How to Connect with Your Customers

How to connect with customers

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This morning, I'm the keynote presenter at the J. Boye Conference in Philadelphia for the online communication track. We're talking about how to connect with your customers. Not just reach, connect. It's a different ballgame, one that needs to integrate what used to be -- and still are -- many company silos.

Imagine this scenario. A customer walks up to you asking to locate a technical support rep. Because you're curious, while you find out the name and look around to see where that person is, you ask how you can help. The customer proceeds to give you a list of problems that need addressing. He looks and sounds really upset.

So you decide to learn more about him and ask, what part of the organization are you from? What's your role?

This immediately shifts the attention from you to the person with the issue. The questions are not to buy time, they're to understand the point of view of the person asking them. Point of view goes to context, and needs to be part of the conversation. It's what leads to connection, while you fix the problem.

From too many, to one

Marketers are still working their way to understanding the one customer in front of them. The more technology allows us to see what people are interested in -- for example implementing a lead management system that shows you their digital body language -- and what they say, the better we can be at presenting information that is timely in a personal sense.

Technology is your friend. However, there's something else that helps you navigate that tension between community needs, marketing goals, and editorial voice.

Engagement by any other name

It's the new buzzword -- engagement. What does it mean? How do you get there? Depending on how regulated and/or conservative your industry and company, you get there one step at a time. Starting with adoption, going through collaborative filtering, content creation, and ending up with fully social as a business.

What are those activities?

• bookmarking, tagging, adding to groups
• liking, rating, endorsing, voting, commenting
• blogging, fan community participation, creating videos, podcasting, allowing uploads to sites, encouraging co-creation
• adding friends, networking, creating a fan community

For example, Rubbermaid found that, when they add reviews to their free-standing inserts (which are mailed/put in newspapers), conversion for the coupons increases by 10%. This is proof that reviews impact offline advertising and in-store behavior (Rubbermaid case study, April 2010).

Why is that engaging? By providing collaborative filtering, it directs the Rider (our rational side), while it motivates the Elephant (our emotional side) [see more about the metaphor]. The company that integrates both components while it shapes the Path gets the desired action.

90% of us go online before making a purchase decision [source: Forrester Research]

In Google we trust, and while we ask our friends what they think about a product or service, we use search to get all the information we need as back up for our decision -- remember when we talked about writing compelling content? There needs to be proof of value with the value.

This means that companies need to:

1. start thinking like a media company -- and out-teach their competitors
2. understand customers content needs -- what do they like and share?
3. integrate -- think sum greater than the parts

In other words, see the whole online experience as coordinated, even the parts not controlled directly by you. How do you get there? By choreographing the experience, creating the context.  See 4 hot new trends in marketing as context building for reference.

Mobile and social are in

What do these two have in common?

• they're always on -- we're both mobile and social, often at the same time
• have immediacy -- we reach out to others as a matter of course, now in our pockets
• they're measurable in real time
• thanks to the network effects, they have global reach
• subscriptions continue to grow -- both people signing on social networks and getting smart phones

Digital media is the room in which you hold the conversation. It still comes down to saying, doing, or producing something valuable for your customer. Do you agree/disagree with this statement?

Engagement = trust

We're back to the future.

© 2010 Valeria Maltoni. All rights reserved.

Comments

[Peter]

"It still comes down to saying, doing, or producing something valuable for your customer. "

I disagree ( but mostly for dramatic effect).

if it must comes down to something, I think Antoine de Saint-Exupery's came close when he said "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea."

Saying, doing, or producing something valuable will follow.

Peter

[Ricardo Bueno]

Valeria: I need to harness your creativity when building my powerpoint presentations... #justsayin Great work!

[Stanford]

Valeria, You made me think as usual (way to go Ms. Whole Mind!)
I'm intrigued by slide #25 -
"Digital Media is the room in which you hold the conversation. It still comes down to saying, doing, or producing something valuable for your customer."

This points to the necessity of having a cohesive brand story to share and a conscious strategy for using your tribe to reinforce/expand that story.

I'm worried that many marketers are racing to play with the tools (twitter, facebook, foursquare) and leaving their brand story to ad hoc monday morning meetings.

The result is scattered engagement that doesn't deliver on the real power of social media.

What do you think?

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Peter - well said. How do you teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea? You get them started with something they can react to :)

@Ricardo - thank you, sir. I modestly think I do rather well with visuals. I should also do more videos, I know... getting there.

@Stanford - in the haste to "let go of control" or pay heed to the allure of the tools, many brands do forget that part. Or maybe it's because different units have different voices and their own way of looking at the experience. How do you become integrated if the team is not? You got it.

[Peter]

But what am I reacting to - seeing a better boat or seeing the sea for the first time ?

Perhaps teaching people to see and not do.

As an aside, what a corporation longs for informs its corporate design. If you think the design of a corporation is poor (for example a bad social media strategy) the chances are they are longing for something different to you. Their boat sails ell on their sea and yours just might sink.

Peter

[Megan Zuniga]

I think the first step to connecting with your customers is to get in their shoes. Personally, you as a consumer, ask questions why you would need such product. And yes, as a consumer you would consult the internet if you are in need of product xyz. But before you consult the internet you ask your friends for recommendations first. Which is why social media is a very powerful tool for marketing your product/brand/company. And social media is about trust as you said. It's about building a community. Not only that, it's a great resource where you can listen directly from your consumer's opinions.
As for your last question, I think you're missing listening on that list. If you don't listen to your customers how would you know what they need?
I guess what Peter was trying to say is that we should not just tell people what to do but also inspire them--make them see why they need our service/product.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Peter - perhaps I'm lost in your comment. Corporations might want to do things their way, that's why customers prefer to deal with people, and the people inside corporations are definitely longing for connections.

@Megan - the whole #2 point is about listening and asking customers or observing their behavior. Yes, people often say one thing and do another. Right?

[Peter]

Deep down I'm questioning whether customers have bad effects on corporations.

Customers make it hard for corporations to long for them and as a consequence the corporation is not designed consciously or unconsciously with the customer foremost in mind.

As a rule, customers are not desirable ( in a romantic sense). They can be needy, rude, disloyal, unappreciative etc. ( we've talked about this many times). It's a tough sell.

Can social media make customers more attractive and inspire the longing that will lead to better designed corporations?

Peter

[Witto]

It is an urgent truth that Companies need to start thinking like a media company and out-teach their competitors.

This is a difficult concept for most businesses to grasp. It is hard for them to accept that they are publishers. They will only begin to accept this when they see real evidence that their bottom line will be affected if they don't change their thinking.

The Company that will drive this message home to businesses is likely to be Google. As the Big G's algorithm develops further and rewards web pages that engage and connect with users, changes in thinking will come within the business community. There will be an increased acceptance of the need to engage, connect and create quality content that reaches into the souls of users and prospective and existing customers.

In Google we Trust (just hurry up a little with algorithm improvements!).