How to Collaborate With Your Customers to Be More Successful

Think about the last time you were asked to fill out a customer satisfaction survey. Chances are, you rated everything “fine” and then moved onto something else.

You may have actually been fine with the service or the product, or maybe you didn’t want to be a hater and give the company a bad rating. But the problem with such a tepid response is that it gives the company a false sense of well-being – and that can lead to real bottom-line consequences.

“Too many companies have on rose-colored glasses and they’re not getting sufficient data to read between the lines,” says David Nour, author of “Co-Create: How Your Business Will Profit from Innovative and Strategic Collaboration.” “A rating of ‘fine’ isn’t what gets customers to come back.”

That lack of true insight can doom an organization to failure at a time when competition is keen and disruptors are around every corner. If companies instead rely on “listening louder” to customers, they can turn them into strategic partners that can help them be more innovative and responsive, Nour says.

By collaborating with customers and listening to their ideas at every stage of new product and service development, the customers are happier with the outcome, he says. These customers (read more here)