Vincent Collins’ Weblog

What a Cliché right?

I’ve known this rule from the very beginning and how it will affect your bottom line directly.  However, time and time again, I find myself sacrificing this for other, more immediate things.  Things that I feel are either more interesting or more pressing to concentrate on:

• Fix that patch
• Monitor ad campaigns
• Order that software update
• Code that new functionality
• Dabble in new, exciting programming techniques
• Grab that cup of coffee
• Check and recheck your email
• Blog about something (oops, doing that now)
• Jump on facebook for “a few minutes”
• Tweet your latest musings

The list is endless really, but when I stop to think about it, what would have happened had I called up a customer directly and asked how their online experience was?  What could have been gained by this simple act?

I did that today.  I called one of my good, regular customers.  I introduced myself for the first time.  They have always done business via the web and so to them, our entire business front is our website.

I can’t tell you how shocked they were to hear from me.  “Who is this?”, “Why are you calling?”  At first they felt this was a sales call.  I assured them that I’m not selling them anything.  I explained that I wanted a couple minutes of their time to ask them what they thought of our company.

What happened next was incredible.  They were willing to share with me the good, the bad and even provided specific user experiences that caused them routine problems.  By the time our “two minute” turned 30 minute conversation ended I had two pages of notes scratched down on my yellow pad.  I thanked them for their time and promised that I would incorporate some of these issues into our next release.

They were genuinely appreciative of the personal phone call may have won them to our side for the long term.  The question is, if I hadn’t called them, would they have chosen our competitor down the road?  While I can’t answer this question definitively, I can say that the benefits of this simple 30 minute phone call certainly outweighs the time I could have spent checking my email…

This is one of a series of IRCE-related postings.  You can read more here:

I Attended This Years Internet Retailer Conference Exhibition in Boston, MA