Creating great experiences comes from listening, respecting and getting to know your customers. Think about a satisfying purchase experience you’ve had recently. You probably had some personal interaction with the company, they listened and were helpful in guiding your purchase decision. You felt like they really understood your needs and what you were trying to do. Many of us no longer have in-person interactions with our customers, but we can still use social media to accomplish many of the same touchpoints.
- Listen – Join social networks where your customers are. Listen to what they are saying, both in general and about your company. You’ll gain insight into what your customers really think and what their needs are.
- Help – Help your customers anyway you can. Advice and assistance, even if they are not related to your products will be appreciated and will help build trust.
- Build a Relationship – Reach out to your customers. Say hello. Have a personality. Have conversations.
- Respect – Don’t shout at your customers. Don’t spam them. Don’t send them uninvited email or advertising. This can be difficult, but asking your customers to take action occasionally is different than bombarding them with marketing.
You’ll find that once you have built relationships with your customers it is much easier to understand what they need and want out of your products. You’ll spend less time with inefficient marketing and advertising and more time giving your customers the experiences they want with your products and company.
(photo by Wrote @ Flickr CC)
Technorati tags: customer experience, customer-centric, experience centric, business, strategy, marketing
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Traditional marketing focuses on product features and benefits. But your customers are more interested in the experiences they can have with your products. Usually when a customer decides to purchase a product it’s not because of the features it offers, it’s because of what they can do with the product. For example, we purchased a flat screen HDTV not because of the number of pixels or brightness or refresh rate, but because it looks awesome when you’re watching a movie or sporting event. The experience we’re interested in is how the picture looks when we’re watching TV… the features of the TV just help fulfill that particular experience.