The Human Dimension

A recent article on Linkedin noted a survey of business leaders from different industries that asked the reasons customers choose them over their immediate competitors. The article states that almost all the executives polled reported that the primary factor behind customers choosing their company over their competitors had to do with the individual relationships and interactions that their customers had with them.  The same article also states that these same surveyed executives spent far more time and energy trying to improve and perfect their products and technologies, rather than their customer relationships.  In reading the article I really wondered why anyone would need to ask that question or why they might expect that individual relationships and interactions between company representatives and customers would not be most important.  I responded to this article with the comment “Very True! Failing to make a conscious effort weekly to allocate just a bit more effort to strengthening the relationships you have with your customers is also the reason customers will fire you and you often don’t even know it.”  Business leaders generally assume better products and technology are the things that retain customers and grow revenue that is why they devote so much time to developing and perfecting them. The fact is it is the people in their businesses and organizations, not just those building the products, but also those interacting with the customers that need to perform.  They need to do what they do at a very high level and they need to do this for every customer, everyday, or they can expect to be fired, no matter how much time leaders spend perfecting the product.