Revisiting Spending Time with Customers

Posted on April 17, 2024

We are consumed with "doing," making forward progress; perhaps even more than usual these days, as COVID has us rethinking what and how we move forward. But in a recent discussion with MBA Consumer Behavior students at Babson College, I found myself instinctively making the recommendation of deeper listening before taking action, especially with Customers.

More specifically, I recalled the many good experiences I have had spending time and listening to Customers, and relating how those instances, while a small percentage of my overall career, have had an oversized impact on my education, perspective, and instincts as a marketer. Without thinking, I could hear the words coming forth about the value of being with Customers, “getting out from behind your desk and meeting them”, listening to them directly, learning more in one hour with them than in weeks reviewing information about them; hearing them, feeling their needs, seeing what matters to them and helping them succeed.

I have been fortunate to have worked with leaders who modeled this behavior and made it possible for me to get out-and-about. From meeting with American Express clients who accepted “The Card”, as part of their business-building and cooperative marketing efforts; to driving with an account rep 60 miles east of San Diego into the desert to meet with a small automotive business to understand how our products were helping him build his small business...and would he be renewing his Yellow Page advertising that year. Me in my suit and tie, my colleague in khakis and golf shirt, our client in coveralls that showed the grease and marks of his daily work. Really want to know the product you’re selling? Get out and see it the way the Customer does.

But it’s not just the learning, it has fostered a genuine regard for Customers and I often think of these times as highlights within certain jobs. In one instance, spending days at an RV rally in Salem Oregon with 1,000’s of customers; RVers, mostly senior citizens, who paid us millions of dollars of memberships fees each year and bought an even greater amount of related products. These were our people!

Growing up in NYC, RVs and the “RV lifestyle” were new and novel to me. Meeting with these welcoming people, all looking to share their experiences and affection for our products, was enlightening and invigorating. On the opposite end of the spectrum was spending days with CIOs and senior IT and business executives who were my guests at SAP’s largest worldwide event. Over several days together, I would eat with them, informally get to know them and their businesses, formally interview, survey, focus group and observe them, all to the end of SAP being able to better meet their needs--which I believe we did.

In between, there are many more stories, including meeting with our customers’ customers in order to help them in their quest to market better; whether that be observing the ritual of a mom preparing dinner with our customer’s product as a way to “nurture her family”, or listening to a middle-aged man explain how the quality of our customer’s internet service made their online experience feel as if were back with loved ones in their homeland.

In the end, I was able to offer the students these points as they pursue Consumer Behavior:

• Every minute spent listening to a Customer is the most valuable way to spend...invest...that time;
• Spending time with customers makes you a better, more empathetic marketer, and...
• Even makes you a better analyst, as you gain a greater context for understanding what data, research, and insights are saying;
• As one student noted, “this is hard, being able to pull back (from doing), and focus on listening to Customers”; I agreed, and hastened to add, “but it’s worth it.”

Have you spoken to a Customer lately?