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Awesome Example of Demonstrated Listening

Posted on August 19, 2014 , by Steve Bernstein
CATEGORIES: Case Examples News
Awesome Example of Demonstrated Listening

As important as follow-up action is, it's not enough. Show your customers that you heard them by explaining WHY you do what you do.

As important as follow-up action is, it’s not enough. Show your customers that you heard them by explaining WHY you do what you do.


We were pleased to be able to assist our friends at Gainsight with their post-event assessment of the Pulse 2014 conference.  Practicing what they preach, Gainsight  wanted to understand what worked well and what didn’t so they could make the right improvements for next year’s conference.  We helped them gather feedback from attendees, draft communications and process to ensure trustworthy and representative insights, and then analyze the results and provide recommendations for next steps.  Scores were strong and the feedback showed that the event was clearly a success, with only a few “low scoring” areas.  For many companies this is where the process ends:  Taking action and driving improvement can be hard, and many companies just can’t gain the internal alignment to necessary to go further.  But Gainsight shows that they aren’t like those others.
First, in a stellar example of “Demonstrated Listening” and transparency, Gainsight published the survey results and made it clear where they intend to act to improve.  By itself this is indicative of Gainsight’s leadership.  No company is perfect, right?   Trust is foundational for loyalty, and it’s difficult to establish trust without transparency and commitment.
And Gainsight didn’t stop there.  While it was the venue that drew much of the constructive feedback, the attendees also wanted more direction on how to apply the information.  So Gainsight went even further.  Not content to ask conference attendees to wait another year, they decided to address the concerns now.  Gainsight is hosting a 1-day virtual conference, Pulse Check, designed specifically to address the gaps they heard in the survey results.  Without additional fees.
Our clients know that we frequently discuss the idea of “demonstrated listening.”  We all know that merely asking for feedback isn’t going to drive loyalty or improve the relationships that you have with your customers.  (As an aside, we also know that to the contrary, research shows that asking for feedback without taking action can do more harm than good.)  We also know that it’s easy for customers to fail to recognize your improvement efforts – there’s just too much going on for them to stop to smell the roses.  So a targeted and clear communication can go a long way toward showing your customers that you care about what they think.  Now we also see that action doesn’t have to take a long time.  In just a few weeks, Gainsight has turned low-scoring areas into an opportunity to help their customers be successful. Very cool!