Be Willing to Know What You Don’t Know

Big QAQnA kudos to Maria Palma of Customers Are Always for pointing us to a great article by Brett Anderson at DestinationCRM. Brett cites recent research by Accenture that shows a huge disconnect between what customers want from tech companies’ customer service and what technology company executives believe (or don’t believe) their customers want.

Among the research findings Brett cited in his post:

• Consumers will no longer tolerate average customer service from technology companies — three-fourths will leave those companies;
• consumers have lower perceptions of the services they receive than technology executives perceive they provide;
• consumers’ desires don’t match these executives’ customer service investment priorities;
• consumers are dissatisfied and frustrated with most self-service technologies; and
• many
  companies are focused on winning the sale from a customer (thereby
  winning the battle), but don’t stay focused on keeping that customer
  happy after the sale (thereby losing the war).

I’ve said, for a long time, that executives need to stop trusting their guts and start listening to their customers. Technology, by its very nature, is ever-changing. I can understand how tech executives gain a "make a killing today because we might not be here tomorrow" mentality. But those companies willing to invest in listening to their customers and invest in satisfying actual customer expectations will be much more profitable in the long-run.