Justin Cobb Explains Why Customers Are Your Number One Employee

As an international entrepreneur and business owner, Justin Cobb has a lot of experience with managing teams of people. Most entrepreneurs quickly learn that the people they manage are their biggest asset. When it comes to streamlining your business, no-one is more useful than a person who knows your company inside and out and can see it from a different viewpoint. But there is another group of people to whom that applies. A group that we often pay less attention to. Could your customers be a valuable source of strategy that you are ignoring?

Customers are the new product researchers.

In the past, a business would create a product and then look for the people who needed that product to sell it to them. That business might even try to convince other people they needed the product through advertising and marketing. That still happens today, but smart business owners are also tapping into the endless feedback and information available from product reviews and customer contact. 

For example, a company making shirts might get a lot of reviews saying “Hey I love these shirts. I wish you guys made sweaters too with the same design”. Some companies might just think “Well we don’t” and carry on as usual. But smart companies recognize this as the free market research that it is. You have a customer who has already purchased from you, literally telling you they will purchase more items, and all you have to do is listen.

That’s why Justin Cobb recommends tapping into your customer base the next time you are searching for options to expand or improve your business. Instead of sitting down in the boardroom and brainstorming, perhaps take a look at your customer feedback. You may already have the next great idea for your business sitting in a CRM dashboard or email somewhere.