Of course we’ve all heard the sentiment that a satisfied customer will tell a few people but an unsatisfied one will tell anyone who will listen. When the Internet started to become a more social place, companies started to realize that their customers now could tell the world about their negative experience – just look up any company with the word “sucks” after their name. Companies that already had good customer support realized they had to do even better while those with crappy support were at least more exposed.

There is no doubt that this is good for the consumer, but recently I was giving a speech on customer service and I gave a tidbit from my personal consumer life that seemed to really resonate with the crowd. I explained to them that there is transparency in the levels of customer service that current customers are receiving and that as a potential consumer it is actually pretty simple for me to gauge the number of support issues and the way they are handled. This transparency can and does impact sales well before the point of purchase.

In the offline world when someone has a customer support issue they generally will have one of two ways of resolving it. Either they call the support number provided or they have to head to the store and seek live support. In either case generally the exchange between company and customer is private to the outside world.

However in the online world one of the ways I like to investigate a product or service that I am contemplating buying is to head directly to the support page or forums and see what problems customers are having and more importantly (to me anyway) the responsiveness of the customer support staff at said company. It’s a level of transparency and a window into what life would be like as a customer of this company that I can’t get elsewhere. I of course can and do search the blogosphere and use Twitter to seek out other’s opinions, but I find that by doing a quick scan of the support forums I can find out (1) if the product is plagued with issues and (2) how quickly and efficiently those issues are dealt with.

Some companies make you register to enter these forums and that’s ok, I don’t mind giving up a little information if it means I get to look behind the curtain of PR and Marketing to see what’s really going on with the product and company.

So what’s my point? You can and should be using this tidbit as a way to look at your own company.

Try dealing with your company as a consumer – what are the difficulties? Where does the company fall down? Take the time, call your customer support line, is it a good experience? Head to the support forums on your website and post a problem – how long until someone gives you a well thought out (not a pre-written form letter) response?

Every once and again you need to step back and put yourself in the shoes of your consumers experiencing problems – how does your company look then? Where can you make improvements?  The transparency of support is something that can be a big plus if your company does it well but I just don’t think enough companies remember to put themselves in the shoes of the consumer in an after sales capacity.

As always your thoughts and comments are appreciated.

As someone with an entrepreneurial mind I often have business ideas, marketing sparks or even just insights that I think might prove valuable for a future article, book or speaking engagement. Sometimes I am able to work through the idea on my own, either pursuing it further or deciding it was best as a passing thought – but often I want to get some real world opinions or reactions and I certainly am not about to pay a real focus group. Problem? Absolutely not…

If you’re looking for a variety of opinions or a sounding board for ideas, sometimes your best bet is to turn your thoughts inward to your own life and to your real life group of friends and other contacts. Something I have recently been able to do with different groups of people in my life.

Case in point…

Being a good Canadian boy once a week I grab my hockey gear and lace’em up in men’s (beer) league with a group of good friends and last week something struck me when we were chatting over a cold one after the game, my hockey team serves as a great personal focus group.

Now stay with me for a minute because I realize that 14 men all around the same age all participating in an organized sport is not exactly the cross-section of society you want for a focus group. However with that said when I look up and down our roster and I think about the wide variety of topics that come up amongst the boys both pre and post game it struck me that in just that one little group I have a pretty great cross section of professions, technology acumen and even stages of life.

To offset the fellas, on another night I sat in on my Mom’s famous Mahjong game and chatted with women who crossed several generations and had an extremely wide set of technology and business acumen. Finally, to round it all out I took my friend’s teen-age brother and 5 of his friends to lunch and talked to them about their use of everything from Facebook to Twitter.

I know enough not to make any life or business decisions solely on the basis of what I discern from these gatherings, but as a sounding board or a place to get some real world (non sterilized) opinions it absolutely makes sense and helps me quickly get the pulse of any number of different people/groups.

What about you, who do you use as your personal focus group?

We live in a time and place where often consumers complain that companies do not listen to them or that their collective voice is not heard. While I do not claim to know anything about the Coffee business and to be honest, I do not even drink coffee (I am much more of a soda guy myself) Starbucks has caught my eye with their My Starbucks Idea website.

The idea is simple enough, give your customer’s a platform from which they can proffer ideas and suggestions about how to improve everything from their breakfast options to having a shelf in the bathroom to put your cup on. It seems as though consumers are really engaging with the site and they’re no dummies over at Starbucks, they are taking the time to not only listen to the ideas, but to respond and implement the best ones.

While the site has only been up for a bunch of months, there have been thousands of suggestions (some ridiculous and some ingenious) and as important there has been a ton of feedback from consumers and Starbucks Corporate on the ideas put forward. As of when I actually wrote this post originally (months ago) Starbucks already notes that they have twenty (20) of the ideas being implemented or at least tested in stores.

From a business perspective, could anything be simpler yet more innovative at the same time? Your consumers are often the best source of suggestions and insights that you being so close to your product end up missing. Many of the ideas have the potential to be revenue generators and the others will no doubt please many consumers.

Startbucks has often talked about its relationships with its customers and the idea of creating a consumer based culture, I can’t help but think this is a tremendous example of both.