In everyday business, we often speak and act as though we know exactly what our customers want and need. But, every so often, we stumble into a situation that reminds us of an important lesson about customers: what we think they want and what they actually value are not always the same thing.

That lesson came back to me recently while reading a Harvard Business Review article titled Do You Know What Your Customers Value?

The authors studied thousands of customers and compared what customers actually valued with what company executives believed they valued. The results were striking. In 72% of the cases, there was little or no correlation between what executives thought mattered and what customers actually valued.

I think that is particularly relevant here in Gillespie County.

99.5% of our businesses are small or microbusinesses. Owners are often deeply involved in the day-to-day operation. We greet the customers, answer the phone, make the product, serve the meal, pour the wine and take out the trash at the end of the day.

That closeness to the customer is one of our greatest strengths. And it can also create a blind spot. Because we know our customers so well, we can begin to assume we know what they value.

I have seen this in hospitality throughout my career. A hotel might spend considerable money improving something management believes guests care about, while overlooking a much simpler issue that actually affects the guest experience. The same thing can happen in a restaurant, retail store, winery, lodging property or professional service business here in Gillespie County.

We might think customers choose us because of price. They may actually value convenience. We might think they come for the product. They may value the personal relationship. We might spend time promoting one aspect of our business while customers are telling us—sometimes without saying it directly—that something else is much more important.

So how do we find out?

We ask.

And it doesn't have to be complicated.

Pick 10 customers—preferably a mix of your regular customers and people who are relatively new to your business. Ask them three questions:

Why do you choose to do business with us?

What is the one thing we do that you value most?

What is one thing we could do better?

Then listen. Don't explain. Don't defend. Don't try to convince them that something else is more important. And look for patterns.

The HBR research found that companies often try to improve too many things at once. The businesses that made the greatest progress identified the customer priorities that created the most value and concentrated their resources there.

That may be particularly important for a small business.

We don't have unlimited employees, time or money. Every hour we spend doing something that doesn't matter much to our customers is an hour we aren't spending on something that does. After working with hundreds of businesses through the Chamber, I have come to appreciate just how much our local business owners are already doing right.

The question isn't necessarily, What else should I do?

Sometimes the better question is:

Of everything I'm doing, what matters most to my customers?

And perhaps even more importantly:

What am I doing that I could stop doing?

In today's business environment, particularly for our small and microbusinesses, that kind of focus isn't just good customer service.

It is good business.