Millennium Marketing Research®
Tom Schori DBA Millennium Marketing Research®, 808 Ironwood, Normal IL 61761, 309-532-8466

Customers won't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

By Thomas R. Schori, Ph.D., and Michael L. Garee, Principals,  Millennium Marketing Research, 808 E. Ironwood, Normal, IL 61761-5239. Tel. 309-532-8466 -

It is axiomatic that, unless your company sells the most mundane of products and services, your customers/prospective customers definitely want to deal with representatives who are knowledgeable. That way, if they have a question about or a problem with your product or service, they know they will be able to get informed, reliable answers or assistance.

That said, it can therefore be very tempting for a company to conclude that its primary focus should be on ensuring that salespeople and/or representatives have extensive product/service knowledge. The fact of the matter is, however, that's not true at all. Another, more crucial axiom will always take precedence in virtually any interaction with customers and prospective customers: They simply won’t care how much you know until they know just how much you care.

Think of many situations you’ve undoubtedly been in yourself when shopping for a product or service. Regardless of how knowledgeable your representative or salesperson may have been, the minute¾no, make that the second¾you sensed that he or she was more concerned about his or her own needs and desires that about yours, chances are very, very good that you ended up purchasing the product or service from someone else. Even if that someone else wasn’t quite as knowledgeable, right?

Let’s face it, most of us like to be treated like an individual whose needs and desires are important, not like "just another number," as is so often the case in many business transactions today. Increasingly, significant numbers of customers, faced with an ever-expanding array of companies delivering virtually identical products and services, are demanding such treatment. Companies that ignore this all-important psychological need and desire of customers do so at their own peril.

How can you and your company ensure that your customers and prospective customers will indeed first know how much you care before they care how much you know? Actually, it’s pretty elementary. Here are just a few of the ways that you can ensure that:

  • Make it a point to first and foremost listen to what your customers tell you about their needs and desires. And these listening skills should be active listening skills, not the "eyes glazed over" listening skills we so often encounter in our day-to-day business activities. In this day and age where there is a profusion of "one size fits all" products and services, one of the biggest complaints customers have is that companies (and the people representing them) simply do not listen to what they told them they wanted and needed.
  • Even though you undoubtedly have them, avoid "educating" customers about the way your company "does business." Most of us work for companies where there is an amplitude of "rules and regulations," "policies and procedures," etc. While your company may care very deeply about these rules, etc., keep in mind that the customer usually knows nothing of them and probably couldn’t care less even if they did! The customer is concerned primarily about one thing and one thing only: what your company can do for them. That means if your company is unable, or unwilling, to "bend" the occasional rule or regulation when it makes sense to accommodate a customer, it probably will lose a sale. It may even end up ruing the day.
  • Always give customers a means of talking to a real live person. Much to our own chagrin, as well as to the chagrin of a vast number of others we know, automated "phone mail" systems appear to be firmly ensconced in the business world, from the largest to the very smallest companies. However, think how empty (and extremely frustrating) phrases such as, "Your call is very important to us, so please stay on the line until one of our customer service representatives can help you. . ." sound to a customer who is either never able to actually talk to a real live person or who must wait on the line interminably in order to do so.
  • Fire anyone and everyone in your company who doesn’t understand and honestly believe that the customer is the most important person in the world to your company. Companies that are genuinely customer-focused never, never tolerate in their midst any employee or representative who is rude, short or otherwise disrespectful to customers¾for any reason. Remember, a satisfied customer will always tell a few friends, relatives and acquaintances about the good service he or she received from your company. On the other hand, a dissatisfied customer will go out of his or her way to tell anybody who will listen about bad service they received from your company!

Obviously, there are many, many other factors to take into consideration when it comes to ensuring that your customers know how much you care about them. The point is, many of these factors are oftentimes overlooked or simply ignored in this the longest peacetime business expansion since World War Two. Some companies today may have enough "slack" to continue getting away with it. But what will happen to these same companies (and the people who work for them) when the business cycle ultimately cools down, as surely it will? Something to think about, isn’t it?