There’s an interesting post over at smartcompany on the topic of ‘why.’ The post, written by sales specialist Trent Leyshan, states that if businesses don’t think hard about why they do what they do it can be difficult to stand out from the crowd. It’s a good point, especially given the speed of day-to-day business means it’s often easier to focus on the ‘whats’ and ‘hows’.

But stepping back and asking the question ‘why’ is important. And it’s something we’re always trying to do at Upstream. Why is this organisation keen to investigate managed print services? Why is this business spending so much on their office printing and copying? Why is so much of a business owner’s time and valuable resource spent fixing printers and copiers and ordering toner when they could be spending that time on more productive pursuits for their business?

Asking these types of questions when we first engage with customers is crucial. Without a detailed audit and assessment of an organisation’s pain-points and requirements we simply can’t address the challenges they face.

And if we don’t ask these questions on an on-going basis we won’t be able to adapt our offering to ensure it meets their changing needs. Asking questions isn’t just good customer service, it’s critical to our business. Why? Because the moment we stop listening is the moment we stop solving problems.