Friday, November 19, 2010

Opportunistic insight (wasted)...

Some businesses just don’t seem care what their customers think.  I often wonder if they are doing so swimmingly well that they don’t feel the need, or, are they that clueless about how to obtain even the simplest form of customer insights.  Take for example, a specialist I was seeing recently.  After a few visits, I determined we just weren’t a great match on a number of fronts.  Today, I called the doctor’s office to cancel my future appointments and the friendly receptionist asked if I would like to reschedule to which I responded, “No”.  At this point, the opportunity to gain some valuable insight is wide open.  No market research study needed.  No cold calling to find out opinions.  Just ask the next logical question, right?  Wrong.  Her reply…   “Ok.  Thanks.” 

Thanks for what?  For dumping him as my doctor?  For being kind enough to cancel the appointment versus risk being charged as a no show?  What a missed opportunity.  If you haven’t trained your front line team on the art of opportunistic insight, now is the time.  Ask them what they would do in this situation and get them on the right path.  The bottom line…  when you are being spoon fed the chance to learn more about what your customers think, open wide.  Every insight matters.  Every insight has some noodle of value.  And every insight can make your organization stronger.

No comments :

Post a Comment