Danny’s post below got me thinking about our customers. How much are we listening to our customers? What percentage of our time is focused on the customer? 5% 10%, 25%, 50%? What is the right amount? And who is doing the listening? Is it just Customer Support? Sales? Marketing? I think everyone needs to listen, because without the customer, there is no company, so the customer’s opinion matters.
The best way to interact with our customers is of course, face-to-face. When we were rolling out to Washington University’s campus about a month ago, I had so much fun talking to our customers, asking them for their opinions - learning what they liked and what they thought needed to be improved. We integrated a lot of that feedback into new features to make Jambo even better. And when we do that, I think we need to let everyone know. I liked the way Danny recognized some of the users in his blog. Let’s keep that up!
How many companies base their competitive advantage on knowing their customers better than anyone? Its one thing to say listen to your customers, its a whole other thing to say that this will be one of our competitive advantages. As a pioneer in a new market, this is an advantage that is ours to lose. New companies often develop in the wake of mature companies that have become unresponsive, arrogant, or risk averse.
Our Customers are our competitive advantage - its up to us to lose them to a firm that is more concerned about their needs. Our whole company need to be focused on how best to serve those needs. As our market evolves and our customers’ needs change, we must adapt as well. It is not enough just to let customers come to us, but we must go to them and ask them what they want.
Since Jambo is a tool to bring people face-to-face, we need to be using Jambo to meet our customers as often as possible and learn about how they are using it. Everywhere I go, I am running Jambo, so if you are a customer nearby, I hope to meet you soon!