It’s an age-old conundrum: As companies get bigger and bigger, do they also get better? At what point do they get so big that their success goes to their head and they lose the drive and passion to get it right the way smaller, nimbler and, dare I say, smarter companies can?
And is the key to the entire thing one of the most basic skills any good business should have: to listen to its customers?
I pondered these questions after a few recent product and service experiences with a couple of the biggest and most respected companies in America today. Each has become a leader in its sector, but at least in these instances, they seem to have lost a little something. They seem to have stopped paying attention and aren’t listening to what their customers are saying.
They may be forgetting about one of the most important processes any company can go through: experience management. I wrote about this space in a recent article, and I define it as knowing your customer better so you can provide them a better experience at every touch point. It’s about taking the ethereal, often wispy aspect of dealing with a customer and decompressing it into facts and data that you can act on. Understanding more through better listening. Which of course leads to being more successful.
at Forbes
