Are You Really Listening to the Customer?

Here's a little thought experiment to test your retention skills. Read the following paragraph out loud to yourself, then click on the link below it:

Things sometimes get confused here at Herman, Inc. Our former VP, Fred, moved over to head the engineering group, which James had headed previously. But when Sally, the HR VP, tried to change over the engineers that we acquired last year, she transferred some the purchasing responsibility to her group. So I'm not exactly sure whether the ultimate responsibility lies with HR or with the engineering group. If you asked James, he'd say it was with the engineering group. Fred, however, says it's the HR group.

Click here for the correct answer »

The correct answer is James.
If you just guessed, or didn't guess but got it wrong, chances are that you're not always listening as closely as you might to what customers are telling you. You'll probably eventually find yourself in the position where, in order to get the name of a key decision maker, you'll have to admit that you weren't listening all that carefully.

The key: take notes when the customer is communicating anything of importance, especially decision-maker names.