How many ways can your customers communicate with you?
Recently a friend of mine was evaluating two companies who were vying to provide a service to her church. One had a product with a pricing and service package that was clearly superior. But that salesperson would only communicate by phone -- he didn’t use email or text messaging. I suspect he probably didn’t even know what video conferencing is.
The other’s product was adequate, though not quite as good, but in addition to using the telephone, that salesperson responded to emails promptly and was easily reachable through a variety of other communication techniques.
When my friend presented the two options to her church, she recommended the company whose salesperson was easier to communicate with. And she was very honest about why. As the person who was going to coordinate the project, she didn’t want to have to waste her limited volunteer time being frustrated by communication challenges. It's likely that most business owners and managers would feel the same way about their own and their employees' time.
Certainly technology plays a major role in the tools we use to communicate, but this issue isn’t about technology, it’s about meeting your customers where they are. It’s about recognizing that your customers make their buying decisions on more than just the merits of your product or service. It’s also about the image you project -- is your image one of a forward-thinking, cutting-edge company or one of a company that just isn’t keeping up?
What it all comes down to is finding out how your customers want to communicate and then responding based on their preferences, even if it takes you out of your own comfort zone.
