Interesting Move at Chrysler

Our book outlines a key point for business, especially in tough economic times: learn how to listen. We have done research on "pain" headlines versus "benefit" headlines for the same product or service - pain outsells benefits by 19 to 1! Businesses need to learn how to listen for customers' pains, and solve them. That is what our book, our classes and our practice is about: learning how to listen to customers and what to do with the data once you have it.

We are not alone in this belief. A recent survey indicated that as many as 75% of senior executives NEVER talk to a customer. That scared me. Cars.com reported that Chrysler's CEO Bob Nardelli launched a new program to get feedback about his company's cars. According to the report, Nardelli and 300 of his executives are going to call one customer a day, each and every day, until they're satisfied that any problems their customers have with their products are solved. They believe that if you're happy with your car, you'll tell people about it. If you're unhappy, you're going to tell a lot more people. Nardelli wants his executives to feel the pain of their customers directly and deal with it.The cynic in me wonders if this is just a gimmick to make Chrysler customers feel better about a product that may not be that great. I prefer to believe this is a genuine effort to fix perceived or real problems with Chrysler's products, and Nardelli is trying a lead-by-example approach to ensuring quality. I suppose only time, and Chrysler owners, will tell. In any case, his executives will be more sensitized to customer needs and their problems. We hope that Chrysler has a way to organize and prioritize these data, rather than to just collect a laundry list of problems to be fixed.

2008 has been hailed in some circles as "The Year of the Customer." If this is so, businesses need to learn how to listen, in our view. A company can gain over $50,000 worth of market research for $5,000 or less by learning how to listen to customers and organize their input.