Success in business lies in understanding the needs of our clients and customers and then providing something of value in response. Sounds simple, right? Our customers will tell us what they want, we take care of it and everyone is happy. Let me use my recent trip to Lowe’s as a quick case study of how this just might not be so simple in real life.
I stopped by Lowe’s one evening after work with a fairly simple mission: get the part I need to fix a broken plug on our vacuum cleaner’s electrical cord. Being the power-tool-inhibited accountant that I am, I knew there was a chance that things could get a little dicey once inside the store… but I was able to find the electrical aisle successfully on my own. I noticed a Lowe’s employee in the aisle and headed over to him with my simple request.
Me: “I’m looking for something to fix the end of a power cord.”
Employee: Blank look.
Me [realizing that this isn’t coming out quite as smoothly as I intended]: “Uh, you know, like where you plug a cord into a wall. I need something to fix that.”
Employee: Blank look, with hint of nervousness.
Me [wondering if I should talk louder, slower, or both]: “You know where the prongs are that go into a wall, and one of the prongs came out so I need to fix it…”
Employee: “Uh, this really isn’t my main area. I’ll get someone else to come over here.” [Exits rather quickly]
Ok, I’ll admit that while I could picture what I needed, I didn’t have a clue how to describe it. Actually, I should have been using the phrase “replacement plug” (which, for the record, I discovered on my own in the next aisle).
So maybe that communication thing isn’t always as easy as it sounds. Think about your customers. How can you help them communicate their needs and questions? Is industry jargon too often a barrier to your customer’s understanding? Sometimes it helps to look past the question to the motivation behind it. What are the unasked questions under the surface? While you may not have all the answers, your customers will appreciate your attempt to speak and understand their language.
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This is a really good reminder of how important it is to find ways to comunicate with clients on a level that will be beneficial to them! The 401(k) industry is full of very technical terms and we need to remember that talking to our clients in non-technical terms will help them understand their retirement plan benefits! I will remind our staff during our next meeting about finding better ways to communicate our services with our clients.
Nice anecdote, Jeff. And good points. As a service provider, I struggle with this sometimes because what we do is very specialized. I’m thinking about ways to simplify communication for our customers and prospects. Simplify our service agreements. Use laymen’s terms as much as possible in our correspondence and conversations. The most worrisome for me is communicating with prospective clients. Most business owners need what we provide and would come out very profitable in any engagement with us. But the subject matter is usually not even on their radar until we – or their accountants — tell them about it.