If there is any one food topic where there is endless debate, it is who makes the best pizza. This is not just in terms of the individual pizza maker, but also one of style (New York vs. Chicago, for example).
While who makes the best pizza is a matter of individual taste, if you poll all concerned about who makes the worst pizza, chains like Domino's tend to top the list.
Which is why I found it very refreshing to see the latest television ad campaign and that it is not being done tongue-in-cheek.
Domino's conducted customer surveys about the taste of their pizza and to say those who buy their product were trashing them is an understatement. So, the commercial continues, the company's pizza has undergone a makeover. I have not tried the new version yet, but this is not a column about improving pizza.
This is a column about listening to your customers and then acting upon it. Those customer surveys that you send out in the post-closing package - what do you do with them when they come back to your office? Or do you even care if they come back to your office in the first place?
New product development expert Dan Adams cites Domino's as an example to be followed for all businesses. He says many business leader claim they listen to their customers. Instead, businesses are starting with their product or service offering and trying to talk their customers into giving it a stamp of approval, he continues, adding "What looks like soliciting feedback is really a bit of a dog and pony show."
To truly get the message that your meeting your clienteles' wishes and desires, he said to ask them what they want in a way that lets your customer know you really hear them.
Reconsider how you are collecting customer feedback. It needs to be done in a way that really engages the customer so that you can get the truth?
Mr. Adams said, "When you can get people truly engaged in the feedback process - I mean really focused on what they need and want from you - you'll get their honest opinions. And that raw honesty is what you need to serve them the right way."
Don't rely on your sales reps alone for feedback. A salesperson is unlikely to uncover a full set of market needs if he is rewarded for near-term selling or not calling on most of the customers in your target market segment.
Take action on what you hear. In crafting your service, you need to start with customer needs and end with the outcome you wish to provide. Most businesses, he said, do it the opposite - they build their service around the outcome.
Mr. Adams said, "Besides, intelligent customers can detect your 'validation' a mile away. They correctly sense you are more interested in your idea than in them ... and that doesn't do much for the long-term relationships you need to build."
Business managers also need to get everyone in the firm to get "connected to the customer's reality," he said.
"People inside companies tend to get defensive about their products and processes," admits Mr. Adams. "It's only human. But when you can cut through that defensiveness and show them 'Hey, this really isn't working for our customers' - well, that's where true service and value finally begin."
Dan Adams is president of Advanced Industrial Marketing Inc. in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. For more information, go to
