The only one stuck with You is You

A lot of companies feel like they have a lock on their customers. Maybe they're the only ones that offer a certain benefit, or technology or cater to a certain demographic. So for that reason, customer retention and service aren't on the top of their list of things to do today.

But then something interesting happens. A competitor or upstart figures out the opportunity. They realize that Company A is the only real option Customer B has for purchasing Product D and that Company A is neglecting it's customers. So Upstart C gets into the Product D business and starts marketing to Company A's customer base.

And then it happens. Company A starts losing customers to Upstart C. The executive suite is stymied. The CEO offers lames excuses to the board. And all the while, market share is slipping away at an ever increasing rate.

Across town a similar occurrence is playing out. Only this time it is a company losing employees not market share. You see in this company, we'll call it Company B, the ownership mistakenly thought a down economy meant their employees had few chances to jump ship. The senior management team was drinking the "best of..." press the company regularly receives. But all the while, employees were growing weary. They were no longer happy all the time. They were frustrated at a recent reorganization that forced a number of process and personnel changes on them. (note: this is a totally made up example and no one should think I'm writing about a real company here --- just making a point folks)

And then it happened. Slowly at first but then like a snowball rolling down a hill, the tidal wave of departures grew bigger and came faster until one day, all the good employees had left and the company was left with only those employees who weren't as talented but none the less were still looking.

I could go on...we could talk about loss of clients, friends, and more.

The point of this post is that everything in life is tenuous. Your friends can unfriend you. Your clients can fire you. Your employees can quit if they're not happy. You customers certainly can leave you. Even your spouse has an out if she gets a better offer. Success today requires more talents and brainpower than anyone person could ever hope to offer. So success today requires teams -- both formal and informal. So if you're not making sure that each and every day you let that team, your team, know that you value them, care about them and maybe even go so far as to directly ask them, "how can I be of service to you today?" then you're likely missing an opportunity or maybe creating one for your competitors.

If you don't have a customer and/or employee feedback loop (research or some kind of social media loop) maybe you should consider getting one - if for no other reason than to establish an early warning system. Chances are that someone else, a competitor or upstart has built one -- or at least a listening post.

Because the only one stuck with you is truly you... and if you act like you're the one with the power, if you think you hold all the cards, or that your customers/clients/employees don't have any real options.... well you may just wake up one day alone and wondering, WTF just happened? 

But then, I could be wrong... what do you think folks? 

photo: Lonely Boots by Andrew Mason

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