If I sat down with you today and asked you just one question, I wonder how many business owners could actually answer it with confidence.
What are the five or ten things that really make your customers remember and value your product or service?
Not what you think they like. Not what your team assumes they appreciate. But what your customers themselves would say when asked, ‘Why do you keep choosing this company?’
I believe this is one of the most important questions every founder should ask. The strange thing is, many will happily spend hours discussing monthly sales, operating costs and marketing campaigns, but very few actually take the time to understand why customers chose them in the first place.
When we start digging for answers to this question, we’re not just collecting customer feedback. We’re looking for patterns. We want to understand the experiences that truly leave a mark on them.
Is it how fast our team responds? Do they feel more confident because of the way we communicate? Or maybe there’s one small process we think nothing of, but that’s actually the reason they keep coming back to buy from us.
This is where many founders stop too early. They get the answer, but they don’t take it any deeper. Yet every answer should lead to another, more important question.
What process creates that experience, and how do we make sure it happens every single time? Once we start thinking at this level, customer feedback is no longer a report we keep in a file. It becomes the foundation of how we improve the business.
I always remind founders that improvement doesn’t happen because we make one big change. It happens when we pick one thing to fix every week, then do it consistently until it becomes part of the organisation’s culture. Over time, the company gets more efficient, customers get happier, and sales start to grow because the experience you deliver keeps getting better too.
The truth is, most of the time we’re not clueless about what needs to be done. We just don’t really pay attention.
I like to compare a business to planting a tree. Nobody plants a seed today, leaves it there and hopes it will bear fruit one day. That tree needs to be watered, fertilised, watched and cared for every day. The moment we see a leaf starting to wilt, we act, because we know a little neglect today can affect the harvest years down the road.
Business is the same. It grows at the rate of attention its leader gives it. That’s why I believe that before you go hunting for a new strategy or spend more money to get customers, take the time to answer this one question.
What are the five or ten things that really make your customers remember and value your product or service?
Because that’s where the answer hides to building a business that’s stronger, more profitable, and keeps growing for the long term.
Datuk Wira