Putting the Bulldozer in Park & Removing the Earplugs

Putting the Bulldozer in Park & Removing the Earplugs

A wise man who was a member of The Ohio State University faculty, was known to preach "you have two ears and one mouth and that ratio exists for a reason. Remember, you should listen twice as much as you speak." Listen twice as much as you speak. It seems that this nugget of wisdom is not entirely embraced by the business world. How many companies go through each day with a bulldozer mentality? They have an agenda in mind, they know what is going on, and they are here to execute their plan. The bulldozer mentality is a lethal one. While at the end of the day the company may have cleared the path they planned to, they may have also failed to see or consider all of the opportunities that were thrown under the two ton roller. The opportunities that lie crushed in the bull-dozers wake of destruction are often customers. Instead of focusing on executing a drawn-up plan, businesses should be focusing on their clients. "Customer-centric" is becoming one of the biggest buzzwords in marketing for a reason. The evolution of technology and increased access to knowledge has resulted in an empowered consumer. There is nothing preventing the customer from pulling out their smart phone, Googling "company who can XYZ" and having a list of thousands of businesses who are eager to offer their services. The power now lies in the hands of the consumer and companies need to put their bulldozers in park and listen up. A company who takes the time to listen to their customers knows what they want and can more easily produce it to satisfy the customer's needs. Satisfying customer needs to their exact specifications can give companies an advantage over of the thousands of other companies on the Google result list who would just offer a generic solution.  At Hopkins every one of our employees strives to make the customer the priority. From our conscientious CSR teams to the direct point of contact of our sales reps, our every move is made with regard to the customer. In an effort to increase this relationship with our clients we sent out an email a few months back to check in with them. We asked questions: why are you buying from us? What are your expectations and are we meeting them? What benefits do you derive from working with us? What could we do to better your experience? You can see some of the responses on our website.