{"id":4115,"date":"2019-07-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wheels2025dev.wpenginepowered.com\/resource\/customer-driven-walk-in-your-customers-shoes\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T20:21:48","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T20:21:48","slug":"customer-driven-walk-in-your-customers-shoes","status":"publish","type":"project","link":"https:\/\/www.wheels.com\/public\/resource\/customer-driven-walk-in-your-customers-shoes\/","title":{"rendered":"Customer Driven:\u00a0Walk in Your Customers&#8217; Shoes?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Do you need to walk in your customer\u2019s shoes in order to truly understand their issues and provide the right solutions? We have heard this saying many times before, and it could have been appropriate at the time, but time and challenges have changed. Customers still expect you to watch for cracks in the sidewalk and not let them fall. However, that is no longer enough for today\u2019s fast paced environment.<\/p>\n<p>Shoes are certainly foundational to the service equation. You can\u2019t look forward if you aren\u2019t on stable ground. However, I would suggest that we also tilt our heads up from our laptops and smart phones and provide an extra set of eyes for our customers. The greatest value comes from looking forward and into their future toward the next set of challenges and opportunities.<\/p>\n<h2>Customer Service: Sharpen Your Focus<\/h2>\n<p>Do you take the time to look up? And when you do look up, do you stay there and consider options, strategies, and plans to move forward? Or do you quickly get distracted by the next email and bring your attention back to the cracks in the sidewalk again? How will autonomous vehicles and options not only impact our vehicle choices and costs, but also the business model of each of our companies? How will technology impact our supply chain for products and services? As an industry, we can\u2019t expect different results thinking the same way as we did years ago. The recent Amazon acquisition of Whole Foods is a great example of how some look forward and others look at the cracks.<\/p>\n<h2>Proactive Planning For The Future<\/h2>\n<p>And just like your own eyesight, you need to periodically check your customer\u2019s eyes to ensure their sight or environment hasn\u2019t changed. If so, adapt. Doing so will continue to add value to their organization, and yours.<\/p>\n<p>Warren Buffett was quoted saying, \u201cSomeone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.\u201d What does your customer need to be successful in the future? What does your company need to be successful in the future? What about your own personal growth? Look ahead and act today!<\/p>\n<p>Join the conversation! How are you looking ahead for your customers? Email me at\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:ljozwiak@wheels.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ljozwiak@wheels.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>This article was originally published on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fleetmanagementweekly.com\/walk-customers-shoes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fleet Management Weekly<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do you need to walk in your customer\u2019s shoes in order to truly understand their issues and provide the right solutions? We have heard this saying many times before, and it could have been appropriate at the time, but time and challenges have changed. Customers still expect you to watch for cracks in the sidewalk [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"project_category":[17],"project_tag":[],"class_list":["post-4115","project","type-project","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","project_category-blog","topics-customer-success"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Customer Driven:\u00a0Walk in Your Customers&#039; Shoes?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tips for a service-focused approach to serving your customers, including proactive planning and sharpened focus.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Customer Driven:\u00a0Walk in Your Customers&#039; 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