As business leaders we all know about the big things that can hurt our companies. The really big things, like faulty products, poor customer service, unrealistic pricing etc., but do we give enough attention to the little things?
It may come as a surprise to some but those little things can mean the difference between an organization choosing your product over someone else’s product. And what those little things are might come as an even greater surprise and might not be what you think.
If everything were ideal, your products and services would only be judged and used based on what they provide or don’t provide. It would be a simple matrix of pro’s and con’s and you could easily outdo the other companies with similar products just by having more pro’s than they do.
In reality it’s not that simple. Have you recently lost a customer to another vendor? If you did and you reached to your contact to out to find out why, chances are they aren’t going to tell you about any of the ‘little’ things that might have swayed their decision. They might say that the cost is too high or they are going in another direction or even that it wasn’t their choice. It’s doubtful that they are going to say they are tired of getting marketing phone calls when they are already a customer or that you can’t seem to figure out that they are on your mailing list twice and they are receiving duplicate emails every time you send something out.
They may not tell you that your renewal process for product support is onerous or that your account team is highly annoying because you feel that every question requires a 30 minute phone call with the account manager and their supervisors and you won’t answer otherwise. Or the weekly calls and emails asking for an update and asking where the order is, after they have told you the process that it has to go through and that they are not in control of that.
Or worse asking to put you in touch with their executives so you can pressure them into making a purchase. That person you are talking to is likely the one pushing to renew the product and if you annoy them enough they may choose to go with another company altogether. When your customer feels like they have to ignore your phone calls or pretend they didn’t see your emails, you might want to take a step back and ask yourself why.
Down the Rabbit Hole 