Listening to Customers

Most customer listening programs suffer from a lack of really good communication planning. Communication will be the focus of my next blog series.  We'll look at the before, during, and after of Communication in the following areas...

Before...

• How should I communicate with customers before launching a customer listening initiative?
  
• What do I need to communicate internally before launching a customer listening initiative?

During...

• What do I need to build into my internal and external communication plan during the course of a customer listening survey?

After...

• How and what should I communicate with my customers after a major customer listening initiative?
• How do I close the loop internally and build up momentum for real action planning to take place?

Across all types of communication, one of the hurdles we all face is Battling the Curse of Knowledge.  The “curse of knowledge” means that once you’ve become an expert in a given area, it’s very difficult to imagine not knowing what you know when communicating with others.  The more you know, the worse your communication may actually become.  So, what do you do about it?  I believe that simply being AWARE and reminding ourselves of the knowledge gap is very impactful, and helps us be more conscious of what our customers need to know, and how they will receive our messages.  
 
A quick bit of comedy about the “curse of knowledge”…. I recently read another blog on this topic, and down at the bottom there was a comment that said “sounds like one of the better curses to have…”   I guess I would have to agree!

Krista Roseberry
VP, Consulting Services