I have worked with companies that considered its customers to be obstacles to avoid or ignore: “If only we didn’t have to deal with those pesky complaining customers,” they’d say, “we’d have time to do really great work.” Any company whose employees still cling to the “customer is always wrong” mindset can kiss success goodbye.
Customers will trust each other before they’ll trust a company, relying heavily on user opinions before deciding where to spend their money. And they don’t need to wait for brands to create a place to share these views; they can find plenty of places to talk trash about your company if you’re ignoring them. Social media has empowered customers to the point where they are self-sufficient and demanding of attention and delivery of quality products.
With so many customers becoming advocates (pro or con) for your company, you need to respond by creating advocates at every level of your business, which may require a major shift in culture. The old-school view of customer relations is that only the sales department gets and keeps customers. Now, all employees, from the CEO to sales to accounting to HR, are players in the customer-satisfaction game.