Ruth Winett wrote this article about listening to your customers. Ruth founded Winett Associates, which provides customized business research and writing services to meet your needs, budget, and schedule. She and I worked closely together for about six years, planning, fundraising, and building the Christa McAuliffe Branch Library in Framingham, MA.
In the movie The Darkest Hour, Winston Churchill takes his first Tube ride to talk with ordinary citizens. He asks Tube riders, “Should England negotiate with Adolf Hitler, or should England fight Germany—-to the end?” The Tube riders respond, “Never! Never! Never capitulate.” Reporting their response to Parliament, Churchill persuades his Conservative Party, former Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, and his supporters to vote to fight Germany without first negotiating. Think about how trying to listen to his customers influenced the outcome of WW II.
The War Cabinet and Churchill needed to collect and analyze military data. They needed to know how many troops, ships, and planes Germany and England had. Still, Churchill knew that he had to take the populace’s temperature besides collecting data. As an unpopular war would probably fail, he needed to see if he had popular support for going to war without negotiating first.
Actor Gary Oldham portrays Churchill in the Darkest Hour as cantankerous but wily. He turns on the charm and asks the Tube riders for their names. He then addresses them individually by name, establishing a brief one-on-one relationship. Later, he refers to them individually when speaking to Parliament. He knows how to talk to his customers (in this case, the people he governs). Imagine what these commoners would have felt hearing their words on the radio if Churchill’s speech had been broadcast.
Whether real or imagined, these dramatic scenes from a World War II movie remind us that you can accumulate much data. Still, if you don’t understand your constituency deeper, you operate your business in a vacuum. Your products might be faster, better, or cheaper than your competitors. Still, if they don’t suit your customers’ needs and if they don’t address real issues that customers encounter, your products probably won’t succeed. The only way to find this type of insight is by listening to your customers.
Listen to your customers, observe them in action, and become familiar with their situations, problems, and feelings. You may have to get outside your comfort zone, as did the privileged Churchill, who had to learn how to pay for a ticket and navigate the Tube.
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