word-of-mouth" factor, the desirability of maintaining communication and meeting customer expectations is demonstrated.

What's your average annual profit per "loyal" customer? How long would you like to retain that customer? What's your cost of sharing "THAT" customer with your competitor?

The significance of this message is clear. If you look at each customer as an appreciating asset, you are likely to reconsider your hiring, training, and compensation programs. And you are also very likely to invest in support tools to aid the employee-customer-communication process.

Imagine your front-line employees are "managing" your future each time this employee comes in contact with a customer. Are you sure you still want to brag about your company's low wages? Are you certain that taking time away from their busy schedule to chat with "that" customer is too unproductive?

It boils down to this: When you buy a new cash register, it starts depreciating the day it is acquired. The "well-served" and "well-listened-to" customer is an appreciating asset. Every small act on his or her behalf drastically increases the likelihood of repeat business, positive word-of-mouth referral and measurable business performance improvement

Listening to the customer and the competitors is easy to do. In fact, much easier than most would like to admit. Here are a few inexpensive and very effective ways to achieve this: First, you can walk around the store and interact with your customers. "Tell me how we can best serve you, Mrs. Smith." If you are genuine and listen attentively, this may be the most efficient and the least expensive approach. Secondly, you can display the traditional customer satisfaction/complaint card for your customers to fill out and return. Inexpensive? Yes, but rarely effective. Thirdly, you can implement an automated customer-feedback monitoring solution. Customized to meet your needs, these solutions are extremely effective, very affordable, easy to implement and monitor.

Months ago I discovered Mindshare Technologies' CONNECT 3.0, a solution that will assist in accomplishing these goals. In my opinion, Mindshare Technologies stands well above the rest of the pack. Visit their website (www.mshare.net) and learn how their system can immediately identify customer satisfaction issues and trends that did not appear on your radar screen. Access this valuable data from your computer or fax and share it with your team. Well, I suggest you do a little more than just share it. Take it a step further - find out what customers have to say about the competitors, why they visit your competitors from time to time. And then do something about it!



Adaptation by Robert McAllister with Author's permission for publication in Mindshare Technologies' Newsletter and website. Original version ("To Increase Customer Base, Listen to Your Competitor") may be accessed on www.alainjroy.com

Alain J Roy is President and CEO of The Alain J Roy Company An Employee-Customer Relations Consulting Firm located in Rancho Santa Fe, California.

	Are you listening to what the customer is not saying?
	Demanding Customers
	IHOP and THE RITZ-CARLTON engaged in a fierce competition over same customers! (.pdf document)

For more information visit: www.alainjroy.com