Our ancient coffee maker died. I think we'd had it more than ten years. Maybe almost fifteen years! It was a Proctor-Silex model, a nondescript thing we bought at a store that's long since gone out of business.
But trying to replace it nearly drove me insane.
I couldn't even find the same brand on the shelf anymore, so that option was out. I must have gone to four local stores and looked at over sixty coffe makers in my search for the perfect one.
There was something wrong with every one. Some had every programmable feature under the sun (which we don't need.) Some use cone filters (which I hate.) Some had fidgety little plastic parts which I KNEW would break off within months. Others had dinky little carafes or thermos carafes (which I don't like) or no carafe at all. How do you make coffee for guests?? I almost bought one that promised restuarant-quality coffe for big bucks--but stopped because it looked like it kept the water constantly heated. We only make coffee once or twice a day. Who needs the electric bill for THAT one??
Finally, I settled on one machine that looked fine and promised one benefit.
They promised the carafe would not drip.
The carafe was also a weird shape that looked like it would be hard to replace when it broke (and they always do), but I decided that might be worth the risk.
And we love that coffee maker.
It has other features I didn't consider, like the top opens in one piece for changing the filter and adding water. And true to its promise, the carafe is a dream to use. It's comfortable in the hand and it DOES NOT LEAK OR DRIP.
I usually don't fill out customer response cards but decided I would this time. I wanted to let the company know how happy I was with their product.
And nowhere on the card was there a place for that.
They want all my contact information (so they can sell me more stuff), all my hobbies and interests (for cross-marketing), they want to know how much money we make and how many kids we have (hah!) They wanted to know how I'd heard about their product and where I shopped and how often and when I'd decided to buy their product.
But nowhere did they ask why I finally chose their coffee maker out of the dozens--no, HUNDREDS--I'd looked at over the last few weeks.
Do we do that to OUR customers?
We focus on designing great work, we look for good shows, we advertise, we publicize, we market the heck out of ourselves.
We think we know our customers. But do we?
How many of us actually stop and ask them, "Say, tell me... Out of all the wonderful things you saw at this show today, why did you buy mine?"
And then, do we stop and listen to what they say?
