We all like to think that we listen to our customers. But do our employees do the same? Two recent experiences – one involving me, the other involving our CEO, Alan Pleskow – brought home how vital it is for everyone in the organization to listen to the customer.

Photo courtesy of www.inventorspot.com

The full stories are hilarious (let us know if you’d like to hear them), but in brief what happened was this: Alan mentioned to the associate at a golf course pro shop that he almost got lost between the gate and the driving range because the signs were confusing and hard to see. The response: “Well, if you didn’t see them, how do you know the signs were bad?”

In my case the associate at the car rental counter gave me a rate that was lower than what was in my reservation. When I returned the car (ironically, after attending a loyalty conference) I was charged the original, higher rate. After frustrating encounters with several employees the manager finally intervened. “What would you like me to do?” he asked. I asked him to check his records and I soon had both a corrected contract and an apology.

These experiences (and others like this) have something important in common: the employees who jeopardized (or in Alan’s case, ruined) the customer relationship were not managers, let alone owners.

As an owner or manager you can’t be everywhere at once. What can you do to ensure that your associates listen to customers the way you would? How can you create what Nielsen Research calls a “culture of listening”?

We have a few suggestions:

1. Set the tone from the top. If you are serious about establishing a listening culture make sure you live up to your own expectations – and make sure your employees see you in action.
2. Make listening to the customer a core element of your strategy. You probably don’t need the complex processes big companies use for this but you should have some consistent way to integrate the voice of the customer into your planning and operations.
3. Require listening skills. Train the employees who need help and deal with the ones who can’t or won’t improve.
4. Empower employees to act on what they hear. It is counterproductive for employees to listen to customers if they are unable to respond in a meaningful way. Create a process for employees to take immediate action, even if they can’t always fully satisfy the customer.
5. Reward listening. Listening to customers isn’t always about fielding complaints. Sometimes customers have good ideas about products, pricing, store layout, etc. Provide incentives for associates to turn customer input into revenue, productivity or profits.

So even if you listen to your customers, do your employees? And if you aren’t certain, there is one sure way to find out. Ask your customers. And listen.