Every company has an audience they’re speaking to. Whether you’re a cloud computing platform working with startups, a renowned bakery in San Francisco, or a gang of meddling kid detectives, you have an audience and it’s your job to help them solve whatever problems (or costumed monsters) they’re facing. And one of the best ways to do this is by listening to what they have to say.
Like our friends at G2 say, “When a customer comes to you with some sort of a problem, your job as a customer service agent is to get to the point of their issue.” But as you can imagine, it’s probably pretty difficult to solve someone’s problem if you’ve never interacted with that person before.
If you want your customers to trust you with their problems, there needs to be a relationship. And for there to be a relationship between you and your customers, you need to interact with them, ask questions, listen to what they have to say, and use the insights they give you to better understand their needs so you can then provide them with a solution.