You Have Two Ears and One Mouth for a Reason - Listen to Your Customers

Everybody that has something to sell is eager to tell the
world all about it. All too often, they do not take the
time to listen to customer input, which can have a profound
impact on the success of the product or service being sold.
Whatever you have to sell may seem the greatest thing since
indoor plumbing to you, but if it is missing key elements
that your customers expect, it is not likely to sell very
well.

Back in the early 1990's, the Boeing Company decided to
make some radical changes in how they designed and built
their airplanes by involving their customers in the design
process. The first product developed along these lines was
the 777. Back then; I was assigned to the Flight Test
Instrumentation crew responsible for the instrumentation
and data collection to support the program. I had the
additional privilege of working on the very first 777 to
fly, WA001. It seemed that everywhere we went, we were
followed by a film crew - maybe because we were. BBC did a
documentary of the entire test program and we were
regularly visited by VIP's from all over the world
representing various airline customers. They did not come
to see what we came up with when we built the 777 because
they already knew all about it; they were a big part of the
design. They came to see the success of a collective effort.

The process of involving customers in the definition and
design of the 777 has made it one of the most successful
airplanes in aviation history. It did not happen because
Boeing arbitrarily built something their customers liked,
it happened because Boeing listened to their customers and
built an airplane that met the needs of their customers.

This is not a philosophy that is restricted to large
companies, you can use it too. I did, and it has resulted
in some very happy customers. In my case, I had published a
book that my customers really liked, but they wanted a way
to continue a dialog to help them establish their own
businesses. This led me to publishing a blog on my website,
but I wanted to share some information with my customers
without posting it for the world on my website. The next
logical step seemed to be a newsletter to my customers that
went out monthly. This too was a hit, but it was very time
consuming for me and I wasn't getting enough customer input
and really wanted a means for them to share their
experiences, ask questions, and in general interact with
each other.

I do not want to convey that a newsletter is not a good
thing, it was really appreciated by my customers, but did
not allow them to interact with each other and this was
something that several of them expressed an interest in
doing. Then a really strange thing happened, I listened to
what my customers were telling me they wanted and the
solution provided a great way to satisfy everyone - start a
restricted access forum.

Why restricted? Because I wanted to be able to share
information with my customers that would help them in their
businesses without sharing it with the world. I also wanted
them to feel comfortable posting things in the forum
without concern of harassment or intimidation that even I
experienced in some other forums.

Since launching the forum, I have been told many times how
much it is appreciated and how useful my customers are
finding it. The concept was not something I pulled out of
the air, it was the result of a direct question from one of
my customers that asked, "Have you ever considered hosting
a forum so that I can chat with other booksellers and we
can learn from each other too?"

If your sales are not meeting your expectations, then
instead of continuing down the same path that got you where
you are right now, take some time and listen to your
customers to find out what they want or need. It might not
have an immediate effect on your sales campaign, but it
will most likely have a positive long-term effect.

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Michael E. Mould is the author of "Online Bookselling: A
Practical Guide with Detailed Explanations and Insightful
Tips," [Paperback ISBN 1427600708, CD-ROM ISBN 1599714876]
and the developer of "Bookkeeping for Booksellers" [CD ISBN
1427600694], you can learn more about online bookselling
at: http://www.online-bookselling.com .