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Do what your customers want, not what they say

One of the hardest skills in running a business or a community is understanding the difference between what customers are asking for and what they actually want. 

Example: Members of our communities often say they want intense discussions with lots of active participants that they can follow by email.  Until we give it to them, and they realize that they will be flooded by email.

It’s a tough challenge.  You have to be a good listener.  But you also have to be a good interpreter.

As more and more of your customers share what they want in open forums, this is going to get harder and more important. You need to dig into the feedback, hear what people are saying, and then figure out the underlying issue that causes the request.  (And then figure out how to do it.)

Mark Hurst and Hanford Lemoore explain it better than me.

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