Connecting with Customers
Continued
CATZ: Well, first of all, since our products are aimed at solving customer problems, it's very, very important to understand what those problems are. The more we know about what's going on with our customers, the better off we are as partners and as vendors. It ultimately translates into having better products, better consulting, and better service. For me, it brings a level of realism into the abstract world of just building products and sending them over the wall. So it's a real virtuous cycle, because the more you know about what your customers need, the better you are able to serve them.
PROFIT: As president of the company, people must love talking to you and getting face time with you, but how often do you need to escalate or divert questions and problems?
CATZ: Most customers really just want to know that you're watching what's going on for them. In fact, many don't actually even want to talk. They want to send you a quick note. Let's say there's some issue with a product and there's a bug. They know when they send a note to me that I'm not actually going to fix the bug. They don't want me to—I haven't programmed for 25 years. They want me to know there's an issue because they now have faith that if I know there's an issue, I'll check into it and find out how serious it is. Customers themselves aren't unreasonable, because they're all businesspeople and their expectations are set totally correctly. In fact, sometimes I'm upset that there's an issue I don't know about and the customer hasn't called me.
PROFIT: What kind of advice would you give to another executive who is dealing with a relationship that's about to go sour, a customer that's about to say, "Thanks but no thanks, I'm going to your competitor?"
CATZ: The first thing that's important is taking a step back, because often there's some dispute about 10 percent of the business, something perhaps not that important but it's being escalated because everybody got locked into positions that are literally intractable. You have to step back and look at the relationship as a whole, because what you often find is that there's actually a lot of good locked in there somewhere and it got lost. Often having that initial goodwill and having experience in the relationship and building trust over time on other issues will help you get over some of these small things.
Oftentimes, there can be a breakdown as a result of a negotiation on a contract. A contract is all about your rights if things go wrong. When that happens, you have to step back and say, "We've been together for X number of years" or "This is what I'm bringing to the party."
Sometimes you actually have to go ahead and take some risks on some of the issues, but have a very thorough discussion about what a particular issue means to you and what it means to the customer. They'll share their concerns with you—"This is what I'm afraid of." "Oh, is that what you are afraid of? We can fix that." But everyone has to be willing to have an honest dialogue about the issues. Sometimes you have to take some blame for something that's happened in the past and say, "I was wrong. That was a mistake." And maybe it's not you, but it's your company, which means you're responsible. I'll say, "Okay, if that's what we did, I'm sorry about that. Let me see how to make that right."
The most important thing is to understand the goals and issues of the customers and work through them. Often hard work can solve most problems as well as some real willingness to try. After all, something brought you together in the first place. For those of us who are charged with working with customers, it's a real win for us. It's a great experience to watch a customer benefit from our products, because we do believe that we can help them. And when they reap the benefits of the relationship, it's very satisfying.
