The Customer Fired Us
In 1990, I was Vice President of Major Accounts for a national full-service truck leasing company. I directed a group of Major Account Executives across the country, and every week I was traveling to visit new and established customers.
Many of our largest customers had operations spread across multiple locations. A big part of my responsibility was building and maintaining relationships with them at the corporate level. We got on airplanes. We walked their operations. We sat across the desk from them. We had lunch. We listened. We learned how their businesses worked.
We showed up.
Then I saw a 60-second United Airlines commercial called The Speech.
Thirty-six years later, I still remember it.
Before going any further, take a minute and watch it.
Now you know why it caught my attention.
That commercial wasn't teaching me something I didn't know. It was confirming something I already believed. What we were doing was right.
Travel was an expense then just like it is today. Airfare. Hotels. Rental cars. Meals. It wasn't unreasonable for somebody reviewing an expense report to ask, “Do you really need to make that trip?”
That's a fair question.
But after watching that commercial, there was another question that mattered a lot more to me:
What could it cost us if we don't?
We weren't traveling around the country simply to service accounts. We were building relationships.
There's a difference.
Nothing replaces shaking a hand, looking someone in the eye and asking:
“What can we do to make our relationship better?”
Not what can we sell you? Not what's coming up for bid? Not when is the next order?
What can we do to make our relationship better?
Sometimes you'll like the answer. Sometimes you won't.
Good. You probably needed to hear it.
It's much easier to have that kind of conversation after you've spent time together. You've walked their operation. You've met their people. You've learned their business. Maybe you've had dinner together or shared more than a few cups of bad coffee over the years.
There were times when the relationship itself was the reason for the trip.
That's something I wonder if we're beginning to lose.
Thirty-six years later, the fax machine that helped create the problem in that commercial has mostly disappeared.
The problem hasn't.
Today we have email, text, Teams, Zoom, CRM systems, LinkedIn, cell phones and video meetings. We can communicate with customers from practically anywhere at any time without leaving our chair.
That's incredible.
It's also maybe a little dangerous.
Technology isn't the problem. Convenience is the temptation.
We can easily convince ourselves that sending an email was having a conversation. That a Teams call was the same thing as visiting a customer. That exchanging a few texts means we're staying connected.
Sometimes those tools are exactly what we need. I use them too.
Just don't mistake communicating with somebody for having a relationship with them.
They aren't always the same thing.
Think about your best customers for a minute. When was the last time you visited one when you didn't have a problem to fix, an order to chase, a contract coming up for renewal or something you needed from them?
When did you last walk through their operation simply to see what had changed? Sit down for coffee? Have lunch? Ask what was keeping them up at night?
Or just look them in the eye and ask:
“What can we do to make our relationship better?”
C'mon.
If we were concerned about losing face-to-face relationships in 1990, when the alternatives were basically the telephone and a fax machine, what should we be worried about now?
I spent a career in trucks, equipment and components. Some of the most valuable conversations I ever had with customers weren't held in formal conference rooms. They happened walking through shops. Standing beside trucks. Sitting at lunch counters. Riding somewhere together. Drinking coffee.
Sometimes the conversation was about business. Other times it had absolutely nothing to do with business.
That's how you get to know somebody. More importantly, that's how they get to know you.
Maybe that's why this old United Airlines commercial has stayed with me for 36 years.
The customer didn't fire them because they weren't communicating.
He fired them because he didn't know them anymore.
There's a big difference.
Today we can pull up a travel budget and calculate exactly what it costs to put somebody on an airplane, pay for a hotel and rent a car.
What you won't find on that spreadsheet is the cost of a relationship that slowly disappeared because nobody bothered to show up anymore.
You may not discover that number until it's too late.
Technology changed. Communication changed. Business changed. Customers changed.
I'm just not convinced people changed that much.
Nothing replaces shaking a hand, looking someone in the eye and asking what you can do to make the relationship better.
Maybe the question that commercial put in my head back in 1990 matters just as much today.
Maybe more.
Think about the customers you've known for years. The ones who trusted you. The ones who helped build your business. The ones you once saw a lot more often than you do now.
Is there one of them who doesn't know you as well as they used to?
If somebody immediately came to mind, another email probably isn't what you need. Neither is a Teams invitation or another reminder popping up in your CRM.
You already know what to do.
Get up out of your chair. Get out of your office. Close down your laptop.
And go see them!
See you next week.
— HAMP
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