Changing Customer Beliefs

Recently, the CEO of a client organization in the healthcare industry approached one of his disgruntled customers with a simple message: “I know you’ve developed some rather negative beliefs about us over the past few months and I’m here to find out exactly what those beliefs are, so we can change them.” After the surprised customer delivered a detailed description of her beliefs and the experiences that had created them, the CEO surprised her again by saying, “These are not beliefs we want you to hold, so we’re going to create a whole new set of experiences for you—experiences that will lead to brand new beliefs about us.” For the next several minutes the CEO discussed the new experiences that he and his organization were going to create in a determined effort to change the customer’s beliefs. What ensued in the weeks that followed was a very successful turnaround in the customer’s beliefs.

Is there a shift in beliefs that you need to make with one or more of your customers? If yes, begin by identifying the result you’d like to achieve with your customer. Write it down. Next, identify the current beliefs held by your customer that could prevent you from achieving your desired result and answer this question: What are the beliefs I want my customer to hold? This step may require one or more in-depth discussions with your customer. Then, identify the new experiences you will need to create for your customer in order to shift his or her beliefs. Finally, implement the new experiences and test for movement.

The beliefs your customers hold shape the purchasing decisions they make, and those beliefs won’t change unless you deal with them directly. To learn more about how to change the beliefs of people inside and outside the organization, we invite you to join the Accountability Community by visiting www.partnersinleadership.com

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