The lawyers shifted uncomfortably in their seats.
They were being asked to do something that kinda took them a squillion miles out of their comfort zone.
Someone was actually asking them to destroy their business. Someone was telling them to take the bulldozer and go vladabadaboom with their law practice.
The law firm had just run smack, bang into 180 degree thinking.
So what’s 180 degree thinking?
Let’s drop the logic for a few minutes and let’s play a game where your brain runs helter-skelter.
Imagine you run an airline. Imagine you wanted to destroy that airline as ethically as possible.
Hmmmm…what would you do?
You’d find out what customers hated, right?
So let’s draw up a customer hate list.
Customers hate being squashed in their seats.
Customers hate air hostesses that won’t smile.
Customers hate planes that aren’t on time.
Customers hate boring meals.
Customers hate re-runs of movies.
Nice hate list, isn’t it?
But let’s suppose you changed your mind. And didn’t want to destroy the airline after all. What would you make sure you’d do right away?
Let’s see.
Wider seats, smiley hostesses, planes that take off and land on time, interesting meals and great movies.
And that’s why the lawyers were a little jumpy
Because when they went through the concept of 180 degree thinking. When they stopped thinking about how to grow their business, and turned it 180 degrees to ‘How to destroy the business’ instead, they came up with some home-truths that made them squirm.
What did customers hate about the law firm?
1) Customers hated how they were being charged for every darn email; every conversation.
2) Customers hated how they were slapped with a three thousand dollar bill and then a petty $23.50 additional charge for faxing and photocopying.
3) Customers hated it when the lawyers needed to be asked dozens of questions and didn’t have a kind of check list in advance.
Guess what the lawyers did day in and day out?
Good way to destroy a business, huh?
Now, now…I’m not taking potshots at lawyers.
We’re all prettttty good at bugging the hell out of our customers too. Except, we don’t even know we’re doing the bugging. Even as you read this article, some of your customers are searching for the exit sign. Some of them are heaving deep sighs of frustration.
And no, there won’t be a screaming, yelling tantrum. The customer will simply slink away quietly, very quietly, unless you ask a vital question.
So what’s the question?
What silly thing would we have to do to lose your business?
(Ok, deep breath).
First do this exercise internally. Ask yourself: What dumb things would we have to do to lose our customers?
Don’t do the logic trip. Write down every possible thing you can think of, that would cause your customers to stampede like wildebeest on the Savannah.
Of course, if you’re brave…you’ll graduate to the harder part
The part of actually dealing with the customer. The part where you sit your customer down and ask: “What silly thing would we have to do to lose your business?”
In effect, you’re asking the customer: What Bugs You?
Software programmers know this factor well
Software programmers get customers to complain. Software, like your business, has inherent bugs. And the customer keeps reporting the bugs either manually — or the software has an automatic reporting system, whenever there’s a failure of sorts.
Your business has no such failure mechanism
But, but you do have a feedback form, don’t you? And that’s a failure mechanism, isn’t it?
And customers barely use the feedback form anyway. Why would a ‘What Bugs You’ question make any difference?
It does make a difference.
The ‘What Bugs You’ question isn’t something that the customer needs to take thirty minutes to answer. They can answer it over the phone, via email or in person.
And most importantly, the ‘What Bugs Me’ question isn’t engineered by some fancy-schmancy research team.
When a customer finds a bug. When they find something to complain about, the feedback is relevant and instantaneous.
Funnily, the fear of feedback doesn’t lie with the customer
It lies with you.
Yeah, you. the one who’s afraid of what the customer may say.
You’re the one that’s not sure what to do, once the customer gives you their bugs. Because now you’ve now got to fix that bug.
In every situation and case study we’ve done before, the customers were more than happy to send in their bugs.
180 degree thinking isn’t for weaklings
The real test of whether you’re getting things right is not to stop sitting in your ivory tower and patting yourself on the back.
180 degree thinking forces you to be constantly tweaking your business based on what the customer demands.
Now here’s a caveat
Not all bugs can be fixed. And you’ve got to be frank with the customer. What can be fixed, will be fixed. You don’t have to get all jittery about the fact that you’ve just opened up Pandora’s box.
Do what you can. That’s it.
And stop guessing…
On our website at http://www.psychotactics.com — almost every page has a ‘What bugs me’ button. And not only does the customer get a chance to complain, but they also go in the draw for a $50 prize.
Yup, and that’s another example of 180 degree thinking.
You’re making it easier for the customer to complain. And in case you’re wondering, we get at least 50-70 emails each month (that’s 850 bugs a year) with bugs and recommendations.
Can you see what’s happening?
In effect, you’re removing failure.
When you remove failure guess what you’re left with?
Yeah, when you sweep away all the bugs, or at least most of the bugs, you’re left with success.
Funny that, eh?
180 degree thinking isn’t easy going
The lawyers were uncomfortable. You’ll have that same sweaty brow feeling when dealing with 180 degree thinking.
Well, get over it.
Because if you want to grow your company, it’s vital to employ 180 degree thinking.
And if you want to destroy your company, that’s easy.
Just do nothing.