There’s this thing I learned in school when I was younger. It was more forced taught than learned willingly. It was a phrase, and it went something like this:
“Nathan, pay attention.”
A friend of mine, Sara, says it sometimes too, except she likes to mix statements and questions together into one. She’s a writer.
“Nathan, you’re not paying attention, are you?”
In many cases with Sara I am, not so much luck for the teachers, though.
I guess since I am still learning I can’t be too hard on companies that apparently never learned to pay attention. It just pisses me off sometimes. It’s one thing to miss something small. It’s another thing entirely to miss the fact that your store’s hours of business don’t correspond to your target market. Or to go throughout your work day with your eyes closed as the majority of people who are walking through your store are mothers with children who would probably like a bigger and nicer shopping cart – you know, one that fits their kid and what they want to buy. I could go on but I won’t. Yet.
There is always the excuse of “there’s nothing I’m not missing!” Then why isn’t there a flurry of good will online about your company? Why don’t you have more evangelists? If relationships have taught me nothing else, it’s that there’s always more you can learn. Look hard. Is there anything that you haven’t been paying attention to at your company?
Hey! I totally don’t mind you using the photo. :) Cheers!
Hey – thanks for the comment. Greg has been good to my class.
Anyway, I think that’s just the nature of corporations – that they are completely disconnected with reality. In all my four years of retail experience I have never found a company that really knows their target market, or has any idea that they are doing something wrong. This includes examples such as ridiculous store hours, changing product lines and completely alienating their primary customer base, not providing the stores with enough of popular products, and the list goes on. I think the problem is that customers don’t know when to complain, so there’s nothing for management to pay attention to. They think their doing a great job and don’t understand what’s going on when sales aren’t up to par!
@Sara – Thank you very much :) It’s a fantastic photo! Represents a number of things on a number of levels.
@Rachel – Speaking to the customer not knowing when to complain, I think you touch on something important there. I think the problem occurs not that customers don’t know when to complain, as they complain all the time (as evidence from my Radio Shack post on my old blog), and they shouldn’t be limited to when they can. A bigger problem is that corporations don’t know how or where to listen. If they do, they don’t respond or follow up, and that itself is just as important as listening. That’s what establishes the relationships.
And thanks for taking the time to stop by my blog Rachel and Sara :)