Companies that listen are most likely to succeed

When a process breaks down in your organization and customers complain, do you address the situation or ignore it and hope it goes away?

Author Jacqueline Novogratz says the market can be an efficient listening device. She notes that when a company achieves significant market power, it has a tendency to stop listening to what its customers are saying. The organization prefers to enjoy the surge of momentum and begins to lose the listening skills that made it successful in the first place. That’s when we hear things like, “That’s our policy” or “Just fill out the form and someone will get back to you.” Instead of listening, it pushes.

Companies that prefer to ride the euphoric wave of success instead of continuously engaging their customers will sooner or later be replaced by the ones that listen better than they do.

Ken Albrecht is president of Reliable Propane in Clarence Center, New York. He can be reached at ken@reliablepropane.com or 716-741-3000.