A few weeks ago, I had attempted to write a blog post from Jack the Cat’s perspective. As inspired as I was, I found the change of voice distracting. So, I’m reverting back to writing this post from my perspective… but these are still lessons I’ve learned from Jack the Cat.

Today’s lesson: Don’t ignore them. Or do, but know that they will just get to be more of a pain in the butt.

Jack meows when he wants something. This is not so different from your consumers wanting something from you. They ask for it. They complain about it. But it’s often too easy to just ignore them, while you focus on something else that you thought would be more important at the time. You may think that it’s not a big deal to fix a minor issue on a current model when you’re getting ready to launch a new model anyway.

However, Jack wouldn’t stop meowing just because I ignored him. He would just get louder, which really would just distract me more from my task at hand at the time. He would start jumping onto my keyboard to make sure that he got my full attention. In all honesty, it would probably have been easier, faster, and less disruptive if I would just address his wants when he first meowed about it.

Same thing happens with consumers. They get louder. They gather more force. They get more disruptive. Before your new model is ready for the market, everyone everywhere are screaming how bad your current model is. Do you think that people would then be lining up for your new model? Often, it’s easier, cheaper, and faster to address their concern when they first voice them, before it turns itself into a real issue.

This lesson actually is applicable to many kind of relationships. It’s applicable to the relationship between you and your consumers. It’s applicable to the relationship between you and your co-workers. While I can’t claim first hand knowledge, I think it’s even applicable to the relationship between man and wife.

And that’s a lesson I’ve learned from Jack the Cat.